Runaway Tyler, continued.
"Hey, Al." He pulled out his keys as he headed up to the door, smiling lightly to the Irishman. "Took you long enough."
"I was holdin' out fer ye to come ta yer senses."
"You should know better." He smiled again. "Come on in. I figured you'd be around soon, so I made some strawberry tea. Where's the crotchety man?"
"At the 'otel." Al followed him inside. "An' don't change the subject. Yer being stupid. Why'd ye stop going ta the doctors?"
Tyler pulled down two glasses and filled them each with strawberry ice tea, then set them down at the table. He motioned his friend to a seat, but Al didn't take it. Ty shrugged a little and slid into his own seat. "Can't you tell? Take a look at me, Al. The last time you saw me, I may as well have been on my deathbed. I was so sick I couldn't keep down water. They were poisoning me and calling it treatment."
"Ye have cancer, boyo. That's the only way ta treat it."
"It's not." Tyler pointed to his pill bottles. "I'm taking the pills. I feel better than I have since this whole stupid thing started."
"But yer not better."
"You don't know that."
"Yeah, I do. Get an X-ray, Ty. The cancer ain't gone. If it spreads..."
"It could spread even if I was letting them pump me with enough radiation to turn me into the Hulk. And if it does, it does. I'm so sick of living in fear of these stupid 'what ifs'. I already fucked up the only what if that mattered, and there's no way to fix it, so whether it spreads or shrinks or disappears or explodes, I don't care. I just want to be able to live. I don't have forever like you do. I just have now, and now is exactly what was being taken from me."
Tyler stared at Al, at his hands holding the back of the proffered chair and the lock of red falling over his eye. Al's gaze was intense, but Tyler held it. If Al could see inside him, if he could see the cancer or his soul or whatever else happened to be beneath Ty's skin, let him.
After a long moment, Al broke the gaze, pulled out the chair, and dropped himself gracelessly into it. "Boyo..."
Tyler smiled a little. "I'm okay, really. I feel great."
"Come back ta Ireland."
"I'm not going back to the doctors."
"I didn' ask ye to. But yer damn assistant went an' messed up all the damn files and I can't find nothing... and I don't see any reason why ye can't have 'now' with yer friends."
"You're not going to harass me about the doctors?"
Al took a drink of his tea and propped his foot against the leg of the table. "Yer a grown man, Ty... don' know when it happened, but there it is."
Tyler grinned.
"'Sides, Nessa wants someone ta show off her new toys ta, and the old bastard ain't no fun cause he can't see how far the pieces scatter when they blow up."
"Geezus, what'd you get her?"
"C4." Al shrugged. "What could I do? She killed her mum's new cat an' felt downright awful... had ta cheer her up."
((And this has suddenly gotten wildly out of hand, so I'm ending that there. What do you think, Tem? Is Al awful? Be honest! Rargh! Okay, now it's getting too cold to stay in the attic, and I have to pee and try to work on my novel. Later.))
Comments
the dribble took a turn for the... well, for al these days it's strange. him and his "nu! i can't! it's wrong!" self ~snickerfit.~
al: ~chibi flailing~ nuuu! nuuuu! it's wrong! ~body tells his mind to fuck off and goes to have it's way with chibi tyler.~
al's body: n.n ~does the dance of defiance and gettin some.~
(o.0 creepeh.)