Chapter Text
The sun was peeking through the gray sky, and clouds kissed the atmosphere in a cinematic way which made Tyler feel uneasy—normal days like this always seemed to bother him. It all could be over in a moment. The chill of the cooling air matched the feeling he got when they were in that stupid Phantom realm running for their lives; away from those hideous creatures which terrorized him and his friends. If he even considered them friends. He tolerated the group at most. Ty closed his eyes as he inhaled a sharp breath, feeling the air sting his nose. An eerie song crept into the back of his mind that seemed to drown out any worries he had been thinking about.
Tyler glanced down at his arm when he felt a sudden tap from his sister. He hummed in response as if to ask what she wanted, looking at her through his drowsy eyes. The lack of sleep was catching up to all of them, but he couldn't be bothered to speak; moments like this were his only moment to relax. Taylor pointed over to the ice cream truck. Oh... so that's where the creepy music was coming from. He sighed out a breath of relief. It was a good thing he wasn’t going crazy, but reality seemed to warp every day now. It was hard to tell what was real and what was...well not.
"Ok, whatever. You’re lucky I actually carry my wallet on me."
Tyler smiled when he heard her small laugh, her voice echoed through his mind as though he was in a large hallway. A happy old man was passing out ice cream cones to one or two awaiting children. He suddenly felt silly standing by these kids at his grown age. Even though he was only a sophomore in high school, Tyler felt like he grew up pretty fast given the past month’s events. He puffed out his chest, blanketed by his letterman jacket, and crossed his arms.
The playground always has an annoying amount of kids jumping and screaming... a few sensitive kids crying as well. Now that the weather was getting ready for the upcoming winter, the crowd started thinning. He just frowned. Taylor was too busy looking at the flavors to notice how odd he was acting. Just then he saw Ben walk over from one of the park paths. He raised an arm to get his attention.
"Ben! Hurry up before the truck leaves!"
Tyler shuffled through his wallet to get out a few more bills to buy him ice cream as well. Ben’s pace sped up as he joined them. They dabbed each other up before chuckling at the idiocy of the handshake. Tyler turned his attention back towards Taylor who finally decided on what she wanted. She was typically the indecisive type and would probably want another one later, but he paid for it anyway.
“Don’t eat it too fast or your stomach will start hurting.” A stern warning laced his voice.
Tyler frowned as he saw the hint of childlike desire in her eyes. He always felt some sort of responsibility over her and his “friends” for that matter, which he chalked up to being instinct. Ty turned to face Ben, his hands in his pockets to shield his knuckles from the cold.
“What would you like dude?”
When he first met Ben they had a pretty hostile first impression. After a fight, a few injuries, and forced interactions, they found they enjoyed each other’s company. Tyler got done paying for the ugly Spongebob ice cream Ben had wanted and counted back his change from the old man. Not that he thought he’d get cheated out of a few bucks from the ice cream truck, but he’s always been very frugal with his money. Tyler had almost finished dumping his coins in his wallet, having to peel back the leather to put them in, until the freak showed up. The blonde boy just appeared out of nowhere. Tyler jumped and almost whacked him out of reflex, but Aiden had already walked up to the front in record time, pushing past the two boys to decide on what ice cream to get. The sound of coins falling hit the pavement and Tyler scowled.
“Next time don’t scare us like that… actually next time don’t show up.”
Tyler’s tone showed up more aggressive than he intended, but since Aiden didn’t seem phased he just rolled his eyes and crouched down to pick up the coins. So much for saving money. There was no way in hell Tyler would pay for Aiden; with all the money the kid has he should have been the one to pay. Regardless of Aiden being a rich prick, the truth was he didn’t mind him that much. The blonde had grown on him after they took turns saving each other's lives and keeping trouble at bay. Near-death situations force people to become close. Then again, real-life situations like these also remind him why he wouldn’t like Aiden in the first place.
Ignoring Tyler's arrogant reply, Aiden just chuckled and tried to convince the guy to give him all the ice cream in the van. However, after being told that he couldn't have the whole menu, Aiden just ordered a Spiderman popsicle. It was similar to Ben's, but that could just be DNA taking charge of their decisions. Aiden carelessly threw down some change and loose bills he had stored away deep in his pockets, not bothering to see how much it was or to wait for his change. Some things Aiden does just tick Tyler off. The blonde snatched the plastic-covered popsicle from the man and ripped it off before stuffing his face with the creamy delight.
"yom mot gemming amyfing?” He asked Tyler, his words merged as the treat dripped everywhere. It was going all down his hoodie. Sloppy.
