Unlikeable You

Chapter Four

After Tyler explained what had happened, Daniel’s stomach rumbled.

“All that talking you did made me hungry.” Daniel smiled. He patted his stomach. Tyler chuckled and looked at the clock on the wall. 3:47 AM.

He turned to Daniel. “They won’t be serving breakfast for another four hours.” Before, Tyler had felt too sick to eat. Now, the hunger was beginning to catch up to him, too. He felt a small cramp in his stomach. “I can go get something from the vending machine,” he offered. Tyler stood up and stretched. His sleeping position hadn’t been the best choice, he realized that now. Letting out a groan, he moved his arms above his head.

Daniel continued the conversation, “You’re a lifesaver.” He looked at Tyler with a smile, which was returned. Tyler headed towards the door and stopped when he grabbed the handle. 

“I’ll be back.”

Leaving the elevator and arriving on the bottom floor, Tyler sought out the vending machines. He walked down the empty hallway. Wall-mounted signs pointed him in the right direction. Once he turned a few corners, he found three options lined up: snacks, sodas, and ice cream. Tyler took his phone out of his pocket. He pulled back the case which revealed whatever money he had hidden there. Pulling out a five-dollar bill and two ones, he searched his options. 

As Tyler looked, footsteps and talking caught his attention.  It was late—he could only wonder who else was awake at such an ungodly hour. Tyler looked around for the source of the sounds. Three police officers were chatting amongst themselves, making their way towards the elevator Tyler had left from. He decided not to think much of it—thinking maybe they were just patrolling—and turned away as he continued picking his and Daniel’s small meal.

Once he made his selection—a bag of Hot Fries for Daniel, Cheez-Its for himself, along with two bottles of water for the both of them—Tyler made his way back to Daniel’s room. As he made his way down the hall, his eyes picked up on a room with the door slightly ajar. Looking closer, the placement of the room amongst the hall looked familiar: it was Daniel’s room.

Tyler picked up his pace. When he walked through the door, three sets of new eyes were on him. Inside were the three officers he had seen earlier, all with stoic expressions. Tyler’s eyes shifted to Daniel. He searched his friend’s face for answers, seeming to pick up nothing. Noticing Tyler’s concern, Daniel gave a reassuring nod. Tyler's shoulders relaxed. He walked across the room, taking his spot next to Daniel’s bed. Tyler laid the snacks on Daniel’s lap. The latter issued a small ‘thank you,’ and their attention moved to the officers.

“Is this the gentleman we were waiting for, Mr. Barnes?” one of the officers asked. Daniel nodded.

“Yeah, you can start now.” Daniel’s voice was serious and nearly void of emotion. It almost chilled Tyler.

The officer cleared his throat. “The TL;DR is because it was a forced entry and you were on someone else’s property, we are unable to immediately charge Mr. Whitley with assault. He has claimed it as self-defense and that you were attempting to, quote-unquote, ‘steal his son.’” The officer took a deep breath. Even he sounded annoyed. “Luckily, Mr. Whitley decided not to attempt to press charges on you, so that’s fewer things to worry about.”

The officer’s explanation was brief but long enough to allow Tyler’s anger to build. He felt the heat rise to his face and his fists clench. This isn’t fair. “That’s completely ridiculous,” he spat. Daniel’s head turned. Tyler’s eyes remained on the officers. “My father could have killed Daniel and had the intention to do so—that much is obvious,” he continued. “How could you just dismiss it like—”

“Tyler,” Daniel’s voice cut the boy’s tangent short. His hand softly landed on Tyler’s. The latter huffed out a deep breath, looking back up at the officers for answers.

“Law is a tricky area,” a different officer replied, looking sincere and apologetic. “Not everything goes as wanted, even if it seems logical. Hell, even I would feel the same as you, but I don’t have the power to make the ultimate decision. Mr. Barnes can try and press charges, but the odds of it actually going through, due to the circumstances, are low.” Their response calmed Tyler a little, and he nodded. Just be grateful Daniel is okay, Tyler. No need to be greedy.

