Tyed - Chapter 51: Chapter 51

Tyler kisses Colby at least once before responding. "I'll tell you," he promises. "On one condition."
"So many conditions," Colby says, and it's hard to tell if he's joking. He better be, because Tyler's condition isn't hard. Or maybe it is?
"Not like that," Tyler laughs. "I was gonna say, on the condition you fuck me first so I don't have to think for a while."
Colby tilts his head. "Your friends are still here."
"Oh, god damnit. Fuck, alright." Tyler raises a finger. "I'll go talk to them, figure out how to get them home or some shit, and then we're- and then we're good and then after I'll tell you about Kevin. Okay? Okay."
Colby brushes Tyler's hair behind his ear. "Just don't blow your friends off," he says. "Be a good friend before all else."
Tyler finds himself laughing a little. "Of course," he mutters, pressing a kiss to Colby's cheek. "I won't be long."
Before he left today, he wanted to forget he loved Colby. He hasn't forgotten at all; more than anything, what he's done is forget why he cared.
"Alright," Colby says. "I'll meet you outside, and we can go home."
Home. Said like it's theirs. There's a lot of ways to say what Colby meant, and it's not so much that Colby was trying to say what Tyler heard; it's that Tyler was trying to hear that. Fuck's sake.
Tyler's almost annoyed as he goes to find the others. There's nothing to be annoyed at but his own existence, something he's commonly annoyed at. He'll do the right thing, of course; make sure his friends get home safe and sound, or else that they're totally fine on their own, as long as that's something Tyler legitimately believes.
Nancy's not so hard to find; she hasn't moved, but someone Tyler doesn't recognise is trying to talk to her and she looks uncomfortable. Tyler essentially makes a beeline for her, sliding next to her at the table and leaning into her shoulder. "Hey, baby," he says, an old tactic to send away weirdos. He can feel palpable relief from her at those words.
The dude raises an eyebrow. "You don't look like a girlfriend."
Tyler silently curses Nancy's mistake of a lie, and Tyler considers one of two approaches, deciding not to say he's a girl in favour of grinning and telling this dude, "we've got a girlfriend, yeah, but I think two partners is enough. Fuck off." He doesn't expect to get so argumentative with it, nor does he expect to flip this dude off, but hey, it's not his fault that this dude ignored this club's code for being left alone.
The dude mutters something insulting as he turns around and leaves, likely too surprised by Tyler's aggression to have a good counter. At least it worked well.
"Thanks," Nancy mutters, leaning her head down on the table. "I wanna go home."
"Not a vibe, that's fine, that's fine," Tyler mutters. "It's all cool. Let's grab Tee and leave. Colby says he wants to take me home, but if he wants to do that he's going to have to take y'all home too."
"Has he not been drinking?" Nancy looks up at Tyler for a moment, and Tyler realises it's not a joke.
"He's thirty-four," Tyler laughs. "He's on his full license. He can drink a little and still drive."
"You know, in my head, I thought, he's older, he must have his green Ps so he can drive all of us. I'm fucking tired, man."
Tyler pats her gently on the head. "Come on. Let's go find Tee. Where'd you see him last?"
Nancy looks up at the roof and sighs. "I think that way," she says, pointing without looking. When Tyler's eyes follow her finger his gaze connects to some half-naked people making out, the not-naked part of them made of latex. Cool.
"Are you bothered by the nakedness?" Tyler raises an eyebrow at Nancy. "I mean, I'm not sure if it's allowed, but I wouldn't think it bothered you."
"I could look at it if it didn't look like my cousin," Nancy mutters, and Tyler squints at them.
"Valentina? I see the resemblance, but it's not her," Tyler pats her shoulder.
"Still looks like her. Tee was sitting and talking to some guy in front of them before. They were still making out, by the way. They haven't stopped the past hour or so."
"I haven't been gone an hour," Tyler mutters indignantly.
"Almost an hour. I'm not offended, man, I agreed to come here and I get it happens. Did you get along with Colby's friends?"
"I think so," Tyler shrugs. "I feel like I can't adequately assess anything going on right now. Colby wants me to tell him about Kevin tonight after we fuck-"
"Gross-"
"and like, you know I haven't processed Kali at all. It doesn't feel real that she's alive and you know her."
"Yeah," Nancy mutters. "Know her. That I do."
Tyler pats her shoulder. "I'll wake up tomorrow sober and wonder what the fuck to do about that. But anyway we need Tee and I don't see him."
"What do you want me to do about it?"
"Help me look?"
Nancy stands up with a sigh, and does the obvious thing, calling Tee on her phone. He doesn't pick up, and Nancy sighs even louder, like a teenager thinking the louder she complains the less she'll be asked to do.
"I'm so tempted to just leave him," she mutters. "He looked like he was having fun last time I spotted him."