But before Tyler could respond, Aiden had almost finished his popsicle, squinting out into the distance. Tyler watched his red beady eyes go small and looked over to see what the hell he was looking at. He noticed a familiar redhead enter the view. She had her headphones on, hands in her pockets, braids swinging softly, and was dragging her feet along the ground like an incel. That was Ashlyn.
"HEY! ASH!" Aiden screamed out, flailing his arms everywhere in an attempt to get her attention.
Dealing with that boy can be a lot, keeping up with him is something else entirely. Tyler shot him an annoyed glance, not even bothering to respond because of how fast he changed topics. Although they may not be close, or talk for that matter, Ashlyn is the one person in the group he fully trusts, especially when the other person he’s forced to rely on is a blonde psycho. Not that he’d admit it. He’d feel much more comfortable butting heads with her than giving her a well-deserved compliment on how she’s been holding the group together for the past months. As soon as she came over to them, Tyler noticed how her eyes looked: tired.
“Ashlyn, do you want an ice cream? I paid for everyone already so it’s not a big deal if you want one too. My treat…”
“I’m good. Thanks.”
Her tone was blunt and as monotonous as ever, sort of dismissive. It almost made his brow twitch. If Taylor responded like that to him then she would definitely be in a headlock right about now. But this wasn’t anyone close to being his sister, so the shortcut conversation left them both feeling uncomfortable.
Aiden had saved him from the seconds of awkward silence that fell upon them by opening his big mouth to talk about his “cool ice cream design”, before realizing he only had a chewed popsicle stick to show for it. Ashlyn’s face lingered with annoyance and probably regret even walking over, but Tyler really couldn’t tell.
Before the tanned boy could speak up and contribute to the conversation, Taylor had butted in, "First one to the very top of the tree has to do the history homework tonight!”
“On my mark... threetwoone... GO!”
Aiden pushed the words out of his mouth in thrill and excitement, something he craved almost all day every day. Before anyone had the chance to retaliate, Aiden bolted off towards the tree Taylor was pointing at. Taylor quickly followed behind, shouting and scolding him for cheating, a tone that typically only Ty heard, even though it was covered by her whooping laughs.
Ben seemed used to the shorter boy's antics at this point as he slowly followed behind, making his way over to the playground with his hands in his pockets. That left Ashlyn and Tyler alone again, the awkward silence crept up on them again. The pair didn’t speak much to each other, they only seemed compatible when in a group setting.
But as Tyler watched the rest of their group run ahead, his face deadpanned as he considered why they even got along in the first place. He glanced over at Ashlyn who, by the look of the amount of cringe on her face, was probably thinking the same thing. He nudged her with his elbow and offered a small smile as if to say ‘You want to follow along with these fuckers?’
The first few steps of walking over to the playground were painful. He forgot they weren’t that close. Sometimes it felt like she liked his company, but Tyler knew he was mistaken.
“so uh… how are you holding up”
Tyler looked down at the shorter, unfortunately ginger, girl; the sun illuminating the top of her head with light. Ashlyn met his eyes, probably confused about why he asked in the first. He already knew the answer. They didn’t really speak to each other if it wasn’t necessary, so it wasn’t like she was looking to open up to him either. Tyler looked ahead of him to avoid her eyes because of his dire social mistake.
She raised her eyebrow at his question, “Same as always.”
Ash gave him a shrug, before fiddling with her fingers and letting the next words slip out. “You don’t have to pretend to care.” She spoke simply, her pace quickening to follow the others before they got into more trouble.
Ashlyn’s monotone voice rang through his ears and he furrowed his eyebrows immediately. Pretend? He did care. At least he thought he did. Tyler cared about everyone in the group in his pessimistic way. He opened his mouth to protest with her, but she had already walked off ahead of him. Tyler’s pace slowed down, slightly in shock because of her bluntness, but also because he was a touch hurt. Maybe for future reference, he should tone back his sour attitude to show the group he was nice. Well… at least on the inside.
Ash had already broken herself off from the group not too long after checking in and sat by a small isolated tree not too far behind the play structure. Tyler stuck his hands in his letterman jacket pockets and walked over to the tube slide. The wood chips crunched beneath him. He sat on the edge, resting his elbows on his knees in a relaxed position; he took in the setting before sliding himself up to bask in the darkness of the slide, laying down on the cool surface. The red slide lit up as the sun peaked out from behind a cloud, shining a bloody glow throughout the piece of plastic. He covered his eyes with an arm and he inhaled a needed sigh at the familiarity of the scene.
