God, It Could Power the Sun

Talking To A Friend

"I didn't do any of that!" Tyler blurted frustratedly after Josh, for the third time, had told him of the little 'show' he'd been performing earlier. The two were walking quickly to Tyler's house while they spoke.

"Yes, you did, Tyler," Josh said exasperatedly, taken aback. How could Tyler not remember? Or not know?

Tyler shook his head. "I didn't do all that stuff, Josh. I really didn't."

"Really, Ty?" Josh stopped moving forward, and so Tyler did the same, biting his lip and rocking on the balls of his feet. "Then what were you doing?"

"I was talking to a friend."

"No one was there except you," Josh paused, "and then it was just you and me when I found you. Nobody else."

"You're wrong, Josh."

And while those words hurt Tyler to say, he could not take them back. He didn't have to take them back. Josh was wrong. He wasn't doing any of that! He wasn't!

"Then who were you talking to?!" Josh shouted. He probably shouldn't have been so loud; it was late. But he was growing more concerned by the minute, admittedly making it harder to keep his voice in an undertone.

"I already told you, Josh!"

The mentioned sighed irritably, his jaw falling slack. "What do they look like?" he asked tiredly. Tyler glares at the look he's given. "'Cause I'm convinced there wasn't anyone there besides us."

Soon it was back to quiet steps on uneven concrete, dim streetlights along the path to a prequel they wouldn't care for. "Dark," Tyler said vaguely. After some time, he decided that truly was the only way to describe it. Somehow, Josh
"What d'you mean, 'dark?'"

"It likes dark things. It dresses in dark. It's face is dark. It's just...dark."

"Oh..." Josh's voice became softer as he trailed off "Tyler, can I...can I stay over your place tonight?"

Tyler nodded easily. Neither of them could recall the last Josh'd slept over; it had been a while.

Josh smiled uneasily. "Great."

~

The boys arrived at Tyler's house, and opened the door to see Tyler's mother, Kelly, laying dinner out on the wooden dinner table.

Kelly then looked up and drew her attention to her son and his friend. "Hi, Josh!" She walked over, wrapping her arms around him to welcome him into their home.

"Hey, Mrs. Joseph," Josh greeted her back with a warm smile. This was an exchange they've traded since the first time they met.

"Are you gonna be staying for dinner tonight?" She strolled back to the kitchen and opened the fridge to grab drinks.

"Uh, actually, can I stay over tonight?" Josh requested, fiddling with his thumbs and letting his eyes dart across the room.

"Oh, sure! There's no school tomorrow, anyway." She grabbed one cup off the counter and filled it up with water from the refrigerator door's tap, doing the same for multiple others.

Josh murmured a, "Thank you," and sat down next to Tyler at the dining table.

"Dinner's ready!" Kelly called upstairs. The rest of the family filed in, all greeting Josh and sitting down in their usual chairs. They were having pasta for dinner. Josh picked up his fork and stabbed a rigatoni noodle as Kelly began in sharing about her day.

"So, work was good, except Carol will not stop bugging me about one of these papers!" She took a bite of her food and paused, "And—the paper isn't even important. It has nothing worth talking about on it. It's got nothing to do with the business!" She sighed as a finish to her rant, and continued eating. Chris took the chance to talk.

"Work was alright, I guess. The usual. I did spill coffee everywhere on my lunch break, but whatever." He looked over at Tyler. "How about you, kid? How was your day?"

"Well," he started, "I woke up at 8:43 this morning. Then I made breakfast; waffles. No syrup. Got dressed, invited Josh over, went to the treehouse with him to hang out." He resumed, shoveling food into his mouth. Josh was sort of surprised he'd left out their game of hide and seek. It also seemed odd that everyone payed no attention to the precision in his sentences.

Josh completely tuned out Madison, Zack, and Jay while he mindlessly ate the rest of his food. He was only taken out of the trance when everyone started to laugh; quite loudly, at that. He joined in, despite not being sure what was so funny.

Soon, Kelly was going around taking everyone's empty plates, and Tyler and Josh were excused up to the shorter boy's room. At this point it was about 9:30 PM, so they decided to get comfortable. Tyler laid a few sheets and pillows out on the floor for them to sleep on. He also found a pair of Josh's pajama pants that he'd left from their last sleepover in his closet. Josh took them and went to the bathroom to change.

As he pulled the soft fabric over his legs, the mocha-eyed boy swore he heard a multitude of deep voices coming from Tyler's room. He finished changing and picked his jeans up off the floor to run to Tyler's room to see none other than Tyler himself, repeating the same actions he'd done earlier in the forest.

Pacing.

Shaking.

Twitching.

Mumbling.

Josh didn't know what to do, so he called Kelly to see if she could be any help. She soon rushed in, only to take a step back when she saw her son.

"He–he was doing this earlier, too." He looked at Kelly, who just stood there numbly. "Are you alright...?"

"He's been doing this more and more lately," she explained, monotonous.

"Did you take him to a doctor?" Josh was growing to be more and more worried.

"Three."

"What about a psychiatrist?"

"We're trying to find one." Josh waited for her face to show emotion. Any emotion! Happiness, disgust, anger, anything. But it stayed the same.

"Oh." That's the only word Josh could muster. He went over and sat down on Tyler's bed.

"You just have to shake him out of it," Kelly said half-heartedly, "that's what we do."

Without a word, Josh got back up and stepped in front of Tyler, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him.

"Hey!" Josh said loudly. "C'mon!"

Tyler's eyes glossed over before he turned to his friend. "What the hell, Josh?"

"You were doing the same thing you did in the forest earlier! It scares me when you do that, Ty!"

"Josh, you're going crazy. I wasn't doing anything. Not in the forest, and not here!" He looked over at his mom, her face still numb of emotion.

"You were. He's not lying."

Tyler scoffed and sputtered out, "Well, you're going crazy too!"

"No. Everyone in the house has seen you do it," she stated, far too calm.

"Then everyone in the house is crazy!"

"No, only you," Kelly sighed. Josh could have sworn he saw her looking directly at him for a second. He blinked, only to be proved wrong, as she was staring at her son instead.

Tyler looked shocked. "What do you mean only me? I'm not crazy! Tell her I'm not crazy!" He looked at Josh desperately.

"You..." Josh couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence.

"What?! Josh!" Tears ran fast down his smooth skin.

The boy looked down, not wanting Tyler to make eye contact with him.

"I–forget about it," Tyler said, clearly exhausted. "I'm going to bed."

Josh looked up at Tylers mom. She nodded and sighed, leaving the room with a quick "Goodnight," and Josh laid down on the floor next to the already sleeping Tyler. He couldn't go to sleep, though, despite the very comfortable sheets on the ground.

Worry consumed him. He stayed up until exactly 5:32 AM before drifting off into sleep.