I furrow my brows and hum slightly before suggesting:
"Tyler, we should go inside."
he's still holding onto his shoulder that's slowly forming a velvety bruise. "please?" i place my hand onto his shoulder. he looks up at me and nods ever so slightly
"Okay." He slowly stands up as if the cement and sand are finally releasing the grip they had on him before. he cradles my jacket in his arms as if it it was his life support and if he were to drop it then maybe he'd drop too. he then starts to slowly trudge to his house with his too heavy feet barely leaving the ground.
i don't want him to leave: "Hey uhm, tyler."
he turns around swiftly and looks at me waiting oh so patiently for what I have to say.
"Would you like to come over for a bit?" i close my eyes after speaking as if maybe if i close my eyes everything will go away and i wont have to hear his answer. i slowly open my eyes after a few moments of silence. he looks down at his feet then looks back up to me and nods. he walks over to my side and we start towards my house. I gently smile at him in hopes to somewhat make the boy with the cement bones and sand filled veins feel better. he doesn't return the gesture but instead looks down at my jacket that he's holding.
"Tyler, I hope that you learn to trust me because i wont hurt you. i actually quite like you a bit and i want to know you." He furrows his brows and mutters something that i cant quite catch as if the wind that whistles through my bones, in that moment, decided to howl instead; blocking out all noise. we walk into my small house and my cat runs up to us and brushes against Tyler's leg. his black velvet fur bushes against him and he looks down and it looks as if maybe there could've been a smile forming for a second.
"her name is Forest because of her eyes." I tell him. he bends down and stokes he back. he picks her up and scratches behind her ear while looking at her eyes. "they're beautiful. her eyes, i mean." i nod and hum for a second.
"Uhm, well you can make yourself at home and stuff. Do you want a drink? Or something to eat?" he goes to my sofa and sits down with Forest in his lap, still petting her.
"could I please have some water?" he looks up at me with his soft eyes that still, somehow even in my house: under my roof, seem to reflect the sky.
I smile and nod slightly, "of course, Tyler."
I go to the kitchen and make us glasses of water and when I walk back into the living room I see tyler sitting criss-cross with Forest still in his lap and my jacket settled around his shoulders. I slowly sit next to him and hand him his glass and he scoots away from me maybe an inch or two. I furrow my brows and frown as the strings attached to my heart seem to tug on the corner of my lips, "do you want to watch a movie?" He shrugs slightly and looks over towards me, "sure." I grab the remote to my tv and turn on Netflix; i go ahead and put on a random movie. surprisingly it doesn't take very long for tyler to let his cement bones and sand filled veins that seem to weigh him down ease into my sofa and doze off and possibly even fall asleep. I smile gently and check to see if he's actually fallen asleep. i lean over somewhat and see that he is, in fact, asleep. i go ahead and decide to let him rest his cement bones that strain against all and i start to drift and somewhat fall asleep. Right before I finally fall asleep and let the aching winds that whistle through me take a break I feel the weight of the couch shift towards me and Tyler suddenly is a lot closer to me. I barely have my eyes open just enough to see his outline and I make sure not to move and to hold my breath because i want him to stay this close. i want him to stay. He watches me for a a few seconds; scanning over my features and I suddenly become self-conscious before he slowly and gently leans into my aching self and rests his head on my shoulder and wraps his arm around my waist. i accidentally exhale sharply and then breathe unevenly when I feel his fingers curl around my waist and he whispers clearly,
"Josh, i hope you learn to trust me because im not going to hurt you. I quite like you and i want to know you, too."