Tyler did care about the group. He didn’t want them to genuinely think he didn’t. Sometimes with all the chaos going on it was hard not to get in such a bad mood. He admired his sister for staying so strong for the group. Positivity was not his strong suit, especially when faced with challenges such as the phantoms; it was hard to smile under the circumstances.
Ty heard a bunch of chatter from outside of the slide, everything was muffled. He could not help but smile to himself. Everyone in the group found some peace in their way, and for Tyler, his way of peace was his alone time. He closed his eyes, the sound of stomping up the steps above him on the playground rattled throughout the structure. He groaned and mentally prepared himself for his peace to be broken. Before he could even react, he heard a shout from above and then a pair of shoes coming crashing down on his shoulder. Tyler let out a yelp and cursed. He got pushed to the bottom of the slide, his feet hanging off the edge. Ty was lying down on the slide as he looked up to see that shit-eating smile. Aiden grinned but seemed to be growing impatient with Tyler not moving out of the way, so he scrambled back up the slide like a wild animal. Ty sat up and rubbed the back of his neck from the impact, then reached up towards the sky to stretch himself out. His shoulders hurt a bit now, but that’s just Aiden being reckless again.
Tyler just needed to find a safe place to rest. He looked over to the tree to see Taylor, who seemed to be struggling to make her way up. It seemed she would be in history homework debt. Tyler worked up the motivation to move before heading over to her. He looked up at his dim-witted sister who had one leg on a branch and the rest of her torso dangling down, attempting to plant a foot on the trunk of the tree somehow.
“You look stupid by the way.”
Tyler smiled, his face still waking up from his hazy state from earlier. Taylor glared into his soul which brightened him up right away. She hopped down and put her hands on her hips.
“I don’t see you doing anything. You couldn’t even climb the tree in the first place!”
Taylor’s poor retaliation just made him laugh. You’d think after being twins their entire lives, she’d have the capability to come up with better comebacks. He watched her turn back around to try to climb again before he looked over to the isolated tree. There sat Ashlyn, by herself “surprisingly” enough. Tyler was about to walk to sit down with her in an attempt at conversation yet again when all of a sudden he felt someone climb onto his back and grip his neck tightly. In those final moments, Tyler accepted his fate to die. He looked at the familiar face of the person grabbed at his neck and coughed out a laugh.
"Tay if you wanted a- ACK- ...lift, you should've just said so!"
Tyler snickered and swung her around by holding her arms in place and her feet dangling around as he spun. She yelped out a surprised scream as they almost crashed. He set her down and their laughter died down. Tyler bent down to put her on his shoulders so she could get a boost, even though they hurt. He was going to be an immobile old man. Taylor clung onto a tall branch and stepped one foot onto Ty's shoulders to lift herself into the height of the tree, scrambling her way through. He put his hands on his hips before noticing how badly his shoulders ached.
“Ok. Have fun biggie.”
Tyler brushed off his shoulders from whatever dirt got on from her shoes and gave himself a quick massage to relieve some pain. He turned to Ashlyn who was just looking at him. Tyler scowled, not on purpose, but she was giving him a dirty look. It was only fair from how rude she had been with him earlier.
"What are you looking at." He stated.
She blinked at him, surprised by what he said and the look on his face. He ended up getting in her line of vision. She stretched out her legs, before tilting her head, letting her braids fall to the side.
A serious look plastered on her face, “You just happened to be where— never mind.”
Tyler looked at her unbothered face. How her braid fell gracefully to the side of her shoulder. He stared at the way her features lay still, not showing a single ounce of emotion. He glanced down at her stretched-out legs and rolled his eyes. She was insufferable. And yet, Tyler walked over to her and sat on the ground close by. Not saying anything at first, he watched as Taylor got higher and higher in the tree, competing once again with Aiden who saw genuine competition this time. He seemed to scurry up higher regardless.
“Sorry for being short with you.”
His eyes shot towards her as she broke the silence with her voice. Was Ashlyn Banner apologizing? Maybe she understood social interactions somehow. He brushed his hair back with his hand and rested it on the back of his neck. Well, shit. Now he felt guilty that she felt the need to apologize.
“You’re good. I didn’t notice.”
Ty heard laughter and shouting from Taylor and Aiden; Ben trying his best to get their attention to be careful. He cleared his throat and looked at Ashlyn’s face as she thought. Her face looked peaceful, his eyes darted from one freckle to the next.
“I know you aren’t a bad- well... a super bad guy. You have your moments, but… I see how you are with Taylor.”
