Clique: Tyler, The Creator

9. Personal

I walked in, familiar faces greeting me.

"Hey Steve, Wyatt." I smiled.

"Hey. We're about to head out to eat, so we'll catch you later?" Steve looked at me as they both got up from the couch.

"Bye Salem," Wyatt said, as they shut the door behind them.

I didn't realize his roomates were Wyatt and Steve, actually. I looked around at the colorfully decorated room, posters of musicians all over the walls.

"Tyler?" I called, wondering where he was.

"Yeah! Hold on I'm peeing!" I heard him yell from the bathroom.

I laughed, sitting on the couch.

I heard the faucet turn off, then Tyler walked out.

"Fuck, where were you all day?" He asked,
taking out the measuring tape from his bag. He took out his notebook too.

"I told you, I fell asleep. Jorja woke me up." I reached through my bag, looking for my stuff.
Tyler walked over.

"Stupid ass," he laughed, "I was thinking you wanted me to fail." A smile formed on his lips. I never noticed how pretty his smile was.

"Nigga, why would I want you to fail our project. C'mon, measure me." I stood up, and his eyes trailed my body as if unsure where to start.

"Legs?" I interrupted. He shook his head, "Right." unrolling the tape measurement. He placed one end on my waist, then brought it down to my ankle. He wrote down the information on his notepad.

"So what were you thinking of making?" He asked, as he placed the tape around my hips.
"Probably a really cool coat, some trousers."

"Yo, i've been wanting to make myself a huge coat too. Like a really cool oversized one. So sick," He smiled again, as he signaled that he was done.
He rolled up the tape and threw it into his bag.

I sat down next to him, showing him my sketchbook.

"Oh fuck, that's tight." He took the sketchbook from my hands, and just eyed every detail.

"Let me see yours," I reached for his sketchbook, opening the first page, and eventually going through to the second.
A bunch of really weird but cool drawings made with presumably markers were drawn on it.
"This is so cool," I looked as I flipped another page.

"Just stupid shit that's stuck in my head, don't pay much attention to it," He said, as he looked with me.

"That's the page," He said, as I stopped at a page filled with colors and patch textures taped on it. A drawing of my similar silhouette, with a  t-shirt that read Golf Le Fleur. The drawing had some cropped pants and these really cool pink shoes.

"I'm gonna try to customize these one stars I found at the thrift. They'll be sick." He pulled out these white converse one stars from behind him.

"We're not even supposed to make shoes."

"Yeah but I think it'll be cooler."

"What does Golf Le Fleur mean?"

"flower in french. I just like how the word Golf looks like. And le fleur just sounds cool."

He laughed, and I did too. I liked how unique he was, he really couldn't give less of a shit about what anyone thought about him.

"You're so different." I said, looking through more sketches.

"Oh and you're not? Lemme see," He reached for my sketchbook again, and started flipping through more stuff. I tried to pry his hands off of it, but he stood up and started reading some poems and stupid stuff I had made. Fuck.

"Tyler, I'm being deadass. Stop! They're personal," I jumped, but he held it up.

"It's not about who's right or who's wrong
It's not about tryin' to be clever
I come to you with an open heart
'Cause the last thing I want to do is be apart from you," Tyler went on, a smile forming on his face as I kept trying to pry it from him.

"Feels like you're makin' fun of me,
But I know you wouldn't mean to be that cruel
But I know–," He immediately stopped reading and his smile faded as he realized how personal it had gotten.

I took it from his hands, shutting it and sitting down.

"Sorry. I was just trying to–,"

"I told you it was personal, T. Whatever. Just, are you done? Measuring?"

"Who's making you feel like that?"

Rocky.

"Tyler, It's nothing. Can we just get over that?"
He sighed, licking his lips.

"Yeah. We're done." He got up, his voice got a little harsh.

I did too, trying to not make eye contact. It was already too awkward.

I turned around before shutting the door behind me, Tyler sitting back on the couch, not paying any mind to me.