never mine// tyler joseph

chapter four

a/n: vote and comment!!!!

tyler, val, oliver, josh, and val's friend aria stayed true to the weekend plans that they had talked about together. they decided to all go to see a movie, and now that the movie had ended, they were out at a restaurant, waiting for their food.

whenever oliver was around, tyler always feared he was being too obvious with his feelings for val. because tyler and val were so close, oliver already had his suspicions about him. so if oliver had managed to find out that he was in love with val, tyler had no idea what the guy would do.

it was hard to hide it, though. even when oliver's arm was wrapped around the girl's back, and her head was rested against his shoulder, tyler couldn't help himself from staring at her face. that was probably how josh had found out about tyler's feelings. the constant staring. tyler often caught himself doing this, and even when he would pull his gaze away, it would always somehow land right back on the beautiful slate haired girl.

sometimes, seeing them together hurt more than usual. and now was one of those times. seeing them together, staring at one another lovingly and laughing at each other's jokes, it made tyler realize that he truly had no chance. and on top of that, it made him feel guilty. how could he still long for her even when she was so clearly in love with someone else?

thankfully the food had come, so tyler could distract himself from his thoughts about val by eating. josh seemed to notice his sudden change in demeanor because he started conversing with tyler, trying to get him laugh. and it worked. josh was always like that. he could tell whenever his friend was feeling down, and he'd do everything in his power to cheer him up.

"that looks so good," val stated when she looked over at tyler's plate. he was just having steak, and it happened to taste amazing.

"you wanna try some?" tyler offered, popping another piece of steak into his mouth. val looked unsure, staring at tyler's food, until finally her lips curved into a smile and she nodded vigorously.

"you know i do," she replied.

tyler picked up a piece on his fork, holding it up. she opened her mouth, allowing tyler to feed her as if she were his child.

"i was right," she said after she finished chewing. "that is so good." from right beside her, tyler caught a glowering amber stare. oliver was watching, and he didn't seem to be amused. maybe tyler shouldve refrained from feeding her. but it was just a friendly gesture after all, right? he wasn't trying to make a move on her.

tyler uncomfortably shifted his gaze to josh and aria, who were sitting across the table from him. the two of them seemed to notice the change in oliver's attitude.

tyler didn't want any drama with the guy. in fact, tyler thought of him as a friend. sure, maybe he was in a relationship with the girl tyler was in love with, but that didn't make him a bad person.

recently though, oliver had just seemed to become more and more jealous. which was odd, considering he was the one dating val, not the other way around. whenever tyler and her wanted to hang out, just the two of them, he'd become extremely suspicious. but it was ridiculous, because tyler and val had been friends long before oliver had come into the picture, and they had always hung out alone. and tyler would never do anything to come in between their relationship, so oliver had no excuse to be so doubtful.

"oliver?" val called, probably noticing the rather annoyed expression on the brunet's face. "are you okay?"

"yeah, i'm fine," he replied blandly.

"are you sure?"

"it's just- never mind. we'll talk about it later," he said. tyler already had a feeling that whenever oliver decided to talk to her, it would probably be about him. even though it was their relationship, and they were allowed to have their own private conversations, tyler was annoyed that oliver couldn't just say it to his face. he already knew that oliver had talked about him to his girlfriend before. so if he had an issue with him, why couldn't he just bring it up and talk about it with him?

tyler tried to push the thoughts away, not wanting to get too pestered about the situation. besides, he knew that if they did talk about him, val would tell him afterwards.

eventually, they finished dinner, so everyone packed into tyler's car to go back to his apartment. everyone had driven themselves over, so they had to go back and get their cars.

oliver and val were the first ones to leave. as tyler waved goodbye to them, he noticed the boy's suspicious glare once again. it seemed as if his chestnut eyes could see right through tyler, and that made him nervous. when they shut the door, tyler let out a sigh of relief. he slumped back onto the couch, next to josh and aria.

"so i'm not crazy, right?" aria started, looking over at the two boys. "he's acting weird?"

"weird is an understatement," tyler commented, looking over at the platinum blonde haired girl. "his eyes were digging into me."

"i don't know what his problem is," josh said. "all you did was feed her a piece of your food. why would he get so jealous over that?"

"why would he be jealous in the first place?" aria asked confusedly. "tyler and val have been best friends for a long time. he should know better."

"well, he doesn't," tyler stated. "he's jealous, and it's so obvious. she tells me the things that he says about me. he doesn't trust me with her at all," he explained, shaking his head in annoyance.

"do you think he knows?" josh asked tyler, sending him a knowing look.

"maybe he does," tyler admitted. "but if he can't know for sure, then why can't he just leave it alone?"

"know what?" aria asked curiously, raising an eyebrow. she wasn't aware of tyler's feelings. tyler thought that the less people who knew, the better.

tyler and josh glanced at each other, wondering whether or not they should tell her. she was best friends with val, so tyler feared that she wouldn't have been able to keep the secret.

"can you guys just tell me?" she groaned, stomping her foot on the ground. "what? do you like her or something?"

tyler's eyes widened in shock. it didn't look like he had much of a choice in telling her now.

"oh my gosh! you do! you like her! why did you never tell me this?" she exclaimed, slightly bouncing up and down on the couch in excitement.

"because i can't risk her finding out. please promise me that you'll keep your mouth shut?" tyler asked desperately, his expression softening.

"okay," she breathed out. "i won't tell her. but can you just explain this to me? when did you start liking her? and will you ever tell her?"

"high school graduation day," tyler said. "that's when i realized."

"but that was so long ago?"

"i know. i thought the feelings would go away... but they never did," he stated. "and i don't know if i'll ever tell her. i mean, i want to, but at the same time, i don't. i can't tell her when she has a boyfriend."

it was the truth. tyler did want to tell her. he had been waiting to do so ever since that night that he realized he was in love. yet at the same time, he was terrified. if she were to reject him, he just knew that he would beat himself up over it. he'd tell himself that he wasn't good enough, that he could never be good enough. it was better just not knowing how she felt.