All I want (twenty one pilots fanfiction)

Chapter Thirteen

When we arrived at the party, most people were already there. I immediately took Tyler to Audrey, Zoey and their boyfriends and introduced them all. We talked for a few minutes and then got ourselves something to drink. Tyler took cola and I took good ol’ ice tea. I walked back to Audrey and Zoey, whilst Tyler talked to Tom and Daniel.

Zoey immediately came to the point. “so do you like him?” Audrey started laughing a little, “off course she does, look at her. You basically can’t deny it.” And I realized she was probably right, even though I didn’t want to admit it. “I don’t know guys. I mean, he’s super sweet and all that but..” I hesitated, “but what if he doesn’t like me? Plus, I haven’t even known him that long so I don’t even know if I like him, in that way.” Audrey nodded. “ahh yeah, that stupid flicker of doubt that’s always there. How much I hate that doubt. Anyways, how did you guys meet and what did you do so far?” They were actually interested in me for once, like, genuinely interested. “And, most important, why would he be boyfriend material?” Zoey added.

“we met, believe it or not, on the bus. Cheesy, I know, but that’s okay. We hung out a few times and we went to the forest once, I guess you could call that a date. I actually ate at his house tonight. He has a big family but it was really fun.” I sipped some of my ice tea. “I don’t know why I think he’s likeable. He just is, I mean he’s attractive, and also caring and all that.” I saw Tyler turn around, he was a few feet away from us. He stared at us and laughed a little, kind of awkwardly. I found it kind of cute and smiled back. “Awww, Jen. Look at your face, you’re in loooooove.” Zoey and Audrey both smiled at me, “guys stop. You look like idiots. And I’m not in love. We’re just friends. Okay?” Audrey wiggled here eyebrows at me and laughed. “yeah, sure.”

“Anyways, what do you guys think of him?” I asked curiously. They looked at each other, and were silent a little too long if you ask me. Audrey was the first to break the silence. “He’s cute, but he’s kind of skinny, he doesn’t look like he can protect you, you know?” I looked at Tyler, Tom and Daniel. Tyler was indeed much less muscular than Daniel and Tom. I guess Tyler didn’t spend 37 hours per week in the gym like the other two guys. “I mean, he’s not extremely attractive like Daniel, but he seems really sweet, right?” Zoey said, I nodded and in my mind I said: ‘yeah, he is sweet. And probably a lot smarter than Daniel is. And also, I do think he’s cute. And he understands me, at least, I think so.’ I thought of the CD in my backpack, unable to wait to listen to the songs.

I noticed Daniel and Tom turning around and walking toward their girlfriends, and me. Tyler slowly walked towards the house, perhaps to get a drink or something. Tom decided that it was necessary to make out with Audrey in front of us all, and Zoey and Daniel couldn’t really keep their hands off each other either. I awkwardly walked away from them, trying to find Tyler.

After being stopped by a girl from school, who apparently wanted to talk to me, I walked inside the house, toward the kitchen. He was leaning on the counter, with a glass of ice tea next to him. I decided to grab some too. I had to grab a new cup because the other one had gotten lost. I poured some ice tea into the cup. Tyler was still staring at his phone, probably not aware of the fact that I –or even anybody- was in the same room. Or he was just ignoring it. I stood next to him and waited for a response. He finished typing either a tweet or a text, something like that, and then put away his phone. He looked up at me, and we both smiled when we saw each others’ faces. Again, I felt my stomach jump and everything, and immediately made sure it left my stomach. ‘No Jenna, you’ll only end up getting hurt.’

Suddenly I heard Tyler’s voice. “Are you enjoying yourself?” We was still slightly smiling at me. “Yeah, I guess. I mean, I could have a lot more fun at other occasions, but I basically couldn’t bail on Zoey and Audrey again. Are you having fun?” Tyler nodded, “yeah. It’s okay. I guess Tom and Daniel are…” he hestitated, “cool. They probably don’t think I’m cool but hey, they got a point in thinking so.” He laughed at himself under his breath. “I think you’re cool,” I said, “you’re actually the first ‘cool’ person I met up here, in five years. And my cool may be very different from what the rest of the kids here think is cool, but in my opinion, you’re great.” I couldn’t believe I just said that. Luckily Tyler responded quickly, “I think you’re a great person too. You’re fun to be around.” I didn’t look at him, but I knew he was smiling. And I was smiling too. I looked out of the window, to see some people in the pool, Zoey and Audrey sitting on the side, their legs in the water, while Tom was splashing water at both of them. I then looked at the clock, it wasn’t even 10 PM yet. “Do you know at what time we got here?” I asked Tyler. “no, I’m not sure. I think around ten to nine or something. Why, do you want to leave?” He answered. I shrugged, “It’s inappropriate to leave already, but I don’t want to leave too late, I think. I’m sorry I brought you here, I wish I had cooler friends to hang out with.”  I let out a small sigh, and after a short silence, Tyler said: “I’d like to be your cooler friend to hang out with. If that’s okay by you. And don’t worry about leaving early, we’ll make up an excuse about me having to get home early. But I guess we should stay a little longer indeed. Above that, I’m kind of having fun. The music isn’t bad and it’s quite amusing to see how all the half-drunk people are acting.” We both laughed. I followed Tyler outside. I glanced over at Zoey, who smirked at me. Subconsciously, I laughed and nodded my head.

