Tyed

chapter six

Tyler wakes up at eleven in the morning- not bad, for a Saturday- feeling like shit. He sits up from the couch, surprised to find a blanket covering him. He can hear talking in the kitchen, and when he sits up and evaluates the strength of his headache- not the worst, but sizable- he figures he should follow those voices.

He realises he's still wearing jeans from the night before, and as he takes out his phone to check just how dead it is, he notices that there's something in his other pocket. Just like that, the memories of last night come back, and he realises just how strange of a situation he's found himself in.

"Shit," he mutters, stumbling into the kitchen. There's a spare charger there and he plugs his dead phone in; looking up, he sees Nancy pouring some cereal into a bowl and Tee crunching down on some toast. Nancy doesn't look at him, but he sees the smile that's on her face. Tee is more open about his amusement.

"You're alive," Tee says, and Tyler can only be confused.

"Yes?" he says as he grabs a glass from the cupboard. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You disappeared," Tee says, "with your ex, and then you're texting Nancy about... something? Nance, what did he say?"

"Let me check," Nancy says with a grin. She pulls up her phone, and Tyler leans over and tries to pull it from her grasp, with little success. She's much shorter than he is, but she curls up and hides it close to her body to read it. "Hmm. Something about this BDSM club, is that right?"

"Only kind of-" Tyler begins, but she's not actually giving him a chance to defend himself. 

She ignores him completely as she reads, "'There's this guy who won't stop staring at me,' he said. 'He's like the hottest dude I've ever seen but he's not my type but I'm gonna fuck him I don't even care.' At least, I think he said something like that, there's a lot of typos."

"Fuck off," Tyler says, filling his glass with water and turning his back on her. He's not actually mad, and she knows that, but it's difficult to face things in his life head-on at the best of times.

"So who is this guy?" Tee asks, brushing his hair behind his ear. He leans on the counter, pushing his scrawny frame up to appear a little bigger. He tilts his head like a curious animal. "'Cause it seems like you definitely didn't fuck him."

Tyler can tell several things about Tee from his body language. One is that Tee is being an asshole. But he also knows that Tee is trying to get a rise out of him, likely because he knows about Tyler losing his job and knows animosity is coming anyway for that reason; he may as well get it out of the way early.

And he's wrong, but that's not the reason Tyler doesn't react. Tyler also realises that not reacting is the best way to shut Tee down, as he was shut down last night, but that's not the reason Tyler doesn't react, either. The reason Tyler doesn't react is because he realises Tee is exactly right, and it's upsetting to think about for a moment. Tyler's gaze falls, a strange sadness at the realisation that he must have gone home alone.

There's a pause, through which Tyler is struggling to recall the end of last night. He remembers Colby kissing him, pulling away and treating Tyler like a temptation to be fought, and then, he remembers what Colby gave him. He never changed his clothes, and so, hurriedly, he reaches for his pocket and pulls out the slightly crumpled business card.

"Thank fuck," Tyler mutters as his gaze zooms over the number. "I forgot he gave me this-"

"Give me that," Nancy says, and without giving Tyler a chance to fight her on it, she reaches out and snatches it from between his fingers. She examines it, and then looks up at him. "Are you kidding?"