Switching Teams: A Tyler Beilschmidt Love Story

I run a comb through my messy, morning bed-head a few times. After I sit the comb on my dresser, I tilt my head side to side and stare at my hair through the mirror over my dresser. I want to do more with it, but I don’t want it to look like I spend a lot of time on my appearance.

I sigh and roll my eyes before I pick up my cell phone and earbuds off my dresser’s dark wooden table top. I step over to my bedroom door and grab my book bag. As I toss it over my shoulder and head down the hallway toward the dining room, I shout, “Uncle Gil! Come on. I’m ready to go.”

I put in my earbuds and unlock my phone as my uncle leaves his room.

“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were waiting,” he says.

I just nod as I drag to the door and scroll through my music library. “Yeah, whatever. Let’s just go.”

“Uhm. Tyler?”

I turn back to him. “What?”

“U-uhm. Well.” He looks to the ground as he picks at the tips of his long silver hair. “Uh…N-nevermind.”

I smack my teeth and open the front door to leave out.

Gilligan’s always mumbling and stuttering over something stupid. I’ve learned to just forget and ignore most of what he says.

“You said you’d drive me to the arcade after school today,” I remind him as we head down the stairwell from the third floor of the apartment building we stay in. “You’re still taking me, right?”

“Oh, yes. I remember.”

“Cool.” I start my music after that and turn the volume up as loud as my ears can take. If you’re not in Odd Future Wolf Gang, then I don’t want to hear your voice until the first-period bell rings. Though recently, I’ve been having to smile and play nice with a lot more people.

It’s not like I have a problem socializing, I’m actually pretty good at it, I’d just rather be left alone, but I guess it’s better than getting rocks thrown at me.
#

I hop out of my uncle Gil’s rusty old pick-up truck once he pulls next to the curb by the front entrance of my high school.

“Have a good day,” he says.

I shut the car door and trudge up the wide concrete steps leading up to the glass push doors of the building. I mix into the crowd of other students as we all enter school. Their chatter turns into noticeable background noise, but I can’t turn my music up any higher. I don’t want to bust an eardrum or anything.

I get shoved to the side, causing me to stumble a bit. I remove one of my ear buds and glare off in the direction the push came from.

Shit, it’s a girl. I was hoping to just punch whoever it was, but I can’t now.

She laughs and says, “Hey, Tyler! I’ve been calling your name. You’re always so zoned out.”

I smile to her. “Sorry. I guess my music was too loud.”

She moves closer to me and bumps her shoulder against mine. “Come on! Let’s walk to class together.”

I’d rather go by myself, but I can’t just turn down a girl.

I take a step to the side to put some space between us as I say, “I’m not going to class right now. I’m heading to my locker.”

She follows me. “I’ll come with you, then.”

We walk down the halls together. Every so often, she somehow finds a way back into my personal space, grazing her hand against mine. After awhile, I just put my hands in my pockets. I try to make it as casual as possible because, I don’t want to be rude and tell her I really don’t like her. She’s in a class with me, but I don’t even remember what her name is.

I get to my locker and start to turn the dial.

“Are you feeling okay, Tyler?” the girl asks me. “You haven’t said anything since we’ve been walking.”

“I’m fine.”

“I heard you and Ferra broke up,” she says and sighs a little. “That really sucks. I’m sorry. Don’t let yourself get down about it, though.”

I open my locker and pull out my first-period textbook and notebook.

“Hey, Tyler!” someone shouts.

Oh, my god. I’m already tired of school.

I take a deep breath in and let it out before turning and waving in the direction the male voice came from.

Three boys come walking over from across the hall. Among them is one of my biggest phobias.

The black haired boy in the middle leans against the locker next to mine and says to me, “It’s like you’re always around girls whenever I see you.”

This is Jamie. He hates me, and no, I’m not being melodramatic.

Jamie smirks at me and says, “So Eve’s your new cover-up, huh?”

The girl following me— I’m guessing her name is Eve now— sucks her teeth. “Don’t get mad just because no girl wants to talk to you,” she says to him.

“I don’t know why girls always want to date the gay boys.”

