Be Alright

Twenty-One

Twenty-One: Trauma

Sweeping the remaining pieces of glass up off the floor of the office into the dustpan, I let out a breath of relief. Never have I ever seen so much broke glass in one place.

Sure, I had broken a few glasses in the kitchen when I was young, but that was a small dent in how much glass was on the floor of Tyler's office and living room.

Whoever it was that did this, they made sure to break every piece of glass out, leaving none stuck in the panes of the window or door.

I dump the dust pan into the garbage can before leaning the broom and dustpan against the wall. I would put it up, but I had no idea where Tyler kept it stored and since he was in the shower, I thought it would be best to just wait.

Unless I just joined him in the shower.

He tried multiple times to get me to wait for him to clean it up, even begged me to just let him do it. After failing multiple times, he finally let me convince him to take a shower and let me clean up.

With how tore up he is about all this, the last thing I needed him to do is deal with the mess. After how good he's treated me and how much money he spent on the gala, the least I could do was clean up a mess.

After finally cleaning the floor up, I sit at the chair behind Tyler's desk. I didn't know where everything went, so I left the papers and folders in a stack on his desk. It wouldn't be hard to just organize them like he had before.

I begin putting some of the fallen books back on the shelf. I didn't know why Tyler had so many, considering I've never seen him read before.

Then again, I tend to keep him busy whenever I come over.

I pick up a book, examining it before I put it on the shelf. The front of it doesn't have a title, nor does the binding. The difference of this book with the others catches my attention, and I find myself flipping through the pages.

When I opened the book up, I quickly found that it wasn't a book at all. Instead, it's a photo album full of pictures, picture of Tyler when he was younger.

My eyes skim the pages, taking in all the pictures of young Tyler. He wasn't the only ones in the pictures. I assume the older man and woman are his mom and dad, and the two young girls are his sisters.

I didn't even know he had sisters.

A huge grin spreads over my face at a picture of Tyler at Halloween time, dressed as a pirate. He didn't look happy at all, the frown and hateful look on his face was apparent. The girl beside him, still assuming it's his sister, is dressed as Sleeping Beauty, while the baby in the stroller, assuming another sister, is dressed as a pumpkin.

The more I flip, the older Tyler and his family get, until I'm at the end. The last pictures added was Tyler in high school. Pictures of him in his football uniform and homecoming dances filled the page, and I tried to imagine what Tyler was like in high school.

If he was anything like how he is now, I'm sure he was very well liked. He probably made average grades and probably got in trouble from time to time, but easily got out of it. Tyler had a way about it that he could talk himself out of any situation.

The last picture in the album is a picture of the family together. Tyler's dad stood behind him, his hair turning gray and his glasses hanging at the end of his nose, nearly falling off. I try to see if he has any of Tyler's features, but besides facial structure and eye color, they look hardly anything alike.