Warnings: Profanity, awkward situations, little bit of angst, brief mention of past physical aggression

Word Count: 1896

Author's Note: I don't really have that much to say today, other than thank you to everyone who has been reading the series so far! It makes me so happy to see all of you enjoying the story so far :) I hope you enjoy this chapter as well!

*     *     *

"Hey, Ty."

He pulled his headphones down around his neck and turned to face you. You were currently sprawled out on the couch with your laptop on your stomach as you worked on homework.

"Yeah?"

"What was the name of that Greek god? You know, the big one."

"Zeus?" he laughed.

"That's it!" you exclaimed, throwing a hand to your forehead. "I totally blanked."

"Isn't your history textbook right there?"

"Yeah, but it's out of arm's reach." You waved your arm in its general direction for added effect.

"You confuse me, Y/N," he said before pulling his headphones back on.

You made a face at the back of his head before writing down the answer he had given you. It would have to be double-checked later for accuracy, but for now you just wanted to get this assignment over with.

The apartment was quiet, save for the typing of your keys and the quiet click of Tyler's keyboard. He was singing quietly to himself, although you were pretty sure that he was completely unaware of that fact. It was just loud enough for you to hear, but just quiet enough to seem unintentional.

"What song is that, Ty?"

He pulled his headphones down and turned to you with furrowed eyebrows. "What?"

"That song you're playing," you said, nodding towards the keyboard. "What is it?"

His cheeks flushed with a little color, "You could hear me singing, couldn't you?"

"Yes," you grinned. Then, in a moment of bravery you added, "It was cute."

"It's a new song," he said, breaking your eye contact and turning back to the piano. Your stomach filled with an uncomfortable, sinking feeling. You shouldn't have said anything. "Do you want to hear it?"

"Yes," you answered instantly, happy for the distraction.

"It doesn't really have a name yet," he said as he pulled out the headphones.

"I'm sure something will come to you."

"Yeah."

His fingers found their place on the keys and he began to play. You slowly closed your laptop and set it on the coffee table, all the while your eyes never left Tyler. There was something different about him when he played music. Something that you could never quite put your finger on.

His voice was gentle as he sang to you. You admired the way that he seemed so sure of the keys that he was playing. If you had the opportunity, you would just sit on the couch and listen to him play for hours and hours. Tyler's voice was something you would never get tired of.

He finished the song and dropped his hands to his lap. You waited for him to turn to you so that he could see your reaction, but his focus remained on his piano.

"That was really good, Ty."

"Thanks."

Tyler got up and sat down on the other end of the couch near your feet. He was still avoiding eye contact with you.

"Should I just go?" you asked.

"No, sorry. I'm just in my head right now."

"Do you need me to do anything?"

"No, I just - I'm going to grab a drink."

"Ok."

While Tyler grabbed himself something to drink from the kitchen, you grabbed your laptop and pulled it into your lap. There was still over half of your assignment that needed to be done and it would only be so long before Tyler was back to his normal self and distracting you in every way he could think of.

*     *     *

After a couple more hours of studying, you had finally finished your homework for the night. Thankfully, Tyler had also come out of whatever slump had been bothering him earlier that day and now the two of you were reliving crazy stories from high school. You had become friends shortly after you started your freshman year, meaning that most of your crazy adventures had happened together.

"Hey, remember Peter Jones?" Tyler grinned.

"No!" you gasped. "Please, don't make me relive that."

"And how he asked you out..."

"Stop!" you giggled. "I didn't know how else to handle someone liking me."

"Y/N, you slapped him."

"I apologized right after! I felt awful."

"The poor guy was probably already nervous enough and you just slapped him straight across the face instead of politely declining."

"I admit, it was not my proudest moment."

You grabbed your drink from the coffee table and took a long sip of it. Tyler always kept stuff that you liked in his fridge since you were over so often.

"You're lucky you didn't get detention."

"I think he was too embarrassed about getting hit by a girl to actually tell anyone that would get me in trouble."

"Dumb." Tyler shook his head as he finished off his Red Bull.

"Ok, but what about that girl that was obsessed with you junior year?"

"Sadie? Yeah, that wasn't fun."

"She came to every basketball practice and tried to talk to you afterwards, right?"

"Yes! One time she even followed me out to my car."

"Wait, really? You never told me that!"

"She did. I'm pretty sure she would have gotten in the car if I didn't keep the door locked."

"We really didn't have any luck with high school relationships, did we?" you laughed.

"No, not really."

You ran your finger around the rim of your mug as you debated if you wanted to vocalize the thoughts that were in your mind. Tyler took notice of this.

