Freak (Troyler AU)

Chapter Thirty-Three

*Troye's POV*

I watched the credits begin to roll with the same expression I'd had on my face the entire movie. It was blank, but the way tears coated my entire face made it pretty clear what I was actually thinking and feeling. I was actually really glad I had Tyler cuddled up to my side, his face nuzzled into my chest and arm draped across my stomach. I definitely needed the embrace right now. Plus the periodic random thoughts I got while he was watching the movie were absolutely hilarious. It got to the point I was snickering at one of the saddest scenes solely in reaction to Tyler's thoughts. While everyone else had been mourning over the funeral, Tyler had been thinking about how insanely creepy Peter Van Houten was, just showing up behind her at the funeral and winking at her. He was right, that was insanely creepy when you thought about it, but you weren't supposed to think about it, you were supposed to just be sad because it was a funeral. I decided we'd sat in silence long enough, watching everyone else leave the movie.

"How dare you take me to see this movie. It was honestly the saddest thing I've ever seen." I blurted, blushing slightly when my voice came out nothing more than a whimper. Tyler shifted against me, looking up at me through his eyelashes. He immediately started to giggle, the sounding evolving into a cackle the longer he spent staring at me. Now I blushed even harder, feeling embarrassed under all the attention. I decided to say something that'd hopefully wipe the cackle out and get him to stop laughing at me, even just laughing with me would be better.

"If someone took me to this as a first date, you can rest-assured there would not be a second one." I said, leaning back so I could give him time to calm down. I let my eyes fall shut, waiting patiently and listening for his response. It seemed to be taking quite a while though, leading me to wonder if I'd said something wrong. Was I coming on too strong mentioning the word date? I mean, we obviously flirted a lot, but there's no saying there's any depth to that. What if I scare him off with things like that? I opened my eyes slowly, with the intention of subtly checking to see his reaction, only to find I couldn't make eye contact in this position.

"Well, I guess it's a good thing we're just friends then, huh?" He said finally, his tone unusually quiet compared to usual. A small part of me hoped that was because he had a problem addressing us as 'just friends', but if that was the case, why would he even say it? No, it was stupid to think like that. No matter how much it felt like a date, it wasn't.

"Yeah." I muttered, refusing to let my eyes drift back up to his. I wasn't ready to see the lack of emotion in them, or how little he cared about my response. I wasn't ready for confirmation that he didn't feel like I did. He sighed then, sounding utterly exhausted as he moved closer to the door.

"We should get going now that the main crowd has left."

"Okay." I replied, not really in the mood to say much else now. I sat up further, finally able to meet his gaze. For a second we just stared at each other, before a familiar troublemaker smile spread across his features.

"Okay." I was confused how this was mischievous at first, staring at his smirk for a few seconds before it sunk in.

"I will honest to god hit you if you reference that movie again." I growled, shoving him toward the door. He just laughed, getting out gracefully and slowly walking around the front of the car. I watched him in the light of other car's headlights, biting my lip as he approached his door. I was so not ready for this night to end.

By the time we pulled into my driveway that thought had only grown. Tonight was easily one of the best nights of my life, it gave me all kinds of anxiety knowing it was about to end. I mean, surely there'd be more like this if Tyler was serious about how much he cared, but I still wasn't ready to just move on from this one. I don't know, I guess it felt like something was missing.