Always (Boyxboy)

Chapter Eight- Tyler

"I love him. Doesn't he realize that I want to go out of my way to make him happy". James didn't say this now though. Instead he opened his blue eyes and gestured for Tyler to stand. "I will buy you coffee though. I've had to pick up more shifts at work ever since Benny got fired, so it's fine".

About six months ago, James and gone and gotten himself a job at the local grocery store. He said it was to save up and put money away for college, but Tyler suspected it was just so he had something to do after school those two days. With Kalen gone, James had a lot more free time than he used to, and Tyler could only fill so much of it before they got sick of one another.

"Besides," James said as he slid his feet into his shoes. "You've gotten me coffee enough times. I figured I could repay you".

***

"Did it help at all?" James's voice reached his ears, but it sounded like it was far away. Tyler briefly wondered if he was sleeping, in the cafeteria at Edgewood with his head on his folded arms, but he didn't feel the relief he usually felt once he finally managed to fall asleep, so he figured not.

"Did what help?" He managed, his voice coming out thick. His tongue felt too heavy for his mouth.

"The coffee," James elaborated, and Tyler considered it.

"It got me through the first half of the day," he grumbled after a long pause, blinking his eyes open and then immediately closing them against the light. He felt like he could cry hysterically, or maybe even thrown up. Just so tired... "It's wearing off though".

"Why don't you take a sleeping pill tonight?" James offered softly. "I think you need one". This didn't sound like a bad idea, but Tyler took a moment to think ahead.

When he had started to struggle with his sleep, nearly two years ago, his mother had taken him into the doctor to see if there was something that could help him. Then began the less than pleasant stage of his life in which he tried many different types of pills, trying to find one that worked. The first kind just made his insomnia worse, while the second kind caused him to sleep walk and the third made him violently ill. It had taken nearly two months for him to find a something that allowed him a full night of comfortable rest, but the medicine was sadly one of the more addictive brands of sleep medication, and it was practically untested in people as young as him. Due to these facts, he was restricted to only taking it when he absolutely needed it, nor more than twice a month, and never twice within a week.

Usually, this worked out alright for Tyler, since getting a full night's rest would typically get him on a good sleeping schedule for at least a week, but on the off chance it didn't– which had happened a handful of times before– he needed to prepare himself to be mind numbingly tired for at least another week, because that's how long he needed to wait before taking another pill.

"Yeah," Tyler agreed. "That's probably a good idea". The next week was pretty uneventful for him, so being tired wouldn't matter much, it would just majorly suck.

It had only been a few days since he had last seen Pierce, and that meant he had to go a couple more weeks before seeking out the man's company again to avoid seeming desperate. That meant that even if he continued to struggle with sleep after taking his pill, he couldn't resort to the most successful method to induce sleep, which was having Pierce fuck the consiousness out of him.

"Do you want me to buy you a coffee from one of the vending machines? It might help keep you awake for the rest of the day".

"No thank you," Tyler responded. "I'm not supposed to drink too much caffeine on days that I take my pill or it won't work as well, and since I can't take it very often, I want it to work when I do take it".