"What are you thinking about, Y/N?"

"Nothing."

"Oh, come on," Tyler said, giving you a light tap with his foot. "Your mind isn't just elevator music right now."

"Maybe it is!"

"I know it's not. That's not your 'my-mind-is-elevator-music' face."

"Well, um, do you ever think about the truth or dare game?"

"Are we really having this conversation again?"

"You asked!"

"What about the truth or dare game?"

"Like, what I said. About my feelings."

"I've told you before and I'll tell you again, Y/N: I don't care that you have feelings for me. It doesn't make me think any more of you and it doesn't make me think any less of you. It's just... one added aspect to our friendship."

You should have expected that response from him. It was the same thing that he defaulted to every time that you brought up the truth or dare game and it annoyed you every time. The problem wasn't that he didn't have feelings for you - that part was fine - the problem was that you had a hard time believing him. His actions never seemed to match his words.

"I should have seen that one coming," you said. A petty excuse for a laugh escaped your lips.

"It's the same thing I tell you every time."

"Sorry I brought it up."

"It's fine. I asked."

You hated that you couldn't seem to get over Tyler, no matter how hard you tried. It didn't help that you two were together almost every day, aside from when you had to go to classes. Being around Tyler always seemed to bring up new reasons for you to fall even more in love with him as you got older.

"I'm sorry, Y/N, I-"

"No, Tyler, it's fine. Just forget I brought it up."

"Ok."

You tapped your fingers along your leg while you tried to think of a better conversation topic, although you couldn't help but feel like you had ruined the nice night you had been having. Of course you had to go and bring up your feelings again, as if Tyler had somehow changed his mind about you.

"What are your plans after class tomorrow?" he asked.

"I'll probably hang out with my brother. Or come over here, if you want to see me again."

"You're always free to come over. I like spending time with you."

There he went again, making things confusing.

"I like spending time with you, too." You tried your best to muster up some form of a smile.

Tyler didn't really say anything after that. You had no idea what to say either, and the silence was beginning to press in on you. All you could think about was that stupid truth or dare game.

You sat up and began to gather up all of your things. There was no point in staying at Tyler's apartment now that you had made things awkward between the two of you. The quiet and forced conversation was going to drive you crazy.

"Where are you going?"

"Home," you answered plainly.

"You don't want to stay longer?"

"I do, but this..." you waved a hand between the two of you. "I made it awkward."

"It's not awkward." He said it so confidently that you almost believed him. "I just - I don't know - feel bad, I guess."

Your eyebrows furrowed, "Why do you feel bad?"

"I just wish I felt the same."

"Right." You swallowed the lump in your throat. "Listen, I'm just gonna go. I'll see you tomorrow."

You finished packing up your things and pulled your bag onto your shoulder. Tyler didn't say anything else until you had pulled the front door open.

"Bye, Y/N."

"Later, Ty."

As soon as the door shut behind you, tears began to pool in your eyes. Something had to be done about your feelings for him, since he obviously wouldn't ever feel the same.

You blasted music the entire way home to keep yourself from thinking back to all the dumb things you had said. Why couldn't you just let the entire situation go? It wasn't new information that Tyler wasn't in to you, and yet you kept bringing it up in hopes that it had changed. All you were doing was making things harder on yourself.

Carter was in the den playing video games when you arrived home, so you collapsed down next to him on the couch and grabbed a controller.

"Sure, you can join the game," he said sarcastically.

"Shut up, Car. I had a bad night."

"Tyler?"

"Yeah."

"What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Ok."

Carter finished up the round he was playing before switching to multiplayer. Throwing insults at him and trying not to lose ended up being the perfect way to take your mind off of things.

"Ok, I'm going to call it a night," you said, shutting off your controller and tossing it down onto the couch.

"Alright, goodnight."

"Thanks for playing video games with me, Car. It was the distraction I needed."

"You know you can talk to me if you need to."

"I know. Now get some sleep, you still have work in the morning."

"Shit," he muttered. "I'm coming."

You walked out of the room while he finished shutting off the console. Apparently the video game had distracted you from how tired you really were, because you were having troubles keeping your eyes open as you brushed your teeth.

Your phone buzzed as you collapsed into bed. It was a text from Tyler.

Tyler: Goodnight

You sighed and typed out an answer.

Y/N: Goodnight

Things were going to be ok. If you really worked on it, you would be able to move on from Tyler and finally find someone that felt the same way about you. That way your friendship with Tyler could be just that: a friendship.

You fell asleep thinking about Tyler.