A/N: This little story was inspired by "The Bird And The Worm" by The Used. It was stuck in my head for a bit and I started thinking aaaaand... This is what happened. :3
blo0d StaiNed Rose: I'm working on a Chase/Caleb. I just have to beat Malachite and Epsilon into glorious submission. XD
Dark Angel's Blue Fire: I'm glad you never tire of them, lovely. :D
forgetMEalways: It wasn't Poltergiest. The third movie in that series creeped the hell out of me. 0.o
beginningxofxthexend: Yeah. I love blogging about guys I'm interested in. That's why I have this long list of "codenames" for the guys, to keep Monday from being awkward. XD
julliette: Here is the "more" you requested.
xxFuturistico: I'm good at twisting things. I'm just glad I did it right that time. XD And yes, it was "A Haunting in Conneticut". Milk and cookies for you!!!!
LadyV.2102: I'm glad you like the story so much. The blogging thing was kinda in the forefront of my mind, seeing as how I just set up another blog, lol. And thanks for the publicity. I really, really, really appreciate it. :D
He had always been a shy boy. For as long as anyone could remember he was shy. Always keeping to himself, preferring the company of books or bugs to his peers. He never outgrew it. In fact, it seemed to get worse the summer before his junior year when he moved from hot and sunny Orlando to the windy and chilly Ipswich. He left behind everything he knew and started fresh. He seemed unearthly, especially given where he was from. How often was a child from Florida so pale? And those big blue-green eyes! It was difficult for him to cope with all of that attention.
He slowly took his seat in his first period class on his very first day next to a boy with blond hair and wild eyes.
"So you're the new kid." The blond said with a scoff.
Tyler nodded.
"Heard you're from Florida."
Tyler nodded again.
"You open your fucking mouth and speak when you answer me." The boy grabbed the front of Tyler's uniform shirt as he spoke.
"Leave him alone, Aaron. Or I'll kick your ass myself."
Tyler turned to see who his savior was and saw a thin boy with bright blond hair and cold blue eyes.
"I'm sorry, Garwin. Is this your new boyfriend?" Aaron sneered.
"Doesn't matter who the fuck he is. You've got no right to touch him. So lay the fuck off, and leave the kid the fuck alone."
Tyler noticed three other boys appeared behind Garwin, apparently to back him up. The one standing up front was had dark hair and light eyes, the boy to his left seemed incredibly dark and almost sad. The boy behind them had longer hair and angry eyes.
"Whatever." Aaron spat.
"Th-Thanks." Tyler said softly as Aaron walked away.
"Don't worry about him. He's just an asshole with issues." Reid shrugged. He walked towards his seat and the other three boys followed him.
Tyler pulled out his notebook and a pen and started to nervously sketch an African Long-Horned Beetle. He tended to draw when he was nervous, especially bugs. There was nothing complicated about bugs. They were there, they did what their kind had done since they came into existance, and they had no alternative motive. They just... did.
When the teacher walked to the front of the room, he tore the page out and started taking notes on the next clean page. When the bell rang, he gathered up his notebook and pen and slung his bag over his shoulder. As he tried to get out of the classroom, Aaron rudely shouldered by him. Tyler stumbled, but regained his balance and sent a nervous look around the room, desperately hoping that no one had seen him embarrassed like that. It appeared that no one had. He nearly ran to his next class.
"So how was your day?" Heather Simms asked her son at dinner. She decided to let him stay home for a few days before she moved him into the dorm. She knew he was shy. She was hoping that forcing him to live with other boys his age would help bring him out of his shell.
"It was okay." Tyler shrugged, picking at his food.
"No new friends?"
"Not really."
"Not really? That doesn't sound like a difinitive 'no', though." She said hopefully.
"Well, this one kid Aaron was being a dick and this kid, Reid told him to leave me alone." Tyler shrugged.
"Well that's a step forward!" Mrs. Simms said cheerfully.
Tyler only shrugged again.
"Watch where the fuck you walk, freak." Aaron said as he slapped Tyler's notebook out of his hand.
Tyler sighed. He'd been at Spencer's Academy for a little over a month and Aaron had been nothing but a dick since. Tyler had said hello to Reid and his friends, Chase, Caleb and Pogue in passing, but he'd never had a conversation with them. The thought alone made him shudder. He just knew he'd stutter and end up looking like a fool in front of them. And it was obvious they were popular. So Tyler ate lunch by himself in the courtyard under the shade of an oak tree. He carefully sketched all of the insects he saw, signed their Latin names under the picture, and put his name and date off in one corner.
