part 7

                                    

                                          
tyler walked into his house, fully planning to just slip into his room and pretend that he'd been home for longer than he actually had been to avoid the wrath of his mother, but she was waiting for him in the chair right by the stairs, arms crossed and frowning.

                          
tyler winced. uh oh.

                          
"tyler," she said slowly. "where, exactly, were you today?"

                          
tyler knew he was already screwed. he might as well try to get out of it, at least there was the possibility of it working and him not getting metaphorically murdered by his mother. "uh... at school?" he said unconvincingly. his mother raised her eyebrows at him. "really?" she asked.

                          
"yeah. totally." he internally smacked himself. he was such a horrible liar.

                          
"then why did i get a call from one of your teachers telling me that you just happened to not show up to their class? quite a few other classes too, as it turned out."

                          
tyler sighed. "could this maybe... wait for tomorrow?" he asked. it had been a long day, after all. it was a reasonable request.

                          
his mother didn't seem to think so, though, and she scoffed. "tyler, i'm glad that you already feel at home enough here to start skipping classes, but this really is not the best way to settle into a new town. what were you even doing all afternoon?" she asked.

                          
tyler shrugged, avoiding making eye contact with her. "nothing. i wasn't doing anything."

                          
she gave a long sigh. "unless you were doing drugs or something of that nature, it is not so bad that you can't tell me. what's going on?"

                          
tyler bit back a sigh. he supposed he had to tell her about what had happened with the jock. he hadn't wanted her to know. there was just something about having his parents worry about him, or act protective, that just made him feel funny.

                          
he knew his mother, though, and he knew that she'd continue pressing him for details until he told he exactly what she wanted to know.

                          
he pulled up his shirt, showing her the bandages around his ribs. his mother gasped and her hand flew to her mouth. "oh my god- who did this to you? i'm going to call the school, whoever it was is not going to get away with this."

                          
she began walking toward the house phone. tyler shook his head erratically. "mom, no, i have it handled." she turned to him, eyebrow raised. she did that a lot. it was a secret mom weapon of skepticism and guilt. "just like you had it handled at your last school? i'm calling the principal, tyler."

                          
"this is different. i have people now. plus, i doubt they'll bother me now, because..." he trailed off. he didn't want his mom to think of josh as some scary, intimidating guy. he was just a slightly disgruntled bag of red hair dye and eyeliner.

                          
"because..." his mother prompted, gesturing for him to continue.

                          
"there's this guy, and he helped me out, and the assholes are... uh, kinda scared of him? he's really nice, though, and his mom's a nurse, and she helped me, and i was with him the rest of the day." he blushed when he thought about the hug, and the forest, and josh, and his eyes, and- oh crap. it looked like he was catching feelings.

                          
his mother, of course, noticed the blush, because the universe hated him.

                          
she smirked at him. damn her perceptiveness. damn it to hell. "so, what's this mystery boy's name?" she asked.

                          
tyler gave up on trying to keep as many details from his mother's clutches as possible. that ship had already sailed, she would find out anyway. he decided to just get the questioning over with as quick as possible. at least that way, he could go to sleep faster. he'd had a long day full of rib kicking and cute boys, and he was finished.