The rest of the party, we mostly sat in some lounge chairs and talked. We talked to each other, to some other people, and honestly, it was kind of fun. At a certain moment, Audrey and Tom sat with us. After five minutes Tyler and I made eye contact, I read his body language, which was asking me if I wanted to leave, I nodded a little. “Audrey,” he said, “I think I got to go home. I’ll be having a long day tomorrow and all that, so yeah. I really enjoyed being here and meeting all of you.” Audrey, who was a little tipsy, said bye and asked if I was going to stay. “Jen, you should stay and sleep over or something. Get wasted and have some fun!” I raised an eyebrow, and after that Tyler said, “I can also bring you home now, unless you want to stay here.” Relieved I answered: “That’d be nice. Sorry Audrey, I can’t stay, I have to babysit all day tomorrow and all that.” I thanked her, said goodbye and also waved at Zoey to indicate I was leaving. She waved back and then continued kissing her boyfriend.

Five minutes later, Tyler and I were on the road. We followed the road that would lead to my house. “are they always so… close with their boyfriends?” Tyler asked me. “well, uhm, basically… yes. They usually take the boys along when they ask me to hang out so I don’t really go with them very often. It’s super awkward.” We turned around the corner. “If so, I completely understand why you don’t hang out with them a lot. But that’s their loss.” Tyler’s voice was soft. I blushed at his compliment, if it was a compliment, and hoped he didn’t see it.

Not too much later, we entered my house. “When will your parents be home again?” Tyler asked. I thought for a second, and then answered “My dad’s going to be home Monday evening, and then leaves for Russia Wednesday, really early in the morning. He’ll be there for almost two weeks I think. I have no idea when my mom and Ben will be home.” Tyler glanced over at me, “Ben’s your brother?” he asked. “Yes, he’s my little brother who was lucky enough to be able to come to Seattle with my parents. But he can be a cool kid when he’s not annoying me. I love him.” I told Tyler he had to take a left turn.

A few minutes later, we arrived in front of my house. Tyler put his car in the driveway. “do you want to come inside?” I asked. “Yes, I do. Do you have time? Or do you have to get up really early?” I stepped inside, “No, I don’t. I have to babysit in the evening, and I’ll probably go to the gym somewhere during the day, but I’m not sure about that.” Tyler also stepped inside after I said this. He took of his jacket and hung it over a chair. “We should play basketball together some day, okay?” I nodded, perhaps a little too enthusiastic. “Yeah, I’d like that. I want to see if you’re better than I am.” We both laughed, “Ohh, Jenna is getting competitive? But yeah, I’d like that. I haven’t been at the gym in ages. Anyways, who are you babysitting?” Tyler leaned towards the counter and I sat on the kitchen table. “I babysit three kids, and they’re actually the sweetest. Their mom is a really good friend of my mother. It’s kind of weird because she’s a lot younger than my mom, but they’re a really nice family. Let me see if I have a photo of the kids.” I took out my phone and showed the first photo I found. “This is Mercy, he’s Canaan and the oldest one is Malachi. I love them so much.” Tyler grabbed my phone out of my hand, his fingers brushing mine when he did so. “I love kids. Mercy looks so precious and the boys seem sweet too.” He was smiling at the photo, I was kind of infatuated by the fact he loved kids.

I made us some tea. Tyler walked towards the living room and turned on the TV. “Jenna, is there a cool movie we can watch?” For a second, I allowed myself to be happy about the fact that he wanted to watch a movie, then I quickly remembered myself that we were just going to be friends. It felt like I started believing myself more and more, which was a good thing. “Uhm, yeah. I guess there are some on Netflix? My laptop is probably laying somewhere on the couch.” I yelled in the direction of the living room.

I entered the room and set the cups of tea on the table. Tyler sat on the couch, kind of sprawled out in the corner. His arms were spread over both the arm and back rest. He gave me a look that invited me to crawl up against him. We sat together, comfortably. It felt really nice to be this close to Tyler, without feeling extremely awkward or having that annoying “WHaT DoeS THis MEAn”-doubt in my mind, because it’s actually normal to sit like this, even if you’re just friends. Which we off course are and will be.

 “Sorry, I couldn’t find the movie I wanted to watch. Honestly I’m not really into action movies but this seemed kind of cool. Are you okay with this?” Tyler asked. I looked at the screen, Jack Ryan, Shadow Recruit is what the screen read. “I actually wanted to watch this movie a while ago. It seemed pretty cool.”

The movie was pretty cool indeed, I really liked it and Tyler seemed to enjoy too. After a while we grabbed some more tea and we watched the rest of the movie in a peaceful silence.