Warnings: Angst

Word Count: 1825

Author's Note: This chapter wasn't originally part of my outline, but I decided to add it because I felt like a little more explanation was needed!

Your eyes shot open and you sat up, looking around at the dark room. You could feel your heart pounding in your chest, but it began to slow down as you realized that you weren't at the party anymore. This was just Tyler's guest room.

You flopped back onto the pillow as tears began to pool in your eyes. Just when you had pushed the night from your thoughts and managed to fall asleep, your mind had made you relive it again. The dream had seemed so real, right down to the way that you felt like you had been punched in the stomach.

With shaky hands, you reached up to cover your mouth to prevent any sound from escaping. You didn't want to accidentally wake up Tyler and make him have to deal with your emotional breakdown in the middle of the night. He had done enough for you already.

It was harder to keep the negative thoughts out of your mind now that you no longer had Tyler to distract you. For a while there, you had thought that you were handling everything really well. Evidently, this wasn't the case. You ran a hand through your hair and rubbed your eyes. There was no way that you were going to be able to get back to sleep now.

With a resounding sigh, you threw the covers off of you and walked out into the hallway. Hopefully Tyler wouldn't mind being woken up. You hated to do this to him, but you knew that as long as you were alone, you would only start to feel worse.

You lightly knocked on what you were pretty sure was the door to Tyler's bedroom. It should have been just loud enough to wake him up without scaring him too bad. There were shuffling footsteps a few moments later, and a very sleepy Tyler appeared just inside.

"What's going on?" he mumbled, rubbing sleep out of one of his eyes. His hair was sticking up in all sorts of directions.

"I'm sorry to bother you," you sniffled.

"Oh, Y/N/N," he said, opening the door wider.

You walked inside and took a seat on the edge of Tyler's bed. The blankets were in messy heaps and it was warm from his body heat. He grabbed a discarded white t-shirt from the ground and pulled it on over his dark sweatpants.

"What's going on?" he asked, taking a seat next to you.

"I, um," you mumbled, wiping a tear away. "I had a bad dream about what happened last night. It was like reliving it all over again."

"Come here," he said, holding an arm out for you.

You laughed a little as you scooted over and leaned into him, "I feel like a little kid talking to their parent after a nightmare."

Tyler laughed at this too, "If this is what parenting is like, it isn't so bad."

You smiled. It was nice to know that Tyler wasn't upset with you for waking him up in the middle of the night.

"Tonight has just been a mess," you sighed as you drew patterns on your knee.

"Yeah, but we're going to get through it."

"I don't think I'm going to be able to fall asleep again."

"Do you want me to come sit in your room with you?"

"You would do that?"

Tyler shrugged, "Why not? I'll just sit with you until you're asleep so you don't have to be alone, and then once you're asleep I can come back in here."

You leaned back so that you could properly look at him, "That would be really helpful, actually."

"That was the goal," he smiled. "Come on."

He grabbed his phone from the nightstand and the two of you walked back to your room. You got back under the covers and curled up while Tyler sat down on the other side of the bed. It already felt like there was a weight off your chest now that you were no longer alone.

"Thanks, Ty," you mumbled. "I don't think I'm ever going to stop saying that."

"It's ok," he said, a slight hint of laughter in his voice. "At least it lets me know that I'm doing something right."

You nodded against the pillow and breathed deeply, already feeling much more tired than you had before.

"Goodnight, Y/N/N," Tyler said softly.

"Goodnight."

Tyler was gone when you woke up the next morning. You grabbed one of the hoodies from your bag and pulled it on over your pajama shirt. The house was eerily quiet as you made your way downstairs.

You walked into the kitchen and began to look through the cupboards, hoping to find something that would make a good breakfast. Most of Tyler's cupboards were full of snacks and other sugar-filled foods, but you eventually managed to find some cereal. Locating the bowls proved to be a bit more of a challenge.

Tyler arrived downstairs just as you sat down at the table with your breakfast. From the looks of it, he had just woken up too. His hair was still a mess and he was wearing the same pajamas from the night before.

"Morning," he mumbled as he opened a cupboard and grabbed one of the sugary snacks that you had specifically avoided.

"Morning," you answered. "How'd you sleep?"

