Razorblade |-/ Tyler Joseph Fic

chapter nineteen

Everything was kind of weird after Lizzie got back from the hospital. All of us pretended like the whole attempt incident never happened, yet there was this huge black cloud hovering over us reminding us of it.

Aside from that, it was really quite enjoyable. Lizzie had this new sense of optimism and energy that made her want to do all sorts of new things. We tried Vietnamese food, we went into Guitar Center and just played instruments for hours without actually buying anything, and we binge watched a bunch of movies we had never seen before. And by "we" I mean her, Josh, and myself.

Then one day, I was just laying in bed with her. She had her head on my chest and I was stroking my fingers through her hair, and neither of us really said anything. We were both content with each other's comfortable silence.

After a while, she sat up and looked at me. "I thought of a thing we haven't done yet," she said.

"What's that?" Surely we're both thinking of different things.

"I've always wanted to go on a date to an aquarium."

Yeah, totally different. "That sounds sweet. Let's do it."

She smiled. "When works for you?"

I checked my watch; it was only about two in the afternoon. "Right now."

She blinked at me and her smile faded a bit. "Right now?"

I nodded and stood up. "Right now. Let's do it."

Then she smiled again, bigger this time, and grabbed my hand that I was holding out for her.

The nearest aquarium was at the mall in the city, which was only about 45 minutes away, so it wasn't too bad. We took her car, and she held my hand the whole way there until I refused to let her pay. Then she stayed fake-angry at me for a solid 3 minutes before seeing the fish and ruining her façade. She got this huge smile on my face and kept telling me to look at all of the different kinds of fish, and I was so happy to have fallen in love with such a dork.

We went through a tunnel that was surrounded by fish tank, and every time a shark or big fish swam over us, she would grab my hand really tight and go, "Oooohhhhhhh....." It was seriously the cutest thing I've seen in a long time.

We stayed in the tunnel for quite a while before deciding to move to the next room. And then she got even more excited.

"Tyler," she whispered loudly to me, "there's jellyfish everywhere."

She was right; tanks and columns and walls everywhere were filled with jellyfish, and they changed color with the fluorescent lights shining through the water.

"This is so cool," Lizzie whispered to me.

I leaned down and kissed her cheek. "You're so cool," I replied, then leaned against the fish tank with my shoulder and kept my hands in my pockets.

Even in the mostly dark room, I could see her blush.

And then there was this one moment where she looked up at a jellyfish that was a little above eye level, with her mouth slightly open, and I felt this wave of emotion come over me. The way the colored lights reflected in her eyes, the way they were shining with excitement . . . it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

She caught me staring at her, though, and suddenly got self-conscious. "What?" she asked.

I just sighed and rested my head against the tank. "I'm in love with you," I said softly.

She didn't react for a long time. She didn't smile, she didn't say anything in return, nothing. And it really worried me for a minute, because I thought maybe she had grown tired of me. But finally, she slowly reached up, laced her hands around the back of my neck, stood on tiptoe, and kissed me.