Room 315

CHAPTER FOUR

-Ꮖꮎℕꮍ-

I woke up pretty early in the morning, slowly rubbing my eyes and stretching to feel a bit more awake. As I was about to start sitting up, I felt a hand gripped tightly around my waist, holding me firmly in place. I was shocked, scared even, for a while until I saw that it was just Zach who was being his usual, overprotective self that he was. I ended up laying back down so that I was facing away from Zach. I snuggled deep into the covers and then I felt Zach's grip on my waist tighten around me as he pulled me closer to him and nuzzled his head into the crook of my neck. A deep blush formed on my face at his action. Here's something many people may not know about me: on the outside, everybody sees me as the hardcore player who is super cool and confident all the time, but in real life I get flustered over the easiest flirting and I'm super emotional over everything. I'm even super emotional over loud noises. Whenever somebody yell and it is directed at me (my football coach being an exception, obviously), I get super upset and will usually break down. This all started after the incident at my old school, and ever since then, I've been an emotional wreck.

Without realizing, Tayler appeared right in front of my face, causing me to let out a small whimper as I buried myself deeper into Zach's side. Tayler sighed deeply at my actions before saying blandly, "When he leaves, we need to talk." I gulped and nodded wearily, an extremely uneasy feeling welling up in my stomach. He nodded his head once and quickly turned around and made his way straight into the walls, where his disappeared without a trace.

About a half an hour later I felt Zach start to shift in his sleep, and he eventually sat up, his hands still gripped around my waist. He looked at me and once he noticed I was awake he smiled sleepily before saying in a raspy voice, "Good morning, Tony." I smiled and was about to sit up too and say the same thing before I realized that he still had his arms tightly around my waist. I laughed loudly before saying, "Um, Zach," and I gestured to his hands. He flushed a deep red before laughing slightly and then taking his hands off of my waist. I smiled and sat up tiredly while stretching some more. He turned around so that he was facing away from me and he lazily stumbled out of the bed and made his way towards my bathroom. I got up gently and started making my way towards my drawer so that I could get an outfit for the day. I really wanted to wear my favorite hoodie, so I thought for a minute about asking Tayler. I thought for sure that Zach would hear me but then I heard the shower being turned on. I sighed in relief at the perfect timing.

After a few more minutes of contemplating, I spoke nervously, "U-U-Um, T-Tayler?" All of a sudden he came out of the walls with a worried expression, "What's wrong?! Are you okay?" I felt bad for bothering him and his harsh tone scared me a lot, "N-N-No, I'm fine. I-I was j-just wondering if y-you have my b-blue hoodie that you t-took yesterday." My voice was barely above a whisper as I spoke with a fearful tone. His eyes softened and he said to me calmly, "I'll be right back." I nodded my head gently and then he walked back into the walls with no effort. I gently bent down and grabbed a pair of black shorts and boxers to wear for the day. I also grabbed a dark blue t-shirt to wear underneath the hoodie for whenever Tayler came back.

I turned around with the clothes in my hand and stood there for a little while longer until Tayler came out of the wall in front of me while holding the baby blue hoodie in his hands. My eyes lit up at the sight of my favorite hoodie and he smiled as he gently handed it to me, "Thank you so much I was so worried that something bad had happened to it! You're literally the best Tay-" I had realized that I had been talking for too long and that Tayler was probably so sick of me being a blabber mouth. He probably hates me now for talking so much. Nobody likes to hear my voice. I learned that the hard way. I looked down at the ground and focused on my feet. This is all my fault. I'm so stupid. He hates me so much right now. I can't believe I was acting so dumb like tha-
"Tony?! Are you okay? Hey, what's wrong, why are you crying?!" I didn't even notice I was crying until I lifted my hand up to my cheek and felt warm tears against my hand. I looked up at Tayler fearfully. Oh no, he's gonna hit me now for bothering him. I quickly scrambled against the wall while muttering out loudly, "I-I'm sorry Tayler, I was talking too much and now you're gonna hit me for misbehaving. I'm sorry, I promise I'll do better next time I swear-" I was cut off with his strong arms wrapping themselves around me in a comforting hug. My rapid-falling tears quickly slowed to a stop and all that was heard in the room was the sound of my quiet sniffles and the shower running from in the other room

Tayler eventually spoke up, "Tony, bubs, why would I ever hit you for talking too much?" He asked me this in a voice filled with nothing more than sympathy. I sniffled a few more times before speaking quietly, "B-B-Because. People don't like hearing my voice. He said that nobody should hear it because it would damage their ears by how bad it was." Tayler's eyes widened before he spoke, "Who Tony? Who would ever think your voice was bad?" I sniffled once more before saying, "M-M-My old boyfriend. He always told me things like that. He always said that if nobody could see me or hear me, then they would like me more."

Tayler ripped me away from the hug and had a firm grip on my shoulder, "Who is it." He spoke in such a strong voice. Oh no, what did I do wrong this time! Did I say the wrong thing?! Oh no, oh no, oh no- "Hey! Tony! It's okay, I'm sorry for being so harsh with you." He pulled me back into a hug and wrapped his arms tightly around me. I started speaking in a slow and quiet tone, "S-So you're not mad at me?" He pulled me away from him and gripped my shoulders, much more gentle then before, saying slowly, "No Tony, I'm not mad at you at all. I was just worried about you." My eyes widened and all I could manage was a quiet "Oh." He smiled gently and eventually I calmed down. I heard the water turn off and I looked at Tayler calmly, "Um, you should probably chill in the walls for a bit, he'll leave as soon as I'm done getting dressed. He nodded and wordlessly made his way into the walls.

I smiled softly at myself before rubbing my eyes one more time as I heard the door unlock and Zach came out wearing a new pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. He smiled at me before saying, "Well, I'm going to head out now, my mom is going to kill me for staying out all night." I smiled brightly and said, "It's okay bro, go home, I'll see you when I start school in a week." He nodded his head and said, "Yeah, I still can't believe we'll finally be going to the same school." "Yeah, it's crazy. Well, you getter head home Zach, I'll talk to you later bro." He smiled a muttered a quick 'bye' before he made his way out the door. I made sure to lock it before I turned around and made my way back to the bedroom.

I sat on the bed gently before saying, "Um, Tayler, you there?" I spoke in a quiet tone, still afraid he was mad at me for being too loud. He came out of the wall seconds later and smiled sadly at me before coming to sit next to me. He spoke in a calm and sweet tone, "Do you think you can tell me what happened, so I can help you?" I smiled softly before saying, "Well I don't usually go around telling random demons about my biggest life issues, but I feel like I can trust you." He chuckled lightly but quickly stopped once he realized that I was no longer in the mood for jokes. He looked at me with undying attention that I had barely received from anybody else I've ever met. I then started speaking in a voice that was barely above a whisper,

"Milo. His name was Milo."