The story of Tyler

The E-mail

"Dear Father,
I know it has been a very long time since we talked, but I have something really important. I know you won't handle this well, you may even hate me more than you already do. Three years ago, I met a man named Levi. We became close friends, and we hung out almost every day. I would wake up everyday looking forward to seeing him, and I realized that I had a massive crush on him. He was the reason why I would wake up, and fall asleep in a good mood. I noticed that he was crushing on me too, so I asked him to be my boyfriend, and he immediately said "Yes!" Fast forward a year, and we started to live with each other. It was such a joy to wake up every morning next to him., and I knew he was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Then, the happiest day of my entire life happened last week. Levi proposed to me. I was so happy and overwhelmed that no matter how hard I tried, I could barely even whisper "yes." The wedding will be on June 20th. I don't expect you to even think about showing up, but just know that Mark, Kate, and Luke will be attending, because they are the family that actually loves me.
Your son,
Tyler."

          I couldn't stop shaking. I was fucking terrified of what my father's reply would be. Levi was at work, so I couldn't even ask him to comfort me.

          Laying back in the couch, I tilted my head backwards towards the ceiling. SO many thoughts and worries were trapping me that soon enough anxiety takes over. I think about calling Mark. He'd know how to help. When i did call him, his immediate reply was, "Kate and I adopted you from your biological family because we are the ones that love you for who you are, not for who you are attracted to. It doesn't matter what your biological parents say, because we are your actual family." "Thank you, so much Mark."

          Right as I hung up, I saw that my father had replied. The E-Mail read, "Are you shitting me? I wouldn't come to your wedding if Earth depended on it! And I will absolutely not let another man steal my last name!" I replied, "Fine. Then I will steal his last name. And by the way, this is the last time I am going to speak with you because I don't need anymore of your homophobic bullshit. I am no longer Tyler Johnson, I am Tyler Hellberg. Also, Congratufuckinglations, you have totally failed at being a parent."

          After that I completely lost it. Just sitting on the couch, with the laptop on the floor, bawling my eyes out.

          About 5 minutes into my meltdown Levi came home. He shouted "Tyler, I'm home!" I sat up and tried to say "Welcome home" through the tears but I couldn't. Levi walked towards the living room, but stopped in the doorway. I looked at him, tried to smile and stop crying, but then I just broke down again. Seeing that I was so distressed, he sat on the couch next to me. He started to gently rub my back and said, "Honey.... What's wrong?" I explained the entire thing to him. He didn't interrupt, and he didn't have any questions afterwards, he just hugged me and continued to comfort me. Now this, my friends, is what you call a good boyfriend.

~~~~~~

          The next day was a Saturday, so Levi didn't have to work. We planned to go out to lunch and see a movie afterwards, but we ended up going to the Emergency Room instead. (Yay so fun!) Just as we were about to leave the apartment, we heard a strange tapping on the door. At first we ignored it, but then it gradually got louder until I was afraid that the door was going to break off the hinges. I was curious to see what was making that noise, so instinctively I walked over to the door and opened it. I was expecting it to be a salesperson, or something like that, but no. It was my father. Staring at each other in awkward silence, Levi eventually said, "Uh, sir? Why are you here?" Father looked at Levi, walked up to him, and fucking jumped onto him. At first, my father wasn't doing much damage, but when Levi lost balance and hit his head on the corner of the wall, I was even more done with my father than I already was. I said, "Dad what the hell are you doing? You just hurt my fiancé!" He said, "I don't care! A man should never marry another man! Why don't you fags get that?"

          I was so pissed off at this point that I couldn't even control myself. I grabbed my father, dragged him to the door, and literally threw him into the hallway. I shut the door behind me and walked over to where Levi was lying. I crouched down and said, "Levi? Levi wake up!" He was unresponsive, so I looked for the area that impacted the wall. There was a deep, bloody gash probably 4 inches long on the back of his head, and a bloodstain on the wall. I turned Levi's head face up, looked at him, screamed, "Levi! Levi! Levi wake the bloody hell up!" and started crying. I then grab my phone out of my pocket and dial 911. It only took the ambulance 5 minutes to get to our apartment, but it seemed like I was sitting on the floor next to Levi for 5 days. 

          The paramedics were very helpful. I explained to them what happened, and one paramedic said, "Contratulations on the engagement. We will fix him up and he will be good as new for the wedding." I wanted to be with Levi, so I asked if I could ride in the back of the ambulance. The paramedic said "Yes, but you cannot talk with any of us because we have to focus on treating Levi." I replied "Okay. I'll let you do your job without distractions." And then we were on our way to the hospital. 

~~~~~~~
Levi's POV

          I remember saying "Um, sir? Why are you here?" to Tyler's father. I remember trying to escape his attack, I remember losing balance and falling. I'm very confused because I don't remember anything after that, and now I'm in an ambulance. 

          The back of my head hurts like hell, and I think there is a bandage wrapped around my head. I slowly open my eyes, and a paramedic says, "Hey, I think he's waking up!" I start to look around, still very confused, and I see Tyler. I mumbled, "Tyler...? what happened......?" Tyler looked up, and his eyes lit up with joy. He looked over at the paramedic. They nodded their head, and said, "Go ahead, tell him what happened." Tyler told me what happened while I was unconcious, which actually scared me a little. All I could mumble afterwards was, "Well, shit."

           Tyler and I were talking about how horrible his father was for a bit, and then we hit a bump. My head flew up off of the stretcher, and smashed back down. Hard. The last thing I remember after that was feeling so much pain that I couldn't even scream.