DARLING • DYLAN O'BRIEN

054 TYLER

I made my way towards the boys' hotel room after receiving a text from Tyler P about wanting to talk. After two days of our holiday had passed, this was the first time we'd been given the opportunity to speak about the problem currently happening. 

Although I didn't feel that I wanted to discuss Dylan at all anymore, I knew it was for the best to find a way to save Tyler and Dylan's friendship. I hated knowing that I had caused a rift in their friendship and would do anything to help them. 

I knocked on the door and waited. When Tyler opened it, he showed me a soft smile and gestured for me to walk in. 

"Where are the boys?" I asked whilst taking a seat at the couch, he followed suit.

"They've gone to pick up the food, they'll be back in probably fifteen minutes," he said, "what about the girls?" 

"They're all just resting and taking showers, getting ready for dinner," I replied, I played with a piece of thread hanging off the rip in my jeans knowing that the topic was going to come up.

"I'm sorry," he began. I looked up in surprise and also confusion.

"Why are you sorry?"

"Just for everything and how everyone is treating you," he replied earnestly, "you don't deserve any of this."

I shook my head, "it's not your fault Tyler, you have nothing to apologise for."

He nodded his head in understanding but still explained that he'd felt rather accountable for the harsh words being said online seeing as the majority of the sources were his fans. Also that his own friend.

"Have you talked to him?" He questioned, I shook my head and informed him of the last phone call we'd had. The very phone call that still haunts me in my sleep.

"A fling? I swear he wants me to punch him," Tyler curled his hands into fists. 

I shook my head, "Tyler please, this is the last thing I want happening. I don't want you and Dylan to stop being friends because of this, okay?"

"Bailey, you were not the cause of our fight, okay? Understand that none of this was your fault. He was being unreasonable and he himself is the problem. Alright?" he spoke in a rather reassuring tone with a little bit of insistence. 

"I get it, but please promise me that this is not the end of your friendship?" 

"I can't promise anything but I know Dylan, there's something he's not telling us. This is not like him and I hope to God we find out because as much as I don't like saying things like this, I don't want to lose him." Dylan confessed. 

A small flicker of sadness appeared in his eyes and my heart ached. I felt extremely terrible that he was being dragged into this mess even when he was not a part of it in the first place. I wanted to so badly return to the past and either fix what may have gone wrong or to just have never met Dylan. This would never have happened if I had just not gone to New York with him.

It was a great experience but the consequences after was just too much for me to handle.

"I think I'm going to talk to him again," Dylan uttered in a soft voice. "I just want to know what's wrong,"

"I know people keep saying that this isn't like him, that there was another reason," I begin, "but wouldn't he have at least told someone, one of you guys, if that was the case? He can't just keep it to himself, right?" I inquired, rather confused and beyond tired of Dylan being the centre of the topic wherever I went.

"True, that's what stumps me. If by chance, he really was like this, then he's a dick and I don't think I could be friends with him," Tyler shrugged his shoulder nonchalantly but with the vulnerableness within his eyes, I could tell that this was affecting him more than he let on.

"Dylan," I try to say.

"I know what you're going to say, Bailey. Yes, I know we've been friends for a while but I don't want to associate myself with someone that is okay with all of this, knowing that abuse you're receiving and not saying something about it to protect you. I can't stand by that. If he wants to stay quiet then I'll let him, but that doesn't mean I'll stay quiet."

I sighed but nodded my head, Tyler was too precious for this world. I wished that he didn't have to be involved in this and that he was not getting affected.