Always (Boyxboy)

Chapter Eight- Tyler

"Deal," James agreed softly. He gave his shoulder another squeeze and smiled at him. "I can do that. And I'll also buy you a coffee on the way to school to help you wake up. We don't need you getting a fine for falling asleep in class". The face James made then was hopeful, as if he really thought coffee would solve all of Tyler's issues.

When James had first moved to Illinois, nearly a year and a half ago, he didn't seem to fully grasp what Tyler meant when he had said he had trouble sleeping. At that point, it was clear that James took this as a way for Tyler to excuse taking many naps, but once Kalen moved and Tyler began spending more nights at James's house to help him fight loneliness, his friend began to understand what he really meant. Many nights, Tyler had tossed and turned on the futon in James room, only to eventually retreat to the living room to watch television quietly. Sometimes, James would wake up not long after he left and come find him, and other times his friend would wake up in the moring to discover Tyler sitting on his couch with bags under his eyes, telling him just how long he had been awake.

Ever since the first night James had found him on the couch at an ungodly hour in the morning, he had been very concerned about Tyler's sleeping habits, taking it upon himself to try and fix it. He had started by trying to convince Tyler to switch to a sleeping medication he could take every night – it wasn't really that simple given how hard it was for Tyler to find a medication that worked for him in the first place– and eventually settled on buying Tyler all sorts of teas that were supposed to help with insomnia.

"Coffee sounds wonderful," Tyler breathed, dropping his head against the top of the couch so he didn't need to strain his neck to look up at his friend. "You don't need to pay for me though. I know you've been saving up to get Kalen that stupidly expensive wallet for your anniversary".

In response to this, James groaned and dropped his head. It was an amusing reaction to Tyler, who knew that while James really didn't care about things like name brand, Kalen really really did, and for the first time that morning he felt a smile pulling at his lips. It was ironic that James would end up with someone like that, but it made sense why him and Kalen were so different. James had grown up in a three bedroom, one bath house, while Kalen had lived in a mansion with a theater room his entire life. All the Bradford's had. They had been raised to care about such things. Even Pierce, who pretended like he didn't care about anything, had a coat that cost over one thousand dollars– courtesy of his father, but still.

"Yeah," James grumbled, and Tyler's eyes refocused on his friend. "He's gonna be so mad when I give it to him too. When I gave him those earbuds for his birthday he was so pissed that I'd spent all that money, even though I wanted to. I heard about it for weeks".

While Kalen had expensive taste and wanted pricier objects, Ty knew he never expected James to get them for him, and when he did– because James would do anything for Kalen at this point– Kalen tended to lecture James about how he should be spending his money on himself and buying things that he wanted. James didn't really understand this, and had come to Tyler many a time to vent, always saying something along the lines of: "If I only spent my money on myself I would never buy anything because I don't want anything. I just want him to be happy. Does he not like the things I give him?"

Tyler greatly doubted that Kalen disliked the presents, since every time he had seen Kalen since his birthday, he had those expensive earbuds either in, or on his person.

"He just understands that two hundred dollars is a lot more for you than it is for him, and he doesn't want you to go out of your way," Tyler reminded, and James sighed heavily, closing his eyes for half a second. In that moment, he knew what his friend was thinking, since it was another point James tended to bring up when defending his reason for spending the money.