Broken Love //joshler [✔️]

12. Comforting

comforting
[kuhm-fer-ting]
adjective
to lessen the sadness or sorrow of someone and to strengthen by inspiring with hope and restoring a cheerful outlook.

Elsa and Dallon ended up coming over anyway, because Elsa was better at comforting than Brendon was and the latter just wanted to be with Dallon. Tyler was wrapped up in Brendon's arms as they sat on the couch. Brendon was watching tv but Tyler wasn't paying attention. He was thinking about Josh.

Did he kick that woman out? What was he doing right now, looking for Tyler? What if he'd had sex with her again? How could Tyler leave him alone with her? He should go back there. All he wanted was to hear Josh say he still loved him, to have Josh hold him instead of Brendon.

Elsa arrived first, her hair wet and sticking to her clothes. It must've been raining outside.

She immediately took Brendon's place, scooping Tyler into her arms. Tyler started crying again, because he knew Elsa was going to be furious with Josh. He didn't want her to be, he didn't want any of this to be happening.

"I'm sorry, Ty," she said softly, even though she didn't know what happened. Nobody did. Tyler refused to tell them. Brendon had guessed that Josh broke up with him, but Tyler didn't really know. He had just shrugged.

Tyler clung to her, his tears dampening her shirt even further. He wasn't sobbing, because he wasn't sure if he had the energy to do that. Instead, silent tears streamed down his cheeks as he stared at Elsa's lap with a blank look on his face.

"You might feel better if you talk about it, hon," she offered, and Tyler wished she would stop being so nice to him. He didn't deserve that, wasn't worth it.

"Don't wanna," he whispered, looking up when Dallon came in the room. He gave Tyler a worried look before Brendon grabbed him by his arm and led him out of the room.

Tyler wondered what they would do. Were they going to make fun of Tyler? Were they going to talk about him, and laugh? He dropped his eyes again, his arms tightening around Elsa's waist.

"Want to talk now that Bren is gone?" she tried again, her soft fingers rubbing Tyler's back. Usually, Tyler had no problem with telling her everything. This was different, though. What if he told her, then just went back to Josh? What would she think of him?

"I dunno," he mumbled. "You guys will hate me more."

"We don't hate you, Ty. We love you with all our heart. Nothing you do or say will make us hate you, ever. You're our best friend."

"But 'm just a burden," Tyler sighed, looking up to find Elsa staring down at him.

"Tyler, you're not a burden. You're worth every single second of our time. You know the guys are weird about this kind of stuff, but they still care. They love you just as much as I do, and you're worth our time if it means you'll feel better," Elsa explained, and Tyler had to find the strength in him not to break down again. He wished Josh could say that to him, that he was worth it.

"Okay... You won't be mad?" he asked, and when Elsa shook her head he added, "Promise?"

"I promise, Ty."

"Josh and I got in a fight last night. I hit him," he paused, and then added "again" because he briefly forgot he lied about hitting him before. This time he wasn't fibbing.

"And then he said something really mean and I told him to leave me alone and went upstairs and didn't come back down until the morning. I guess he went out and got drunk because I found him naked with some girl and-" he was cut off by an involuntary sob. He dove in for another hug, finding Elsa's arms comforting even if she wasn't Josh.

"Shh, it's alright. I'm not mad. You don't have to go on if you don't want to," she said, her words muffled because Tyler's temple was pressed against her mouth.

It was weird to be so close to a girl, but this was Elsa. She was Tyler's best friend, and all she wanted to do was comfort him. That was something Josh never did.

"No... No, L, she was beautiful. She was ev-everything that I'm not. I wasn't g-good enough for Josh," he whined, feeling bad that his tears were getting all over her.

"Don't say that, Ty. You're absolutely amazing. If Josh is too stupid to realize that, it's his loss. Not yours. You deserve someone that loves you as much as the three of us do, even more actually. You're more than good enough, hon, but Josh is too blind to see that." Elsa's words were comforting, and pretty soon she'd gotten Tyler to stop crying.

"What... Elsa, what if I still love him?" he sighed, sitting up to wipe his wet cheeks.

"That's perfectly normal, Ty. He's your first love, right? You're not going to get over him in the blink of an eye."

"But... What if- What if I don't want to get over him?"

"You need to, Tyler. He's not good to you, and I know you know that."

"But it's my fault, I'm not good to him either. And I think he has, like, anger issues, so he can't control it sometimes..."

"Do not make excuses for him, seriously Ty. I'm not going to be mad at you if you go back to him, but I'm going to be really disappointed."

Tyler gulped, taking in what she said. He didn't want to disappoint anybody, but he knew he'd end up crawling back to Josh despite telling himself he wouldn't. "I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be sorry. Do you want me to tell Bren and Dal so you don't have to?"

Tyler nodded, gratefully. "Yeah, thanks. You're a great friend, L. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"I think all three of you would go crazy," she joked, making Tyler smile for the first time that day. Elsa left the room to go find their other friends, leaving Tyler alone to consider what she'd said.

She was right, he was making excuses for Josh to try and make him seem better than he actually was. Tyler realized that now, but he still had love for Josh regardless. More than likely, he'd go back home tomorrow. Or maybe he'd wait until Monday. Yeah, that sounded okay to him. He'd spend the weekend with his friends.