Anathema

six - thunderstorms

Tyler found himself waiting at the window, watching for Josh. He didn't come for another few days, but the second Tyler caught sight of him, he made up some excuse to go outside and ran out the door. He was eager to spend more time with him, so that maybe he could figure out if he was real or not.

Josh flashed a smile and waved a little when he saw Tyler, and that eased some of the anxiety in Tyler's chest. He was worried that Josh didn't want to hang out with him anymore after being so awkward the last two times.

"You look desperate," Nico said.

"He is desperate," Clancy said.

Tyler glanced over his shoulder, noticing how they stayed far away from Josh, but then tried to ignore them as he approached him. "Hey," he said as cheerfully as he could, even though he still felt that flutter of anxiety in his stomach, not quite like butterflies. More like cockroaches. "How are you?"

Josh shrugged. "Fine."

"Ditching again?"

He gave him a guilty smile. "Yeah..."

"Could we hang out again?"

This time, Josh laughed. "Well, that's why I came over. You're the only person I can talk to without someone yelling at me. At least out here, anyway."

"Did you hear that? He only came back because you're the only one," Nico hissed.

I'm sure that's not true, Tyler thought, but he didn't say anything.

"Maybe he's desperate, too," Clancy suggested, his voice slightly muffled as he chewed on his thumbnail, a habit Tyler had thought he'd broken long ago. Seeing it come back made him more nervous.

"What if we went to the park today?" Josh said softly, and Tyler's heart jumped. If he wasn't real, people would see him sitting there by himself. But if he was, he countered, people would see him with a friend, and might even think he wasn't so weird after all.

"No," Nico said. "You can't be seen out there, with or without him. What would they think if they saw you alone, wandering the park in the middle of the day when everyone else your age is at school? And what would they think if they saw you with a delinquent?"

"Sure," Tyler said. "I just have to check with my mom."

Josh's expression quickly changed to panic. "Don't tell her about me," he pleaded. "Not yet."

Tyler blinked in surprise at the sudden shift. "Okay," he said slowly. "I'll be right back."

Josh gave him a relieved smile. "Thanks."

"Oh my gosh, he's going to kidnap you!" Clancy shrieked.

"He is not going to kidnap me," Tyler grumbled as soon as Josh was out of earshot.

"How do you know? He never told you how old he is, where he goes to school, why he's always ditching or why he doesn't want your mom to know about him, where he lives even generally - He never even told you his last name!"

"People don't go around sharing that kind of stuff with people they just met," Tyler said, but as usual, Clancy's words had made him slightly nervous.

"And people don't go to the park with people they just met either!"

He marched into the kitchen more frustrated than he would have liked. "I'm going on a walk," he said.

"You have to finish your math, first," his mother said without looking at him.

Tyler sighed through his nose. He couldn't leave Josh out there for that long. "I'll do it when I get back. Promise."