Ink Flowers

The first ending

A/N: #inspired.

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By the time Joe and his contradictory personality arrived to editing class, the teacher had already closed the door.

"Fucking shit" he said, and behind him, someone answered: "language, little boy"

Joe's blood started to boil, and fear engulfed him in a cold grip. Once again, a contradiction of emotions. He turned around, ready to be punched or spat at, but if that was going to happen, Joe'd rather face it than never see it coming.

He looked at his opponent in the eye.

Tyler Oakley smiled sheepishly at him, his face no longer bruised, and his eyes clear and happy. It made joe want to smile back, and he longed to do so.

But he wasn't used to it, and so he didn't, but he nodded at Tyler, gifting him the smallest of smirks, and leaning against the doorframe for better support.

Tyler was almost his height, and it was good to not have to look up at someone when talking. It made joe feel more in control, more normal, more everything.

"Oh, what are you, my mum?" Joe teased. He meant it in a funny manner, trying to be  polite with Tyler, but as soon as the words left his mouth, Tyler's eyes widened and he stuttered.

"Ah, n-no, of course not, I was just joking"

Joe felt his happy veil drop, and suddenly the world wasn't comfortably dark anymore, but seeing hot and full of noise. He didn't really want to be Tyler's friend anyway, he just.

He didn't know.

Lately, Joe didn't know anything.

"Yeah, so was I" said Joe, too busy thinking about all the things he had no answer to, to notice the way Tyler looked at him, once again a hint of recognition in his eyes, though this time he was recognizing something else.

Joe would've kept the conversation going, had he not remembered something just then. He had a small flashback of two blond boys talking, sitting close to each other, completely ignoring Joe.

As always.

And he remembered when he met eyes with one of the boys, and how his hands got sweaty and everything was much too warm instantly. Joe hated the feeling, he hated the way Caspar made him feel. He hated the flower crown buried deep in his backpack, that he still needed to throw out.

He hated that Tyler could like Caspar, flirt with him even. He had expected better from Tyler, he had thought he would be smart, stick with good people. Decent people. But deep down, Joe knew he was no one to decide who was decent and who wasn't.

Still, Joe suddenly found himself not liking Tyler prescience that much, not minding not having been too friendly with him. He suddenly didn't really care. He looked at Tyler with emotionless eyes, and waited for him to take the hint.

Tyler, of course, didn't take it. He was a bright, bubbly person with a "let's go" personality that irked Joe to the core, but warmed him inside nevertheless. He was something he both hated and admired, and that made Joe relate to the blond boy.

"You sometimes look like... you know" Tyler started, with an outburst of bravery that Joe found himself confused at. Hadn't he been terribly, miserably scared of him just mere seconds ago?

"I look like what, Tyler" Joe said, and poison naturally dropped from his words. It was the only way he could talk to anyone at school, even thought Conor disagreed with that train of thought.