“Okay,” Tyler answered curtly, looking down again. He felt like a brat, but was his anger not justified? Tyler wanted his father to rot for this—even if the man didn’t kill Daniel, even if he was intoxicated. Tyler didn’t care.

“Also, Mr. Whitley, your father will be released tomorrow morning. Unless you’d like to get the police further involved, which is up to you, I recommend you get things settled with your father,” the final officer spoke. Tyler gritted his teeth, nodding. He didn’t want to respond, much less look at the officers. They knew how he felt.

“Thank you, officers,” Daniel spoke up kindly. They all nodded, issuing their goodbyes. When the door closed, the room fell quiet. Daniel groaned. “Well, that was fun.” Tyler looked at his friend with an unimpressed glare. Daniel raised his hands in defense. “What did I do?”

“That wasn’t fun, Daniel. It was frustrating,” Tyler corrected. He knew Daniel was joking, but he was incredibly pissed off. Tyler held his own face in his hands. He wanted to scream, cry, lash out… anything to express how he felt. But, when Daniel gently ran his hand through Tyler’s hair, the latter knew it was useless. Daniel already knew. “I don’t… I don’t want to go back there.” Tyler felt exhausted—emotionally, physically, and in every other way possible. He just wanted everything to be over. “Never again. If I do, I might end up doing something stupid.”

Daniel continued running his hand through Tyler’s hair. He let out a sigh. He was just as tired. “I know, Tyler. I know.” There was a moment of peaceful silence until he spoke again. “You can always come and stay with me. Mom will let you live there if you want. You know that.” 

More silence followed before Tyler lifted his head. He leaned into Daniel’s touch. “I know.” He looked up at Daniel. “I just don’t want to be a burden on you guys.”

“You know you aren’t, Tyler. I...” Daniel paused, “we care for you a lot. You’ll never be a burden.” He watched as Tyler’s face evened out slightly. The boy’s eyes were closing and his head started drooping. Daniel smiled. “Tired?” 

Tyler hummed in response. “A little.” The night had been a rollercoaster for both of them, but Tyler took most of the emotional toll. He was exhausted.

“Then let’s eat a little then pass out all we want, ‘kay?” Daniel suggested. Tyler nodded.

“Okay.”

When Tyler woke up, he felt disoriented. He forgot where he was, not realizing until he turned on his side and hit something firm. Tyler turned toward the foreign object. When he opened his eyes, his face flushed crimson.

“Just sleep up here, Tyler. I’m gonna feel bad if you’re aching like an old man. We can share,” Daniel explained, scooting to one side of the hospital bed.

“Daniel, you literally have wires hanging from your arms right now. I’m not sleeping in the bed. I’ll be fine here,” Tyler replied. His friend gave him a not-so-intimidating glare.

“Psh-h. If I put my arm around you then you won’t lay on the wires. It’ll be fine,” Daniel rebutted. Tyler allowed a moment of silence to see if there was a follow-up statement. Nothing was said. The silence allowed for a mental image to grow in Tyler’s head. His cheeks burned aflame. The thought of Tyler resting against Daniel’s chest, the latter’s arm around him, them breathing the same air—

“I’m not risking it,” Tyler deadpanned. He ignored the stammering of his heart. Daniel’s expression softened.

“Tyler, I will tell you if you’re hurting me or if anything is wrong, okay? Or if either of us is uncomfortable after laying down, you can move back. Deal?” he reasoned. Tyler huffed out a breath. He was tired and he knew Daniel would never let up, so he conceded:

“Fine. Deal.”

In front of Tyler was Daniel’s sleeping figure. He seemed to be peacefully sleeping, his chest rising and falling with each breath. Tyler tried not to move. Daniel was a mere few inches from his face. So close. Tyler thought back to the night before: the casual touches, the caring words, the kiss—

“Good morning stranger,” Daniel’s voice cut into Tyler’s thoughts. The latter’s face was hot, and he felt like he was dying from heart failure. Luckily, he wasn’t facing the window. The shadow hid his not-so-not-obvious dilemma.

