Second Chapter. This one will be told in a General POV in present- tense. Not like the first one. Read, Enjoy, and Review!
Tyler walked up the stairs to his room after eating lunch. He grabbed his cell phone off of his dresser, and began to text as he flopped down onto his bed.
From: Tyler
To: Jeremy
Sent at 1:13 pm.
Hey, Jer. R u busy 2day?
Tyler contemplated his friendship with Jeremy as he waited for a response. He couldn't remember when he and Jeremy had made the switch from mortal enemies to best friends, but it had happened. Matt had distanced himself from Tyler after Caroline was hospitalized. She was still suffering fainting spells and small seizures occasionally from the internal bleeding in her scull. Tyler felt bad about that, but the accident wasn't really his fault. When Matt started spending every possible moment with Caroline, that left time for Tyler and Jeremy to grow closer.
From: Jeremy
To: Tyler
Sent at 1:17 pm.
Not really. Wat'd u have in mind?
Tyler smiled as his phone buzzed, and he read the message. That was one of his favorite things about Jeremy. When Tyler, or anyone else texted him, he usually replied back within a few minutes. With Matt and some of his other friends, Tyler sometimes had to wait as much as a few days for an answer to a text.
From: Tyler
To: Jeremy
Sent at 1:20 pm.
I was gonna go hang at the Grille. U wanna meet me there?
Jeremy replied almost immediately, making Tyler smirk to himself. He liked how Jeremy was so loyal, and gave Tyler all of his attention when they were hanging out together.
From: Jeremy
To: Tyler
Sent at 1:22 pm.
Now?
From: Tyler
To: Jeremy
Sent at 1:25 pm.
Yea. Is that cool?
From: Jeremy
To: Tyler
Sent at 1:27 pm.
Im on my way.
Tyler smiled once more, getting off his bed and pulling some worn out tennis shoes on. He went downstairs and stopped when he heard his mother's voice.
"Tyler, sweetie, where are you going?" Mrs. Lockwood called to her son.
"I'm just gonna hang out at the Grille for a while." Tyler called back quickly. He didn't wait for an answer as he walked to his car and got in. As he drove to the restaurant, he rolled the windows down and blasted the music. It was late spring, so the air was warm and moist, as is preparing for the summer months ahead. He drove into the parking lot and got out of his car.
When Tyler walked through the door of the Grille, he saw that Jeremy was already haphazardly throwing darts at the dartboard on the wall across from the bar. Tyler walked towards him. Jeremy looked up when Tyler was just a few yards away. He gave a crooked grin and a subtle wave of his fingers. When Tyler got closer, they bumped fists, and Jeremy handed him half the darts.
"You really want to start with me, Gilbert?" Tyler joshed in a playfully challenging way.
"Scared, Lockwood?" Jeremy fired back as he threw a perfect bullseye.
"Now I might be. A little." Tyler answered back as he took his turn.
The game went on and on, and the boys kept a pretty constant tie. Both of them were naturally competitive, but they were teaching each other to be better sports. They had to, because anything that one wasn't good at the other one was. The game of darts ended with Jeremy winning by just a few points.
"You fought a good fight, Ty." Jeremy said, pushing him good- naturedly towards an empty booth after the game.
"Yeah. Yeah. Well, you're the real loser." Tyler said with a smug grin.
"Yeah? How do you figure that?" Jeremy asked, genuinely confused.
"Winner buys ice cream." Tyler explained.
"Since when?" Jeremy asked.
"Since about two minutes ago, when I lost that game." Tyler replied, sitting back against the booth, satisfied with his own cleverness.
"Fine, but I'm gonna hold you to that rule the next time you beat me at pool." Jeremy countered.
"Deal." Tyler answered.
After they ordered their dessert and talked about not much of anything for a while, they left the Grille. Tyler offered to drive Jeremy home; but, just like always, they decided to take a drive once in the car. Tyler kept his foot on the gas until they reached his house.
"Wait here for a minute. Be right back." Tyler said, getting out of the car.
He came a few minutes later, carrying a box. He hopped back into the driver's seat and placed the box down on the backseat.
"What's that?" Jeremy asked curiously.
"You'll see." Tyler answered simply and mysteriously. He began to drive out of town. He drove, barely slowing down, until they had reached a deserted country road.
"What are we doing here, Ty?" Jeremy asked his friend as Tyler pulled off the road and reached behind him to grab the mystery box from the seat behind him.
"You'll see in a second. Get out." Tyler answered before opening his own door and stepping out of the car with the box under his arm.
Jeremy got out of the car after a moment's hesitation and joined Tyler by the trunk of the car, where Tyler was opening the box.
"You ready to have some fun?" Tyler asked devilishly, waggling his eyebrows at Jeremy playfully.
Jeremy couldn't help but laugh at the gesture as he said, "Depends. What's in the box?"
