yellow | trj

2

The next morning, I was woken up by the smell of coffee. I opened my eyes to find Josh waving a steaming cup of the dark brown liquid in my face. I groaned and pulled the cover over my head. That's when I was hit with a blast of cold water. They had set me up. I threw the cover off of myself to find a grinning Tyler standing over me behind the couch with a now empty bowl. Their laughter echoed and filled the room as I sat up and began to shiver. I flung myself at Josh and wrapped my cold, soaking wet arms around his dry torso. He let out a playful scream, and we all laughed some more.

After all of the exciting chaos was over, Tyler retreated to the kitchen to treat us all with some pancakes. Josh and I were cleaning up the water and blankets when he looked at me and sighed. I looked up at him and tilted my head to one side. "What is it?"

"You never finished telling me about that boy last night," he stated.

I nodded and began to tell him all about my only friend in this place I'd been taken to.

Skye took the boys hand in her own. They were both afraid and alone. She knew he needed her as much as she needed him.

She looked around to make sure they weren't anywhere near her and leaned into his ear.

"Don't tell anyone your first or middle name. When they ask, tell them your last name. I'm Skye, " she whispered.

"Joseph, " he said back.

They made ground rules that day. Don't tell anyone your real name. No birthdays. Nothing. No ages or anything. Just your last name. It's safer this way. Don't ever say their name, because it attracts them. Never leave eachothers' sides.

I started to explain everything I knew about him."I never knew his first name. I only knew him as Joseph. We protected eachother an-" before Tyler walked back in the room and cut me off with, "And never left eachothers sides. Hello again, old friend. I'm happy to have met you again. We haven't talked in quite some time. How have you been?"

My heart sank all the way to my stomach. "Th-there's no way," I stuttered.

Tyler stepped closer to me and pulled my chin up to meet his eyes. When my gaze caught his, the warm, familiar chocolate-y brown eyes I remember too well were staring back into mine. My jaw dropped and I stuttered backwards into the wall, hitting my head with a loud thud.

Both boys rushed to my side in a hurry.

"Oh my gosh, are you okay??" Josh asked in a panic.

I let out a sigh. "I'm fine."

I was not. Internally, I was damaged more than I could ever imagine. I've been through so much and this just shocked me to such a point that I didn't know what to think.

I pressed my back against the cool wall and slid down until my head was between my knees. Tyler kneeled down beside me and took my hand. "I didn't mean to scare you, Skye. I'm so, so sorry. Are you okay? Does your head hurt? Should I take you to the hospital?"

I looked up and let my now tear filled eyes meet his once again. His eyes were warm and welcoming, but swirled with an eerie darkness that was permanently left there by the faraway place we had met at. I blinked the tears away, and his hand reached up and caught them before they could drip off my face.

Josh was now kneeling on the other side of me, holding my other hand. He rubbed circles on my palm with his fingertips the same way he had done many times when we were children. The same way he had done to lull me to sleep the night before I was taken.

I looked back and forth between both boys and said, "Please help me off of the floor. "

They nodded and pulled me up. I stumbled a bit walking into the kitchen where the pancakes Tyler had made us were waiting to be eaten.

After we ate the best pancakes I've ever eaten in my entire life, I knew I needed to go home. I had no clothes here, and I needed to get ready to go start my day.

Tyler and Josh left the room to go change and prepare for their own days, so I was left sitting at the table. I scanned the room to see if I could find a piece of paper but had no luck. Instead, I tore off a paper towel and found a pen. On the paper towel, I wrote:

'Dear Tyler and Josh,
I enjoyed the time we spent together this morning. I had to go home, though. There are things I need to do. I thought I'd leave you a goodbye instead of just leaving. Thank you for letting me stay. I'll see you soon.

-Emily XX'

I also left my phone number at the bottom in case they decided they wanted to hang out.

I sat the note down on the table and quietly let myself out the door. However, when I made it outside the weather was very dark and gloomy and wet. Rain fell from the piles of dark grey clouds and thunder crackled in the distance. I sighed knowing I had to go through that, but I closed my eyes and made a run for it anyways. But that's all I remember.

I woke up a few hours later in a bed surrounded by warmth. I shifted and the warmth around me shifted as well, which really woke me up.

I sat up with such speed that it made me dizzy but relaxed when I realized the figure beside me was just Tyler.

Tyler hadn't paid attention to my panic and was still asleep. I laid back down so that I could get a closer look at his face and take in all the small features. The way his lip pouts a little when he sleeps, the way his eyelashes curl just perfectly (I'm jealous), and the way his brown eyes are staring back at me.

Wait.

Why is he staring? He's asleep. I-

"Hey there, clumsy," he mumbled.

Oh. He's awake. That's why he's staring.

"Hello? Earth to Emily?"

It didn't occur to me until now that I was staring too.

I rolled over and buried my head in my pillow in embarrassment.

"What happened?" I asked, my voice muffled by my pillow.

"You took a great fall sprinting in the rain. Josh had to go out to the store and found you," he explained.

I tucked my head farther into the pillow and heard Tyler let out a laugh. I lifted my head and looked at him with a confused look.

"What's so funny, Tyler?" I glared.

He threw his hands up in surrender. "Woah easy, killer. You just look cute when you're embarrassed, and you've been embarrassed a lot the past few days."

That made me even more embarrassed. I hid my face back in my pillow, gaining another laugh from Tyler. Then I felt his arms wrap around me and his face hide in my hair.

"Relax, Emily. You're so tense. You've got nothing to be tense about," he muttered, his voice slightly muffled through my hair.

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and wrapped my arms around him too. That was probably the wrong thing to do though because he started rubbing circles on my back and I was slowly beginning to fall back into a deep sleep.