chalk ; tyrus {completed}

chapter 11 - summer vacation

TJ shot him a glare. "I'm so looking forward to winning this thing right now."

"In your wildest dreams."

~

"This is Cyrus Goodman reporting live from his living room - TJ, how are you handling the epic defeat that just occurred?"

TJ just groaned, flopping back onto the couch and throwing a dramatic hand over his face. "No news people allowed!" came the muffled reply.

Cyrus laughed at that, shuffling over slightly to give the boy a playful nudge. "Wanna play Uno instead?"

"I hate you." TJ grumbled, reluctantly sitting up again.

Cyrus gasped. "You don't!"

"Yeah, I don't," TJ agreed, giving the boy a fond smile. "I could never."

~

Later on when they had retreated to Cyrus' bedroom, he bravely suggested that they watch a few horror movies.

TJ was always raving about how much he loved horror movies (including the terrible ones), and although the idea terrified Cyrus slightly, he knew he could probably handle it with a friend there. Particularly if that friend was TJ.

"Are you sure about this, Cy?" he asked him, his hand hovering over the play button.

Cyrus hesitated for a moment, before giving a quick nod.

"Okay."

TJ clicked the button, settling back down on the bed amongst all of the pillows. He handed one to Cyrus with a small smile.

"You can hug this if you get scared."

"Can't I just hug you?" Cyrus blurted.

He regretted the words almost instantly, but the athlete didn't seem to mind too much though. In fact, all he did was raise an amused eyebrow. "That's cool too."

Cyrus survived most of the movie, even managing to join in on TJ's quips about the main characters from time to time. That was - until one particular jump scare that had him jolting violent and grabbing onto the closest thing to him. That thing just happened to be TJ, and the way he ended up clinging to the boy was downright embarrassing.

The athlete chuckled, running a soothing hand up and down the boy's back. "You can look now." he murmured after a few moments.

Cyrus slowly lifted his head, a very obvious blush staining his cheeks. "That wasn't one of my finest moments." he said with a grimace.

"It's fine - I did the exact same thing with Amber when we watched our first horror movie."

He reached over to pause the movie, gently closing the laptop and turning to the boy with a bright smile.

"That one was bad anyway! How about we do something else?"

There was a smirk tugging at TJ's lips now, and Cyrus felt his stomach flip.

"...Like what?" he asked wearily.

TJ shifted so that he was fully facing the boy, crossing his legs and resting his chin on his hands.

"I don't know, do you like anyone?"

Cyrus nearly choked at that, and it took a few seconds of wide-eyed staring for him to collect himself again.

"Do I what?"

TJ gave him an amused smile. "Is that a yes?"

"No!"

"Oh come on, we're friends now!" he complained "There aren't any girls that you find cute?"

Cyrus opened his mouth to respond, but the words got stuck in his throat.

TJ didn't know he was gay.

"Um..." he stalled, trying to think up a way he could change the topic. "How about we keep watching that horror movie?"

He very nearly face-palmed at his own obviousness.

TJ smiled mischievously, which only served to make Cyrus even more flustered.

"Are you trying to change the subject?"

"No!" he defended. "It's just that...well...if there were someone, it wouldn't really be a girl per se."

TJ went silent for a moment, and Cyrus was worried that he had misread the situation somehow. What if the he wasn't actually okay with it? What if-

"Okay. Any cute boys then?"

TJ raised a playful eyebrow, and Cyrus immediately let out a relieved sigh.

But - were there any cute boys? TJ was definitely cute, but he was also definitely straight. Plus, that could be put down to friendly admiration. Nothing more.

"No," he responded, smiling wide. "I mean - there are lots of cute boys, but I'm not really interested in any."

The athlete seemed suspicious, but he nodded anyway.

After a few moments, it was Cyrus' turn to smirk. "What about you?" he asked.

TJ immediately averted his gaze, turning back to the laptop and opening it. "We're not going there."

"What?" Cyrus spluttered, throwing a pillow at the boy. "That's not fair!"

"Life's not fair." TJ responded, throwing him a smug smile.

~

A few days later when the weather had finally cooled down (and it became socially acceptable to wear hoodies again), TJ and Cyrus were back to drawing with chalk.

They both took a few moments to admire their work once they had finished (although really - Cyrus' ocean was nothing compared to TJ's galaxy.)

"Can we drive to the ice-cream parlour?" he asked suddenly.

TJ stopped packing up his chalk for a moment to give the boy a fond eye-roll. "And by 'we', I'm guessing you mean me?"

"Well yeah," Cyrus replied, reaching over to grab a chalk that had rolled away. "I'd prefer to make it there in one piece."

"Practice makes perfect, Cy."

"Not when it comes to me, it doesn't."

TJ gave him a pointed look, and he let out a defeated sigh. "Next time?" he tried.

"...Fine," the boy agreed, standing up reluctantly and holding out a hand for him to take. "Has anyone ever told you that you're ridiculously hard to say 'no' to?"

Cyrus grinned as he took TJ's hand. "A few people."

TJ snorted at that. "It's definitely your eyes. No one does innocent, pleading looks like you do."

Cyrus's smile widened, and he decided to demonstrate the exact look that TJ was talking about.

"Oh no!" the boy gasped, shielding his eyes dramatically. "You're making me wanna agree to something you haven't even asked yet!"

"Could you pay for my ice-cream?" he asked hopefully.

"Absolutely not."

Cyrus burst into laughter at that, giving TJ a playful shove as they walked towards his car.

"Rude!"

"Hey - I'm the one driving you there in the first place!"

"Whatever."