tear in my heart | tyler joseph

Chapter Twenty Three

     "Cynthia. Wake up." Cynthia turned on her side and buried her face in the pillow. "Five more minutes."

     "We don't have five more minutes. Come on. Wake up." She groaned, then pulled her face out of the pillow and sat up. She saw Tyler in the chair beside of the bed, staring at her. "What?"

     "Nothing, just......admiring your beauty." She blushed, then said, "Why did you wake me up?"

     "Because you get to leave today!"

     "Seriously?"

     "Yeah! You just have to get back into your normal clothing, then you are free to go." Just then, Gracie walked in, holding a change of clothes. It was a pair of jeans and a Twenty One Pilots shirt, along with socks, underwear, and her floral Vans. "Really? A Twenty One Pilots shirt?"

     "You'll see why." Cynthia raised an eyebrow, then stood up and took the clothes. She walked out of the room, into the bathroom just across the hall. She walked in and closed the door, then walked into one of the stalls. She pulled the hospital gown off and took off her underwear. She put the new pair on, then put the rest of her clothes on and slipped on her Vans. She grabbed the clothes, walked out of the stall, and walked out of the bathroom. She walked back into her room and handed the clothes to Gracie, who put them in a bag. "Alright. Let's go!"

     "Hey, where's Josh?"

     "He's....busy." They walked out of the room and down the hall, then walked down the stairs and to the front desk. "We're taking Cynthia Joseph out of the hospital," Tyler said. The woman nodded, then gave them a paper. "Just sign this, then you're good to go." Tyler and Cynthia signed it, then gave it back to the woman. She waved, then they walked out. When they walked out, Cynthia had to put her hand up to her head because of the sun. She felt someone tap her shoulder. She looked over and saw Tyler holding sunglasses. She took them and put them on.

     As they were walking, Cynthia absentmindedly put her hand in Tyler's. He looked down and chuckled, then went with it and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. When he realized what she did, she tried to pull her hand away. He kept a firm grip and said, "It's fine." She let out a sigh of relief. "After all we've been through as a couple, you still act like it's our first week of dating."

     "Well, I'm afraid I might do something wrong to end it all."

     "You could never do something wrong." She put her head on his shoulder. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Gracie roll her eyes. "Alright, lovebirds, wrap it up. We're almost there." Gracie decided to have a race. The first person to reach the house was the winner.

     "Alright. Ready?" Both Tyler and Cynthia nodded. "Three...two...one...GO!" They all started running. Tyler was in the lead, but Cynthia quickly overtook him. Gracie ran faster and overtook them both. Cynthia wouldn't let that happen. She ran even faster and overtook Gracie. She was way ahead of both her and Tyler. They neared the house. Just a few more feet. 

     She couldn't slow down.

     She nearly crashed into the door when Josh opened it. She tripped over her own feet and fell to the ground. Josh quickly helped her up. She looked back and saw Tyler and Gracie walking, talking about something. "Hey! Hurry up!" They looked over at her, then realized that it was still a race until one of them claimed second, leaving the other one with third. They looked at each other and yelled, "GO!" Gracie quickly pulled ahead, but Tyler surpassed her and ran inside first. Cynthia gave him a high-five, and he said, "Why, thank you." He looked over at Josh, who said, "What just happened?"

     "We had a race. I won, Tyler got second, and Gracie got third." Gracie rolled her eyes, then kissed Josh on the cheek and walked into the kitchen. She screamed. Everyone ran in, wondering what was wrong. "Josh.........."

     "Yeah?"

     "Did you make a cake?" She pointed at the cake. Everyone let out a sigh of relief. "Yes. yes, I did."

     "Why?"

     "Because I felt like it. Now quit questioning me and eat it." He cut the cake, then grabbed plates and gave everyone a slice. Cynthia said, "This is really good!" Josh smiled proudly. Once everyone was done, Tyler opened the door. "Tyler, what are you doing?"

     "Follow now, question me later." He took her hand and led her outside. Josh and Gracie followed suit. They kept walking until they came to the curb. "What are we doing here?"

     "You're going to be facing your biggest fear."

     "Spiders?"

     "No."

     "Heights?"

     "No."

     "Life itself?"

     "Wow, you have a lot of fears I don't know about. Also, no. You're going to be facing your fear of singing in public!"

     "What? Why?"

     "Well, just imagine. What if, one day, on tour, I invite you to come and sing with me? What if you're completely unprepared? What if you mentally collapse and have a panic attack?"

     "Fine. What are the rules?"

     "You'll sing one of our songs. At first, you can sing at whatever volume you need to. But after five seconds of singing, you need to sing at an audible volume. You can sing even louder if you want to. However, if you sing any quieter than you're supposed to, then we'll go an area that has more people. If the first song goes well, and you follow all the rules, then we'll move to a new area similar to the first one. Then you'll sing a different song. We'll do this until you sing fifteen songs. I would just like to note that it is a very good thing we're doing this at ten am."

     "Alright. Pray that this goes well," she muttered under her breath. She took a deep breath, then started singing Doubt. She was halfway through the first verse when Tyler stopped her. "What?"

     "Just gonna......" He set a hat down. "All money that goes into this hat will go to you." He motioned for her to continue singing. She started over. "Scared of my own image, scared of my own immaturity, scared of my own ceiling, scared I'll die of uncertainty, fear might be the death of me, fear leads to anxiety, don't know what's inside of me....." She kept going until she reached the end of the song. She kept the same volume the entire time. Some people dropped money into the hat. One person, who happened to be a fan, questioned why they had the hat. Tyler explained what they were doing, and they nodded and dropped a five dollar bill into the hat. As they walked away, they said, "Hope it goes well!"

     "Alright. You did good. Now let's move to our next location." They walked until they were in front of a bookstore. (You can guess which bookstore it was.) Tyler set the hat down. Cynthia started singing Friend, Please. People walked by quite often and dropped money into the hat. When she was finished, he picked the hat up. They walked until they were in front of the cafe. She started singing. They did this until she had sung fifteen songs. The songs she sang were Doubt, Friend, Please, Screen, Forest, Message Man, The Run And Go, Fall Away, Goner, Fake You Out, House of Gold, Stressed Out, Clear, Kitchen Sink, Migraine, and Oh, Ms. Believer. They walked back home. When they walked inside, Tyler set the hat down on the kitchen table and started counting. "It's a total of $209.67. People liked your singing that much." He put the money back in the hat and pushed it over to her. She grabbed hold of it, then walked upstairs, to their room, and stood on top of the bed. She then proceeded to put it in the closet. It was put so high that not a single person could reach it.

     Not even Tyler.

     She then went back downstairs and sat down on the couch. Tyler sat beside of her and put an arm around her. "It's been a long day, huh?"

     "Yeah. What time is it?" He took his phone out and said, "12:38."

     "Wow. I might just take a quick nap..." She slowly began to doze off. He kissed the top of her head and said, "Sweet dreams, darling."

     Then she fell asleep.

I get inspiration from so many other books. Thanks, other books! *holds both thumbs up*