Falling Too (Tyler Joseph)

Chapter 16

My mom rose an eyebrow at me as she removed her coat and hung it on the rack, "Who's Tyler?"

Right on queue, he stepped into the living room, greeting her with a smile, "Hi ma'am, it's nice to finally meet you."

She looked him over a moment and whatever she saw in him pleased her as she returned the smile. "It's nice to meet you too and you can call me Sheila, dear. Listen you two, I hate to do this, but I have someone stopping by soon. Would you mind just hanging out upstairs?"

"Sure thing." I agreed with a nod and hurried back into the kitchen to finish fixing my meal.

"Who's coming over?" He softly asks, seeming to be aware of the now slight sourness to my mood.

I let out a quiet breath, "Her boyfriend."

"Do you not like him?"

"I'm fine with him. I just hate that she acts so secretive about it. They've been together for almost a year now and she still seems to think that I don't know about it."

"Why would she even do that?"

I shrugged, "I'm not sure."

He gave me a half smile saying, "Come on, let's go eat."

When we finally settled in upstairs I grabbed my laptop and set it up on my desk so we could watch YouTube as we ate. I decided to pick Fall Out Boy before reaching for my burrito. By the end of our meal, I felt compelled to actually apologize for earlier, "I'm sorry that I basically ruined your birthday."

His eyebrows shot up as he waved off my words, "You need to stop telling you're sorry. You didn't do anything wrong. In fact, this has been one of the most interesting birthdays I've had in years. The last one had a bounce house, so this one is a close second."

I laughed at that, "Seriously? Almost as good as a bouncy house? That's cutting it a bit close in my opinion."

He shrugged lightly with a grin, "It's all about perspective really."

"Well, I'll take your word for it." I say as I get up from the bed to set our now empty plates on the dresser, choosing to deal with them later. As I flopped down on my back onto the mattress I watched Tyler type in 'The Killers – Read My Mind.' When the song began playing Tyler moved to lay on his side next to me.

"So what do you want to do now?" I asked in a hushed voice, sensing that I should be quieter.

He appeared to be lost in thought as he looked down at me. He was clearly torn over something as he spoke, "You're going to hate me, but I should probably be heading home."

I glanced at the clock and saw that it was already 11:44 at night. He was right, it was getting a bit late. I sat up telling him, "Okay, well let's get you back where you belong."

We gathered our dishes and crept down the stairs, finding the place empty. I noticed my mom sitting out on the back porch with Noah, laughing at something he must have said. I smiled softly to myself before putting the dirty plates in the sink.

As soon as I opened the front door I dreaded going back out into the cold, but none the less I followed Tyler to my car. Right when we got in I caught a glimpse of the gifts I almost forgot to give him.

"Before we go..." I say as I reach behind me for the presents. "These are for you."

He takes the boxes from me with a look of pleasant surprise saying, "You didn't have to get me anything, the dinner was more than enough."

I shrugged, "I wanted to and besides the cooking thing was definitely not in my plan."

He chuckled and picked up the smaller box, opening it, "Are these my CD's?"

"Some of them, they were the only ones I could remember off the top of my head."

"Oh my gosh, thank you!" He exclaims with a bright smile.

"Go on and open the other one." I urge him, having a mixture of excitement and fear in my chest.

I watched his jaw drop as he unwrapped the next package and then took the ukulele out of its box. "I can't believe you bought me this."

"I hope it's not too much."

"It's not, but you didn't have to get me this."

"Well, I did. Josh said that you played it whenever you guys went into the music store, so I figured you should have it. So, happy 20th birthday Tyler."

He wordlessly brought me in for a tight hug as a thank you. When he finally released me and I drove him to his house I was confused to see all three of his siblings out in the front yard. I pulled in the driveway and that's when I noticed Jamie was there too.

Tyler's sigh pulled my attention over to him as he muttered, "I knew they had been up to something."

"Like a surprise?"

"I guess so; do you want to come to find out with me?"

Part of me wanted to agree, no questions asked. On the other hand, after everything that happened today I've had more than my fill of excitement and drama for the moment. Even though I don't trust Jamie around him after all that I know about her, I do trust Tyler. That thought alone worried me, it's not like Tyler is mine to any degree and yet I was leery that she might take him from me somehow.

I made my decision quickly and shook my head no, "I'm just going to head back, today has been tiring."

"Okay."He says with a small smile and then put me in awe right before he got out by pressing a kiss on my cheek, "I'll see you later."