You can clearly tell which one of the three unfinished fan fics is my favourite child

◇◆◇◆

"I can't believe that you've never had a slushie before," Charlie exclaimed before taking  a sip of her pastel pink beverage

"I don't trust the colour." Tyler shrugged, his drink remained untouched 

"Aw, come on." Charlie nudged the boy softly

"It's like..."  Tyler rotated the plastic cup to take a better look at the contents inside "Like a tide pod and iced coffee had a baby... An ugly one."

"I swear to god if you don't finish this I'll get a funnel." Charlie smacked her lips together

"Fine." Tyler snickered "If I die I'm haunting you."

"No one ever died because of a slushie..." Charlie paused for a second "I think..."

The girl whipped out her phone to check. She quickly typed in 'did anyone ever died of a slushie' into the search bar. She furrowed her brows in confusion and turned the screen at Tyler.

"Dude, someone actually died because of a brain freeze." Charlie clicked her tongue  "Yikes."

"Local woman dead after brain freeze from ice cream," Tyler snorted "I feel bad laughing."

"I feel like that would be me." Charlie continued reading the article "She just kept eating the ice cream..."

"This is what kids call 'big mood' these days." Tyler sipped his drink, his left hand held the straw in the sassiest way possible

Charlie snorted like a horse, her cup was almost empty while Tyler sipped his slushy slowly. He didn't want to end up dead because of a brain freeze. Not yet, not like this. 

The mall was quite busy at that time of day. Tyler has never been to a mall so he had no idea whether it was packed or not. Ten people were a lot to the boy, it felt like the whole Roman army. Charlie tapped her foot to the beat of the melody that was blaring out the speakers, the straw let out an obnoxious sound as she sucked the last bit of her drink. Tyler cringed mentally and turned away as if not seeing it would help him hear it less. 

"I gotta take a piss." Charlie blurted out "Wait here."

"How subtle." Tyler smiled

"Oh, I'm sorry," the girl grinned sarcastically "I have to go powder my nose in the ladies room, my kind gentleman. I'll be right back." 

"Don't drown."

"Oh, I will." Charlie flipped her hair

"At least leave your wallet here." Tyler joked

"Actually..." the redhead plopped her wallet on Tyler's lap "Good idea. One time I accidentally dropped it into the toilet and flushed it."

"Why would you flush it?" Tyler cackled

"I didn't have the time to react, " Charlie shrugged and looked around to locate the bathroom  "It fell in just when I was about flush."

"Wow..." Tyler muttered under his breath

Charlie walked into the bathroom leaving her friend sitting alone at an empty table. Since the brunet didn't have a phone he couldn't pretend that he was texting someone to kill the awkwardness. The boy clicked his tongue and looked around shyly, his heart trembled a bit. Anxiety kicked in. He drew in deep breaths trying to calm himself down. 

He was just sitting there, waiting. To Tyler, it felt like the end of the world. He didn't fit into the whole middle-to-high class aesthetic. The boy's default setting was the grimy streets of downtown Portland. Not that all the streets were grimy, Tyler just happened to hang out in the grimiest of them all. 

Tyler drew in deep ragged breaths, his palms started sweating profusely. On the outside, the brunet looked calm as ever but on the inside, it was like an eastern European mother during spring cleaning. Just ripping everything out of their usual spot, making an even bigger chaos than it was before she decided to clean. 

The anxious boy tried not to pay attention to the noises surrounding him but one particular voice was like a tick right in the middle of his brain, gnawing at him. It was so annoying, like wet styrofoam rubbing against a mirror. He glanced to his left, luckily the plants were hiding him. He could stare all he wanted, no one would've noticed. 

Tyler squinted his eyes, he sure regretted shifting his gaze away from his hands. A familiar mop of faded, obnoxious green hair stuck out like a sore thumb. The boy shone like a beacon in the crowd of people. Tyler gritted his teeth, Steve and his wet chicken nugget looking pals were there. Usually, Tyler would just avoid them, he would've even looked twice at them to keep himself out of trouble. This time it was different. The brunet couldn't hear what they were saying but it sounded rude. All four of them were sitting on a bench, two dudes from each side surrounding a lanky blond boy. 

