Always (Boyxboy)

Chapter Twenty-Two -Pierce

It was weird having Tyler sitting in the passenger seat of his car, long legs outstretched as far as they could be. As he drove, Pierce kept looking over at him, wondering how someone could still look so beautiful and unconcerned while there was blood all over their face.

Despite his earlier threats, Tyler was careful not to get blood anywhere, tuning the radio with his clean hand while using his dirty one to wipe away any additional blood until he stopped bleeding all together. "I can't believe you just watched me get punched in the face," Tyler was saying. There was a smile on his face, and it had been there since they left together, not wavering even when they had argued over who got to choose the music for the short ride.

"I'm surprised it took us this long to get to that point. People must want to punch you in the face often," Pierce claimed, though it was a complete lie. Tyler was charming in a way that made most people like him. It caused Pierce great stress over the years, since he often worried that someone else would come into the younger boy's life and take him before Pierce ever managed to tell Tyler how he felt.

"Shut up," Tyler said, though it was good natured and accompanied with a laugh. "You watched me pass the fuck out and slam my head on your dining room table– which I don't remember, by the way. I think you have seen me get injured enough for a life time".

There was a second in which Pierce wanted to say that he wanted to be there for every injury Tyler had for the rest of his life, but that seemed really strange so he just nodded his head and chewed his lip. It wasn't just the injuries he wanted to be there for. He wanted to be there for everything Tyler did for a long as he lived, and that kind of scared him. Knowing that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with the idiot next to him made his stomach turn.

"Hey... I've been wondering something," Tyler admitted suddenly, drawing Pierce's attention off the road for a second. "That day after you brought me to the hospital... when my mom came to pick up my car, what exactly did you to talk about?"

Pierce's palms began to sweat on the wheel as he thought of his conversation with Tyler's mother that day in front of his building.

"I know you don't like me, Mrs. Amore, and if I were you, I wouldn't like me either, but, well, I just wanted you to know that what I have- had- with Tyler wasn't just sex".

"I don't care," she said, grabbing the keys from him. "That doesn't make it any less illegal".

She was right, it didn't, but Pierce still felt the need to tell her the truth, to make her understand. Her back was to him when he said it, and she froze, shoulders tensing. "I love him".

"You..." she turned back to look at him, green eyes going wide. Those eyes were familiar to him. He loved someone with those eyes. "What did you just say?"

"I'm in love with your son," Pierce confessed again, gaze on her not wavering. He didn't want her to doubt his feelings or think that he was lying to her just so she'd let him see Tyler again. "I have for years".

"Does he love you?" She asked, her voice small. Then Pierce dropped his eyes to the pavement at her feet. He was thinking about what Tyler had said before, about falling out of love with someone else.

"I don't think so," he admitted. "I always hoped that one day he would, but I don't think he does now".

Clearly, Pierce didn't want to share any of this, so he just said, "why do you ask?" As he turned onto his street.

"She was acting kind of weird that night," he admitted, shrugging his shoulders. "She also decided the next day that I could see you again".

"Yeah, I know," Pierce responded. "She called me".