16| Chartreuse Means Serial Killer Tendencies
I'D gotten myself into a pickle. I had game, but texting Clay earlier today, I was all talk.
My apartment was by no means in the shape for a party, even if it was a small one with just Clay and his close group of friends. It's not like I was a complete pig, and the place wasn't super messy because honestly, I didn't use enough dishes to crowd the sink, and I mainly just lay on the couch all day without causing too much of a mess. There were clothes and shit kind of scattered throughout my room and bathroom, and it wasn't super tidy, but that wasn't the main issue. The main issue was that as much as I loved this fucking dope apartment, it hardly had anything that really felt like me.
It was super modern, decorated aesthetically, and pretty damn classy. Now, I liked the aesthetic, and I liked that everything was so put-together. But I wasn't the most put-together human being, and living minimalistically, with decorative pillows and marble vases didn't exactly scream Tyler Hamilton. I needed a little bit of chaos and idiocy in my apartment to make it really feel authentic. My room felt pretty authentic with the color-changing lights, the slight mess, and my personal items from home.
I wanted the rest of the place to feel like it matched who I was before anyone else saw it. Besides Cayden, of course, since he'd already been there.
That's what made him the perfect person to enlist for help after texting Clay and inviting him over for a party that I hadn't yet planned or thought out. Really, I don't know what I was thinking. I just wanted an excuse to get Clay in my apartment with his group of friends because I knew he felt comfortable around them, and I understood why. Maybe having him over with all of them would help me see him in a new light. I just wanted to give this thing a shot despite my inhibitions. I usually held back, but I was really trying not to.
A party was a great idea, that's what Cayden said. And he agreed to come over after work to help me get the apartment in shape. What we needed, he said, was a shopping spree.
He was so fucking right.
When Cayden came over and I gave him my plan for decorating and also my idea for a party tomorrow night, he was all in. Ecstatic, really. He texted his entire group of friends at that moment, and then it was shopping time.
"You see, I like the aesthetic of your apartment already. It's just so modern and gorgeous," Cayden said while we walked through some local shop that carried just about everything. Home decor, cleaning supplies, food, and even canoes. It was an odd store. "But I see what you're saying. You need it to feel a little more like your chaotic self."
"Rude."
"You said it!" Cayden protested. "No. You called yourself chaotic first in the car, which means you're not allowed to be petty that I am agreeing. I'm simply repeating your words, Ty Ham."
I laughed. "I'm kidding. Calm down." I stopped and checked our surroundings. We were directly in between the bedding section and the bread aisle. "What is this place and what are we looking for, anyway?"
"This is the best and most convenient store ever, and we're looking for anything that speaks to you!"
"Well, so far I'm hearing nothing."
"It's because you need to open your ears, my dear," Cayden said, cupping his hand to his ear and listening to absolutely nothing. He snapped his fingers and pointed to the left. "That way! I'm hearing some great shit just over there."
I rolled my eyes and followed him while he skipped through the aisles towards god-knows-what. We literally walked through an aisle full of bread, another with school supplies, and a wine aisle before reaching whatever the great shit Cayden heard was.
Turns out, it was great shit.
He hadn't been wrong.
"My damn," I muttered. "You're a genius."
"I've been told that before," Cayden said, smiling smugly. "Do you love it, or do you love it?"
"I fucking love it," I said, grinning at what was right in front of me. "It might be a little over-the-top. Don't you think?"
"It's a little dramatic, yeah, but I think it suits you. I mean, it's your sport, and it's a fun game. Imagine all the good times you'll have playing with this thing," Cayden said.
Yes, it was a basketball-related item.
You know those arcade games? The ones where you throw those mini basketballs into the hoop and the entire thing is made of fabric, so the balls roll right back down to you?
That's exactly what we were looking at. And maybe it was a little much, but I could envision it already. I would put it directly in view of the front door. Then, it would be one of the first things anyone saw when they walked in. It was fucking perfect. And Cayden was right on the fact that I'd get some great use out of it.
God dammit.
I was gonna purchase that thing.
"Okay, this is my only big purchase," I told him. "But I want you to know that you're everything to me in this moment."
"Ty Ham," Cayden gushed, putting his hand to his heart. "That is all I strive to be."
✿✿✿
"It's just an apartment," Noah said for the billionth time. There was nothing scary or intimidating about just another old apartment.
