jenna stayed on the couch with tyler. the sweet boy cleaned up dinner while jenna turned on some slow music through her speaker.
tyler threw away all the trash and swept up all the leftover crumbs. every time he looked to the blonde, she looked exhausted.
"jenna?" tyler asked, his voice was deep and drowsy. he sounded like heaven.
"yeah." her head turned toward his direction. the bags under her eyes were darker than ohio's night sky and her hair was greasy, tyler still thought she was beautiful.
"when was the last time you showered or slept?" the brunettes face softened. he stepped closer toward the girl.
"mmm, before your game sunday and i slept while you got your leg looked at." she smiled sadly. tyler has dropped.
"that was sunday and monday. it's one fifteen am on wednesday." tyler chuckled pathetically. jenna gasped a bit. she lost all sense of time.
"how about i go run the shower for you?" tyler suggested. jenna nodded tiredly before heading up to her room to pick out some clothes.
on her bed sat a note.
"jenna, i'm sorry. so so sorry. the money is in the safe, the combination is 17, 59, 28. your mother and i can't do it anymore. life has been nothing but disgusting to us both. we're fucked up.
i'm tired of them watching us all night and locating our every move. death is our only option. you're safe, jen. mom and dad love you, honey.
love, dad."
jenna's jaw dropped. it was just getting worse. her eyes quickly watered, she sobbed.
"tyler!" she called, her voice cracked midway through her cry.
tyler quickly ran from the bathroom into jenna's room. he wrapped her in his arms almost immediately.
"what's wrong?" tyler asked. his left arm kept the girl secure to his body while his right hand ran its fingers through her lightly knotted blonde hair.
"they tried to kill themselves, tyler. a-and it was all my fault!" she cried even harder. her tears didn't plan on stopping.
"jenna, we're gonna take the rest of the week off, okay? i'll be out on injury and the school's gonna be notified about you. is that okay?" tyler asked softly.
he could feel jenna's chest heaving as it was pressed up against his. her hot tears bled through his white shirt but tyler didn't care.
"yeah." jenna sniffled. she tried containing her cries as best as she could.
"and, jenna. it's not your fault. none of this is your fault. let's get you to the shower, okay?" he rubbed her back before taking her hand and leading her to the bathroom.
the shower was hot but not hot enough to burn her skin. this was going to feel heavenly for jenna. tyler looked down to her.
"i'm gonna be downstairs. let me know when you're done so i can get you to bed." tyler smiled sympathetically. he wiped one of jenna's stray tears.
"thank you, tyler." she smiled the best she could.
tyler looked at her. her hair was left wavy and messy. her cheeks were just packed with tear stains and a little bit of dirt. jenna felt disgusting.
it didn't help that she hated when people saw the core of her vulnerability. she knew tyler was there to help though.
tyler still saw the smallest bits of optimism in her periwinkle eyes. it was going to take a bit to make jenna happy but he knew she'd come around.
"it's my pleasure, jenna." tyler smiled. his crooked teeth showed through his lips.
jenna smiled a little more.