I slam my locker closed. My hands are so tense, I can’t even unball my fists.

“Aye, Jamie! Relax, man,” one of his friends say to him and laughs. “Your still fucked up from the last time you pissed Tyler off.”

Jamie chuckles. “I don’t get why the little fairy gets so mad over true shit!”

“I swear to god, Jamie. I will beat the fuck out of you right now!” I shout.

I really wish he’d stop this.

“Jamie, chill out!” one of his friends say.

Why can’t he just forget about it?

“I’m just playing with him,” Jamie claims.

I don’t want to do this anymore.

The girl with me grabs my hand and pulls me along as she glares back at Jamie. “Come on, Tyler. He’s an asshole.”
#

By the end of school, I’m tired, irritated, bored, and kind of hungry. Normally, I’d just go home and sleep this all off until I have to do it all over again tomorrow, but they just opened a new arcade downtown this week, and I have to see it. I’m hoping they didn’t just go one hundred percent new on it. I really want to play pinball.

When my uncle Gil drops me off at the arcade, he reminds me before I get out, “I won’t be home until late tonight, so you’re going to have to—”

“Call dad to pick me up. I know. Anyway, can you take my bookbag to the house for me?”

“O-oh, uhm. Sure. Okay,” he says as he nods his head. He then goes digging in his pocket and pulls out his wallet. “D-do you need some money?”

I sigh. “Gilligan! I’m fine, alright? If I needed money, I would have asked. I’m not five.”

I make me way out of the truck and head toward the arcade’s small building. I’m not too sure why, but Gilligan frustrates me so much sometimes.

The inside of the arcade is too bright. The ceiling lights are dim and dark shades of blue and purple. The majority of the place is lit mostly by the screens of the arcade machines that clutter the open space. Little kids to older teenagers are all around, crowding the place and running from game to game.

I walk through, scanning all of the options they had. All of the newer, more popular games were in the front of the building. So, the fancy arcade shooters with those heavy guns, and the racing machines seated side by side are all near the entrance as some of the first games you see.

As I get further toward the back, I start to see the less popular retro games like pac-man and stuff like that. Among these classics, I see the machine I’ve been hoping for; pinball. It’s a nice one too; very vintage-looking, and I appreciate that.

Time to waste all of my money.

I spend about thirty minutes back here on this machine. I am murdering this game. The machine clanks and dings as the pinball ricochets around, lighting up the board with flashes of green, yellow, and red.

“Hmm? Tyler?”

That voice…

The metal ball slips right past me and off the board. I hit the machine and smack my teeth. “Damn it!”

“Oh, sorry. Did I mess you up?”

I turn around and see you standing behind me. You step back and say, “My bad.”

“No, it’s fine, (name). I got plenty of quarters.”

You scrunch up your face a bit before saying, “You remember me?”

I chuckle some and nod my head. “Of course! It’s been awhile since we’ve talked, but we were friends for a pretty long time.”

You smile and say, “Yeah. When I saw somebody back here on the pinball machine, I just remembered when we were younger, and I’d have to drag you off of these when my mom would take us to the arcades.”

We both laugh.

“I never got why you liked this game so much, anyway,” you say.

“I don’t know, man. The lights. The sounds. It’s just addicting.”

“Whatever you say. So, what are you doing here? Are you with everybody else?”

I crook my head a little. “Everybody else?”

“Yeah, some people from school are meeting up here. My friend told me about it and asked me to come.”

“Oh, I don’t know anything about that. I just came for the pinball.”

“Makes sense.”

“What are you doing back here, then?” I ask you. “All the cool games are in the front.”

You put your hands in your pockets. “I was just looking around. It’s my first time here. I thought I saw you over here, so I just wanted to say hey.”

You avert your eyes as you say, “So, uh. What’s up? You cool?”

“Yeah. I guess.”

“I heard you were dating Eve Conway now. That’s cool.”

“Who? Oh! You mean that little brunette in my history class?”

You laugh at me and say, “You don’t even know her name? Wow! Girls really just cling to you, huh?”

I sigh and roll my eyes. “Yeah. It’s nice on paper, but it gets annoying real quick. This last girl I dated is still blowing up my phone. You’d think they’d take a hint after you don’t answer the first fifteen times.”

