Ruby -joshler-

chapter two

     "Together? No." Tyler smiled with a melancholy expression. "If anyone noticed us, they'd think we were dating, though." He must've seen my confused expression when he added the next part on. "We were sort invisible at school. No one really cared..." His voice trailed off dismally. Without thinking, I grabbed him around his waist and pulled him close to me. His breath hitched, but he quickly relaxed. He leaned his head on my shoulder. I could feel him shaking and I knew he was crying.

     "What did she look like?" I asked. At this point, I my mouth was on auto-pilot. I shouldn't have been talking to him about Ruby. It was probably traumatizing for him, saying goodbye to his best friend.

     "She had light brown hair that was really short. Her eyes were gray. I mean, there's bluish gray, and then there's legit gray. She had gray gray eyes. She was short and really thin. She never wore makeup. She had this tattoo her parents never knew about." I could see him reminiscing his friend mournfully. "It was a music note, on the ball of her ankle. I remember watching her get it." He was still crying. "What about your friend? Ava?"

     Thinking about Ava made me sad, but Tyler answered me, so I decided to answer him. "She was so full of life. She was so tough. But fighting her cancer has weakened her. The doctors say she probably won't live till Christmas." Saying the words out loud hurt, because that made them real. "She was ready to face any challenge. But I couldn't stand watching her just lay there in her hospital bed. I felt so helpless. So I left, and that's when I ran into you." I had so much more to say, but I stayed quiet. So did Tyler.

     I must've fallen asleep at some point, because I opened my eyes, startled. Tyler was trembling in my arms. At first I thought he'd woken up, but he was still sleeping. Probably having a bad dream. "Ty... Ty." I shook him a bit. He opened his eyes at once. 

     He looked confused, as if he didn't know where he was, or why he was there. "Ruby?" He uttered weakly. His voice was shaky. 

     "No. Ty, it's Josh. It's Josh." I repeated. I could see it in his face when reality hit him. Before long, he was crying. Sobbing in my arms. 

     "I-I had a dream. Ruby was back. She'd never even left. E-ever since she was hospitalized, I've been having these dreams. That she wasn't in pain. Each time I wake up crying b-because I know it'll never happen. It's torture." He finished. I held him tighter. 

     "Can you play me a song on your ukulele?" I asked him hopefully. He looked up at me. He had stopped crying, but his face still looked pained. But he nodded. He sat up, and I released him from my arms.

     He picked up his ukulele and began strumming the chords. I didn't expect him to sing, but he did. 

     "This is a story about a scarlet letter... yeah.." He spoke the first part in words.

     "It just hit me as I lay my head down, no one around in the dark cold night, I hear a sound in my head repeat track of everything you've ever said, must be something, but it's nothing, so I just go back to bed." He raps this verse. At first it was sort of hard to keep up with him, but the words ended up melting together nicely.

     "It's four, crack the door, of the hallway to my dreams, but it seems my hallway keeps closing in on me, forcing me out, making me think about you and how you're gone, I see 4:05 to teary eyes and then I write this song."

     "And I just can't believe it has to be this way, you know we say it seems to me that it was just the other day, I saw your face, I saw your light, you ran the race, you fought the fight, but now it's all being torn down for me tonight. And I know it might be a little selfish of me to say, but I need to know if you thought of me at all today, 'cause every day walk past the place you lived five days of the week, and now it's ten after four, and I am taken by sleep." He stops playing the ukulele.

     "That's all I have so far. Usually I play it on the piano, but it'd probably take a while to lug the school piano out here." I laughed.

     "Nah, we could start a band in the forest," I joked,"I can bring my drum kit out here, too." We both smiled.

     "Wait, what time is it?" Tyler asked all of a sudden. I checked my phone.

     "4:27." I declared. "I've got to be home by 5:00." Tyler nodded.

     "Me too." He frowned. "I don't want to be alone tonight. C-could you sleep over at my house tonight? I don't trust myself not to..." His voice trailed off. I wanted to know what he was going to say, but he didn't continue his sentence.

     "I'll check." I unlocked my phone and texted my phone.

Me: Hey mom, is it cool if I stay at a friend's house tonight?

Mom: Boy or girl?

     Tyler cracked up laughing.

Me: You don't even have to ask: Boy.

Mom: Okay, be back by 4 pm tomorrow, tops, we have our Christmas dinner tomorrow night.

Me: Thanks mom! Love you!

     I nodded at Tyler, who led the way from the forest and too his house.

||A/N: Hey guys, sorry this was so long! By the way, I Tyler Joseph made the lyrics from the song he sang to Josh in this chapter. I do not own those lyrics, and all the credit for them go to Tyjo.||