Oh, so that’s what she was staring at. I guess he did interact with Taylor differently than anyone else in the group. He didn’t consider any of them to be “friends” though, so it was hard to determine how to act with them.
“Oh.”
Tyler froze up. What was he supposed to say? The lack of a main course in their conversation was very apparent, but it was nice of her to try to speak to him. They needed practice talking anyway if they were going to have to trust each other during the nights of survival ahead.
“I’ll try to be—“
What was he going to say—friendlier? He turned his head towards the ground, his hands picking at the grass as he fiddled, trying to search his brain for the right word. Tyler felt the ends of his lips curl down into a frown of disgust. This was by far the most idiotic conversation he found himself in. He was making it sound like he didn’t know how to be a good person. Which is a lie, he chooses to be an asshole on purpose.
“—nicer. I guess…”
He closed his eyes and muttered a small string of curse words under his breath. Tyler heard a small whisper of a laugh escape Ashlyn’s mouth and he turned his head towards her, a bit offended that she was laughing at him. His brows creased, but then quickly eased up as that stupid sun came out from behind the clouds again, turning the cold blue atmosphere into something soft and bright. Her red hair shined gold as a slight halo silhouetted her head. A small smile rested on her lips.
“Thank you.”
This time her tone seemed to ease up. She definitely noticed the way his face scrunched up in disgust when he even considered talking about his feelings. Tyler just sat there, staring at her freckled face. It wasn’t the fact that she saw through his icy demeanor, it was the fact that he never noticed that she looked like that— which seemed to shut him up. Tyler turned his head away to the ground again, ripping a patch of grass from the dirt, getting his hands a tad messy.
“I mean…yeah.”
And that was the first time it ever crossed his mind that the person he considered to be an awkward loner could be sorta not bad looking. His eyes wandered up to her face again, but her eyes were focused ahead of her to the large tree where their friends were. Tyler’s eyes followed the path to the group as well. They all seemed to be having fun.
“I’m guessing you aren’t a tree-climbing person?”
Tyler’s mouth lay in a relaxed grin, trying his best to get a conversation going, but he seemed to be distracted by her every move now. It was like that sun revealed her in some new light, no pun intended. He was curious how he didn’t notice her before. She let out a sigh and looked over at him.
“I used to be. My dad would lift me onto the branches when I was too small to reach back then.”
Tyler’s smile grew. “Back then” was a crazy way to put it. He looked at her legs again. They were slender and short. He snickered before catching his tongue when he saw her deadpanned face twist into a scowl. There is the Ashlyn he was used to.
“Sorry. I wasn’t gonna say it.” He smiled.
Ash just rolled her eyes, a small chuckle escaping her lips out of pity for her quick reaction. Aiden’s booming laugh sounded out in the distance as Taylor tried to pull his leg down so they’d be on the same branch. Apparently, the psycho was still winning the contest. Tyler threw away the bits and pieces of grass he still had in his hands before he looked at the redhead. She was smiling at that boy.
“I can lift you into the tree… if you want to join them.”
Tyler stated, a bit nervous to speak at first, but he saw the way her eyes were following the blonde and he felt weird not saying anything. It was like he was a third wheel without being next to the two of them. He also felt obligated to help, as he always does; they would be a lost cause without him.
“What? I’m ok right here,” She responded.
His eyes followed her green eyes to the slight flush in her cheeks before he turned his head away. Tyler stood up, extending a hand down towards her.
“You’re going to regret staying by yourself all the time.”
“Wha— are you insulting me?”
“Yes. Now get your ass up.”
“Fine. But only because you asked so nicely.”
Tyler felt her fingertips grasp his hands and then he lifted her from the ground. Her braids swung to her back and he looked down at the small girl staring up at him. It took him a second to let go of her hand. That stupid sun probably blinded him or something. Any person with a low enough IQ would think that they just shared some sort of moment, but Tyler prides himself on being the most logical of the group so that was not where his mind was going. But in a short second, the two walked over to the tree and greeted the others.
Ashlyn seemed a bit nervous to join them but with a bit of encouragement and playful banter from Aiden, her face seemed to relax, her creased eyebrows letting up from overworking. This time she let herself smile. Her pink lips curled up to show genuine happiness and Tyler regrettably thought she was pretty. His hands made their way to her waist as he hoisted her up into the tree, hovering behind her as she worked her way up to follow that blonde birdbrain. Tyler felt a pair of eyes on him before he looked over at Ben. The boy looked so fed up.
“What the fuck are you looking at.”