smile. || joshler ||

Ch. 21

It escalated quickly, lets start with that. Maybe it was because both didn't know how to 'make-out', so they just kept kissing, hoping one would know what to do. But, then neither let it go further, and Josh finally pulled away breathlessly, asking, "D-Do you know how to uhh, continue...?"

"Are you seriously asking me?" Tyler panted, face flushed and arms around Josh's neck. He sat up, wincing slightly at the bruise on his stomach. "Aren't you more...experienced with people? I mean, you were my first kiss.."

Josh shrugged, admitting with a sheepish smile, "I only kissed 3 people, one being you, all the kisses were short and I think this is the most I've done."

"No way," Tyler said, actually shocked. But, Josh nodded and the brown haired boy was literally not expecting that. He assumed Josh dated tons of people, being all good looking and charming.

Josh nodded, "Yes way."

Tyler giggled, nodding and licking his lips, which made Josh want to kiss them more, but he decided not to. Tyler sighed, leaning his head on Josh's shoulder, "So, what are we going to do? This is suppose to be the best sleepover ever and we just kissed."

"Did you not like the kissing?" Josh frowned, faking being offended.

Tyler rolled his eyes, "Yes, but I really wanna have fun, even if I always have fun just by being around you, we should do something."

The redhead pondered for a moment, he did want to make Tyler happy, so he tried his best to think of something exciting to do. It was too late to go outside and do stuff.

"Come on, lets go to the family room." Josh grinned.

"Why?" Tyler asked, but was already tugged out of the room and dragged downstairs. They passed Jordan who was watching a movie in the living room.

Josh pushed Tyler gently on the couch, and straddled him, smirking, "Hello."

"Uh, hi?" Tyler chuckled nervously. "So, what are we doing down here...?"

Josh pursed his lips for a moment, and Tyler kind of wanted to kiss him, but was still a bit unsure when he was allowed to. Finally, Josh said, "Let's build s fort."

Before he could respond, Josh was going to the closet and grabbing blankets and pillows, throwing them on the ground. He glanced at Tyler and urged him to join, so Tyler decided to help and grabbed a blanket, but Josh rolled his eyes, and the brown hair boy asked confused, "What?"

"We need chairs," Josh laughed, and motioned him to leave and get some. He also called out, "Get some chips too, whatever you want!"

With a huff, Tyler left and went to the kitchen, seeing Jordan making popcorn. He wasn't sure what to do, it was strange walking around someone else's kitchen without the person you're here for being with you.

Jordan felt a presence, and turned, seeing Tyler standing awkwardly in the doorway. He chuckled, asking, "You here for something?"

"Uh, y-yeah," He bit his lip, and shuffled toward the refrigerator, struggling to get the chips at the top of it. When he did reach it, his sleeve fell and his cuts were revealed. Jordan's eyes went sorrowful and Tyler quickly fixed his sleeve, acting as though nothing happened.

When Tyler finally returned to the room, struggling to carry two chairs and a bag of chips, Josh got up and helped him, pressing a sloppy kiss to Tyler's cheek, "Thanks!"

-

After an hour of making everything perfect, they built an amazing fort. It had blankets stuffed in the cushions and the opposite side tied to the chair with hair ties Josh stole from his moms bedroom.

On the inside, they had blankets spread out and food in one corner, a laptop with them and pillows around, keeping the blanket risen a little so it wasn't hitting their heads when they say up. Now, surely it sounded small, but the boys were rather tiny.

Josh returned from upstairs with pajama's and crawled under the fort, seeing Tyler sitting in the corner of it and waiting patiently. He smiled and handed him his pajama's, "Here you go, you can just change in here, we don't want the fort falling from leaving in and out so much."

Tyler hesitated, and Josh sighed, "I'll turn around, okay?"

He nodded and they changed slowly, considering how small the area was.

-

The two boys laid on the floor, both on their backs and just stayed quiet for a bit, hands entwined between them.

Josh suddenly noticed how he never knew about Tyler's mom. His curiosity was taking over and he wanted to ask, but he didn't want to ruin their night.

Noticing how quiet Josh was, Tyler turned on his side to face him and asked in a whisper, "Are you okay?"

"Um," Josh turned as well, barely making out Tyler's face in the dark, "I wanted to ask you something but it's rather personal."

"You already know the worst about me, I think I can handle answering something." Tyler said truthfully, squeezing Josh's hand.

The redhead contemplated, but asked, "Where's your mom?"

And when Tyler's grip loosened, he knew it wasn't a good topic. Josh watched as Tyler bit his lip anxiously, turning on his back the brown haired boy sighed, "She left me."

"When?" Josh questioned with a frown, scooting closer to see Tyler's face better.

Tyler glanced at Josh, eyes sad and full of hurt, "When I told her I was gay. I was 13 and...I had two brother's and a sister, Jay, Zack and Madison. I was never into girls and I felt like being gay wasn't bad, so when she took me out on my birthday, I thought I should tell her. She wasn't very happy a-and she called me a disgrace, said I was disgusting and a terrible son."

Josh heard the pain in Tyler's voice, the struggle to continue. He squeezed Tyler's hand gently, rubbing his thumb over the top and told him gently, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"N-No, It's fine. I just never told anyone before.." Tyler admitted, wiping his eyes quickly with a sigh, "The thing is, my dad was always so nice and he was a great man. But, I guess my mom didn't love him, cause when we got home that night, she left and didn't even tell my dad. That's when he started hating me. Since it was my birthday, and she took my brothers and sister but not me, my dad must have blamed me for her leaving and that may be why he hits me."

"Ty," Josh sighed sympathetically, wrapping bis arms around the smaller boy.

He sniffled into Josh's shoulder, "I miss them, my brothers and sister, we use to go to my Aunt's house all the time, for Christmas and Halloween. Now, my dad made me stop going even though she's not too far from here. I guess cause it's my mom's sister, he doesn't like her."

"I'm so sorry, you don't deserve this." Josh mumbled, holding Tyler tightly in his arms. They rocked slightly, both quiet and content just sitting like that.

Ans when they fell asleep, Jordan was walking past the dining room to the kitchen and saw the fort knocked down. He walked over, pulling it off fully and smiled, looking at his brother and Tyler cuddled up, but when he saw the tear stained cheeks on Tyler and cuts revealed with his sleeve rolled up a bit, arm wrapped around Josh's waist, he frowned and was just hoping Josh could make the boy happy before it was too late.