“Sounds rough.”

I shrug. “Hashtag pretty boy problems.”

You snicker a little then let out a small breath. It gets quiet between us after that.

“I missed talking to you, Tyler,” you say to me after awhile.

I look up to you, and you smile at me.

I nod a bit. “Yeah. Me too.”

You take your phone out and scroll through it.

“My friends are looking for me,” you say.

“Oh. Alright.”

“You want to come hang out with us?”

“Nah, I’m fine.”

You hit my shoulder with the back of your hand. “Come on! We haven’t hung out in years. Plus, I don’t really know any of these people, anyway. Just come with me to say hey, then we can go off and do whatever together.”

I chuckle and hold up one of my hands. “Pause. But, alright. Sure.”

You lead me off down to the front of the arcade. The place seems even more crowded than I remember it did when I got here.

“You were already here?” a kid calls to you as he walks over to meet us in the middle of the building. “Where the hell were you hiding?”

You point your thumb behind yourself as you say, “I just wondered off to the back.”

The light haired brunette gives a wide smile, showing off all the metal in his mouth. “Ah! That’s where they keep all the classics, isn’t it?”

“Seems like it.”

The kid’s dark colored eyes switch to me. “Hey, Tyler. I didn’t know you’d be here.”

“You know Tyler?” you ask him.

“Oh, he’s in my sixth-period,” he says.

I nod. “Right. You’re the kid who sits in the back playing video games all the time.”

“It’s like everybody just knows me for video games.”

“You trying to say you do other stuff?” you ask him.

“No, but still! I have a name.”

I shake my head as I chuckle and say, “My bad. Ryan, right?”

“Oh, uh, yeah. I wasn’t expecting you to know it, though. So, you already knew (name)?”

“We live in the same neighborhood,” you say.

“Oh, cool.”

We met up and said hey to a couple of other dudes but after that, it was kind of just the three of us hanging out.

It was actually pretty fun. I haven’t just hung out with anybody in awhile. I know a lot of people for different reasons, but I don’t think I’ve had any friends since…well, you, I guess. It’s been years since we’ve last talked too. This is pretty nice.

It’s getting late now. Parents are starting to show for pick ups. The three of us wait around together for our rides.

“Why are you making it seem weird?” Ryan says to you.

“I’m not making it seem weird! It is weird!” you say back to him.

I, for one, can not stop laughing.

“This is just regular boy stuff!” Ryan claims. “Stop acting so prissy.”

You shake your head. “Don’t go grouping all boys into this! Just because I’m a boy, doesn’t mean I’m a fucking pervert like you!”

Ryan turns to me and asks, “Tyler, now was what I just said weird?”

I continue to laugh at it all.

“Come on! You can’t just laugh this off! Am I pervert for that?”

“I don’t know, dude,” I tell him as I’m still snickering. “I’ve never heard that before, but I guess you got a point. I probably wouldn’t let a girl with braces suck my dick either.”

“Right?”

“I don’t know. Teeth is one thing, but braces just seem like an added problem.”

“That’s all I’m saying!”

“How can you talk, though?” you say as you direct your hand to Ryan. “You have braces!”

“That’s how I know it would be a problem!” he retorts. “I bet a girl wouldn’t want me eating her out with these.”

I start back laughing. I swear, this dude’s crazy.

Ryan pulls out his phone. “Aye, my mom’s here. I’ll see you guys at school, though!”

“Alright, later,” you say to him and wave as he walks backwards toward the exit.

“Later, bro!” I shout.

He salutes us both and does a dramatic turn to the door. “And I’m out!”

I laugh as he leaves. “He’s pretty cool,” I say to you.

“I guess he’s pretty cool for a nerd. So, who’s picking you up?”

I take out my phone and click it on as I let out a small breath. “My dad’s supposed to come get me, but I doubt he’s even dressed to leave the house yet. I text him like half an hour ago.”

“My mom’s going to be here soon. I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t mind dropping you off.”

“Really? Thanks.”

“Yeah, sure. Knowing your dad, you’d probably be waiting forever.”