Tyler began pulling various items out of the box. First, plastic red cups, the cheap kind that they used at keggers. Next, a few smaller boxes of something. After taking a closer look, Jeremy realized the smaller boxes were full of bullets. He freaked out even more than he already was when Tyler took out a handgun and began to load it.
"Whoa! What are you doing?" Jeremy asked, backing away slowly.
"Chill out, man. I'm not gonna kill anything. I though we'd have some target practice." Tyler explained as he laid the gun on the hood of his car and started lining the cups up on the fence of an empty field.
Jeremy relaxed and grabbed the gun off of the car, walking over to Tyler and handing it to him.
"Let's see what you've got." Jeremy challenged as Tyler took hold of the gun and readied it to be fired.
"You got it." Tyler said before raising the gun into a comfortable position and taking aim. One by one he shot the six cups that he had set up off the fence, all right through the middle.
"Impressive." Jeremy said, meaning it. He had no idea that Tyler was such a good marksman. He had mentioned that his father had taken him to the shooting gallery when he was younger, but Jeremy had not been expecting him to be that good.
"Thank you. Now, it's your turn." Tyler said, handing the weapon to Jeremy.
"No, Ty. I shouldn't. The only thing I've ever shot is paintball guns and air soft rifles." Jeremy said.
"Well, it's not that much different. I'll be right here." Tyler reassured him.
"That's comforting." Jeremy said, making sure to sound sarcastic. He couldn't let Tyler know that he had been a constant comfort for the past few months.
"Yeah. Yeah. Don't give me any lip, Jer. Just plant your feet, aim, and remember to squeeze the trigger firmly but kinda slowly. If you squeeze it too hard, your arm might jerk." Tyler said. Jeremy did as he was told, step by step, until Tyler said the last part. About squeezing too hard and his arm jerking. Jeremy looked over at his friend suggestively and wiggled his eyebrows up and down just as Tyler had earlier.
"Dude, you have a sick mind. Now, take the shot." Tyler said, laughing good naturedly.
Jeremy took aim and remembered everything that Tyler had told him. He also pictured the shots that Tyler had taken before him. He aimed at the first cup, drew in a deep breath, and fired. The cup flew off the fence as the bullet went straight through it.
"Man, that was awesome." Tyler said.
"Thanks." Jeremy answered. The two leaned in for a quick victory man-hug. They both grinned awkwardly as they pulled away. In the past months that they had been friends, they had never once hugged. "You do know that you're the only person I know who would trust me with a gun after the whole suicide thing, right?"
"Yeah, Jer. I know that. Hey, you still have five more targets." Tyler replied.
Once they had finished shooting through each of the red cups, the two boys packed up the gun and ammunition and headed to Jeremy's house.
Once inside the house, they flopped down on the living room couch and started playing video games. Jeremy won every time they played Halo, but once they had switched to Call of Duty, Tyler kicked his ass.
"Oh yeah! Who's the bitch now, Jeremy? Who's the bitch now?" Tyler said, jumping up and down in front of Jeremy after winning Call of Duty for the seventh time in a row.
"Yeah. Yeah. Whatever, Lockwood." Jeremy said. He and Tyler only called each other by their last names when they were annoyed with each other, or when they were pretending to be.
"Lockwood, huh?" Tyler said. The next thing Jeremy knew, Tyler had tackled him and was sitting on his back.
Tyler pushed Jeremy's face into the rug and said, "Eat carpet, Gilbert!"
"Never!" Jeremy called, giving a battle cry before flipping positions and hitting Tyler over the head with the T.V. remote.
After a few more minutes of wrestling and hitting each other with various household objects, they called it a draw and settled down into the couch, exhausted and still laughing.
"Why did I invite you over if you are just going to abuse me all night?" Jeremy asked.
"You didn't invite me. I invited myself." Tyler countered, trying to catch his breath.
"I'm hungry." The two teenagers said at the same time. They looked at each other for a second before racing into the kitchen in search of junk food.
When Elena and Bonnie got home from a concert at 2 am, they found Jeremy and Tyler passed out in the living room, bags of chips and soda cans all over the place. Tyler was laying on one end of the couch, Jeremy on the other. Their legs were slightly intertwined on the middle cushion. Tyler snored softly, and Jeremy mumbled in his sleep.
"Aw. When will they realize it?" Bonnie said, looking at the two of them sleeping.
"When will they realize what?" Elena asked, after creeping around the sleeping boys and gathering up what she could of the mess.
"That they were made for each other." Bonnie replied simply.
"I don't know." Elena said softly. She had been wondering just that for months.
Let me know what you think. I will start to lead up to the romance in within the next chapter or two. I will try to update in the next few days. Please look for upcoming chapters and stories by me! LOVE AND HUGS!