He was just getting to the excruciating detail of a cicada's wing when the paper was ripped from his hand.
"Hey!" He yelled.
"What the hell is this pansy shit?" Aaron asked, looking the picture over.
Tyler just reached for the picture again, only to have Aaron snatch it out of the way.
"I asked what the hell this shit was."
"It doesn't matter! Just give it back!" Tyler yelled.
Reid turned at the sound of the voice that sounded familiar and alien at the same time. He saw Aaron tormenting Tyler "Florida" Simms, keeping something out of the elfin boy's reach. Reid raised an eyebrow. He'd hardly heard Tyler talk, let alone yell so loud. Reid stood up from his seat in the center of a picnic table, discarding his half-finished cigarette as he walked quickly towards the dueling duo. Aaron had taken a notebook from Tyler and was waving it around, yelling something about "pansy shit" and Tyler was telling him to hand it back.
"What in the name of all things gay is this?" Aaron asked, ripping pages from the sketch book.
"Don't!" Tyler yelled, trying to catch the pages before the wind did.
Reid tapped Aaron's shoulder and as soon as the bully turned around, Reid's fist landed square across his jaw.
"What the fuck!" Aaron yelled.
"I told you to leave the kid alone, didn't I." Reid growled.
"What the fuck ever. Go have fun with your boyfriend or something. The whole school knows the two of you are lovers anyway." Aaron muttered as he walked away.
Reid snatched one of the pages out of the air and looked it over. It was a dragonfly, so intricately detailed, Reid half-expected it to fly away.
"Thanks for that." Tyler said softly.
"No problem. Aaron's a fucking dick on the best of days." Reid shrugged, still looking over the picture.
"I've noticed."
"Hey, Florida, did you draw this?" Reid asked, showing Tyler the picture.
"Yeah. I like bugs." Tyler shrugged with a blush.
"It's good." Reid said as he handed the boy the picture.
"Thanks."
"You know, if you ever get tired of eating alone and dealing with that godless deuche monster, you can always come and sit with me and the guys." Reid suggested.
"Maybe I will." Tyler smiled nervously.
The bell rang and Tyler nearly ran from the courtyard. Reid looked down as something hit his leg and rustled around. It was bone-colored paper, the kind you use to sketch. He picked the paper up and looked it over. It was a damn good sketch of his face in the center and along the edges of the paper were various other doodles; Pictures of him with the lower body of a seal, or with the wings of a dragonfly... In the corner was Tyler's name. Reid smiled to himself.
"I heard you decided to gang up on my buddy Aaron with your four little friends."
Tyler groaned. It was just his luck. He'd let someone stick up for him, and then he'd get his ass kicked by three seniors. The first hit split the inside of his lip. The second didn't connect.
"Just fucking like you guys, isn't it?"
Tyler turned and looked to the voice. It was Reid's crew standing behind the seniors. The one speaking was their "leader", the boy with the dark flicker in his old-seeming eyes, Chase.
"The fuck is he to you?" One of the seniors asked.
"A friend of ours. Now back the fuck off and leave him the fuck alone. You wanna punch someone, I'd suggest Aaron Abbott. He did, after all, fuck most of the cheerleading squad. And the ones that he didn't fuck at the last rave at The Dells, well... Let's just say that when you get a phone call form Lizzie tomorrow saying something about not remembering most of last night, I heard Aaron talking to that sleeze Jared about buying Rophynol (sp?)." Chase said nonchalantly.
"Aaron was buying Roofies to use on Lizzie?" The biggest of the group said, suddenly uninterested in Tyler.
"Just telling you that I heard Aaron complaining about how he couldn't, and I quote him directly, 'get ahold of that Grade-A prime beef Dean was pounding'. And the next thing you know, he's talking to Jared about Roofies." Chase shrugged.
The three seniors released Tyler and ran down the halls, yelling something about the integrity of their girls being at stake.
"You alright, Florida?"
Tyler looked up at Reid, not realizing he'd fallen. Tyler nodded and touched the inside of his lip. He cringed when it came away bloody.
"What dorm are you in?" Reid asked.
"245." Tyler sighed.
"Come on. Let's get you home then." Reid sighed, helping Tyler up. Chase whispered something to Caleb and the two of them seemed to disappear with how fast they left the scene. Pogue offered Tyler a smile and then walked down the hall.
Tyler walked with Reid towards his dorm.
"Look, about those guys... Aaron's got a few good connections at this school. And granted they'll be pretty much gone at the end of the year, but Aaron'll be a senior by then and he'll have just about a whole army of people to gang up on you just 'cause he tells them to. I'd really feel better if you started hanging out with us a bit more." Reid sighed as Tyler reached for his dorm key.