But there was totally something scary and equally intimidating about Tyler Hamilton's apartment. The idea of it, that is. I hadn't stepped foot in there yet, and we were only in the lobby waiting for the elevator to come down. But each foot closer to Tyler's apartment was another spike in my heart rate and levels of nervousness.
His apartment building was also one of the fanciest in Atlanta, I was sure of it. It was huge, and he lived on the top floor. Cayden told us that Tyler's sister's boyfriend paid for the place because his mom owned the building, or something like that. Regardless of how Tyler was living in such a fancy place, it was crazy.
"It's not just an apartment," Jeremy argued when the elevator dinged and all of us stepped in. "It's a fucking skyscraper."
Logan rolled her eyes. "You're overdramatic. It's not even a skyscraper, it's just a building." She looked pointedly at me. "A normal, simple, very casual apartment building. Got it?"
I nodded.
I was really excited to see Tyler, and to hang out with him around all of my close friends. But it hadn't hit me that I would be seeing his place of living until just a few hours ago. A place of living, whether an apartment, house, condo, or a trashcan, was super personal. We weren't really on that super personal level yet, not even at all.
I said that the apartment was a sneak-peek into the other persons true mind.
"That's not proven fact, but it does remind me of a study I read about. How interior design influences the subconscious mind," Noah said while the elevator took us up.
I turned to face him, alert. "Wait, really?"
Noah nodded. "There are theories on color, the decor based on a set of factors including function and symbol, and feng-shui."
"Oh, I know feng-shui," I said, smiling. Then, returning to my alert and nervous state, I held Noah by the shoulders. "But you have to tell me about the colors, and–and the other things!"
"Clay," Noah said, "it's just a study. It's not going to clue you in on the true workings of Tyler's mind. Don't stress about it."
"But what if there's a bad color in there? Like what if you're not telling me that chartreuse means serial killer tendencies?" I said.
Noah took my hands off his shoulders. "I can assure you that's not a part of the study."
"You're psyching yourself out," Jeremy said. "Cayden's up there with Tyler, too. He told me the place is really great. No serial killer vibes."
"No chartreuse?"
Jeremy shook his head. "No chartreuse."
The elevator dinged, and we reached the top floor. I followed after Jeremy who took the lead, heading to the end of the hall where Tyler's apartment was. Jeremy didn't hesitate to knock on the door, and my heart pounded within my chest.
A second later, the door opened and Tyler held it open, smiling at the four of us. His eyes reached mine and his smile grew a bit bigger, then he waved us inside.
"Welcome to my humble abode," he said.
Jeremy walked in and Logan and Noah followed, since they'd brought food and wanted to set it down. I was the last to step inside, and Tyler kissed my cheek before he shut the door. I hadn't been expecting that, but it made me blush already, and I was starting to become less crazily anxious.
"And you are especially welcome," Tyler added, winking. "I should give you the tour."
"I–yeah, I would love the tour," I said.
Tyler grinned and pulled me into the main spread of his apartment; the kitchen and open living room, huge windows, and the generous patio. There was an arcade-type basketball thing on one wall, bright color-changing neon lights on the balcony and lined around the kitchen island.
"Hey," I heard Jeremy call out, and I turned along with Tyler. "What's he doing here?
Tyler grinned and walked over to where Jeremy stood with a life-sized cutout of Robert Pattinson.
"We found him at the weird supply store Cayden took me to," Tyler said, wrapping his arm around the cardboard version of Robert Pattinson. Tyler nodded at me. "You have to be a Twilight fan. Right?"
Jeremy laughed. "It's practically written on his face."
I blushed. "I like Twilight, yeah."
"Team Edward?" Tyler asked, moving away from Robert and walking back over to me.
"Team Edward all the way." I grinned.
Tyler took me by the wrist gently. "Good," he whispered.
He kept a hold of my wrist and I followed him further into his living room, taking in the decor. On the TV, there was a basketball game going, but it was kept on mute while music played through the speakers. There were basketballs lining the TV set, and he had the same neon lights lining the coffee table. Everything was super modern, but I could tell the parts that Tyler had really put detail into. No one else had a huge basketball-shooting arcade game in between their kitchen and living room.
There were a few posters on the walls of famous basketball players and movies. When Tyler let go of my wrist, I walked over to the wall that led down to another hallway, and I found that it was lined with movie posters.
