Start song: way it goes by hippocampus

Tyler's lips were covered in powdered sugar as Mr.Dun read through his now mostly finished essay outline. His line of vision followed his finger and Tyler nervously ate his doughnut as he waited for his teachers judgement.

He couldn't stand the idea of disappointing his teacher anymore than he already had, especially when Mr.Dun had went out of his way to buy him food while he worked. Tyler couldn't stand disappointing anyone at all and as he started thinking about it he sighed resting his forehead against the sweaty palms of his hands.

"Tyler." Mr.Dun said quietly eyes still reading over his notes. They had worked across from each other for the whole time, Tyler had pulled a chair and worked at Mr.Dun's desk.

"This is very good."

"Tyler?" He repeated glancing up at him only to see that Tyler was no longer paying attention and was instead playing with one of his pencils, twirling it around his thumb.

"Hey." He sighed carefully reaching over and resting a hand on Tyler's shoulder to get his attention.

Tyler froze, eyes immediately meeting his teachers.

"Pardon?" He choked out, an unmistakable blush gracing his cheeks as the hand left his shoulder and Mr.Dun sat back down.

Mr.Dun smiled, shaking the paper in front of him. "I said, this is very good. I'm impressed."

Tyler beamed. "Really?"

He nodded. "Yes, maybe just work on sentence structure when you actually write your in class essay but otherwise I'd say you're doing just fine. You probably didn't really need my help."

Tyler felt slightly guilty and as he was starting to feel slightly smaller he also felt much more insecure. "Oh, sorry for wasting your time. I just thought-"

Mr.Dun shook his head chuckling in interruption as he set Tyler's essay outline back in front of him. "I didn't mean it in that way. I meant you're a smart kid, I barely did anything and you've got this really solid essay going."

"Thank you, that means a lot." He felt happy.

"No problem Tyler." He said as he started cleaning up his desk, pushing the papers he'd been grading while Tyler worked.
"Don't be afraid to ask for help next time alright? I really am here for you."

Tyler nodded. "I-Okay."

He started picking up his things, looking outside the window. It was dark out, he'd been here for at least 2 hours. He sighed, collecting his pencils and dropping them back into his pencil case as he listened to his teacher text on his phone.

"Did you have somewhere to go tonight?" He asked curiously as he pushed his chair back to where it belonged.

Mr.Dun looked at him for a moment, Tyler could tell he was balancing his options. What was the line that he couldn't cross? He smiled awkwardly looking back down at his phone before setting it on his desk. "I did but it's fine. Your success is more important to me then going out to dinner."

"Was it a date?" Tyler asked, unsure of himself. He was positive this was pushing boundaries but he wanted to know.

"Possibly but-" Mr.Dun sighed, seeing the guilt on Tyler's face. "Hey I said it's fine, don't worry about it. Between you and me I was relieved that I got out of it anyways."

He smiled infectiously as he sat on top his desk in front of Tyler. "Plus you make much better company kid."

Tyler gulped nervously and stared at his hands for his moment. "I don't know about that but thank you."

There was draft silence for a moment. Mr.Dun was just sitting there on his phone and Tyler was ready to leave but he didn't want to go home yet. He wanted to talk to Mr.Dun and not about his essay. They'd just done that for the past two hours.

"And uh-Mr.Dun were you planning to come to the game on Friday?" He asked nervously, so what if he wanted his favourite teacher to watch him play his first game of the season. He'd been inviting all his classmates regardless.

Mr.Dun smiled at him, Tyler's heart stopped. "I believe I am actually, I'll have essays to start grading but I was planning on doing that over the weekend."

"You're playing aren't you?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Yes I am."

"I'll look forward to it then. I haven't seen the team play before."

Tyler grinned. "I have a good feeling we're going to win."

Mr.Dun yawned tiredly, stretching his arms above his head, his shirt becoming untucked from his slacks. "I have no doubt about it."

Tyler stared, he couldn't not and he almost laughed as he spotted some icing from one of the doughnuts on his teachers nice dress shirt. It must've been from the Boston creams. Mr.Dun had dropped it on himself earlier and Tyler had pretended like he hadn't seen.

"Sir you have a little-uh." He pointed at the frosting.

Mr.Dun looked down at his chest before furrowing his eyebrow. "Sorry?"

Tyler shook his head. "I'll get it."

Tyler grabbed a tissue from Mr.Dun's desk and without thinking leaned forward. His hand was shaking just slightly as he swiped off the white frosting off of the front of his shirt. He had no idea what he was doing but he nearly melted, his teacher smelt like coffee and cologne. "Y-you had frosting on your shirt." He stuttered as he pulled away with wide eyes and flushed cheeks.

"Oh."

Tyler nodded and glanced at the empty doughnut box. "Must've been-"

"Probably."

Tyler stood there awkwardly for a moment before nodding.

"Sorry, But I think I should be going now. Thank you for the help sir." Tyler rushed out, embarrassed as he gathered all of his things in his arms and quickly left the room.

There was no noise behind him.

*

His walk home was cold. It wasn't a long walk but with all the things he was stuck thinking about it felt longer than usual. It was windy and it was definitely fall now. The leaves were falling, He was wearing his thicker jackets and less t-shirts.

It wasn't Summer anymore and he was fine with it.

He felt embarrassed as he walked home, he'd need to tell Brendon about this. At least someone.

It wasn't as bad as being regressed in front of Mr.Dun though, no this was different. This time he was fully aware of his actions and he wasn't exactly scared to face his teacher. If anything he was scared of it impacting his relationship with his teacher, he didn't want Mr.Dun to fail him because he had touched his chest.

"I'm home." He yelled as he took his shoes off at the door. There wasn't a response so he sighed and let his shoes stand in the middle of the doorway.

He hadn't seen any cars in the driveway so he should've figured that she was gone, to where? He didn't know. It didn't matter either though. She was gone more often than she was home regardless if it was for work or not.

He didn't bother grabbing any food as he slumped down on the couch in the living room. He needed a nap.

"Tyler?" A voice said.

Tyler froze, opening his eyes and squinting at the arm chair across the room. He was confused for a moment before realizing who it was.

"Dad?"

*

Author's note:

Okay just a reminder his dad is just out on business a lot, he sees him rarely.