"Trying to convince me to join a gang?" Tyler asked with a smirk.
"Are you smiling?" Reid asked with mock bewilderment.
"Maybe I am. But I'll be fine. I've dealt with this shit for as long as I can remember. It's not easy being the shy kid." Tyler shrugged. He pushed open the door to his room. He paused before hesitantly asking, "Uh, do you... wanna come in?"
"Sure." Reid smiled.
The room was somewhere between exactly what Reid was expecting and nothing he'd ever hoped to see. Above Tyler's bed was a shadowbox full of rare and exotic butterflies pinned to the black velvet underneath. All over the walls were sketches of various bugs, some of the sketches overlapping. Everything was neat and tidy. Everything had a place and was in its place. Reid had a sneaking suspicion that all of the nature magazines stacked in the corner were stacked in alphabetical order according to magazine title and then in chronological order. Reid noticed an open space on the wall near the desk and approached it. Reid reached into his back pocket and unfolded an ivory slip of paper, pulling a lone and empty thumbtack out of the wall and using it to secure the picture to the wall.
"What are you... Oh my God." Tyler whispered. He was sure those seniors had beaten him to death and he was in hell for something he had done horribly wrong. The picture he'd lost two weeks ago when Aaron had stolen his sketch book. The sketch of Reid.
"Look, about that sketch--" Tyler was cut off.
"I like it." Reid shrugged.
"What?"
"I like it."
"You don't think it's... I dunno... Gay?" Tyler asked hesitantly as he slowly approached Reid.
The blond turned around and looked down at the boy that was very nearly cowering near him. Reid gently touched Tyler's cheek and the boy looked up quickly, startled by the physical contact.
"I said I like it." Reid murmured, leaning forward so his lips brushed Tyler's. He pulled away and looked into Tyler's bewildered eyes. Reid put a hand on the base of Tyler's neck and pulled the smaller boy closer to him, pressing his lips more firmly to Tyler's. Tyler threw his arms around Reid's neck and was suddenly glad Aaron had scattered all those pages in his sketchbook.
"I want you to be my little artist." Reid purred. There was something so totally possessive about the way Reid was talking... Tyler gave up on thinking the third time Reid kissed him.
They were laying on Tyler's bed some time after their make-out session, staring at the ceiling and listening to the birds sing outside.
"Why bugs?" Reid asked.
"Huh?"
"Why bugs?"
"There was this kid I knew when I was in like... the third grade. Said I reminded him of an inchworm he once saw. Said that this worm saw the shadow of a bird and just... freaked out. Started looking for cover. Of course, worms don't have eyes or even an amygdala to feel fear, but it was the concept. He said that I saw the idea of a threat and was freaking out over that. He told me I was jumping at shadows like that worm. And for some reason, bugs have just kinda facinated me ever since." Tyler shrugged.
"Even though worms aren't bugs."
"It's the concept." Tyler rolled his eyes.
"I know, Florida. I know." Reid kissed Tyler's forehead.
"Why do you call me that?"
"Call you Florida? Because it think it's cute. And you remind me of Florida when you finally smile. Reminds me of warm sunshine and cloudless skies." Reid shrugged.
"Please. It's always raining in Florida. Or at least cloudy." Tyler huffed.
"It's the concept."
Tyler said nothing and Reid sighed.
"You have to learn to relax, Tyler. Worry isn't your color." Reid smiled.
"Who says I'm worried?"
"Because your friend all those years ago was right. You're always jumping at the concept of danger. Do me a favor, Tyler. Let me worry for you."
"I've seen you. You don't worry. Ever."
"Which is the idea. I promise you that I will never, ever hurt you or ever let you be hurt as long as it's in my power to stop it." Reid murmured.
"If you ever go back on that promise--"
"I told you to stop worrying." Reid said before kissing Tyler again. The smaller boy smiled and nestled closer to Reid.
He no longer had a reason to wear his heart on his sleeve, or stick to his sketchbook, the only thing he knew. These strangers with their crippling glances and painful judgements meant nothing to Tyler anymore. He had his safety net now.
A/N2: The reason I decided to call Tyler "Florida" is because I just moved from Florida to Maryland, and yes, that's my newest nickname. -_-' Everyone is picking on me because it was 45 degrees outside and I was freezing my ass off and complaining about hypothermia. According to Wendy: "Just wait, Florida. Wait 'til this winter when you have snow to shovel." So I decided to throw a bit of my name-calling torment onto BabyBoy. :D lol Hope you guys enjoyed this one.