Taylor's POV...
As I watch Joey walk upstairs to the guest room, Tim walks over to my side and takes a seat next to me on the couch. An awkward tension fills the air as the two of us sit in silence. By that, I decided to get the bottle of beer from the table in front of me. As I open the bottle of beer, Tim gaze at my direction. Making me feel more awkward.
"So how are things?" I ask him, with the thought of letting out any random question in my head.
Tim sighs, "Nothing new, nothing much."
I turn my head to see Tim staring at the TV which is turned off. The sight of this takes me back to last night, when we finally had a more meaningful conversation, and when he suddenly confessed his feelings. Looking at the blonde boy right now, I couldn't help but feel guilty that I had only seen the cheesy sides of him, hence actually thinking that he's nothing more than an annoying kid. Turned out he's so much more, and that he has his own scars to heal from the absense of his parents, which made me feel sad. I might just never knew how he feels about his parents' absense, just like he might never knew how it feels to be involved in a love triangle with your sister and best friend. But do we really have to get through so much, just to learn so much? And only to understand what it feels like to be in other people's shoes.
"What brings you here tonight?" Tim asks in a casual manner.
I sigh, "Just wanted to ask you how you were doing tonight."
"Well, that's new," Tim says. "That's the first time you actually care enough to ask."
"It's not everyday that I didn't get to see your smile," I say. "Damn, I never thought I would say that."
Tim chuckles, which a bit surprised me. He looked like he found it hard to believe that he just heard that coming from me. More likely, I found it harder to believe that I actually said that. I guess he thought I hated him too much to even say some words of empathy. Yet, deep down I feel a pinch of happiness after seeing him chuckle just know, forming a small smile.
"And I never thought I would hear that coming from you," Tim says, as he turns his head slowly to face me.
"Thank you," Tim says as he is now staring at me, in which I stare back.
Our eyes stare into each other intensly, yet somehow tonight I didn't feel awkward staring at the blond boy. In fact, all the awkwardness seems to fade away as a feeling of comfort starts growing inside my heart. Honestly, I actually enjoy this new comforting feeling I am experiencing towards Tim. Hopefully this could lead to us having a better relationship, and fixing whatever mistakes were done in the past.
"You know, it's good to actually know that everything's fine," I say as I turn my head back to the TV as I grab the bottle of beer to drink it. "I'm glad about that."
"Well, at least for the two of us," Tim says. "Joey's been having some tough times."
I turn my head back to face Tim, with the bottle of beer still in my hand. Remembering that I didn't expect to see Joey tonight, I thought there must be some sort of reasons he decided to stay at Tim's place again. Chances are he probably hasn't sort out the issue he had with his dad.
"How is he?" I ask Tim, in an empathetic tone.
"He argued with his dad again. He didn't want to see his face tonight," Tim states.
"I see," I say. "I'm not surprise though. I can't imagine how broken he must feel."
Tim sighs, "Terrible. I feel bad for him."
"I just hope things would get better soon," I say.
"Yeah," Tim says. "Anyway, you can spend the night here."
"What? No. I'm not here to spend the night," I say, a bit surprised that Tim actually thought I was gonna spend the night. Not gonna lie, I appreciated his hospitality.
"I just wanted to talk to you, see how you were doing," I add.
Tim smiles, "Well, I'm ok. Thanks for caring."
Seeing his smile, I smile back at the cheeky boy. I never thought I would actually be happy to see his smile, but looking at his smile tonight made me realize that his smile has the ability to make me feel happy.
"I should go now," I say as I get up from the couch. After finally having a good talk with him, I realized that it's time to go home. It's late and I don't want to worry my parents, and Eli.
"I'll drive you back," Tim says.
I paused for a moment. Slowly I turn my head to face Tim, who is forming a small smile on his lips as our eyes gets lost with one another. I wanted to hesitate for a moment to accept his offer, but at the same time, I actually wouldn't mind to spend some time on the road with this boy.
"Ok," I answer.
Hearing that, Tim walks over to get his car keys on the table. He walks to the front door in which I follow him as the two of us exit his house. After locking the door, we walk over to his car, ready to have a ride tonight.
Two weeks later...
At school...
It's been two weeks since my encounter with Tim and Joey at Tim's place. So far, I'm glad that Tim and I are now good friends, without any feeling of annoyance towards him. It's good to have a different perspective towards someone we used to only have negative thoughts. By this, I learned to not judge people too quickly by what is visible, and that everyone has their own story in which we might not know.
As for Joey, he still hasn't communicate much with everyone, mainly because he had been busy taking care of his mom and arguing with his dad. I heard that his mom's condition is getting worse, hence making him more worried about her. A few days ago, Eli and I even decided to visit his mom at the hospital, in which it shocked us to see how worse her condition is. Hopefully, we wish her to recover soon, and so that Joey can be happy again as usual.
To be continue...