drummer boy (boyxboy)

Chapter Twenty Three

It took Tyler a short while to actually call his mom, even though he said he'd do it in the morning. He didn't even have a logical explanation as to why he was delaying. It came to be about eleven before he picked up his phone and dialed. Not even three rings came before his mom eagerly answered.

"Hello?" She greeted. Jennifer had been losing hope in reaching out to Tyler. It always seemed like he was "busy" with something but, in reality, he was just nervous.

"Hey, mom. Good morning." Tyler answered in a casual tone.

"Well, late morning but, yeah. Good morning, Tyler." She chuckled.

"Yeah, true..." Tyler drifted and let the call fall into a kind of uncomfortable silence.

"So, uh," Jennifer cleared her throat and collected herself. "Is there a specific reason you called or did you just want to enjoy the white-noise?"

"Oh yeah!" Tyler snapped. "Yeah, I wanted to ask if you wanted to just hang out today. Maybe we could go to the mall or something?" Jennifer brightened and smiled wide.

"Yes, yes, of course. That sounds great!" She squealed.

"You okay over there?" Tyler laughed. It was just the mall; there wasn't anything too special about it.

"Yeah. We just haven't really spent proper time together, is all. I'm a bit excited." She smiled over the phone. Tyler nodded.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I don't really have a good excuse for why we haven't. I guess I just wasn't ready but I think I am now." He said with hope in his voice.

"That's fine. I'll come for you around 1?"

"Sounds good. See you then."

"See you then." Jennifer said, hanging up the phone and getting ready almost immediately. Tyler was the opposite though. He decided that sitting in bed until 12:45 was a better option for him, leaving him a panicking mess when the time came for Jennifer to pick him up.
He made it downstairs in the nick of time though, as Jennifer had just gotten there and was talking to Josh at the door.

"Took you long enough." Josh teased, knowing Tyler wasn't that late.

"Shush." He hit Josh then turned his attention to his mom. "You ready?" She nodded and he walked out the door with her, sliding into the passenger seat.

The ride over there was pretty silent but still comfortable. The two were pretty bad at small talk but it was fine because once a topic was put out there, they made pretty great socializers.

It didn't take long for them to actually reach the mall. Now they were just walking in and wandering the halls.

"So, why did you choose to go to the mall any-who?" Jennifer asked.

"I don't know. I had to get a gift for Josh anyways so, why not?" Tyler shrugged, looking at a near by Hot Topic. He knew his mom didn't favor the store so he just decided to go in later on, on their way out.

"Wanna go in here?" Tyler asked instead, pointing at Journeys.

"Sure." Jennifer said, walking towards the store.

"Okay. Just be ready for them to ask you a butt ton of questions and just talk about nothing in particular to you." Jennifer looked confused as she walked in, instantly understanding what her son meant by that warning.

"Hey there! Welcome to Journeys. Can I help you with anything today?" A tall, skinny boy asked her. He looked to be about 18 or 19 years old.

"Oh, no. I'm just looking, thank you though."