Clancy refused to talk to him at all that night or the next day. It would have been nice except for the fact that he was still present, and made a show of sulking whenever he caught Tyler looking at him. Frankly, Tyler didn't blame him. He'd heard people make fun of him behind his back before, and it was one of the worst feelings in the world, especially coming from people he thought were his friends. He felt horrible that he'd encouraged Nico, but there was nothing he could do to take it back.

But the fact that he'd called him a monster...

Tyler was starting to believe it. All he ever did was hurt people. He had hurt Clancy when he made fun of him the night before. He hurt his mother whenever he yelled or disobeyed her. He'd hurt Josh somehow, and in response, he'd hurt himself. He was more similar to Nico than he wanted to admit.

Clancy finally spoke to him again that night, almost twenty four hours later. Tyler was laying in his bed, staring at the ceiling with his hands folded on his stomach. He glanced across the room at the corner where Clancy was huddled and sighed. "Clancy, I'm sorry," he said again.

"Quit lying to me."

The fact the he responded at all surprised him, as well as the snap in his voice when he did. "I'm not lying," Tyler insisted, but he knew it was no use.

"Really? How am I supposed to believe that?" Clancy demanded, his voice cracking. He tried to sound angry and tough, but Tyler could tell he was really upset. "You lie to everyone else."

"Not everyone."

"You lie to your family, you lie to Nico, you lie to yourself, your team, your coach - you even lie to Josh. How am I supposed to believe you haven't lied to me this whole time, too?"

Tyler cringed at the truth in his words. He hadn't said a truly honest thing to his parents in weeks. He couldn't remember specifically lying to Josh, but he hadn't told him about his imaginary friends, and they were a huge influence in his mood and personality. Since he was keeping it from Josh, he felt like he was essentially lying to him, too. And he couldn't deny having lied to Clancy sometimes to try and make him feel better, or to get Nico to stop bugging him. Clancy was right. That's all he was. A liar. 

Clancy took his silence as an answer. "That's what I thought," he grumbled, turning his back to them and pulling his knees to his chest. 

Tyler sighed softly and yawned, and then sat up to fight the drowsiness. He couldn't go to sleep, he reminded himself. He climbed out of bed and turned on the light, and Clancy flinched and buried his face in his arms. Tyler could have sworn Nico hissed softly under his breath, but he ignored it. Maybe if he put on his regular clothes instead of his pajamas, he could trick his body into thinking it was day time. 

"What are you doing?" Nico asked as he pulled off his pants. 

"Changing."

"Well, duh, but why?"

"Maybe I won't fall asleep."

"You need a shower," Nico said. "You stink."

"I do not," he protested, but Nico was right. It had been almost a week since he'd last showered. The worse his mind got, the less he took care of himself. 

"Maybe then you'd stay awake," Nico pointed out.

Tyler sighed loudly and then trudged across the room and opened his door. "Fine, but you two have to stay in here."

Nico flashed him a rather frightening grin, like he had been waiting for this moment for a long time. "Will do." His teeth looked especially pointy, as if he was some sort of demon, and Tyler shivered. Clancy shot him a frantic glance, but didn't say anything. 

"And be nice to each other," Tyler added as he stepped out into the dark hallway. He closed the door behind him, but left the light on, and the warm light spilled under the door and lit the hallway just enough for him to see where he was going. Like fireflies, like Christmas Eve, like the ocean floor... 

It grew darker as he left the safety of his room and reached the bathroom. He slowly opened the door, and winced as it creaked. Like old men's bones, like phantom whispers, like Clancy's clinging hands, like a cold sweat, like semi-trucks in the wind. He fumbled for the light switch, his heart racing and his breathing shallow. Finally, his shaking fingers found it and he flipped it on, and just like that, the darkness dispersed. He decided he'd have to keep the lights on from now on. He didn't need Nico to freak him out. His mind did that for him. 