Tyler walked over and practically collapsed into the chair across the table from you, "You know me. I'm a master at getting a terrible night's sleep."

"Me waking you up in the middle of the night probably didn't help," you laughed nervously before taking a bite of cereal.

"I was having troubles sleeping way before then," he explained. "Besides, if it helped you then it was totally worth it."

"It did," you nodded. "There was no way I was going to get back to sleep in a timely manner if it weren't for you. Thanks again."

He waved a hand at you, "Don't mention it."

"Have you heard anything else from Josh?" you said, tapping your spoon nervously against the edge of your bowl.

"I actually stayed up pretty late talking to him," he said.

"Oh yeah?" you asked.

"Yeah. He thinks that it's his fault that you're upset, although he has no idea what he did. I didn't confirm or deny if that was true."

"Thanks. I know this whole thing is dumb."

"It's not dumb, Y/N/N. You're allowed to have feelings."

You nodded, even though you didn't quite believe him.

"He remembers kissing her, by the way. He just doesn't remember what made him do it."

Your jaw clenched and you nodded, keeping your vision focused on your cereal bowl. You had done enough crying in the last twenty four hours and you really didn't feel like breaking down again.

"Are you ok?"

You met Tyler's eyes, "Yeah, I'm ok."

He gave you a reassuring smile, "So, what do you want to do today?"

"You would know better than me," you laughed. There was a pang of sadness in your chest as you remembered the day that you and Josh had spent at the conservatory. If only you could go back to what things were like then.

"If you want, we can just stay here and enjoy not having any responsibilities before tour starts again. There's no pressure for us to go out and do something."

"Yeah, maybe we should just stay here," you said.

Tyler nodded and stood up to throw away his wrapper. You scooped up another spoonful of cereal.

"If you change your mind, just let me know," he said, heading back for the stairs. "There's plenty of things we can do later today."

"I will."

You leaned forward and buried your face in your hands once Tyler was upstairs. Going on tour and leaving Matthew was supposed to turn your life around, but now you just felt as awful as you had a few months ago. It was like you were destined to have your heart broken over and over again.

You finished your cereal and washed out your bowl. Maybe getting upstairs and getting ready would help you feel a bit better. There was still time for your day to turn around.

"You're kidding!" you laughed.

"I wish I was," Tyler smiled, rubbing a tear out of his eye.

"That's awful. Hilarious, but awful."

"That's what happens when you're a semi-famous musician," he shrugged.

"Just wait until you guys make it really big."

"If we make it really big."

"Trust me, you guys are going to get there."

Tyler shook his head and set his plate on the coffee table. You two had ended up spending all day at the house watching tv, swapping crazy life stories, and just generally enjoying not having to do anything productive. The entire Josh incident had been at the back of your mind and you were genuinely having fun just hanging out with Tyler.

"If we do make it big, I hope you're still with us to photograph all the cool stuff we come up with."

"Ty, I don't plan on leaving you guys anytime soon. That's a promise."

"Good. We need cool people like you on tour," he smiled, reaching out to poke you with his foot.

"Gross," you laughed, shoving his leg away from you.

You grabbed your phone from beside you and checked to see if you had missed any notifications. Part of you was hoping that Josh would message you so you could talk about what happened, but you knew that if that actually happened it wouldn't lead anywhere. There was no way you would so readily admit your feelings to him.

"I should probably head to bed," Tyler said, unwrapping himself from the blankets so that he could stand up. "If I get my sleep schedule too messed up, then I'm never going to be able to sleep on tour."

"When do we leave?"

"Early Monday morning."

You sighed and leaned back against the couch. That was only two more days. This week had gone by way too fast and you weren't sure that you were ready to be thrown back into tour life just yet. Not to mention it would mean being with Josh around the clock again.

"Too soon," you said, following Tyler's lead in getting off the couch.

"Hey now! You-"

You cut Tyler off, "Yes, I know. I signed up for this."

"Exactly."

"Goodnight, Ty," you smiled sarcastically as you turned down the hall.

"Goodnight, Y/N/N."

You jumped onto the bed and leaned back so that you could stare at the ceiling. Just two short days until you were back on the road. It was hard to tell whether you were more excited or terrified of the idea. A lot had changed since the last time all of you had been cramped on that tour bus, and you weren't so sure that was a good thing.