And Tyler at that moment does spot him. It's not easy, and it's pure luck, because Tyler was looking at the bar, wondering if perhaps Chappie would know where he was, and there was someone else other than Chappie at the bar; which Tyler thought was strange, so he was glancing through the door to the back as it swung open, wondering if he'd see Chappie in there. He did, in the brief glimpse he got, see Chappie; he saw him backing someone up against a counter, someone with signature long bleach-blonde hair and a bright blue crop top Tyler couldn't mistake.
"Pretty sure I just saw him making out with the bartender," Tyler mutters to Nancy, still staring in that direction. "Might just leave a note for him? Or I'll go tell the owner."
"You're just going to go tell the owner-"
"He's friends with Colby and he's chill," Tyler says, patting Nancy's shoulder. "I won't get anyone in trouble."
Nancy gives him a look.
"Alright, fine. I'll ask whoever's at the bar now to tell him. I don't wanna go interrupt that."
And Tyler does just that. The bartender looks a little shocked when she goes to serve him a drink and he tells her to tell the guy making out with Chappie they're leaving, he's welcome to stay or do whatever but just to call Tyler if he needs something. The bartender takes one look through the door and tells Tyler, "I'll tell him. Not right this second, but don't worry, I will tell him."
Tyler leaves a text message for Tee just in case, and then mutters to Nancy, "I think we've done what we can." He wishes to be a little bit less sober before talking to Colby about Kevin, but Colby would have alcohol; perhaps he could convince Colby to let him be just a bit more smashed. Not smashed enough to spill any secrets, but smashed enough not to feel it.
Nancy nods. "Thanks for taking me home."
"I'm getting Colby to take you home," Tyler mutters, "but sure."
"You know what I mean. I dunno, man, a while ago I would've had so much fun here, I'm just not feeling it tonight."
Earlier, Tyler essentially told Nancy she'd never been in love, and her response was, I could be. She'd concluded she had a crush on Kali, and that meant she didn't want to be with anyone else. It was strange, Tyler thought; how quickly things changed, and tides shifted.
So Tyler finds Colby, and they take Nancy home. It's not as awkward as it might've been. When Tyler starts the conversation, Nancy and Colby are able to keep it going, genuinely seeming to vibe well enough that any concern Tyler didn't realise he had is now gone. He's able to let them talk for at least long enough to get distracted, check his phone, and see a text consisting of a single thumbs-up from Tee. So Tyler's pretty sure Tee is fine. Busy, but fine.
They drop Nancy off, and Nancy winks at him as she goes inside. Tyler feels weird. He's got a lot of emotions going on right now and he's not sure which should take precedence.
"Tonight was weird," Tyler mutters. "I never did tell you how I found where Kali is."
"Oh, we're doing this now?" Colby doesn't sound annoyed; rather, intrigued. "Please go on."
"Nancy was talking about how she would've loved this place, but she didn't want to like, look for anyone tonight because there was this girl she's been talking to who she thinks she might have feelings for."
"No way."
"Yeah, so I asked what the girls name was. And she said Carly, C-A-R-L-Y, and I realised all this time I'd been looking for Kali, K-A-L-I. That was her name, that's how it was pronounced and spelled, but when her parents went away they both did. And I didn't know this, but Kali was adopted by some religious white people who thought her name was meant to be spelled the other way, so that was the spelling and the name I should've been looking for. But I had no idea. And I found out because Nancy had a fucking crush on her. How... how is that?"
What adjective is there even to call this?
"Insane," Colby mutters. "You're sure it's her? How could you tell?"
"Nancy had pictures. Kali has a pretty distinctive face and it hasn't changed much over the years. It's her."
"Wow," Colby mutters. As if he knows what to think any more than Tyler does; Tyler's glad that his uncertain reaction isn't his alone. "And what are you gonna do?"
"Talk to her, I guess." Tyler sighs. "Shouldn't I be nothing but happy?"
"Happiness is typically a result of things being uncomplicated," Colby says, "which they never are."
"So what am I meant to be feeling?" Tyler stares out the window, at the passing streets. "How am I meant to reconcile- I want to see her but I don't want anything to be different, but I know it will. I'm anxious, because it's all- it's all going to be different. It's never going to be the same. Not with my dad coming back and Kevin gone, and- she has a whole other family, Colby, one I don't know, one I have no idea her relation to, how much she likes them. She's got years of history with them I wasn't there for. I don't know who she's become. Who she is now is a stranger to me and I wouldn't want her to be who she was, because she was that person when she went through hell. The problem is that that's the only her I know."
Colby takes a deep breath. "People change, sure. But I would say that people changing so much that they can't relate to their closest friends happens only because of major, traumatising events, like living in Darkfilly Copse. And that's because people grow up at different times. You two had to grow up very young, so I'd say the major change you went through already happened."
Something about that is wrong; and it takes Tyler a moment to notice and name it. "That can't be right," he says, "people changed after Darkfilly Copse. Kevin did."
Colby is quiet, and Tyler says as they're pulling into the driveway, "I'm going to have to tell you about Kevin now, aren't I?"
"It's up to you," Colby says, and Tyler doesn't believe him.
"Let's go inside," Tyler mutters, "and then I guess I'm as ready to say it as I'll ever be."