Falling Too (Tyler Joseph)

Chapter 4

I flopped down on my comforter, sighing heavily as I stared at the top of my pale orange walls. I had made sure that every inch of the house was clean, which wasn't too difficult considering that I had already taken care of it three days ago. I tend to have quite a bit of free time. I have about fifteen minutes until Tyler is supposed to be here, so I guess I could relax until then. As if that was even possible.

I've only ever had a few friends in my life even before all the problems my dad caused, so there's an issue I've always had with meeting new people. I just can never get used to it, but it wasn't like Tyler was new to me anyway. Something about him was keeping me on edge none the less. I decided to ignore my nervousness by studying for my last final of the semester. That ended up doing nothing to change my state of mind and after several pages of looking at notes I became sick of it. I tossed the notebook back onto my white dresser and right after that the doorbell rings.

I hurried down the hall to answer it and I was a bit stunned to not find the usually bright and happy boy I've gotten to know on the other side. Instead Tyler had his hood up and his head down.

"Hey there, are you alright?" I asked as I widened the opening to allow him in my house.

"I'm fine." He mumbles, but shakes his head at the same time.

No he wasn't.

"Alright, well do you want to go get started?"

"Sure." He replies, still sounding strange.

Maybe he was beginning to get sick. I gestured for him to follow me to my room and I glanced over to see his reaction, but realized that I still couldn't see his face. I sat down on my bed and was surprised when he took a seat right next to me. My odd rush of excitement his closeness caused was short-lived when my worrying took back over as he placed his head in his hands.

"Are you sure everything is okay?" I question, hoping that I wasn't being too pushy.

"I think I've got a migraine."

"Do you want to do this another day then?"

"I'll be fine." He says lifting his head up, but as he does I notice something.

His bottom lip is bleeding.

"What happened to your mouth?"

He quickly licked his lips, seeming to just then remember the cut. "I got hit with the ball at practice today."

"That hard?"

"Y-yeah." He stutters.

Why does he keep lying? Someone had clearly hurt him. A weird sudden urge took me over and my hand reacted before my brain could catch up. I reached over and yanked off his hood. Tyler was much worse than I had first thought. Someone had obviously just gotten done pummeling him before he showed up at my doorstep.

"Tyler, who did this to you? Because I'm almost certain that a basketball can't give you busted lip and a black eye."

"It actually can."

"Yeah, but that wasn't what happened, was it?"

He let out a groan, pressing a hand through his hair. "Dorman got pretty upset about me bringing up quitting the team again and there wasn't anybody there to stop him this time."

I felt a wave of guilt flood my chest, but I knew there was no way I could've known that was going on. Even so, I said, "I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault, but would you mind just keeping this between us?"

I gave him a look of disbelief, "Why?"

He shrugged, "I usually try not to bring other people into my problems."

"This isn't a normal issue that should be ignored. You need to tell your coach or someone other than me about what he's doing."

His response was a silent shake of his head.

"Listen to me, if you don't deal with him, I will."

He cracked a tiny grin at that and asked, "How do you plan to do that?"

"I'll go confront him and we will see where it goes from there." I state in a matter of fact tone.

He laughed quietly, "Ashley, you don't need to do that."

"Then are you going to?"

Again silence.

"Then I have to."

"But I don't want you to end up getting hurt over me."

"If he seriously tries to hit me for talking to him that says a lot about him."

"I don't think you attempting to test out Dorman's character is a good course of action. It's certainly not worth the risk of you getting hit."

I sighed, "Fine, I won't. You won't have to be seeing him anymore since you quit, right?"

"Actually..."

"You didn't do it, did you?"

He shrugged slightly, "It's kind of hard to finalize anything official when you're running from a mad man swinging his fists at you."

"Good point." I agreed, silently hating that Tyler was still having problems with Chase. Seeing though I wasn't going to get anywhere else with this at the moment I slapped my hands on my knees declaring, "Alright then, I guess it's for me to play nurse again. Hold on for a second please Mr. Joseph."

Tyler laughed while making a face.

"What was that for?" I asked while chuckling.

"I don't know, I've gotten kind of used to you calling me by first name and hearing my last out of you just feels strange."

I laughed softly, "Okay, I'll be right back Tyler."

When I returned with what I needed I saw that he had laid back on my bed with his legs still dangling off. I also took note of the discoloration at the bottom of his stomach where his shirt had road up, he had bruises there too. They appeared to be fading, so this had happened a while ago. Chase had been hitting Tyler a lot more than I had first thought.

I tossed the first aid kit next to him declaring, "I can't do it! This is being dealt with right now."

Tyler lifted himself up swiftly, "Where are you going?"

"To Chase's." I say as I storm down the hall and I could hear him rushing after me.

"I thought you just said you weren't getting in the middle of this?"

"I changed my mind." With those words I wrenched open my front door.

"What are you even planning to do?"

"I'm going to make a scene." I mutter as an excuse as I move swiftly down the sidewalk with him still tailing me. I honestly didn't have much of an idea of what I was going to do, but I knew right then I was in the mood to scream at someone.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm going to have a few choice words with Dorman."

"Do you even know where he lives?"

"Yep, he's just two streets over from me."

"This is a really bad idea. Can we please just go back and forget this?"

I didn't hesitate to check for cars as I moved past my neighboring street, "You see, I won't be able to forget this, so at this point it's more for my mental wellbeing."

"Alright, well I'll just wait right here then."

Only then did I turn around and I seemed to shock us both when I grabbed his hand to pull him along with me. "Oh no you don't, I was there for you last time and now I need you to do the same for me."

He bit his lip before muttering, "Fine, let's get this over with."