As the days went by, Tyler had slowly returning to his old self but still with a hint of repressed sorrow and guilt. Guilt about what? I couldn't be sure. But all I know that he's slowly progressing and I was there all step of the way. I cried with him, grieved with him, love him and when the time comes, I will be there to accept the reality together with him.

Tyler was currently laying in my bed with me, his head on my chest and his hands were trailing the letters printed on the front of my jumper. This was a new thing that we did, it's something that would make him feel more peaceful at night before going to bed. He said that he needed to fall asleep to the sound of my beating heart and I would gladly comply to all of his wishes if it meant to make him happy.

"Troye.." I felt his warm breath against my chest as he whispered.

"Yeah?"

"I need to go and get some stuff at my house. Will you go with me?" He asked so cautiously it broke my heart a little, as if he's afraid that I would say no. So before I answered him, I grabbed his chin and tilted his face to lock eyes with me.

"Where wouldn't I go with you?" And I leaned down to give him a kiss before we both let out a sigh.

So the next day after having our breakfast, I told my mom what our plan is today. She kindly reminded us to bring our keys as she and my younger siblings will be accompanying my dad to a luncheon and they won't be home until late evening.

It took about 15 minutes or so before we reach Tyler's house and the first thing that we noticed were the stack of untouched mails and newspapers on the front porch and it was quite telling what we would be seeing when we enter the house. True enough, the house was in a pretty bad state. It stunk of stale alcohol and cigarette smoke and that wasn't the worst part of it. Dirty clothes were strewn across every room in the house, shards of glasses from broken picture frames and vases all over the floor, there's empty liquor bottles on the couch, the coffee table even in the kitchen sink. In other words, it was unrecognizable. I looked over to Tyler, his face was as blank as possible and then he made his way straight to his room, not wanting to be in this mess of a house any longer than necessary.

Fortunately, his room was just as before, only now with an almost empty closet because Tyler had been shoving as many clothes as possible into a duffel bag. I took a seat on the corner of his bed, waiting for him to be done getting whatever it is that he needed.

"Ty, do you need any help?" I asked as he went into the bathroom to get more stuff.

"Uh, yeah. Could you get my passport and some documents from the drawer by the table? It's all in the blue folder in the top drawer." He shouted back from the bathroom.

I immediately spotted the blue folder that he mentioned under some letters and a notebook. Just as I was trying to get the folder out, I saw one of the opened letter with the Michigan State University logo at the front and I took it with me.

"Ty, I got the folder! And I also got the letter."

"What letter?" He came to me to find out what I was referring to. His expression changed from a light frown to an angry grunt when he realized which letter that I'm holding.

"Leave it. I don't need it."

"But, Ty. This is your..."

"I said LEAVE IT!" He shouted and proceeded to take the blue folder from me and carried the duffel bag to get out of the room.

I stood there in the middle of the room with the letter still in my hand and I immediately grind through the wheels in my mind about the reason behind his little outburst. I knew for a fact that this was an acceptance letter for him to study journalism because it has been the only subject that he applied for in Michigan State University. So, to see his behaviour like that was a little uncalled for. Which was why I've decided that instead of leaving it behind, I just tugged it into my jeans and hoping to have a better time to bring this up. Just as I was exiting his room, I heard some shouting downstairs and went to check what's the commotion was about.

As I neared the bottom of the stairs, I heard two sets of voices screaming angrily at each other on top of their lungs.

"Get the fuck out of my house, you ungrateful son of a bitch!" I was shocked to hear the words that Mr Oakley was saying. I saw him standing at the hallway, his arms was perched on one side of the wall, as though he needed some support to stand upright. He wasn't looking very good. He looked like he haven't showered or shaven in weeks, his eyes were bloodshot and his words were slurring a little. How much has he been drinking?

"Fuck you! It's my house too. But right now it looked more like a pig sty and you are living in it!" Tyler were just standing about a few feet away from him.

"Who do you think you are that you can just waltz back in here whenever you want, huh? You disgust me!" Mr Oakley retorted back.

"Don't worry asshole! I'd rather peel off all the skin on my body before I step into this filthy house ever again! I'm just here to get all my stuff and this will be the last time I will be back here if it was up to me." Tyler spatted his words angrily and quickly added, "What happened to you, huh? You didn't even go to mom's funeral!"

It was true. My family has been helping Tyler to arrange all the funeral plans and Tyler had been the one notifying all of his family and friends. On the day of the funeral, his dad didn't even show up.

"Don't you DARE mentioned your mom, you faggot! DON'T YOU DARE! This is ALL YOUR FAULT, you fucking shit! If it wasn't for you and your little performance, we wouldn't be here right now and your mom wouldn't have died!"

I let out a shocking gasp, not knowing what to think of the information that Mr Oakley just spat out. I looked over at Tyler again, his face was so red, he looked like he's about to explode. "Mom died because YOU rammed the car into a fucking lamp post! Mom died because YOU decided to risk all our lives by not paying attention while you drive. And MOM DIED BECAUSE I FUCKING PULLED YOUR UNCONSCIOUS ASS OUT OF THE DAMN CAR WHEN I COULD HAVE USED THE TIME TO SAVE HER!"

Suddenly I saw Mr Oakley charged towards Tyler like a mad man provoked and he grabbed Tyler's neck with one hand and slammed his body against the wall with such a force I thought it would break the wall.

"TYLER!" I quickly ran over to where they were and tried to yank Mr Oakley's hand from Tyler's neck. Tyler was choking a little from the force that Mr Oakley's was putting on his neck and I shoved and pulled and screamed at Mr Oakley to get Tyler away from him. "STOP IT! MR. OAKLEY YOU'RE HURTING HIM! STOP IT, STOP IT!"

As I was about to bite his arm as my last resort, he seemed to jumped back as if he had been electrocuted and he was breathing heavily. I quickly hugged Tyler's body to me and checked if he's alright. "Oh shit. Tyler, are you okay?" He just nodded his head as he was clutching onto his neck protectively. But I was still worried because he's still panting harshly trying to catch his breath.

I've never understood Tyler's relationship with his dad but I would never in a million years think that this kind of thing would actually happen. I just can't believe anybody would want to harm Tyler and he's his son! I had to control my temper right now for Tyler's sake because I don't want to make this situation any more outrageous than it already is.

I grabbed his duffel bag and starting to walk out of the house before the dazed Mr Oakley spoke again.

"Get your stupid mails before you leave and don't ever step back in here ever again."

I looked over to the stack of unopened letter on the floor addressed to Tyler just by the door, scooped them up in my hands ushered Tyler out of there. Just as we exited the door, I heard Mt Oakley muttered in a low but audible voice.

"Murderer.."

I cringed as I heard it, hoping Tyler didn't but when I felt his body tensed in my arm, telling me that there's no mistaking that he definitely heard that hurtful accusation.