Chapter 32

Is it time yet?

Today was the day.

Yes, Tyler thought. Today was going to be the day he told his best friend that he was seeing someone and that someone just so happened to be none other than Jeremy Gilbert.

Tyler laughed to himself after he got out of the shower thinking of all the different ways he could spring that last bit of information at Matt.

He figured the simple: By the way, I'm gay for Jeremy. Let's eat. Approach really wasn't going to have the best of reactions; from anyone, really.

Truth is Jeremy never really talked about Tyler telling Matt. Jeremy just figured Tyler would do it whenever he was ready but the time came that if everyone knew but Matt, then it'd only feel like Tyler was almost lying to his best friend; which wasn't the case at all.

So Tyler called up Matt the night before and told him he wanted to meet up at the grill sometime the next day.

Tyler couldn't help but let out a small sigh as he began to think about how it first went when he told his mom. Sure she came around eventually, but hell, that took Jeremy stalking over to the mansion and telling her she basically needed to step it up or she'd lose her son completely.

Just the idea of his friend reacting like his mom did made Tyler a little hesitant about the idea of telling him altogether.

Nope. Today's gonna be the day.

Jeremy and Melissa went shopping while Tyler left to meet up with Matt. Even though Jeremy was never really the one urging Tyler to tell Matt in particular, Tyler could tell it made Jeremy happy, which made Tyler happy.

.*

Tyler got to the grill and saw Matt waiting for him by the pool tables.

"Hey man, sorry–did you have to wait long?" Tyler asked Matt as they sat down at a table.

"Nope, just got here a minute ago."

A few moments of silence passed and Tyler kept fidgeting across the table.

Matt wasn't blind––he could tell Tyler was acting differently than usual. Even different from how he had been acting for the past couple of months. Sometime or another Tyler Lockwood dropped his "bad-temper asshole" act and had calmed down, even social to people who weren't in his cliques. (All because of Jeremy, obviously, but no one else knew that particular reason.) But now Tyler was acting even more different.

"So–uh, was there something you wanted to talk about?" Matt couldn't take Tyler's subtlety anymore.

Tyler let out a long and faint sigh as he put his menu down, flattened it across the table, and brought his attention to Matt.

"Yeah," he drawled.

Matt chuckled in response, not used to the way Tyler was acting. Learning from the past, when Tyler was acting different around Matt, Matt knew he'd better brace himself – with Tyler, anything was possible.

"Alright… –go for it."

And there it was.

That smile, the only thing genuine in Tyler's life before Jeremy.

There was a reason Matt was Tyler's best friend and even though many would believe it was because Matt was the only one crazy enough to put up with Tyler's shit, it was that Matt would always be there for Tyler and Tyler knew it.

"Okay. Well–, I'm kind of… well, I am, —seeing someone." He added after he paused.

Matt raised his brows slightly. It wasn't the fact that Tyler was seeing someone was what surprised Matt it was how Tyler acted as if it were something scandalous or something.

The two boys hadn't realized that neither of them were saying anything until Tyler cleared his throat breaking the silence.

"Well?" Matt asked. "C'mon, what's her name?"

His question sent a small smile across Tyler's face.

Oh boy.

"Um, well y' see th-that's the thing." Suddenly Tyler found himself biting at his bottom lip a little, which he never did until it rubbed off from Jeremy and onto him.

This time Matt let out a hearty laugh instead of the nervous chuckles, amused by his friend's odd behavior. If he didn't know any better, he'd say Tyler was becoming– flustered?

"What? She nameless or something? Come on, who's the lucky girl?"

Somehow, that same smile that gave Tyler his reassurance appeared again but this time, just made him feel more nervous.

Tyler begins to answer him slowly, "what if I told you that it wasn't… –a girl? That I told you… i-it was a guy?" Tyler stopped long enough to gulp down hard not wanting to observe Matt's face.

"Wh-what if I told you that it was… –Jeremy?"

Tyler got the words out. He could finally breathe normally. And he could possibly lose his best friend in a matter of seconds.

Finally Tyler decided to look back at Matt. Who, as expected, was wide-eyed.

But then something unexpected happened.

Tyler found his friend smiling back at him.

"Does he make you happy?" Matt asked in a tone that may have been lowered slightly.

He simply smiled slightly and nodded his head.

"Well okay then." The blonde said firmly.

"You're not– you're not disgusted? Shocked? Anything?" Tyler hated to press his luck with this but Matt's calmness really threw Tyler off track. Hell he already had a speech prepared for the worse and all Matt has to say is well okay then?

"Why would I be disgusted? I mean, sure it's definitely not what I expected and normally I'd think you were just messing around but… it makes sense. You–you've been acting a little differently, haven't been messin' with the kid like in the past and… –well, despite what happened with your dad, you've seemed really happy lately. Hey, if Jeremy can do all that, then I praise the kid."

Wow.

"Tyler, no matter what man–, you can tell me anything."

Thoughts?
I was aiming for a sweet bro-mance between the two.
My apologies for such a long gap between updates, really. But I'm on vacation from college so what I'm hoping is for back-to-back updaes between now and Monday.
Requests?