Chapter 32

Meanwhile, Tyrone was doing the laundry at home when he felt a familiar chill down his spine. It was already the beginnings of December and the cold was getting really chilly. Tyrone had a jacket on, but he felt unpleasantly cold. He felt his nose wet with mucus and he blew his nose. Just then, Matt came up and jumped from behind.

"Eeek! You scared me Matt!" cried Tyrone.

"That's what you get for texting Destiny a lot." Said Matt with a big smile. Tyrone understood the joke.

"I don't text her that much." Said Tyrone.

"Ever since we went on the road trip, you have been giving her gaga eyes." Said Matt playfully. Tyrone loved this. He loved playing games with his little brother.

"I have yeah. But only between you and me." Said Tyrone placing his finger on his lips.

"Secrets! I like secrets! Can't wait to share them!" said Matt as he hugged Tyrone from the back excitedly jumping up and down.

"You little Mexican." Said Tyrone ruffling Matt's hair. Matt took a step back, with his eyes wide in surprise.

"What did you just call me?" asked Matt.

Tyrone was taken by surprise as well. Matt's reaction was a little defensive. "What? Little Mexican? That's not an offense. You are Mexican after all, and you are my brother. I can say something like that. It's like the "N" word among friends and family." Said Tyrone trying to explain things.

Matt was not impressed.

"Yeah, but maybe you should think before you call someone by their race don't you think?" said Matt with his hands on his hips.

"Okay what's eating you?" asked Tyrone, noticing Matt's change of attitude. "Nothing. I just forgot. Your white. I'm Mexican. I forgot you got privileges that I don't. You guys are so damn lucky." Said Matt rolling his eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean you little brat?" asked Tyrone, clearly starting to dislike Matt's tone.

"You still think I'm different. I'm different. Yeah, I know that, but you don't have to tell me that I'm Mexican!" said Matt rising his voice.

"Keep your voice down! The Shack is open, we got tourists right now, and if you scare away the customers, Stan is going to make us do chores for a week!" whispered Tyrone.

"Scare away the customers?! Why?! Cause I'm Mexican! C'mon you Caucasian freak! Say it to my face!" cried Matt angrily.

"Jesus calm down! It was just an expression little man! I didn't say that to offend you!? Maybe you had a bad day at school and your taking it out on me! Go up to your room and think about what your saying!" said Tyrone with authority.

"Your not my Dad! And your NOT my brother!" cried Matt.

Tyrone gasped and Matt also covered his mouth. The boy's eyes started to swell with tears and he ran inside into the shack, shoving Dipper aside.

"Yikes! What's gotten into him?" asked Dipper. Tyrone was shaken by Matt's temper and shook his head.

"I don't know. I just said something that upset him apparently." Said Tyrone.

Dipper looked back to the house and then he turned to Tyrone quickly. "You guys need to settle this some other time. Hartley is inside the shack. Apparently Bill escaped." Said Dipper.

"Bill?! What the hell happened?!" cried Tyrone.

"He overpowered the Mothman and destroyed the mirror. It can be rebuilt, but it will take some time. The Groke and Morso are at the river trying to fix it. Hartley is going back there now. In the meantime, you and I have to watch out for yellow eyed freaks in the area. That means we must watch the customers." Said Dipper.

"You want me to guard the door or something? Sure, but there really isn't that many customers right now. I bet this will be easy." Said Tyrone.

"Get Matt. He needs to help out." Said Dipper.

"About Matt, I don't think I can. I just called him a little Mexican and he got all bananas at me." Said Tyrone.

"You did what?! Dude! What the heck?!" cried Dipper.

"It's not that offensive." Said Tyrone.

"Your not Mexican are you Tyrone? If you were, how would you feel if…. Oh what are we doing?! Bill is out there and we need to stop him! Either you fix things with Matt, or I'll kill you!" cried Dipper angrily.

Tyrone was dumbfounded. "Jesus, what's with everyone today." He thought.

Tyrone stood guard in the gift shop while he ran the cash register. Wendy went out with her friends, and Mabel was gone with both Candy and Grenda. Apparently, Mabel's boyfriend Ben was coming to visit. Tyrone didn't mind seeing some old faces. Just then, an Hispanic family entered the gift shop and Tyrone noticed the two little kids by the parent's side.

Tyrone thought of calling Matt for translation, but he thought better not to. One of the kids, a little boy looked at Tyrone and waved at him. Tyrone waved back with a smile and the little boy smiled widely. Tyrone waited in the cash register and the family came up to buy a few shirts.

Tyrone tried to speak a little Spanish. After all, Matt and Soos have spoken to him a couple times for practice.

As Tyrone spoke, the little kids were excited to hear Tyrone try his best. "Your Spanish is good. Where do you practice?" asked the father.

"My little brother is Hispanic, and he teaches me from time to time." Said Tyrone.

"How sweet. Is he your brother or fostered?" asked the woman.

"He's fostered. His family passed away an year ago. And he's been with us ever since." Said Tyrone.

"Is it true about the rumors young man? About the missing kids? We come all the way from Beaverton and the minute we arrive, we learn of this rumor." Said the Father.

Tyrone wanted to say yes, but he thought not to scare away the family. "Internet rumors. Gravity Falls is a little town with no problems. Sure we got weird folks, but we don't have anything scary going on." Said Tyrone with a wink.

