Intimidation ♡ joshler

fifty six

Josh wasn't able to stay much longer when his parents demanded him home, and the bigger of the two cursed his parents before kissing the smaller sweetly, promising to see him later before leaving Tyler blushing and smiling to himself where he sat on the floor, Ruby curled up contently against Tyler's thigh.

He waits until the front door opens and closes before getting up from the floor, ignoring Ruby's mewl of complaint as he heads over to Zack's door, knocking and getting permission to enter.

"Josh left," Tyler says as he closes the bedroom door behind him and sitting at the edge of the older man's bed when beckoned.

"That was quick, but how did yesterday go?" Zack asks, looking to his younger brother intently.  Honestly, Tyler's not sure if he genuinely wants to know how it went, or if he's looking for reasons not to like Josh, but either way, he plans to leave out what happened between Josh and Pete.  

"Josh taught me how to skate," Tyler starts, "Couldn't turn, though. Skating's hard."

"All you guys did was skate?"

"Well, Gerard was our ride—"

"Who's Gerard?"

"One of Brendon's friends—but anyways, Gerard was our ride home, and he was, like, on a date too, and it would've probably been kinda a jerk move to ask him to take us somewhere else—especially since we weren't the only ones who got rides," Tyler explains to the older, finishing off with a nonchalant shrug, but Zack doesn't seem satisfied with what he got, if the furrowed brow and slight narrowing of eyes is anything to go by.

"I know you, Tyler, and you're leaving something out," Zack says sternly, and though it's not a warning, it manages to draw the full story out of the younger before he can even think about what he's saying.

"And—uh, Josh and Pete almost, like, got in a fight over me and got us kicked out?? 'Cause, like—"

"Woah, stop," Zack interrupts, and if Tyler wasn't so nervous right now, he'd be annoyed by the interruption, "Why the fuck is your boyfriend trying to fight this Pete kid? And what do you mean, 'got in a fight over you'?"

"Josh said he-he didn't trust Pete," Tyler stammers, fiddling with the hem of his new hoodie and averting his gaze to the wall instead, "And he—um—he saw P-Pete with me."

"Calm down, I'm not mad at you," Zack sighs, as if noticing the younger's nerves, before continuing his pushing, "Now, tell me why Josh doesn't trust Pete if you can, and how you ended up with Pete in the first place on your date with Josh."

Tyler takes in a deep breath in an effort to compose himself before answering, "He said, um, Pete's a slut, and like, Brendon didn't wanna, like, go to the food court a-alone, so he asked Josh to, to go with him."

"And knowing that you can't skate for shit, he left you alone so Brendon wouldn't be?"

"I-it's not that, I told him it was okay—and I was holding onto the h-half wall, until Pete, like, took me back to the practice rink."    

"But as far as Josh knew, you were left alone on skates with a bunch of rowdy people around you, and anything could've went wrong."

"I'm not a little kid, Zack—" Tyler starts to defend himself, only to get interrupted yet again.

"You sure do act like one," the older man retorts, and Tyler freezes then and there, looking up to his brother, wounded by his accusation, and Tyler's so ashamed.  

But the older man doesn't seem fazed by how hurt the younger seems to be until he's pushing away from the bed and crossing the room to the bedroom door.

"Shit, T-bro, I didn't mean that," Zack pleads, but Tyler only ignores his bullshit excuse as he leaves the room, closing the door behind him.  

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