Sacrificial //joshler

two

"wear something cute, okay?"

josh is immensely flustered as he examines himself in the mirror for the fifth time, having completely changed his outfit each of those five times. he groans in frustration, still not feeling quite right about his appearance.

he has on brown cargo pants and an oversized black band tee with a black long-sleeve shirt layered underneath. a pair of black and white nike dunks adorn his feet, a few necklaces dangle on his chest, and black plugs sit in his ear lobes.

his hair looks insane—black curls flying wildly in every which way. maybe that's the problem. he pulls on a brown carhartt beanie in an attempt to suppress the wilderness that is his curly hair. it works mostly. small spirals still peek out from beneath the edges, but at least it's mostly contained. he looks in the mirror one last time, hoping he'll satisfy tyler's request.

although there isn't currently snow on the ground, it is february and very cold. josh debates if he should bring a coat or not, but ultimately decides he'll be fine. a coat would just ruin his outfit, anyway. he checks the time, sending tyler a text.

leaving now. be there soon

he gets a response almost immediately.

kk see ya soon joshie <3

the drive to tyler's place is about ten minutes. josh is sure to have panic at the disco playing by the time tyler slides into his passenger seat, causing the younger to grin.

"excited?" he asks, mindlessly scrolling through his phone as josh pulls out of the driveway and starts down the road to riley's pub.

"i'm just glad to be hanging out with you," josh admits. "but it'll be cool to hear them play, too."

tyler changes the topic, starting to go on a rant about andy and how annoying he is. josh doesn't understand why tyler even bothers to hook up with him; he's never heard tyler say one nice thing about the guy. he doesn't voice this though, knowing it would make tyler mad.

they're pulling into the gravel parking lot about twenty minutes later, the sound of the tiny rocks crunching underneath their feet as they enter the bar. the place is mostly wooden, almost with the vibe of an old saloon even though it's technically a pub. it's not terribly crowded, but there's definitely a larger audience than the last time tyler dragged him to one of these events. a few other kids that josh knows from school are there as well. hayley from history, vic from calc, zack on the football team, and one of their foreign exchange students, jimin.

tyler tugs on josh's shirt, pointing at the direction of the stage. "god, look at them."

josh doesn't get what's so great about them, particularly the one tyler can't stop drooling over. they're cute, he guesses, but tyler outdoes them all.

"you know, joshie, i bet eyeliner would look good on you too," tyler says. he reaches out, taking josh's face in his hands and studying him carefully. "yeah, definitely."

"really? eyeliner?" josh chuckles. "guess i could try it sometime."

"you'd look cute," he shrugs.

"am i not already?"

"that's not what i meant" tyler laughs, smacking josh's arm, "don't be a nerd."