Twenty minutes later, I pulled up in front of the old, deserted park across the town, where me and Julian first became friends. I immediately spotted him standing outside the park.

As soon as I stepped out of my car, he rushed over and threw his arms around me. His entire body shaking with sobs. 

"Shit, what's wrong?" I tightened my arms around him and he only sobbed harder. I held him for a few minutes, and when he seemed to have calmed down a bit, I tried again."Hey, please talk to me." 

"It's... It's mom." He pulled away from me, wiping away his tears, furiously. "Sh-she was admitted a few hours ago. She had a cardiac arrest."

I sucked in a sharp breath. "Shit, I'm so sorry. How is she now?" 

"She is fine now, the doctors said they need to monitor her for a couple of days so she'd have to stay at the hospital, " he sniffled, a steady stream of tears trickling down his face and my heart ached for him. 

"That's good, right? She's okay. Nothing to worry about." I tried to soothe him. 

"That's not it." He shook his head. "It was all because of me."

"What do you mean?"

"I- I was expelled from the school today."

"What!? Why?"

"They...um..." He swallowed and cringed. "They found drugs in my locker."

When he heard me gasp and take a step back in shock, he rushed to explain. "I don't know how it got there. I swear! You have to believe me. It wasn't my fault." 

"I told you to stay away from Max, didn't I? Damnit, why wouldn't you listen to me."

"I did. I swear, I didn't talk to any of them after that night. Trust me." He looked up at me with pleading eyes, he slid to the ground landing on his knees, almost like he couldn't hold himself up anymore. "Please, you have to trust me."

"Hey, hey, I trust you. I do." I got down and gathered him in my arms. "What happened then?"

"I think Max was behind it. But I don't know why he would do that, " he mumbled and shook his head. "I should have listened to Tyler. He had warned me repeatedly."

"Our Principal called my dad and he was furious. I tried to tell him the truth, but he didn't listen to me. Nobody believes me." He shook his head, a strangled sob escaping his lips. "Tyler was home, and he tried to stop dad when he made a move to hit me out of anger and dad turned on him. He said some awful things to him."  

"You can't blame yourself. It's not your fault." Your dad is a freaking jerk, I mentally added. 

"But it is!" He cried, looking up at me. "Dad has never been so furious at Tyler, but today he said some horrible things and things just got out of hand and then...then Mom just collapsed. It was horrible. I was s-so scared." 

"She's okay now. It's all okay. We can sort this out, alright? I promise you, it'll be better, " I assured him, not quite believing my own words.

I don't know for how long we sat there on the ground, with him crying in my arms and my heart breaking with every shuddering breath he took. 

"Eleven years ago on this day, I lost my biological mother, " he whispered and my heart lurched. "When I saw Mom today on the hospital bed, it felt like it was happening all over again. And it would all be my fault. I sometimes feel like I was born with a curse. Dad hates me and now even Tyler hates me." 

"I'm so sorry about your mother. But you need to stop doing this to yourself. What happened today was unfortunate, but it wasn't your fault. Tyler doesn't hate you, he loves you." 

"He won't talk to me. He couldn't even see my face. He left the hospital as soon as Mom's surgery was over. He just left without a word. He's not home and he is not even taking my calls." 

"We'll find him. Maybe he just needs some time and he'll talk to you. Did you try calling his friends?" 

"I don't have their number." He rubbed his eyes and sighed, sitting up straight. "Can you please call them?" 

I didn't have anyone's number either. My first instinct was to call Neil, but then I remembered the fight we had and I stopped myself. I called Avi instead. He and Ash were staying over at my place. Both Neil and Avi had refused to leave us alone after the break-in last night, but since Neil was out doing whatever he was doing, it was Avi's turn to be on guard duty and I was pretty sure both of them were still awake, waiting for me. 

"Hey, can you please call Jace, Ryan, and Erick to check if any of them have heard from Tyler tonight?" I asked as soon as he answered my call. 

"What's going on, V?" 

"It's a long story, I'll tell you everything as soon as I get home. It's an emergency, just please do this for me." 

"Yeah, I'll call you back in some time." 

After I ended the call, I turned to look at Julian. "C'mon, let's get you home." 

"No. Not until I know he is okay." He shook his head. 

I sighed. Part of his face was lit up by the dim light coming from the streetlight a little distance away from us. His eyes were all red and puffy. He looked so damn exhausted and depressed, but I knew he wouldn't go home, not until he found his brother. "Fine, let's go look for him."

We aimlessly drove around for a while, I checked out every restaurant and cafe I could think of, but there was no sign of him. Avi had called me after some time to tell me none of his friends had heard from him too. 

I was growing worried by the minute and it was hard to keep my calm when Julian was stressing the fuck out beside me. I had never seen him like this. And I had no idea how to make this better. 

We had given up at some point and were parked at the empty street in front of Cane Cafe. It was close to 1 am. Where the hell would he go? 

"Do you think he'll be fine?" Julian murmured from beside me. 

I honestly didn't know, but I nodded. "He will be." 

Just then, the shrill tone of my ringtone broke the silence. I checked the caller ID and saw that it was Ash calling. 

