Child • Jøshler

chapter thirty

When Tyler returned to the gym, everything was okay. Brendon and Patrick were on a far distance from each other. Josh seemed to be interrogating Brendon, but he did not seem at all successful. Pete, on the other hand, was kissing Patrick by a wall, in all attempts of calming his beloved down.

"Hey, did you ring the bell?" Dallon jogged over to the entrance of the area, thus approaching Tyler. Tyler nodded, gulping.

Those three girls were still whispering among each other while staring at Brendon.

Tyler nodded over to where Josh and Brendon stood, gesturing for them to walk over to Andy who appeared to be third wheeling carelessly.

"Lovebirds are busy now, I will answer your wonders" Andy grinned widely, only making Tyler and Dallon cringe.

"What the hell is wrong with Brendon?" Tyler asked, waiting patiently for the answer. Dallon smacked him on the shoulder in protest against Tyler's choice of words but Tyler just ignored him.

Andy laughed, shaking his head "You tell me. I didn't walk his ass home"

Tyler rolled his eyes, sighing in an annoyed way "Is Patty okay?"

"Yeah, almost went badass, but yeah he's cool"

Tyler nodded, exhaling in relief. He looked over Andy's shoulder to see Pete stepping away from Patrick and smiling at him. Patrick smiled back and nodded. Slowly, they both approached the three.

"You okay?" Tyler directed the question to Patrick.

Patrick closed his eyes momentarily, nodding for approval "I'm okay, I promise. Don't worry"

Tyler gave a smile and nodded. He looked at Pete who's head was turned toward Brendon who was on Tyler's distanced right. Pete's face held an angry frown, wonders swam in his eyes.

"What the hell got into him?" Pete spat. He was expecting to get no reply, but Tyler then spoke quietly, unsure of his own words

"A- Actually, I think I might kn-know"

Tyler gained a lot of attention on his because of that sentence; all of the attention, to be exact. They boys waited for any additional words, but Tyler just suddenly felt so small in the spotlight. Anxiety was kicking the best of him, because he felt like these words might raise hell.

"Well, B- Brendon texted me to ask me n- not to tell you, but I- I think that considering r-recent events, I should probably tell you" Tyler spoke quickly, but everybody understood.

"Okay, just tell us" Pete said, trying to encourage the boy to speak up. He just really wanted a good reason to make him not want to beat Brendon's ass.

"Don't worry, everything's going to be okay" Patrick said. His voice was so calmly. As if he knew exactly how Tyler now felt. Tyler was scared of talking, because he promised Brendon but also what the hell would happen if the m guys know? Dammit, he's already begun, he has to finish.

Finally, he spoke without stutters; he'll credit Patrick's words for that "When Brendon, uhm, fed that night, he heard Ryan's voice talking to him" - everybody gasped in sync - "and Brendon panicked and went to kill everybody who was holding the ritual thingy" - Pete was going to cut him off, but - "Please! Let me finish! Brendon didn't get to kill all of them, because I stopped him. The lucky ones ran away"

Tyler stopped talking and eyed everybody, thus allowing them to comment.

"Why did he attack all those people?" Dallon asked first; Pete seemed to be trying to figure that one out by himself. Patrick gulped.

Tyler locked eyes with Patrick who's eyes were starting to water up "He saw Patrick's face on all of them"

Patrick turned around quickly, tears pouring out of his eyes, he marched off to an exit.

"Patty!" Pete called after him jogging to follow up.

The rest of the boy were whispering their own unintelligible mumbles, shaking their heads. Dallon held a hand over his mouth in shock, noticing Josh was approaching them.

"Hey gays" Josh said "Where's Peterick? Are they okay?"

Andy shook his head firmly. Josh looked away and clicked his tongue, whispering a swear word.

"Where's Brendon?" Dallon asked, worry in his voice.

"Went home" Josh quickly replied "Says he doesn't feel well or whatever. Where's Patty?"

"He just went off, crying. Pete went after him" Andy said, pointing in the direction they went.

"Oh my, what happened?" Josh asked.

The coach was starting to approach them, thus Tyler spoke quickly "Let's meet under the oak after school and we'll tell you everything"

...

Josh's first reaction to the whole story was just a swear. Before he could say anything else, Pete was running toward the oak, panting and very red in the face.

"I've been looking for you guys all day, dammit" he said, letting his body fall down onto the cold leaves. It was November and everybody was expecting snow anytime now. All the boys stood or sat under the oak, freezing due to the cold air. Not even the big, comfy coats were helpful.

"Where's Patty? Is he okay?" Tyler and Josh asked at the same time. They locked stares when they realized and Tyler buried his face into his knees which were pulled to his chest, doing his best in hiding that blush.

But Josh saw the blush. And he couldn't stop himself from smirking at it.

Pete sat up, concern now visible in his eyes as he eyed each boy "I couldn't find him. I searched through the entire school, he was nowhere. Then, I wanted to find you guys, because Tyler or Andy could probably search around the town, because neither of the rest of us can do that as quickly"

"Oh, God" Tyler rose his head worriedly "If Brendon-"

"Brendon did nothing!" Dallon protested "He went home, as Josh said!"

"Dallon, for God's sake, shut your stupid gay mouth and open your goddamn eyes!" Josh was tempted to slap the lover boy "Things are not right! For all we know, Patty could've followed Brendon home, or they both just mystically died all of a sudden! Nobody knows what's going on and-"

Pete let out a small gasp, standing up in one motion. His eyes were wide open, looking into nothing. His lips trembled as she stuttered "Pa- Pa- Patty"

Tyler was confused as hell, but the others seemed to know more than him. Andy kicked the leaves angrily with his foot, all the boys began to swear and soon everybody was on their feet.

Pete started to cry.