Freak (Troyler AU)

Chapter Thirty-Nine

*Tyler's POV*

I held up my two shirt options for today, narrowing my eyes as I glared into the mirror. I'd always been the type to take forever to get ready in the mornings, but since meeting Troye, I'd only gotten a hundred times worse. It wasn't just what I thought looked cute anymore, I had to worry about what outfits he'd prefer as well. I mean, obviously I didn't have to consider it, he wasn't shallow enough to actually judge a person based on their outfits. But if it meant catching his eyes lingering on me for just a few seconds longer or earning an adorable shy compliment from his lips, then of course the extra effort was worth it.

Speak of the devil, a familiar ringtone was filling my room seconds later. My mother was also hollering for me downstairs, but priorities. I tossed the shirts carelessly onto the floor, rushing over and collapsing onto my bed. I only let myself rest for a second though before my hand was shooting out, retrieving my phone from under the pillows and bringing it back to my face.

"Less than twenty-four hours!!" I groaned out loud as I read what the text was, rolling my eyes in time with the sound. Normally I ignored his little update texts, but judging by the amount of exclamation marks he'd decided to include, he figured this one was a pretty big deal. Which gave me all the more reason to make fun of him for it.

"You are a total loser." I punched in quickly, smirking as I pictured what his reaction would be. I hadn't expected him to take that one conversation so seriously that he actually went through with his words and gave daily update texts, but yet here he was. It had started out with me teasing him and saying that I was willing to bet he was counting down the days until I came over. He'd taken it quite literally though, sending me daily update texts stating how much longer we had until Halloween. To some it might have been annoying, but considering there was nothing I loved more than his attention, I actually didn't mind it at all.

My phone went off in my hand and my train of thought was immediately abandoned, my curiosity to see what he'd respond with absolutely overwhelming.

"Says the idiot who just dropped everything he was doing to reply to me." I sighed heavily upon reading this, my eyes drifting away from the screen to peer at the forgotten outfit choices on my floor. That wasn't even talking about the fact I'd directly ignored my mother yelling, not even knowing if it was to say goodbye to me before work or what. He was definitely right, I had dropped everything to reply to him. I wasn't going to let him know that though, the last thing that boy needed was one more thing to tease me about. If one thing had changed in the last two weeks, it was the fact our teasing relationship was no longer one-sided. He seemed to always know what to respond to make me blush when I was trying to get him to, and I both hated and loved it. Of course I hated to be made a fool of, but I couldn't help but love that accomplished grin he got every time he made me stutter.

"Shut-up." I replied simply, convincing myself that I was not going to reply to him until I got to school. I could do that. Surely I wasn't so obsessed that I couldn't stand twenty minutes not knowing what he had to say.

He texted me back almost instantly, but I grit my teeth and refused to answer it, trying to prove to myself that I could put myself before him. I managed to choose an outfit, style my hair, and even eat breakfast, all while ignoring the now constant buzzing of my phone. I guess he didn't like being ignored, considering it had only encouraged him to spam me.

I stuffed the final bite of my breakfast into my mouth, getting up and sliding on my sock-feet to the counter. I picked up my phone then, grinding my bottom lip between my teeth as I resisted the urge to just make that one click of the touch screen and see what these fifty-eight missed texts were. I was willing to bet emojis or random letters, but how would I know if  I didn't check?