Falling Too (Tyler Joseph)

Chapter 11

The Christmas festival was now right around the corner, in fact, it was the next day. Everyone had been spending the entire month of November preparing for this event, especially Karen. So I volunteered to take her place on finishing up on decorating the signs, because she clearly deserved a break. The few times I've seen her running around the church she had a coffee in hand and dazed look in her eyes. I had planned on just spending my day surrounded by crafting supplies and silence, but thankfully Dee had been nice enough to waste her Saturday helping me get everything done.

"The S is ready for glittering." She murmurs as she moves over to the T and begins tracing it with glue.

I watched her careful work, Deiadra has always been very talented with arts and crafts. I unscrewed the lid on the silver glitter bottle and poured a bit into my palm. A shadow in the hallway catches my interest and a second later Tyler was walking past, thumbing through a red notebook. I instantly remembered seeing it the last time I had watched him play the piano in the chapel. I sat the glitter down on the edge of the table so quickly that it managed to tip over and spill all down the front of my black jeans.

Dee jumped back exclaiming, "What the...!"

"I'll deal with it in a minute." I mutter as I race out of the room with the flakes coming off of me like sparkly snowfall.

Despite the mess, I'd just made I rushed right to the chapel doors to see Tyler taking a seat behind the piano and letting out a deep exhale. A moment later he began to play.

And then sing, "You walk around like you are fine. So confident in life, so right. But then I found you were afraid and that means life is not okay. I wonder what's inside your mind and if there's anything to find. I hope that you awake someday and see that life is not okay."

I watched Tyler quickly shake his head, almost as if he didn't like that part. I can't see how he doesn't consider it beautiful like I do, but then again he is the artist of it. From what I have heard of this song it seemed terribly sad in a way, but at the same time, it seemed to be pushing for something more positive.

"Hey! What are you doing? I'm not cleaning all that up by myself." Dee informs me, looking slightly glittery herself.

The sound of music abruptly stopping told me that Tyler must have heard her, so I grabbed Dee's hand and drug her back to the Sunday school room. Right as we got in I heard the chapel doors squeak open.

I spoke in a hushed tone, "Crap he heard us, just act casual if he comes in here."

"Were you spying on Tyler?"

I grabbed the broom and dustpan, feeling thankful that this room had tile floors as I muttered, "No, I just wanted to hear him play his song."

She grinned as she rose an eyebrow at me, "So why don't you just ask him?"

I shrugged as I tried my best to get the silver sparkles into a single pile, "I get the feeling that no one is even supposed to hear it."

She scoffed at me, "I have a feeling that he would make an exception for you if that were the case. You're pretty much his best friend after all, so you should try asking him."

"I'm not really his best friend, Josh is."

She gave me a playful smirk, "Oh you're right, you two mean a bit more to each other, don't you?"

Before I could protest Tyler's head pops in the room and he appeared surprised. I hoped and prayed with everything that I was worth that he wouldn't ask what I was just doing because that was not something I really want to explain. I waited for my on slot of extreme embarrassment with my hands gripping the broom handle.

"You look like a fairy sneezed on you." He points out with a chuckle.

"Ashley's just a klutz." Dee giggles and I focused on not letting out a sigh of relief so powerful that it probably would have blown the glitter around.

I kept sweeping and only responding by sticking my tongue out at them. They both chuckled that time.

"So what did you do?" He questioned as he stepped in the room and picked up the turned over sparkles, getting some on his hands.

"I had tried to put it back on the table and it tipped over." I say as I grab the dustpan, avoiding making eye contact with him.

"Do you two need any assistance with the rest of this?"

Dee started to say, "Sure..."

But I cut her off, "No, no it's fine. We're almost finished actually."

Tyler rose his eyebrows and an amused smile took over his features while he spoke, "You sure? It looks like you are having a hard time."

Dee seemed to be having difficulty holding in her laughter, like there was some sort of inside joke that between them that I wasn't getting.

None the less I tell him, "Yep, we can manage."

Tyler's grin only got wider as he said, "Well you know if you ever need anything, all you have to do is ask."

After that he left the room with a wave and Dee was stuck in that silent sort of laughing that happens when you can't breathe because of how funny something was.

"Are you done yet?" I grumbled, having a feeling that Tyler knew that I had been listening in and he was teasing me over it.

She shook her head and calmed down enough where she could talk, "You are so painfully obvious."

I furrowed my brow, "What do you mean?"

She turned her attention back to the poster on the table mumbling, "I truly hope that he can see what everyone else can."

My cheeks reddened just thinking about what she could have meant. I on the other hand honestly hoped he didn't see anything.