The Broken Hearts Club [Joshler]

All Aboard The Pain Train

Tyler sat silently on the air mattress that he called a bed. The pillows laid mangled on the floor like the rest of the bedding. Tyler was clutching the edge of his blanket, his empty eyes gazing somewhere beyond the horizon. The feathery waves of clouds slowly shrouded the vast blue space filling it almost completely. The colours rippled like disturbed water in a pond. Blue, white, blue. The sky wind couldn't make up its mind so it kept rearranging the sky, dragging the clouds over baby blue patches and bunching up the feathery white, leaving the sky a messy canvas as if a painter slapped his brush carelessly, splashing the acrylic all over the place till the result was somewhat decent. 

Tyler's eyes reflected the sky, he sat sniffling softly, his body slowly rocking back and forth. He wasn't crying, oh no no. There wasn't a single man in the world that was worth Tyler's tears. The brunet didn't feel like the emotion that took over him was sadness. More like soft melancholy, a longing that he couldn't explain. He was longing for something, or rather someone. 

Tyler's eyelashes fluttered as the afternoon sun hit his face unexpectedly. The beaming light was like a pleasant slap in the face. It did no harm but left Tyler's eyelids tingling. He yawned, his head fell back to the mattress. His lungs pushed out a painful sigh, the boy squeezed his damp eyes shut. He wasn't crying. Tyler's inner tremor came back, he inhaled sharply as invisible clamps grasped his chest. He hated this. Feeling. If he had one wish he could make his body numb to emotion. Sure, the world would drain of colour a little but that wouldn't be something that Tyler couldn't handle. Maybe he was a little overdramatic, maybe the sensation in his heart was something else because the boy couldn't accept the truth.

"Ty?" The boy flinched, the memories of last night flooded his head

"Hey, Ty?"

He sat silently, hunched over and with a sense of loss so powerful that his muscles wouldn't respond to commands. Unhappy lines on his face etched deeply. 

"Tyler?" 

"What?" the boy glanced at the door

"Your friend is here." Madison approached the boy slowly, "Should I let her in?"

"Um... Yeah." Tyler nodded vigorously, his face expressionless

"You sure?" Madison sat right next to the boy and enveloped him in a side hug "If you want to be alone I can tell her to go away."

"It's okay." Tyler smiled weakly and kissed the top of the girl's head "You can let her in."

"Dad left..." Madison exhaled heavily "I'm hungry."

"There's twenty dollars in my backpack." Tyler softly patted his sister's hair 

"What about you?" the girl's teary eyes widened 

"I'll be fine, go." Tyler cooed

Madison nodded. She grabbed the money before walking to the door to let Charlie in. The redhead busted right in almost knocking the door out of its frame. 

"What happened?" she plopped right next to Tyler

"N-nothing." Tyler clung to the girl immediately, his eyes brimming with tears already. No, he wasn't going to cry because of him.

The girl rocked Tyler in her arms, soft hands on his head. Tyler hugged his friend even tighter, the view in front of him rippling from tears. He wasn't going to cry. 

"Ty, what did he do?" Charlie caressed the boy's cheek gently 

"Nothing." Tyler choked out, he wasn't lying. Josh didn't do anything. 

"Well, I clearly can tell that something happened." Charlie rubbed Tyler's back soothingly "Tell me."

"I don't want to go back there," Tyler muttered, he had blinked his tears away. Not crying was actually more painful than letting the tears spill. 

"Baby, why?" Charlie's eyebrows rose upwards, she sniffled as well 

"I dunno." the brunet whispered 

Charlie let out a deep sigh, she cupped the sides of Tyler's face with her palms and planted a warm kiss on his forehead. The boy smiled and clung to her with appreciation. They've been friends for only a week and a half but sharing such intimacy wasn't weird at all. It felt like two years. The boy was glad he stepped into that damn building back then because if he didn't, he would've been crying with no one to comfort him. The brunet felt weird moping on his sister's shoulder. Madison was just a little kid and he didn't want to make her life harder than it already was. 

"Can you tell me what didn't happen then?" Charlie questioned

"We..." a shaky breath stole Tyler's words "I like him a lot."

"I know..."

"A lot." Tyler whimpered, his nose blushy and running 

"I wish you could give me some of that heartache." Charlie threaded her digits through Tyler's brown locks "Hell, I'd take all of it."

"And he's...he's so nice to-" a painful hiccup erupted from Tyler's throat "T-to me."

"Is that a bad thing?" the redhead whispered

"H-he opened the door for me and made me coffee and then...Then..." he swallowed thickly "Then we danced under the streetlight and he was so w-warm-"

"Wait, what?" Charlie cocked an eyebrow 

"He said he doesn't know h-how to slow dance." Tyler rubbed his aching eyes 

Charlie rocked Tyler softly in her warm embrace, the boy lowered his eyelids, his top teeth pressed down on already bitten raw bottom lip. It hurt. Everything hurt. 

"Hey, what if we skipped that stupid gathering and went shopping?" Charlie's eyes lit up "Just you and me."

"I'd love to b-but I don't have any money." Tyler sniffled again

"I'm the one taking you, I'll be the one paying, silly." Charlie chuckle "What do you say, hm?"

Tyler lifted his head up, brown eyes sparkling with happy tears now. 

"Yeah?" Charlie tilted her head to the side playfully

"Yeah."