cry baby // tysh

THREE

tyler's weeks passed by only leaving memories of looking the best so no one knows you're feeling the worst and conversations about josh with jenna.

after jenna's valentines day date with josh, jenna and josh became a thing. it was a thing that was absolutely horrifying to tyler. but tyler was glad he didn't get his hopes up about josh maybe being gay too because now it was for sure that he wasn't.

tyler's life became gloomy and confusing with the absence of jenna since her life was now dedicated to josh. tyler would still sit with her at lunch everyday but it didn't seem like he even existed anymore, all of her attention on the boy with the red hair. all tyler did was listen to their conversations, not bothering to chime in knowing they wouldn't notice he even spoke. by now, tyler knew lots about josh. things like his birthday, his full name, even his hair dying routine. but still, josh knew nothing about him.

with tyler's mind set on getting over his pathetic little crush on josh, things got harder at home. his mom never seemed to be home and when she was, his dad was always yelling at her. he never saw any of the arguments between his parents, just heard them, but tyler noticed every now and then a speckling of bruises on his mom's arm or faint scratches on his dad's cheek. this worried tyler and added onto his regular stress so he tried to keep up the facade of a perfectly fine life, but he was still sad even when he was dressed up.

so tyler often decided to go to bed earlier than usual and ignore his world for one that wasn't real. and when he would wake up in the morning, everything would feel okay for a while until he had to leave the comfortable safety of his bed.

that was how things were every day, and today, things were no different. tyler woke up and got dressed and did his regular routine to look as put together as possible. and when he got to school he turned in his assignments and started new ones. but at lunch, jenna was no where to be found.

tyler sat at the table alone, worriedly looking around the cafeteria for any sign of his only friend.

"where's jenna," a familiar voice spoke, causing tyler to jump a little.

"I don't know," tyler muttered in response to josh's question. "I haven't seen her all day." tyler fidgeted with his shirt as josh sat down and began eating. tyler was a little shocked that josh stayed there rather than sitting with his other friends. tyler decided this was good though, maybe he could actually get to know josh if he worked up enough courage to talk to him within the next 30 minutes.

"hey are you okay, you aren't eating," josh suddenly spoke. tyler looked up from his phone in alarm and sighed.

"i'm fine, i guess i'm just not really hungry," tyler rushed out. josh raised his eyebrow and bit his lip, causing butterflies in tyler's stomach at josh's concern. but they left as quickly as they came after realizing how manipulative he was being, letting josh worry about him when he thought he was fine.

"you should still eat though," josh protested.

"i'm fine, i normally eat a bunch at home anyway," tyler smiled, trying to move the attention away from his overly obvious distress. josh tsked and continued eating. tyler sighed in relief and began his usual lurking of the internet.

"it's tyler, right," josh asked. tyler squinted his eyes slightly in disgust and nodded, a little offended that josh still hadn't gotten his name fully even though he's been dating jenna for at least a month.