Always (Boyxboy)

Chapter Thirty - Tyler

A/B This was originally the second half of the last chapter, but that made it like, 8000 words and that seemed excessive so I decided to split it up

Pierce began cooking around four thirty, filling the apartment with a wonderful smell that reached Tyler from his spot on the couch. He had been willing to get up to help, but Pierce informed him he didn't want it, claiming Tyler would only fuck up beofre pressing a fond kiss to the top of his head and returning to stir the pasta sauce, so he continued to chat with Kalen and James, shooting Pierce a look every couple of minutes.

"I don't know," James was saying, absently running his hand up and down Kalen's arm as he spoke. "I feel like she doesn't think I'm seriously considering going out of state. I don't want her to freak out when I tell her about it".

"She's probably going to freak out," Kalen said. "This is why I told you to talk to her months ago about how it was your first choice and if you got in you were going there".

"But I don't know if I would want to go there as bad if you weren't accepted as well," James admitted, dropping his head back against the chair. Tyler rolled his eyes.

"I don't want you to go there just because I'm going there," Kalen demanded, looking unsettled. "You actually have to want to go there".

"No, I do," James assured. "I really do. I was interested in all of the schools I applied to. You're just an added bonus".

"That's stupid," Pierce chimed in from the kitchen. Garett, who was sitting at the dining room table getting some school work done, snorted and shook his head.

"What's stupid?" Kalen asked, lifting his head to look at his brother.

"Going to a school just because your boyfriend is also going to that school". Pierce abandoned the stove to came back to the couch, leaning against the back of it and bracing his elbows to the right of Tyler's head. "You should think about your education".

"Says the one who dropped out of college," Garrett commented.

"Yeah, because I was going to school for someone else and I didn't want to let someone control my life so I decided to do what I wanted to do," Pierce defended. "Why don't you just go to the school that you want to go to and not worry about one another".

"Yeah, not worrying about one another is kind of difficult when we want to be together all the time," Kalen pointed out. Behind him, Pierce scoffed. "Look, neither of us are sacrificing anything by going to this school. It has high academic standards, it's the perfect distance from home that both of us were looking for, and it has good programs in both of our fields. We've already tried long distance, and it fucking sucks and we don't want to do it again. There's nothing wrong with wanting to stay close to one another".

"Yeah, you must be pretty happy that Tyler's staying here for school," James added, nodding his head in Tyler's direction while keeping his eyes on Pierce.

It was silent for a long moment, and Tyler chewed his lip. "I... didn't know that," Pierce admitted, an Tyler tilted his head back to look up at him. "You're staying?"

"Yeah," he confirmed. "Yeah. I'm going to be living at home I think. I didn't really feel the desire to go very far. I hope that's okay. I'm sorry I didn't mention it. It hasn't really come up".

"You hope it's okay? Tyler, it's-" Pierce cut off then and raised his head to glare at his brother, probably realizing that what he was about to say would effectively support his younger brother's point. "He's not staying here because of me".

"No," Tyler confirmed after a pause, looking back to James and Kalen. "Of course not. I'm staying because I'm lazy and would hate to be inconvenienced by moving".