"Jared?" Tyler muttered under his breath

He never had the chance to talk to the boy. Tyler only saw him once, when he first stepped into the youth club. It's not like Tyler disliked him, he just didn't know him at all, there were no negative or positive feelings. Tyler could clearly see that Jared was upset. Steve and his buddies were squishing him to death. 

Tyler slowly rose from his seat. The brunet wasn't the brave type of guy, most of the times he just stayed out of trouble. In this case being a bystander would've made Tyler as bad as the actual bullies. Tyler walked up to the guys, Charlie's wallet clutched tightly in his hand. 

"Hey, Jared." Tyler greeted the boy 

"H-hi..." the blond looked up at him surprised. Naturally.

"I was looking for you everywhere." Tyler continued speaking to the boy as if Steve and his friends weren't even there

"Oh, you were?" Jared swallowed thickly, his eyes darted to one of Steve's friends nervously 

"Yeah, Charlie texted you, didn't you get the message?" Tyler chuckled softly and grabbed Jared's hand 

"Oh, I must've turned my ringer off." Jared chuckled nervously and let Tyler pull him away from Steve and his gang

"Hey, we were talking here." Steve scoffed 

"We're kinda walking away right now." Tyler scoffed back

Steve quickly rose from the bench, he puffed out his chest like he was some sort of bird. Tyler didn't find that intimidating at all. It was actually humorous. The boy swallowed his chuckle and pulled Jared closer to him, away from Steve's grasp. 

Jared sniffled quietly, Tyler recognized the glimmer in his eyes. The boy was scared. 

"Look, Tyler," Steve cleared his throat "You're kinda cool, you know... Even though you're gay."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tyler snarled

"Let's go..." Jared murmured as he tugged at Tyler's sleeve softly

"I mean that I can tolerate when someone with a dick likes dick. It's cool, you know. But she... You-" Steve pointed at Jared "You don't get to call yourself a male." 

"You fucking listen to me-" Tyler stepped forward but Jared's soft hand pushed against his chest 

"No, you listen to me!" Steve fumed 

"Yeah?" Tyler yapped, his trembling fingers clenched into fists

Steve took a small step back. Jared gripped Tyler's hand so he wouldn't do anything stupid. People just stared at the scene as they walked past. No one cared. 

"You have a mental illness." Steve hissed forcing a whimper out of Jared's throat "You're a mistake."

Tyler jerked forward but Jared pulled him back just in time. There was a flash of panic in Steve's eyes but it vanished almost instantly. 

"Get the fuck out of my face before I do that for you," Tyler muttered

"Whatever." Steve scoffed and gestured his buddies that t was time to go

Tyler watched the gang walk away slowly, Steve turned his head back to flash them a sarcastic grin. If it wasn't for Jared, Tyler would've ripped the bitch to shreds. 

Jared sat back on the bench teary-eyed. Tyler sat next to him.

"Hey," Tyler placed his hand on the boy's shoulder softly "Don't listen to them, okay? You're more of a man that he'll ever be." 

Jared nodded and leaned into Tyler's embrace. The brunet comforted the crying boy as he wept silently on his shoulder. Charlie walked out of the bathroom confused and lost. She panicked for a moment thinking that Tyler ran off. 

"No one is worthy of your tears." Tyler's voice faltered "You hear me? No one."

"Thank you." Jared murmured, his face pressed against Tyler's shoulder

"Do you wanna like..." Charlie cleared her throat "...hang out with us?"

"Can I?" Jared lifted his head up

"Of course you can." Tyler smiled 

Jared's face lit up with a heart-warming smile. He sniffled for the last time and wiped the tears from his cheeks. Charlie sat beside him, Tyler and the girl squeezed the blond from both sides, more tears fell from Jared's eyes. He wiped them quickly. 

"I would love to hang out with you guys."