By Your Side (Twenty One Pilots)

Shots Fired

"Remind me again, Tyler, why exactly we came to Iowa."

For the past three hours they had been driving the only thing they had seen was farmland. Green and brown rolling hills. Fields all the way to the horizon. To say the least, it was boring. They drove thousands of miles just to get to another Ohio.

"Look, when my mom called the other night she told me it was fun. She said some great people live here. I remembered that my uncle does, so I thought, why not? We weren't doing anything important. And you said yes to it anyways!" Tyler defended. He always listened to his mom. Well, almost always.

"Ugh, fine. You're right," Josh responded. "Where does your uncle live, anyways?"

"Supposedly right around here. Right off the street that leads into the downtown area."

"So it's a big town?"

Tyler shrugged and took a left. "I mean, I remember it being big. But I was also eight, so..."

Turns out the town wasn't that big, but it was still a good enough size where you could go most of your childhood without meeting everybody but you knew every side street and back alley to exist. Tyler's uncle's house was small. Two bedroom, one bath. Blue wood siding on the outside. White fence around it. Tyler's great grandmother used to own the house, but she had moved back to Ohio when Tyler's younger sister was born.

"It looks cute from out here," Josh commented.

"Yeah, let's just hope it's the same on the inside," Tyler sighed. "My mom called my uncle last night and told him we were stopping in. She said he sounded stressed about his job and that we should do what we can to help him out."

"I'm fine with that," Josh replied. He grabbed his and Tyler's bags from the back and set them on the ground, locking the car afterwards. "What's he like anyways?"

"I remember him being cool. We didn't see him too often but he always got us the best gifts for birthdays and Christmases."

"Sounds like a neat guy," Josh smiled. His uncle wasn't a very friendly guy. He was super smart but he always gave everyone a cold shoulder, even if you were his oldest nephew.

Tyler knocked on the door and waited a few seconds. The two could hear footsteps approaching the door. It opened and in front of them stood a middle aged man with a tattoo on his neck that had seen better days.
His hair was a greying dark brown and his skin was ten from days spent in the sun. He had a larger nose and gentle eyes. There was evidence of a small beer belly, but overall he looked like the stereotypical uncle who only wanted to talk about sports and watch ESPN on the weekends.

"Tyler! My boy! It's been years!" he called out as he enveloped Tyler in a hug. Tyler missed the guy. He had good memories with him.

"And you must be Josh! nice to meet you, I'm Henry, but you can call me Uncle Henry, or whatever you want as long as it makes sense," Henry laughed.

Josh smiled and waved back. He liked the him. He was friendly and charismatic. One thing was for sure, their stay with him wouldn't be a boring one.

Henry led the two inside and showed them to the room they would be sharing that was right off the kitchen. Josh was happy. He loved his midnight snacks.

The house was a good size, with a large living room full of windows and flat screen tv. The furniture was made of some kind of fancy fabric that Josh had never even touched before. The kitchen had all stainless steel appliances and granite countertops. When Henry showed them the rest of the house Josh counted upwards of twenty artifacts that loked at least a million dollars and priceless paintings.