“Hi,” Tyler whispered. He was too busy holding his breath to care about being heard.

Daniel smiled. “Why are we whispering?” he whispered back. Tyler rolled his eyes but smiled back nonetheless. 

“I hate you,” the boy muttered.

His friend chuckled. “No, you don’t.”

“Sadly, you are correct.” Tyler playfully rolled his eyes. He enjoyed these playful moments with Daniel. He enjoyed the way it made his heart skip. Tyler showed a soft smile before turning around. His heartbeat was finally starting to slow, and he’d like to keep it that way.

“Hey, that’s rude.” Daniel pouted from behind him. He grabbed Tyler’s shoulder to shift the boy back towards him. He looked Tyler in the eye, giving a faux glare. “Take it back.”

Tyler glared back; the corner of his mouth lifted. “No.”

A small stare-off ensued, ending with Daniel releasing an all-too-dramatic sigh. He turned on his back and faced the ceiling. Tyler mimicked him seconds later. The two fell into a comfortable silence, only the noise from outside disturbing the quiet.

After a few moments, Daniel spoke up. “Hey, Tyler?”

Tyler turned toward him. “Yeah, what’s up?” Tyler watched the boy carefully. Daniel turned his head toward him.

“Can we talk about something?” He asked. Tyler’s heart jumped. 

He softly nodded. “Of course. Is something wrong?” Tyler’s face clearly showed his worry, and Daniel gave a small smile.

“It’s nothing bad, really,” Daniel reassured him. “It’s just...” He looked back to the ceiling and took a deep breath. His face evened out before he turned back to look at Tyler. His face showed his seriousness, his vulnerability. “I wanted to talk about last night—”

Tyler took a sharp intake of breath, cutting his friend off. His eyebrows furrowed. “That is bad, Daniel. What happened to you was bad—”

“Not that, Tyler,” Daniel cut him off. He let out another breath. “Before that,” he said, quieter. Tyler’s eyes widened slightly. His heartbeat sped up again, his cheeks beginning to burn. He thought back to the kiss. When I—When he—When we…

“Oh,” Tyler whispered. It was mostly to himself but it still made Daniel’s expression soften. Daniel let out a small chuckle.

“Yeah, ‘oh,’” Daniel mimicked. There was a beat of awkward silence. Daniel sobered again. “Tyler, I—”

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

Daniel was cut off by the ringing of Tyler’s phone. Both of them looked toward the interrupting object. Daniel looked back to Tyler, signaling for him to go ahead. Tyler grabbed his phone sheepishly, looking at it reluctantly. Once he read the caller ID, his face paled. 

Daniel noticed immediately. “What’s wrong, Tyler? Who is it?”

Tyler stared at the phone for a moment before looking back at Daniel. “It’s my dad.” The flood of emotions was evident in his voice and expression. His eyebrows furrowed. “I can’t talk to him, Daniel. I won’t.” Tyler’s voice grew more and more unsteady. “He hurt you. He hurt the only person—just because I—” Tyler went quiet. Daniel could see his friend drowning in his own thoughts. He grabbed Tyler’s phone and declined the call. He gave a soft smile.

“Don’t talk to him until you’ve calmed down a bit, alright?” Daniel suggested. Tyler opened his mouth to protest. He received a knowing look. “You’ll have to talk to him eventually, Tyler. I know you don’t want to, but it will eventually have to happen. Better now than later, yeah? Just give yourself a minute so things don’t go awry.”

Tyler looked discontent but sighed. “Fine.” The phone began buzzing again. Tyler released a dramatic groan into his pillow. He took the phone and stuffed it under the pillow to temporarily silence it. Daniel gave a small chuckle. Tyler glared. “Don’t laugh at my suffering.”

Daniel only laughed louder. “Okay okay, I’m sorry.” Tyler knew it wasn’t genuine, but he let it pass. He only rolled his eyes.

“Sure you are.”