This is stupid, he said to himself as he locked the door and met his own gaze in the mirror. You haven't been scared of the dark since you were a little kid. 

But that wasn't entirely true. Ever since he'd started having nightmares about the forest and that man, he'd been afraid to fall asleep. And now he was afraid of the dark, too, and afraid of himself, and afraid of being alone, and afraid of never talking to Josh again, and yet afraid of seeing him too soon. He knew he was being ridiculous, but no matter how much he tried to convince himself to calm down, he felt completely out of control. 

He didn't like looking at himself anymore. His eyes were already exhausted, and he hated seeing their helpless, hopeless stare. He dropped his gaze and turned on the shower, and then pulled his shirt off and glanced up at the mirror again. He was surprised to see that he'd gotten smaller. His jeans didn't fit around his waist anymore, and when he pulled them out with his finger, there was a good inch and a half of space between his body and the pants. He'd lost a lot of weight without even realizing it. Nico was right. He was starving himself. 

He wasn't trying to. He made sure he ate something everyday. But it was usually a tiny bit of cereal or a piece of bread or two bites of rice at dinnertime. Not nearly enough to fuel his growing body. And every time he tried to eat more, he felt sick and miserable, and had to lay down for a while. 

I wonder if Mom even notices. 

The room had started to fog up, so he finished stripping down and climbed into the shower. The hot water burned, but he didn't adjust it. He just closed his eyes and let himself slowly relax as the water washed the tension away. He had missed feeling relaxed. 

He didn't bother washing himself. He just stood there in the hot water until it started to turn cold, and then he got out. It was another twenty minutes before he even dried off, and then he wrapped the towel around his waist and turned off the light. Immediately, his gut twisted nervously in the dark, and he ran down the hall to his bedroom, nearly losing his towel on the way. He didn't feel any better once he got there, because he could hear Nico talking from behind the door, his voice low and threatening.

Tyler threw open the door as hard as he could, hoping to catch him in the act - and it worked. Nico had Clancy pinned against the wall by his shoulder and his wrist, and was close enough that their faces were nearly touching. Clancy was on the verge of tears, though his eyes were wide and he was too terrified to cry. Nico's expression was twisted into a scowl, and his eyes were full of anger and hate, like black coffee. He glanced at Tyler as he came in, and wrinkled his nose in disgust. "I guess that's one way to make an entrance," he grumbled, releasing Clancy's wrist and shoving him against the wall as he backed away. 

Tyler realized his towel had slipped in his surprise, and quickly pulled it back up around his waist. "What are you doing?" he demanded. 

"Nothing important," Nico said, waving his hand as if to brush it off. "Just a little spat."

"A little spat?" Clancy accused, pointing a shaking finger at him. Nico shot him the nastiest glare Tyler had ever seen, and he seemed to wilt instantly. "Yeah - yeah," he stuttered, pulling his shoulders up and wringing his hands. "Just a little - little misunderstanding."

Tyler frowned in confusion. "But weren't you just -"

"It's nothing," he said quickly. "Really."

Tyler blinked, glancing between them. "What did he tell you?"

Clancy refused to meet his eyes. "I - I don't know what you're talking about."

"I'm not stupid, Clancy. What did he tell you?"

"You look pretty stupid," Nico grumbled. 

"Shut up."

"You're naked, Tyler. I can't take you seriously."

His face turned tomato red, a flush of August sunset. "Fine. I'll get dressed, then you answer." But he knew neither of them would give him what he was looking for. That was just how they were. He pulled on his basketball shorts and a mostly clean tank top, and then faced them again. He had to tie the shorts tighter than usual to keep them up on his waist. "Alright, you tell me what happened," he said.

They didn't say anything. Nico smirked like he knew he'd won, and Clancy still kept his eyes glued to the floor.

"Come on, Clancy," Tyler said. "I only want to help."

"Why does it matter?" Clancy grumbled. "You'll just lie to me again."

And the worst part - he was right.