Tyler stood beside me, almost semi-behind me; his right shoulder pressed against the back of my left and I could feel his breath on my skin.
"These are all my favorite movies," he told me. "Cayden helped me print these posters out."
"I haven't heard of most of these," I said, slowly walking down the hall to look at the rest. They appeared to mostly be horror movies, which I figured made sense for him. I would have had posters of a bunch of romantic comedies, some classics, the occasional Oscar nominee, and even a Hallmark movie here or there. I stopped in front of one of the posters and verbally gasped a little, which made Tyler chuckle.
"Hereditary isn't for the faint of heart," he said quietly, then gently nudged me with his arm. "Come on, let me show you the rest."
"The rest?"
He smiled. "You know, there's a hallway, a bathroom for your convenience, and my room. Duh."
Tyler spun around and I followed him, nervous about the last part: his bedroom. I tried to brush it off like it didn't have some weird effect on me, the thought of entering his room, aka the singular most personal room of anyone's living space.
He led me down the hall and showed me the bathroom, which appeared mostly undecorated minus the golf put-put set up by the toilet, which he told me he only bought because it was hilarious. Then came his bedroom.
Tyler opened up the door and pushed it in, gesturing to his room as he walked inside and I followed. I didn't want to walk too far, so I mostly stayed by the door. The room was lit up with dim red lights at the moment, and I wondered what the color red meant in Noah's psychology study. The rest of the room was pretty simple, but the bed was unmade and a few things were unkempt. His basketball bag was thrown on one side of the room, half-opened with clothes falling out.
"Want to see a trick?" Tyler asked, which made me gulp. He must have been able to see my gulp because he laughed. "Shit, don't worry, it's not a weird trick. And that wasn't a sexual innuendo." He slipped past me so that he could shut the door, and then stopped directly in front of me. "Unless you want it to be."
I gulped again.
A little bit. I, a little bit, wanted it to be a sexual innuendo. But that's not what we were doing, and it wasn't our agreement. So I was going to settle for the trick he'd already planned.
Tyler crossed the room and was getting ready to touch the lightswitch.
"Are you turning all the lights off?" I asked, fiddling with my fingers anxiously. I hated the dark. Really, I hated any amount of darkness that had absolutely no pinch of light at all. It made me think of horror movie scenarios and creepy clowns or serial killers emerging from the darkness.
"Don't worry, it's a part of the trick. It won't get pitch black, I promise," Tyler said, and he looked at me intently before flicking the switch.
I almost cringed at the sudden blackness, but when I looked up, I realized it wasn't super dark at all.
There were stars on his ceiling.
Tyler crossed the room and stood beside me again, both of us looking up at the ceiling. The entire thing was encompassed with stars, and I found myself smiling in awe.
"They're just stickers," Tyler admitted. "But they're kind of fucking awesome. It's like stargazing in the privacy of my own bedroom. I don't even have to go outside if I don't want to."
"Wow."
"Wow is right," Tyler muttered, and I felt his gaze on the side of my face. I wasn't sure how that worked, but I knew he was looking at me. "Do you think it's stupid?"
I darted to look at him. "What? No, definitely not. I think it's genius." I looked back up at his ceiling and the expanse of stars above. "This is probably my favorite thing I've seen."
Tyler nudged me. "Is that just because it's in my bedroom?" I knew he was teasing, but I was still blushing, slightly embarrassed. "Alright, we shouldn't keep the others waiting too long. I can smell whatever Logan brought, and I'm fucking starving."
With a flick of the light, the stars were gone.
✿✿✿
Okaaaaaay there's another chapter that finishes off the night BUT I COULDNT PUT IT ALL IN ONE.
Idk.
I'm contemplating an early release tomorrow. Who knows? If I'm feeling crazy.
Anyway, Tyler's got his apartment slightly more chaotic to match his personality, which we LOVE. Also my neighbor used to have one of those basketball things and it was a fun time, not gonna lie. I had to give it to my man, Tyler.
Clay is still a good amount intimidated by Tyler even though he really doesn't need to be, but he doesn't know that. He's just our sweet little Porky Boy.
AND THE STAR CEILING. We love. My cousin had these glow in the dark star stickers on her ceiling and I was very jealous of them as a kid, but Tyler's are even better. Because I said so.
More to comeeeee sooooon. More cuteness, more drama, more EVERYTHING.