Promise Me Slowtown

Chapter 3

A/N: Hey y'all, I'm back from holiday so I'll try and work out when to update this story. I'll prolly do it at the weekends... Annnyyywwayyy. Back to the story.

Tyler entered the English class and took his usual place at the back of the classroom, looking around for a certain someone. As he was doing so, he took out a pen and a pad from his bag that sat by him like a trained dog sitting next to his owner. He started to add to the doodles he created on his front page, waiting for the pink haired boy to walk through the door. Tyler titled his head, straining his ears to hear the muffled, distant laughter coming from the other side of the door. The door opened and in came laughter. Tyler lifted his head slightly to look for the pink haired boy.

That's odd he thought, where is he?

There was only four people who entered the room. Tyler was thinking where he could be.

He must've woken up late. Yeah, that's it, he's probably rushing to class right now. He'll be here in a sec.

Tyler continued to doodle but he couldn't concentrate as he kept checking the door, waiting for the boy to enter.

A couple of minutes passed, no sign of the pink haired boy. Tyler heard someone enter and looked up excited only to find he was looking at the teacher. He went back to his doodles.

The class was long and dragged out with him looking at the clock and wondering whether the cute boy will enter or not.

The bell finally rang after what felt like hours and hours. Tyler slumped to the bathroom feeling sad that he was unable to watch this beautiful specimen. He pushed the door leading to the bathroom open and then paused. A sniffle followed. Tyler hesitated thinking whether he should leave or help. Deciding to stay, he lifted his hand to the stall door and knocked gently, the soft sobbing stopped.

"Are you ok?" Tyler asked

There was a long pause before the voice on the other side said.

"Yeah, I'll be fine"

"Are you sure? You can talk to me, I won't tell anyone. I'm literally a nobody so there is no one to tell" Tyler flinched realising he said that out load to a stranger.

"Aw, I'm sure that's not true... It's nothing really, I'm fine. It's a stupid thing anyway"

"Whatever it is its not stupid, you wouldn't be this sad about it if it was."

The voice from the other side gave a sigh.

"Ok. Thanks. Um, well... When I'm hanging around with my friends, I feel anxious and I don't know why. I feel like I'm not being myself around them because of my anxiety. I feel- I feel like a different person around them and I hate and it, it always gets me down. They all look so confident and so I pretend to be like them, but when I do, I feel tension between us. And it just, ugh I don't know, it just sucks man. I hate it... I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to all just come out like that. I'm sorry, you can go if you want to, I understand."

"No need to apologise. It must be tough for you then, huh. I bet you've heard this before but be yourself. When you feel anxious just take deep breaths and just focus on your breathing, don't think about anybody else around you. I suffer from anxiety and that always helps me. All I can say is relax, be yourself and just breath. I'm sure they'll love the real you even more."

There was a pause. Tyler looked a bit worried.

"Wait, I'm sorry." Tyler says fast. "That didn't help at all. I'm sorry, I'll go-"

"No, wait! That helped a lot actually. I've never known how to deal with my anxiety and I would just get so worked about it... Do you mind if I ask your name?"

"Uh I'm Tyler. What's yours?"

"Josh"

"I like that name. It's cute." Tyler cringed realising what he said and wanted to run.

"Thanks" Josh giggled. "Tyler's a cute name too"

There was a slight pause. Josh breathed in like he was about to say something but then exhaled.

"This is uh- this is awkward with a door in the way." Josh stammered. "I'm going to open it now" he laughed nervously.

The locked snapped and the door opened slowly.

Tyler's face dropped. His stomach flipped a thousand times. What he saw was not what he expected. It was the pink haired boy. He told Josh that he was a loner. Josh would never want to be friends with a loner.

Josh noticed Tyler's look on his face.

"Are you ok?" Josh asked anxiously.

Tyler paused with a horrified expression. Tyler ran out the door embraced.

I should've just left when I could've Tyler thought. What's wrong with you Tyler, stop messing up

And with that Tyler went home.