Freak (Troyler AU)

Chapter Twenty-Four

*Tyler's POV*

"So, where does this boy live?" My mother asked quietly, watching me as I cooked breakfast. Normally I just had toast or the quickest thing I could find, but I was purposely trying to waste time today. Being the overexcited little kid I was, I'd woken up at 7am, five hours before I had to be at Troye's. I mean, I know I like to utilize time to get ready, but really there was only so much I had to do before I was presentable.

"Mom!" I snapped, already slightly irritated from having to wait around so long. I'd spent an entire hour laying in bed thinking about Troye after waking up. And no, not even in the dirty way, just the completely sappy lovesick way. I had it bad, like, to the point it was worrisome.

"Alright, at least tell me when I can expect you home by." My mother spoke up again, giving me an expectant look and raising her eyebrows demandingly. I just gave her a skeptical glare, wondering why it mattered. Was she worried about me spending time around Troye or something? "I need to know whether I should make supper for both of us or not!"

"Ugh, I don't know! I'll text you as soon as I do." I sighed, sinking down at the table across from her. I immediately felt bad for being so short with her, but of course she understood. She was the most understanding person on the planet, of course she realized I was only acting out because I was nervous. Yes, nervous. I'd thought it cute and almost laughable when he got all flustered around my mother the first time he met her, but that was because I knew how absolutely harmless she was. I knew nothing about his family, other than Sage was a sarcastic little shit. What if I got there and they were super strict bible-thumpers who were homophobic? Or maybe I'd get there and they'd be complete idiots, burn-outs doing drugs and not giving a single fuck about their children. As you can tell, all the extra time to get ready this morning has given me quite a bit of time to think out every possible way things could go wrong today.

"While you're at it you should probably text me updates throughout the day, you know, so I know if you're making any progress." I snapped out of my head then, rolling my eyes at my over-eager mother. She'd barely shut-up about Troye last night when we followed our routine and watched television together for hours on end. She was asking me constant questions about his personal life, about what all we'd done together so far, what his school life was like. Obviously the questions got annoying quite fast when I was trying to pay attention to the screen, and a wave of guilt hit me when I lied about his school life through my teeth. Well, it wasn't like I could tell her the truth, that he was some invisible kid who no one cared about and he cared even less back. No one aside from me anyway, and I guess Shane and Alfie maybe. But when she shifted closer to me and leaned her head on my shoulder, mumbling simply the words 'I have been waiting for you to bring a boy home forever, this is so exciting!' it was impossible for me to actually be angry with her never-ending curiosity. In fact, I kind of liked that talking about Troye had become part of our routine. I couldn't even really call it an interruption from routine at this point, considering we did it so much.

"You can wait until I get home, and even then I'm only telling you if you're good and stop embarrassing me in front of him." I chastised her, narrowing my eyes as I said the last part. She and Troye had both refused to tell me what they'd talked about over hot chocolate yesterday morning, which evidently, only made me a hundred times more curious. She could have told him I liked him for all I know.

"Fine." She sighed loudly, getting to her feet and leaving the room. This wasn't out of anger, but more-so because her shift was starting soon and she had to leave for work. I got up to go check on the eggs and bacon I had cooking, not missing the sound of her walking back into the kitchen. I looked over my shoulder with a small smile, expecting our usual simple goodbye.