"He's here, " she said, as soon as I answered the call. "Tyler is here. He is sitting at the doorstep and he refuses to come in until you get home. He is in a really bad shape, V." 

"I'll be there in a min." I hung up on her and turned to look at Julian. "He's at my place. Let's go." 

"No, wait. I-I don't think I should come."

"What? Why?" 

"He doesn't want to see me. And I want to give him his space."

"Are you sure?" 

"Yeah. Dad is at the hospital with Mom, so can you drop me home?" He gave me a small smile and I nodded.

***

When I pulled up in my driveway after dropping Julian off, I found Tyler sitting at my doorstep with his head in his hands, and what looked like an empty bottle of alcohol beside him. 

"Hey, " I softly said, walking up to him. 

He looked up and frowned. "Finally! I was so worried."

He can't be fucking serious, right now. 

"Worried about me? Where the hell were you?" I scowled. 

"Huh?" He squinted at me. "I was...was out." 

"You're drunk." 

"Maybe a little bit." He flashed me that familiar smile, I loved so much, but this time it was different. His face smiled but his eyes didn't. 

I sighed. "I heard about what happened." 

He said nothing but simply stared up at the dark sky and took a deep breath. 

I kneeled in front of him. "Talk to me." 

Nothing. 

He just kept staring up at the sky.

"You're supposed to be the responsible one in our relationship, you know? I was so damn worried, we checked every place we could think of and found nothing! You don't even have a happy place that I know of, do you know how hard that makes things? I was so close to losing my mind, I –" I stopped my rambling mid-sentence when I caught him looking at me with a small smile. "What the hell are you smiling about?" 

He shook his head. "I'm sorry." 

"You better be." I huffed.

"But you're wrong about one thing. I do have a happy place." 

"You do?" 

"You." He looked at me. "You're my happy place." 

"Ugh, dammit!" I groaned before crushing him to me and kissing him hard. "Next time, call me." 

"Okay, " he murmured leaning in to kiss me again, but I pulled back. 

"Let's get you inside." 

He shook his head. "I really don't want to talk to them." 

Them? I frowned. Then I remembered about Ash and Avi. "Wait here, I'll take care of that." 

I hurried inside the house, and just like I had expected both of them were half asleep on the couch, waiting for me. I walked over to them and whispered, "Hey." 

I quickly explained the situation to them in short. I asked Ash to sleep in the guest room and Avi insisted on taking the couch. 

"I'll be here if you need anything, " Avi said and I smiled. 

"Thanks." 

I got back to Tyler and grabbed his hand to pull him up. "C'mon! Let's go." 

By the time we got to my room, he had managed to trip on his own foot twice and nearly fallen down headfirst once, nearly crushing me in the process. 

"You have a nice room." He looked around and I rolled my eyes. 

"You've been here before." 

"Right." He nodded to himself. 

I made him sit down on my bed and bent down to take his shoes off. But he suddenly got up, almost knocking me over in the process. "Hey!" 

"What are you doing?" 

"Trying to get you to bed. Do you sleep with your shoes on?" 

"No, " he mumbled and kicked his shoes off. "I don't sleep in my t-shirt and jeans either."

"Then take it off." I shrugged. 

"You just want to see me naked, " he smirked. 

I groaned, trying to control my urge to headbutt him. "Idiot." 

"A sad, miserable idiot, " he murmured to himself and now I had the sudden urge to hug him. 

Drunk Tyler was like a six-year-old who longed for affection and compliments. Slightly annoying, but so freaking cute. I'd never been the nurturing type. Kids didn't pull at my ovaries. But seeing Tyler so vulnerable, with that pain in his eyes, tugged at some kind of a maternal instinct I didn't know I had.

"Done. Now what?" He announced, and I saw that he was now standing in the middle of my bedroom in nothing but his black boxers and my mouth went dry. 

I snapped my wandering gaze back to his face and cleared my throat. "Now you sleep." 

He plopped down on the bed and I went to the bathroom to change into my PJs and get ready for bed. When I came back, he was still sitting on the same spot, and was staring out the window. 

"My father sometimes acts like we mean nothing to him. Like I mean nothing to him," he mumbled, still looking out the window. "Nothing." 

The pain in his voice was like a sucker punch to my heart and I found myself struggling for words, eventually settling on saying nothing. 

I slid into the bed beside him and urged him to lie down, next to me. He snuggled closer to me, letting his head rest in the space between my shoulder and collar bone. I ran my fingers over the nape of his neck and he closed his eyes, letting out a heavy sigh. His shoulders sagged as the breath left his body. I rested my cheek on the top of his head as his arm draped over my hip. 

"Tyler?" I murmured. 

"Hmm?" 

"You mean the world to me."

He pulled me closer, snuggling deeper into my embrace, and just when I thought he had fallen asleep, I heard his sleepy whisper. "You are the world to me." 

An:- Guys, we just hit 10k reads!!!
*doing a little victory dance*
I'm so freaking happy.
Thank you so damn much for reading and sticking with me so far.
I love you all so much ❤