Falling Too (Tyler Joseph)

Chapter 14

When we finally made it to the restaurant I felt like I had been friends with these three brothers for years. Their dry deadpan humor had my stomach aching from laughing so hard and it kept on as we got out of the car. Tyler and Zack were still in the middle of singing 'Beauty and the Beast' while Jay and I nearly died from chuckling, despite the low volume of the rest of the building. Almost every person there was looking at us with expressions that ranged from amused to irritated. I took note of the fact Tyler had to pull up an extra chair for me, which let me know that the other's hadn't expected me.

Chris appeared delighted to see me as he spoke, "Ashley! It's so nice of you to join us."

"I'm glad Tyler invited me along." I tell him a semi-soft voice since I was feeling on edge. 

I sat down between Tyler and his mother, seeing that it was the only empty seat left. I could pretty much feel the tension radiating off of Kelly. Thankfully the waiter showed up and started passing out menus before I had a chance to say anything to her. 

"I've never even heard of half of this stuff." Jay mumbled.

"I'm fairly certain that this entire selection is meant to poison." Zack pointed out making me and all the other guys chuckle. He cleared his throat to continue, "So Ash, our dad told me and Jay that you and Tyler performed in the festival today. How did that go?"

"Great actually." I tell him setting down my menu since I found what I wanted, something really cheap.

Jay jumped in after that, "We would have been there, but the traffic in the city was awful."

I waved it off, "It's cool."

"So can you play anything else?"

Kelly cut in after that, "Boys, this dinner is supposed to be about your brother. Why don't you ask about him instead?"

Zack and Jay exchanged confused glances, but the waiter apparently had a sixth sense about when things were getting uncomfortable and he came back to give out the drinks. As soon as he got everyone's order the atmosphere was right back over everyone like a dense fog. 

Since no one was speaking at this point, Kelly decided to, "So Tyler, how is Jamie doing? I haven't seen her around you very much lately, did something happen?"

Tyler had been in the middle of chewing on a breadstick, but quickly stopped at the mention of Jamie. He swallowed before speaking, "No, I've just been busy with other things lately."

"You really should bring her over again soon, she's such a sweet girl and she seems like she really likes you."

I had a strange hunch that her remark was somehow meant to hurt me, but I stayed silent despite my notion. 

Zack turned his attention to Tyler questioning, "Have you told Ashley about the show yet?"

With his jaw clenched tight, Tyler shook his head no.

"Can I do it then?"   

Tyler shrugged and remained silent, something that didn't go unnoticed by me. Tyler was a quiet guy, but I could tell that there was more to this. 

Zack looked over at me, "So Tyler and his band are going to be doing their first concert next week. Would you want to come to watch?"

The thought of hearing Tyler sing made my pulse pick up like usual, but I stayed level headed as I said, "Yeah, sure. It sounds fun."

"Awesome! You can ride to the venue with us if you want to." Zack tells me looking more excited by the second. 

"Are you sure you'll have enough room?" Kelly questioned. 

"Totally, if we have to she can just sit in Tyler's lap and they can share a seatbelt." He teases, grinning at me and his brother while wiggling his eyebrows.

Kelly took a sip of her tea and shook her head, "I don't think that would be a good idea. Jamie would probably not like the idea of that."

Jay rose an eyebrow questioning, "So? It's not like they're dating." 

"It's not like that's the girl he even likes anyway." Chris adds in with a hushed voice. 

"Don't encourage them." Kelly scolds her husband, but he looks like he's still having a laugh anyway. "Jamie never made you all behave this way."

"Yeah, because none of us really liked her." Jay claimed while fighting off giggles.  

"She's better than this girl." Kelly muttered under her breath just loud enough for me to hear, but apparently, Tyler did too.

"Really mom?" Tyler asked and the tone he used made everyone else pause.

At this point, she wasn't even trying to mask her annoyance. "What?"

Tyler had such a fierce look in his dark brown eyes that I could only wonder what was about to come out of his mouth. "Why are you always so rude to Ashley? She hasn't done anything to deserve it."

"Tyler, do you have any clue what her family did?"

Tyler rushed to answer her, "You mean what her dad did? Do you think anyone would allow their family to be torn apart like that? She had nothing to do with that and if that's the only fault you can find with her then you now know that it's not right."

"It's not just that, she's clearly changing you."

"Is that really a bad thing?" Tyler asked and let out a strangled laugh, "You know what? I'm just going to leave."

Before anyone could say a word Tyler grabbed my hand and pulled me up from my seat. I hurried to keep up with him as he started to run out of the restaurant since they had started calling after him. I was surprised to find that the world outside had gained a thin white blanket from the time we had been inside.

"Where are we going?" I asked as I stumbled to keep up with him since he still had a hold of me.

He loosened up his grip saying, "I guess to the church to get your car since it's the closest."

"Would you mind explaining any of that to me?"

He let out a sigh that produced a cloud of warm air, "She was trying to make you jealous by bringing up Jamie and it was starting to get on my nerves. My mom seems to be under the impression that you have feelings for me."

I let out a broken laugh, "Okay, so did you and Jamie have a thing together?"

"Yes and no. We've been friends for a while and it took me some time to figure out that she liked me, but it just wasn't there for me. When I told that she stopped talking to me for weeks, but she came up to me one day and apologized. That was actually right after I had first started talking to you."

"Oh great, now they all think I stole you from her or something." I mutter starring off into the night in front of us.   

"You can't steal something that didn't belong to someone else in the first place." He says before quickly asking, "Are you cold?"

I had been rubbing my arms rapidly, but I halted at his question. "A little bit."

Wordlessly he removed his coat and placed it on my shoulders.

I quickly grabbed it so that it wouldn't hit the snowy road beneath us and rushed to say, "Tyler you don't need to give me this, we're almost to my car anyway."

"Yeah, but I'm not the one shaking like a leaf."

As soon as I put on the clothing I felt like I was receiving a warm hug from the boy beside me. His scent radiated off the fabric, making me softly smile. "Thank you."

I had actually begun to get warm as we approach our church. Tyler picked up his pace saying, "Let's hurry up and get in the car, it's freezing out here."

Right then the snowfall began to come down in thick flakes and I glanced over at Tyler to see that his hair and eyelashes were getting covered, making him almost sparkle in the street lights. I wanted nothing more than to pull him over to me and kiss him, but I resisted the urge. I didn't deserve someone like him, he was much too good for me. I can't help but feel like I'm making more of a mess of him than I am helping.