You Just Need A Hand | Ambi & Tyrus

2

A/N: Okay, so in the last author's note I said this part would be the Art in the Park event from Tyrus's perspective, but I'm really having trouble writing that scene so... it turns out that's not happening. Sorry, I guess, if you were looking forward to that. This chapter is still Tyrus though, and I think it's pretty cute. Oh, and by the way, I don't think I established this, this story takes place the summer after the main cast's freshman year of high school, Amber's junior year. Anyways, without further ado...

Cyrus POV

TJ invited me to go canoeing with his family and I don't hate canoeing, not to mention that fact that I don't think I'll ever turn down an opportunity to hang out with TJ. I ring his doorbell and a tall young man with unexpectedly curly blonde hair answers the door.

"Hey, Teej! Your boyfriend's here!" He shouts, confirming my suspicion that he's TJ's older brother because only an older brother would say something like that.

I laugh, "I'm Cyrus, and I'm not his boyfriend," Do I desperately want to be? Yes. Am I? No. Is TJ's brother calling me his boyfriend helping me out at all with my issue of deluding myself? Absolutely not.

"I know your name kid, he talks about like you are, I'm Jesse, by the way, older brother." He offers me his hand to shake, and I do. He steps aside to let me through the door. I've only been inside TJ's house a couple of times, mostly since his parents' recent divorce. Before that, he always kept me away because he didn't want to deal with them fighting while they had guests. Not much has changed, other than the wedding picture of TJ's parents being replaced by one from TJ's dad's and Amber's mom's wedding, and one of the two pianos that used to sit in the living room being removed and replaced by a bright red electric guitar.

I'm sitting on the Kippen's couch when TJ tramps down the stairs a minute later, his hair is wilder than I'm used to, and when he reaches up to push it back out of his face, my brain stops working properly for a moment. Oh give it up Cyrus, he's straight, of course, he is. But... he's never done or even hinted at anything remotely straight and every time we walk too close together, the questions arise in my head. Is this romantic or just one of those times straight people do to torture you without knowing what they're doing.

"Hey! Thanks for coming, sometimes I just... can't handle family stuff, the blended family is still... getting used to each other. Especially Jesse, he isn't home much and he's a bit... nosy."

"The type of person who calls me your boyfriend?" I raise my eyebrows and find myself satisfied with the high levels of blush happening on his face the moment I bring it up. He looks away laughing awkwardly, and I'm glad he's the first to do so.

"Yeah..."

"Well, glad to be here. Boats are fun, you're fun, my family's boring. And like eighty percent of conversations I have with my parents end in being psychoanalyzed."

"Yeah, I've noticed, they kinda do that to everyone."

"Yeah, well, you were very easy, even I could psychoanalyze you, you were a mess."

"I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit," TJ says, ignoring the part about him being a mess. I find myself blushing at the compliment, and try to brush it off as normal. People blush when they get complimented, that has nothing to do with me liking him. Except that people don't go around complimenting people, they should, but they don't. Does that mean something? And... this is the exact train of thought that ends in me driving myself mad.

"Agreed," Amber says, appearing from the staircase just in time to prove my point for the rational part of my brain.

"Thank you, I'll try harder next time with the cocky thing, kind of an unfamiliar concept."