Tyed

chapter twenty five

"Come in," Trey answers casually. Despite knowing that their mother bears bad news, he doesn't seem to hesitate in his enthusiasm to see her for even half a second. Oh, Tyler had hoped for years and years that Trey would relearn optimism; now that he has, there couldn't possibly be a worse time.

Tyler's mother is shorter than both of them. Her eyes are dark brown, her nose is upturned, her brows are thinner and her hair is straighter; otherwise, she looks quite a lot like her sons, too. Saxon, however, their stepfather, is a whole other story. He's a far cry from the world's most attractive man; his facial features are all either too big or too small, and he has this untrustworthy smile that, from Tyler's few years of knowing him, is bad luck, as he seems genuinely nice- just not a people person. He stays silent most of the time, and doesn't express much desire. He works at an office job while Carol stays at home doing all the housework. That said, he does visit his stepsons when given the chance, and seems to relate to Trey in his own weird way. Tyler and he aren't close, but that doesn't mean Tyler doesn't like him.

"Trey, darling," Carol says, forcing a struggling smile onto her face. She seems to only get worse at faking smiles as time goes on. She spent almost three decades in Darkfilly Copse, and Tyler's convinced she left it the most screwed up and she doesn't even realise. She wears way too much perfume these days, and it allows Tyler to dissassociate her from the childhood memories he has of her, both good and bad. "How are you?"

"Better than- better than- I'm good, mum," Trey manages with a short smile. "Hi Saxon."

Saxon nods to Trey as Carol turns to Tyler and Tyler's heart sinks. She gives him a sad smile; in it is the knowledge that something bad is coming that they share. Tyler wishes he could just... have a mum, without all the complications she's wrapped up in. "Hi, Tyler."

It's not that Tyler's any less her darling than Trey; it's that she doesn't have to pretend to be as okay for him as she does for Trey. In a way, Tyler resents not being afforded that small comfort, but he recognises he doesn't need it.

Trey does, and this is going to be a mess.

Tyler hugs his mother. "Hi. How are you?"

Pleasantries, playing pretend, but Tyler doesn't trust them enough to let him cut through the bullshit. Cutting through the bullshit means getting to the hell they're hurtling towards anyway, but Tyler isn't prepared. He hasn't been and won't be. He has a feeling, though, that he's one of the most prepared in the room, except maybe Saxon.

Tyler can't read Saxon's eyes when he looks over at him. Perhaps it's pity. Saxon probably pities the lot of them; he knows the secret. Tyler's always wondered, for the few years he's known Saxon, whether or not that was why Saxon kept a certain distance between himself and Tyler, whether or not it was disgust. He hasn't really ever seemed like the type of person to show any kind of emotion, but Tyler wouldn't ever claim to know him well enough to say he truly wasn't disgusted.

"I'm good," Tyler's mother says too late. "As good as can be right now."

She then turns to Trey, quickly before anyone can question her anxious energy. "Trey, darling, do you want to sit down for a moment?"

Trey's face is slowly falling, because this is the kind of face he would rarely see from their mother. Growing up, things were bad all the time. There wasn't time for disappointing news, because there was never a high to be disappointed from. Maybe small things, but it never went much beyond them not having enough food for the boys to have seconds of dinner, or that their father would in fact be home when they had hoped he wouldn't be. The face one gives when they're about to give bad news is different when that bad news is constant, and when it is unexpected.