He saw him. He got up and turned around, a confused expression plastered to his face. A voice, a name, then two more names. Then three more people.
That was not Malachi, none of them were.
A wave of blue washed over Tyler's mind as his face was covered with an embarrassing red. His hands twitched, one going to his back pocket as the other tightly gripped the strap of his backpack. Tyler forced his head down as he stared at his feet. His eyes were huge and his mind was pulsing with desperate and frightened thoughts. He couldn't run, it was already too late. He wasn't aware of them now, he didn't know what he was doing. His breath came out in quiet gasps, the sounds ragged and animal-like. His hands fumbled nervously until all the sudden-
The chill. It was smooth to the touch, the soft and cool handle felt nice on his heated hand. Subconsciously, Tyler wrapped his fingers around the cold blackness and pulled it from his back pocket. The motion of his arm and wrist, the quiet flick of the switch, the inhale and exhale of the air. He was aware of the sounds, but not the voices and where they were coming from until a wooden board creaked loudly. Tyler's arm extended forward, pointing the blade outward as it glinted in the sunlight. He looked up and locked eyes with a larger boy. This boy had dark brown hair and hazel eyes and some freckles across his cheeks. He was holding his breath now, and stood frozen in an awkward position as Tyler's pocket knife stared him down.
He had been the only one of his friends to notice before Tyler even exposed it. How? Tyler didn't know.
His breathing began to slow and his arm wavered slightly.
"Hey," A husky voice broke through the secret storm in his head. "You can uhh...put that away. No one's gonna do anything."
It was the dark haired boy, trying to calm him down. Tyler squinted his eyes at the taller guy in front of him. A quick pulse of rebellious red bubbled through his rushing blood. They locked eyes for a minute, and the boy offered Tyler a quick grin, but it faltered and vanished quickly. Ty studied the boy again for a minute, trying to decide what he wanted to do.
Then, with a quiet sigh, he backed up a few feet and pushed the blade back into his pocket. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, then looked back up.
The boy was still standing in the same spot, watching Tyler curiously while his three friends seemed unbothered by the whole situation and continued to skip rocks.
Tyler watched them for a minute, then looked back at the dark haired boy. His expression was thoughtful, but his eyes were bright.
"What?" Tyler asked defensively, but then glanced to the ground. He was not tough and he shouldn't be acting like it.
"Nothing." He said quickly and shook his head. "I'm Johnny." He reached his large, dirt stained hand towards Tyler and offered a quick smile. Tyler only stepped backwards again. It was strange. Why was this boy being so nice to him? Even after Tyler just pointed a blade at him. Why did he even bother with Tyler? More importantly, why weren't him and his friends beating him up?
"Sorry for scaring you," he continued. "We were only back here to look for worms to go fishing, but then we go distracted and-" he motioned to his friends "-that happened."
Tyler only nodded, looking down at his boots. He glanced up at Johnny for a moment, waiting for him to speak again.
"Hey, uh, what's your name? You never said," he asked carefully, peering down at Tyler.
"Tyler." He replied quietly.
"Tyler." Johnny repeated softly. Tyler turned and gazed up at him confusedly as a feeling of orange spread through him. Why was the guy taking the time to talk to him when he already had friends?
"Hey, Tyler," Johnny chimed. "Wanna hang with us? We're gonna go get some lunch soon."
Ty's gut twisted in fear.
"No. No, no thank you." He whispered softly before turning swiftly and running off down the trail again.
Johnny watched him disappear, then sighed and turned back to his friends as his mind raced with questions about the smaller boy.
