home alone ☆ tyrus

the purple elephant in the room

｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

"tj, i can't believe you won this huge thing for me!" cyrus gasped in awe as the blond shoved a stuffed elephant the size of his torso into his arms. he patted its fuzzy, grey head and giggled (quite adorably, if you asked tj.)

"well, i am the master of arcade games," tj joked.

the rest of their friends slowly started to clump together towards the front of the arcade, small conversations igniting and dying out like happy flames; jonah and walker were the last to meet them all.

"i guess we've done all we can here, huh?" andi asked.

"tj and cyrus definitely did some damage," amber giggled, poking cyrus' elephant in the stomach and pulling a blush from the boy's cheeks.

"i'm the arcade god." tj deadpanned, and buffy busted out in hysterics.

"who wants to go to the spoon?" cyrus blurted out, trying to direct the attention elsewhere.

"spoon time!" marty squealed, and the group filtered out of the neon-colored building and hurried towards their favorite little blue dinner a few blocks away.

｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

the golden doorbell rung out obnoxiously loud above marty's head, signaling the crew had returned for their usual late night snack trip. the regular cashier waved happily to amber, and amber waved back; the teens shoved two tables together and sat quickly, hunger now growling in their stomachs.

"hi, i'm iris, i'll be your waitress. what can i get ya?" the girl smiled, and cyrus recognized the waitress immediately.

"iris! i didn't know you worked here!" he grinned wide, happy to see his old friend.

"oh my god! cy! yeah, i got hired last week. it's been a while," she responded just as happily, recognizing her ex-boyfriend's face.

"it has," cyrus nodded, "you look great!"

iris had cut her hair short and dyed it violet, and her eyeliner was thick; she smiled like she knew who she was proudly. cyrus wished he had her confidence.

"so do you," she spoke sincerely, "so, what can i get you guys?"

"four baskets of baby taters, two chocolate milkshakes, three vanilla, and three strawberry, please!" andi perked up, knowing everyone's choice of drink by heart. (it's not like they come here every day or anything...)

"you got it." iris clicked her pen and began to trot away, but she stopped in her tracks.

"hold on, iris!" cyrus called out, jumping from his seat on the end of the table and walking over to her.

tj glared in the girl's direction as she stopped to chat with cyrus. he stood comfortably in front of her, talking with his hands, his eyes sparkling like they always do; he looked happy.
happy talking to her.
a girl.
a pretty girl.

"woah, need some water there, tj?" buffy snorted.

"what?"

"you're looking a little red,"

"shut up, driscoll."

"ouch!" buffy joked, but from his stare, she knew he wasn't joking. "hey, tj, don't be jealous. iris is an old friend of ours."

"i'm not jealous," tj tore his gaze away and whipped out his phone.

while the blond boy had a jealous episode, cyrus was learning something brand new from his purple-haired friend- and he couldn't help but laugh at the irony.

"wow, iris, that's amazing! i'm so proud of you!"

"yeah, i figured it out after you broke up with me. i met this girl named piper and it was history from there,"

"i'm so glad you've accepted yourself. seems like you did it faster than i did," cyrus' dimples sat contently in his rosy cheeks.

"it's different for everyone. but hey, your boyfriend is cute! you're not doing so bad," iris glanced at a furiously red tj, and cyrus' eyes nearly popped out of his head.

"oh, he- no, we aren't- i mean- i just-"

"cy, you like him. just go get him, you dork. i gotta go put your order in, okay?" she patted his shoulder.

"i- ugh. fine. go do your stupid job." he laughed, and iris walked into the kitchen.

the boy hurried back to his seat beside tj, who looked furious. "what's wrong, teej?"

"nothing." tj snapped.

"o-okay."

cyrus was startled, but he left the matter alone; there wasn't much to say anyway once the baby taters arrived. they were the savoir for awkward situations.

"so, where are we going after this?"

"you know, we should all go to my house! my parents aren't home, we can just spend the night there. i even have a security system." cyrus suggested, wiggling his eyebrows and drawing laughs from the group.

"sleepover at cy's?" andi confirmed.

the whole group agreed with their "yes!"s and "why not?"s, and they finished off their snacks. iris and her bouncy neon hair came with the check, told cyrus to keep in touch, and they all left with a smile-
except tj.