"Thank goodness for that. I thought some deranged lunatic lived in the woods." Said the man.

"The only lunatics in the woods are the squirrels and the raccoons." Said Tyrone. The family began to chuckle and so did Tyrone. After they left, Tyrone realized it was time to close up shop. He locked the gift shop, and walked inside into the living room. Stan was watching TV, eating Ice Cream.

"Is Matt upstairs?" asked Tyrone.

"Yeah he is. There's a friend with him too. I was hoping it was girl, but in that day is coming! Mark my words!" said Stan.

"A girl?" thought Tyrone. Perhaps Matt was jumpy because of a girl? That was a dumb hypothesis, but he wanted to try to talk to him.

Tyrone walked upstairs and he saw Shinji leaving the bedroom. "I'll text you later Matt! I'm going to do some Homework." Said Shinji.

"Hey, is Matt in there?" asked Tyrone.

Shinji nodded and whispered in Tyrone's ear softly. "He's having one of his moods. I tried to talk to him, but he's been a little grumpy. I'll come back when he's in better spirits." Said Shinji.

"Sorry kid. I'll tell him to apologize to you." Said Tyrone.

"Don't worry. He'll be okay. He's just…… I don't know what I would call it. He was fine the past few days since the trip, but at School, his attitude changed." Said Shinji.

"I wonder…." Thought Tyrone. (Could it be because I called him a "Mexican?") thought Tyrone to himself. Tyrone was a white kid for sure, but he never disrespected anyone in his life before. In fact, his household was very "woke" and his parents raised him to see all people equally. Tyrone knew better. But he didn't mean to offend Matt. Not like that. But here was the thing…. Tyrone used to make jokes to Matt in the past about his skin color, but Matt never fought with him about it.

Tyrone would sometimes call him Chocolate Brother, Brownie, occasionally he would call him little "hombre", or sometimes, just among themselves, the "N" word. Matt always laughed and never took offense with some of the jokes. They all came from Tyrone and he loved him a lot. The brothers said heavy jokes from time to time, but no one was offended in the end. But on that day, Matt became offended and Tyrone felt he may have messed up.

He gently knocked on Matt's door. "Matt? Are you in there?" said Tyrone.

"Go away." Replied Matt. Tyrone didn't listen. He opened the door and saw Matt on his bed reading a comic book, looking like he was owed an apology.

Tyrone sat on the bed next to him and Matt ignored him by simply turning the page. Tyrone took the comic book, closed it and placed it on Matt's night stand.

"Look, if your offended by the joke I said outside, I didn't mean to. You know we joke like that all the time! I call you worse sometimes. Like the "N" word. I shouldn't call you that, but we call it among ourselves cause we're brothers and you and I both know it's just us joking around like normal brothers do. If that offended you, I'm sorry." Said Tyrone.

Matt looked at Tyrone and looked deeply into his eyes. "No. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have exploded like that." Said Matt.

"Then what's all the fuss about?" asked Tyrone. Matt pulled out his phone and showed it to Tyrone. "This is why." Said Matt.

Tyrone pressed the play button on Matt's phone and it was a news anchor reporting hate crimes happening in a city. The footage showed a lot of White Supremacists with torches screaming hate words and attacking people of color. The police officers during the interview were saying that this attack was very big and there was a lot of wounded folks. The footages showed ambulances, police patrols and K9 units all marching in on the hate group and a fight ensued. The news then began to interview a reporter and said reporter claimed that the reason why those things were happening was because of the growing number of immigrants in the country. They then began to interview a Governor, who then claimed that if the country had less immigrants, then there would be less fighting.

Tyrone turned off the phone and took a deep breath. He then remembered when Viscount Acres attacked Matt in the arcade. The event did scar Matt a lot.

Tyrone placed the phone on the night stand and was thinking what to say next. "The News is bullshit." Said Tyrone out of the blue.

"What?" asked Matt. Tyrone replied. "You heard me. Bullshit. Don't look at the news from now on Matt. It will make you worry." Said Tyrone.

"But….. why is this happening. Why are we hated? I mean, not you! Your White. I'm the one whose Mexican, and well… people don't like us." Said Matt.

Tyrone grabbed Matt's shoulders. "Matt. Listen. The hell what people think. People will never be happy with life. People are People. You are Matt. Matt is Matt. And you have people who love you. You got me, Dipper, Mabel, Our Uncles, my parents back home, hell, you even got Morso, the Groke, Hartley, and even Destiny! You made a ton of friends and loved ones. The world will still be cruel to you no matter who you are. You can be a king, or a celebrity, and the world will still hate you. Well guess what little man. It's us against the world!" said Tyrone.

Matt began to cry. "Cry all you want. I won't judge. But know that no matter what happens, I'll be there for you. I'll fight for you and I'll stay for you. You know why. Because I love you." Said Tyrone.

"I love you too." Said Matt. The boys then gave each other a hug. Matt sobbed deeply in Tyrone's chest and Tyrone kissed his head. They stood in that posture for a very long time until Matt calmed down.

"Don't look at the news for now. Focus on more cheerful things okay." Said Tyrone to his baby brother. Matt nodded and kissed Tyrone's cheek.