Falling Too (Tyler Joseph)

Chapter 8

I'm starting to think that Tyler might be just as stubborn as I am because when he pulled up to my house he insisted that he should stay a while. I was in no mood to really argue with him, so I gave in and allowed him inside. When we reached my room I flopped down on my stomach, slightly bouncing on the mattress as I landed. I had stopped crying halfway here, but that didn't mean I wasn't still seriously bummed out. I felt Tyler's weight at my knees as he sat down next to me, staying quiet for some time.

I nearly dozed off before he spoke up, "So I've kind of been learning how to play the ukulele on my own. Would you care if I played a bit on yours?"

"Go ahead." I softly tell him, refusing to lift my head.

He must have grabbed the instrument before he had sat down because I heard him begin playing right after that. It took me a moment of listening to figure out that he was playing Build Me Up Buttercup and then his singing confirmed it. I turned my head just enough where I could see him from my position and he strummed along while staring off into space. I really was lucky to have a friend like him, someone that wanted to make sure that I was okay at times like this. When the song was finished I rolled away from him enough to be on my back before letting my leg be against him again, something about being able to feel him there was comforting in a way. I stared up at the ceiling as I made the choice to ask him a question that I honestly had never really wanted to ask.

"Hey, Tyler?"

He turned to face me, "Yeah?"

"Do you know why everyone hates my dad?"

He rose an eyebrow at my seemingly random question, but it was far from random. I wanted to see if he knew about what had occurred, and what he thought of it, and of me. "I never really got the full story, so not really."

"Well..." I sat up staring down at my hands as I spoke, "Everyone knows that while he was a preacher at our church he stole a ton of money that was meant for several charity events and that almost caused the place to close."

He nodded, "I remember that part, things were really bad for a while back then."

"Well, apparently my mom knew something about it but didn't say anything. After my dad disappeared with the money the other staff at the church found out about what she had been hiding and it got out to everyone else. Come to find out that my father had been having an affair with one of the other preacher's wives and she had run away with him. My mom had been too ashamed to speak up and she just hid in the background about it. I guess everyone thought I knew about it too, but my main focus has always been teaching Sunday school, going to school myself, and learning how to play the uke. I had always figured that my dad was a busy man, that's why I didn't see him much sometimes. We were all sort of busy people. And then one day it was all just too busy and everyone was asking me questions. Like why didn't you tell someone? Why didn't you try to stop him? They all thought I had something to do with it."

Tyler shook his head, his mouth scrunching up with what looked like irritation. "How could they just assume that?"

I shrugged, "I guess it made sense to them. My mom knew, so why shouldn't I? I was so stuck in my own head that none of what was happening with my parents really fazed me and after that, I couldn't stop it from being shoved in my face. I'm almost certain that the only reason I got to keep teaching Sunday school was because of Marceline taking up for me. She and Carly were the only people that obviously believed me at the time. My mother stopped going to church after that and now she has two jobs that she's more concerned with than ever being here, I guess that's her way of coping. So now I'm just waiting to finish college so I can get out of here too. I'm tired of living in the shadow of my father's mistakes."

Once I finished my confession I was stunned that Tyler moved closer to me and gave me a tight hug. I warily wrapped my arms around him in return, wondering why he was doing this.

"Everything makes so much more sense now." He murmured softly but his closeness allowed me to hear him clearly.

"What do you mean?"

"Why people act the way they do towards you and it's so unfair. You were just trying to live your own life and they blame you for someone else's choices that you didn't know about. I'm so sorry." He tells me as he presses himself more into my body before finally letting go.

"So you believe me?" I asked in a wavering voice.

"You haven't given me a reason not to."

I gave a half smile at that, "Thanks Tyler."

I could only wish that everyone else could see it the way he did, but I guess that's what made him different from them. Tyler hadn't known me before all that had gone down and yet he believed me because he clearly trusted me. It was something that I didn't want him to know how important it really was to me.

He returned a brighter smile asking, "So are we going to practice for the festival or what?"

I chuckled, "Yeah, hand it over."

While we practiced I couldn't get my mind off of how kind Tyler has always been to me. I wondered if he knew that I intended to keep my plan of leaving for good and that he probably wouldn't see me again after that, I really hope it wouldn't hurt him in any way. I don't see how it could, it wasn't like we were anything super important to each other.