Work Text:
Tyler flips the page of his book as Taylor walks in.
“Hey, what’re you doing?” she asks, wringing her hands.
Her eyes flitter between his book and her feet, never once meeting his eyes.
“Reading, what’s up?”
“Nothing, nothing.”
“It’s obviously something. Come sit down and tell me what’s going on.”
She pauses, obviously considering.
“Alright.”
She sits down across from him, setting her hands in her lap.
“What’s on your mind?”
“I was just wondering, do you remember the last time we did something as a family?”
“What do you mean? We do all kinds of things together.”
“Not all three of us.”
“You know that Mom doesn’t have the energy for most things like that. It’s not something that we can help.”
“Then I want to start doing more things with you. Things that will make life easier for you. We can cook together, or we can fold towels together. Before Dad died, you always used to complain about having to fold the towels. I realized I haven’t folded a towel in years, and yet I still haven’t heard a peep out of you about it.”
“That just now occurred to you? I just got over how selfish I was about towels. It was stupid and childish, that’s why I grew out of it.”
“That’s the thing. I don’t think you grew out of it. I think you grew out of complaining. I think you grew out of asking for help.”
Tyler puts his book down on the table.
“What are you trying to say?”
“I think I haven’t been the best sister. I think you took on so much after Dad died, and I gave you a lot of grief for it. That wasn’t fair. Even if I can’t do anything else, I want to make these tasks more fun for you. I think it’d be easier and more enjoyable if we did them together. We can even chat about whatever you want while we do it. You can tell me about baseball practice, and I can tell you more about my mechanics club. You can tell me about your teammates, or what you’re doing for homework.”
Tyler smiles softly at Taylor.
“It’s really sweet that you’re worried about me, but I’m fine. If you want to help more, I don’t mind that, but don’t worry about me. I’m dealing, and you know that looks different for me. I’m doing a lot better now than I was even a year ago.”
“I know that our friends have done you a lot of good, but I want to be more helpful.”
“I know, and I’m really grateful for that. Why don’t we start with dinner tonight? You can help me. We’re not gonna start until Mom wakes up from her nap though since we don’t want to wake her up. You know how she gets.”
“Yeah, ok. I’d like that.”
She settles back into her chair. Tyler picks up his book, flipping back to the page he was on.
“For now, I’m going to tackle this book on psychics.”
Taylor grins.
“Yeah, I can’t help with that one. I’m not good at school.”
Tyler laughs.
“That’s one more thing we have in common.”
She sits on her phone while Tyler continues reading. That goes on for a couple of hours until their mom emerges from her bedroom.
“Hey, Mom, how are you feeling?” Tyler asks, putting his book back down.
“I’m alright, thank you, sweetheart. Darling, do you want to watch something before dinner?” she asks Taylor as she sits down next to Tyler on the couch.
“Actually I was going to help Ty make dinner. You’re welcome to join us if you want.”
“I’m still too tired for that, but I’m sure your father will want to help when he gets home.”
Tyler nods, standing up.
“Alright, thanks, Mom. The TV remote is on the table. It’ll be another hour before dinner is ready.”
He slips past her, heading towards the kitchen. Taylor follows him, not really sure what she’s going to be doing.
“So, what are we doing for dinner?”
“I’m not sure. I was supposed to go grocery shopping, but I really needed to finish that book. So, I decided to put it off until tomorrow. We can make a simple chicken and rice dish. You can go ahead and start the rice. I’ll get some chicken started, and then I’ll figure out what kind of sauces we can make to finish cooking the chicken in. We have some frozen broccoli too, so we can cook that, and that’ll take care of vegetables.”
Taylor nods, heading to the pantry to get the rice. Starting that in a pot is simple, but by the time she’s done, Tyler already has the chicken cooking and is pulling things out of the fridge for the sauce.
“I’m going to get some stuff from the pantry, I’ll be right back.”
Taylor smiles as she watches him walk to the pantry. It’s only a few minutes before he comes back.
“What’s the face for?” he asks as he pulls a bowl out of the cabinet.
“You’re really good at this. I like watching you work. You just seem much calmer when your hands are doing something productive.”
Tyler laughs.
“Well, thank you.”
They work in silence for a little while before Taylor nudges Tyler.
“What’s up?”
“Well, I can tell that you don’t really want to start a conversation. So, do you want to hear about my day?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“I talked to Ben earlier. I’m pretty sure he was flirting with me.”
“Did you get that from the electronic voice, or was it his awkward way of talking to people?” Tyler asks, grinning.
“You suck, shut up. Anyway, I think he’s going to ask me out soon.”
“I would bet you twenty dollars he’s not going to.”
“Stop being so mean to me, or I’m not going to talk to you anymore. Anyway, I also made something in mechanics club.”
“That’s nice.”
“Did you do anything fun after school? I know that you had practice, but you got home half an hour later than you normally do.”
“Yeah, I actually did. I went out with Aiden after practice. He was talking about joining the school newspaper, so we went out and got supplies for him to join the club. Just a few notebooks and organizers. He said that we’d reconvene after a week and see if he ended up needing anything else.”
“Wow, you hung out with Aiden by yourself. That’s progress.”
“Yeah, we’re just kidding with the way we act. I like him.”
Taylor smiles.
“I know you do. You act all big and bad, but you’re really friendly.”
Tyler laughs.
“I think I’ve just forgotten how to act around my friends.”
Taylor’s smile disappears.
“Oh.”
Tyler looks down at the stove before turning off the rice.
“That should be done. Also, I didn’t say that to upset you. I’m sorry, that was stupid of me. I should have known that would make you sad.”
“No, I’m glad that you’ve started being honest with me. If you can’t be honest with me, or any of our other friends, then you’re just keeping it all to yourself. That’s really damaging, you know?”
Tyler nods with a small sigh.
“We’re going to be alright. I think this is good though. We should cook dinner again tomorrow.”
“Yeah. I’ll go get Mom while you set the table.”
They all eat dinner together, chatting happily. Tyler goes to bed happy with how the rest of his afternoon turned out even if he didn’t get to finish his book.