Falling Too (Tyler Joseph)

Chapter 3

It's funny how certain songs and melodies can get stuck in my head until I am forced to hear them again. Too bad that song was Tyler's. There was no way I could listen to it without asking or getting lucky enough to catch him playing it. I had an odd feeling that no one was even supposed to have heard him. So preparing to practice with him was making me somewhat on edge. I felt like I knew something I shouldn't no matter how ridiculous that seemed.

I drove around to the directions he had given me to his house, nervously patting the steering wheel the whole way. I pulled up to a fairly nice two-story home with several cars parked in the driveway. A light up nativity scene sat in the front yard and colorful Christmas lights decorated the front of the house. It was a really nice looking place. I took a deep breath in before setting foot out of my car and once I was on the porch, on the verge of turning around, the door opened. An older man that resembled Tyler stood on the other side, giving me a puzzled look.

"Um, hi. Is Tyler here by any chance?" I asked in a weak voice with a shy smile.

"Yeah, hang on a second." The man that I now believe is Tyler's father turned to shout up the stairs, "Tyler! Your friend..."

"Ashley." I fill in.

"Ashley is here!"

There was a somewhat faint reply of, "Alright, tell her to come up!"

"Well you heard the man." He said with a laugh and a grin, "He's the third door on the left."

"Thank you." I say before stepping inside the cream-colored entrance.

"Oh, I'm his father by the way, but you can call me Chris." He tells me and then gives me a wave before disappearing around the corner.

"Nice to meet you." I murmur to the empty air.

I then hurried up the carpeted stairs, clutching the straps on my ukulele bag. At the top of the steps I am met with the sight of Tyler smiling at me and gesturing for me to come in his room. I did just that and saw what appeared to be a double bedroom.

"My brother goes to an out of state college, so you won't be seeing him. None the less, this is our room." Tyler states, taking a seat on the bed in the corner. The fact that there was a shelf full of basketball trophies over it was a dead giveaway that it was his bed.

"I really like it in here." I comment, taking a seat at the opposite end of the mattress.

"Thank you, so are you ready to get started?" He asked with excitement dancing in his eyes.

I nodded, unzipping the instrument bag and pulled out my mahogany ukulele.

"Can I see it?" Tyler asked, sounding hesitant.

"Sure." I passed it over to his waiting hands.

His fingertips traced over the leaves, lizards, and swirl carvings on the face. He proceeded to strum the strings with a light grin. "This thing is beautiful. So what song did you decide we should play?"

"Even though it's kind of cheesy I was dabbling around with Silent Night on that and I thought it made the song sound really sweet."

"That's actually a great idea, everyone knows that song and the church will love it." He agrees vehemently while lifting his legs up onto the bed to cross them.

I couldn't help finding his behavior completely adorable, but I hurried to brush the thought away. "Do you want to hear it?"

"Yeah, go for it." He urges me, handing back the tiny instrument.

As I played the song I decided to keep my eyes down on what my hands were doing, seeing that Tyler was basically studying my movements. Having that boy's dark gaze trained on me was more than a little distracting. I'm sure if I held his stare for more than a few seconds I would mess up.

I was momentarily stunned when he began to sing along, "Silent night, holy night. All is calm, all is bright..."

We kept on until the song until the song was over. I moved my eyes up to see that smile was still on his face, if not bigger than before.

Tyler chuckled, "Well that was easy."

I nodded, relaxing my fingers around ukulele's neck. "I figured it would be. Now we just need to go over it a few more times to make sure we have the song down pat."

"Sounds easy enough." He remarks as he turns his attention to the clock. "So you've literally only been here for fifteen minutes and I don't want to make you leave just yet. I also clearly have no idea how to not make this awkward by what I just said. I'm sorry."

I could only laugh at his choice of words for a minute before nodding, "You're okay, besides it did take a while to find this place, so I'll stay."

"What do you want to do now?"

"I could help you learn how to play." I suggest, holding up my ukulele.

Right when he went to grab it a female voice called out from another room. "Ty, have you seen my keys?"

A blonde girl poked her head in the room and as soon as she saw me her eyes widened. For some reason that made me nervous.

"No Maddie, did you check the kitchen?"

She shook her head no before slipping out again and a moment later her voice could be heard from downstairs, "Found them! Thanks!"

With that the muffled noise of the front door shutting suggested that she had left.

"That was my sister Madison. She's always rushing around, which makes her lose everything."

I couldn't shake the feeling that Madison knew me and might be a part of the people that don't like me for what my father did to our church. My mind then shifted to Carly and I's conversation from the other day, what if his sister thinks I'm just trying to use him? I could tell my paranoia was starting to take over and I knew I couldn't stay. I can't let Tyler see this, he just met me after all. I reached into my pocket while attempting to not allow my hands to shaking, acting like I had just received a text.

"Actually I hate to do this, but my mom just sent me a message and I need to be heading out."

"That's fine, so when should I expect to see you again?"

I had been hastily gathering my things, but that caused me to pause. I had somehow managed to forget that I would have to return after this. My plans of pretending none of this had ever happened were just thrown out the window. He expected me to help him and with that sweet and patient face of his there was no way I could turn all of this down.

So I asked him, "When's the next time that you're free?"

"Wednesday."

"Alright, I'll see you then." I got up and began to head for the door.

"Hang on."

I halt, "What's up?"

"Would you care if I came to your place?"

I didn't fight back my smile this time, "Not at all."

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So here's a little fun fact the ukulele that is described is actually what my ukulele looks like :3