swingsets and dance routines ; tyrus

chapter #14: the dance studio

Cyrus wasn't proud of it by any means, but over the next week or so he didn't respond to any of TJ's texts.

At first, he had been anxious about giving a late response, about addressing the whole situation with Dylan, about the possibility of having to inadvertently come out to TJ by explaining everything. Eventually, it was because he was terrified of having to face any sort of anger from the boy, and he knew that was pretty much inevitable. He'd made a royal mess of things, and he honestly had no clue how to go about fixing it. So Cyrus did what he did best - he avoided the situation.

He avoided TJ.

He avoided his calls.

He avoided his texts.

He avoided his friends.

He knew it was a bad way of handlings things - Buffy had enlightened him of this multiple times over the past week, but he couldn't bring himself to stop once he had started.

Saturday was a day like any other. He completed his homework, he baked some muffins, he tried not to think about TJ, he tried not to think about TJ, he tried not to - okay, so maybe he hadn't exactly been successful so far. He blamed TJ entirely for being so...him.

When his doorbell rang that afternoon, he reluctantly got up from his couch and wandered over to the door, his hair sticking up in all directions as he casually threw it open.

"You guys could've just-"

Oh.

Oh.

"texted me," he finished flatly, his eyes wide.

The corners of TJ's lips tugged up slightly in an amused smile, but it flickered almost immediately and faded after a moment or two. He was stood on Cyrus' porch somewhat sheepishly, his hands interlaced in front of him and his eyes downcast. There was a dreary sky above their heads that had been lingering there since that morning.

Cyrus' heart was racing in his chest as he stood there, opening and closing his mouth like an idiot, wondering if his hair looked as bad as he thought it did. His eyes subconsciously began roaming TJ's face, taking in every single detail he had tried not to think about over the past week.

"Hi," said Cyrus, his voice much higher than he would've liked.

The boy smiled again. "Hi."

They remained like that for a moment. Cyrus shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other.

"What brings you here?" he asked, and the question sounded so stupid he almost wanted to facepalm.

"Oh - right. Sorry, I um, know you probably don't want me here or just...anywhere near you, but um-"

"I do though!"

TJ seemed genuinely shocked by the words. Cyrus' heart sank at the realisation that he had made the kindest, most unapologetic boy in the world doubt himself.

"That's funny because you kinda ran away from me. And you stopped responding to all of my texts."

Cyrus winced. He didn't know how to explain himself, and TJ seemed to realise this because he let out a heavy sigh.

"It's whatever...that's not why I'm here anyway."

"Oh. Then...why are you here?"

"I was um...I was kind of...." TJ trailed off nervously and bit his lip. "You know what? Nevermind-"

He turned around to walk away, which made Cyrus panic and grab his hand before he could.

"TJ - wait. What is it?"