Joshler Fluff

best friends (pt. 3)

//it's terrible//

TYLER

Tyler stared at the message from Brendon glaring at him from off his screen. His heart pounded uncomfortably loudly and he looked cautiously around, wondering if anyone could hear it.

So go, the message read. Tyler could almost see Brendon looking at their thread in exasperation, wondering how Tyler could be so stupid.

Go where? Tyler massaged the bridge of his nose. Where the hell would he go? He very much doubted Josh would stay in Indianapolis for much longer, and the train Tyler was aboard wasn't stopping until Columbus.

An idea sparked in his head, so vague and so much of a stretch that he nearly dismissed it.

"You have no other options," Tyler growled at himself, eyes still glued onto Brendon's text. "Don't be a piece of shit. Call him."

Tyler was hideously aware of his hands trembling as he opened up Josh's contact, tyring his best to ignore his ex-friend's profile picture. It was dumb, a stupid snapshot of him sleeping, one out of the many candid pictures tyler had of Josh. The memory still hurt though, and if took all of Tyler's resolve not to turn his phone off and hope the situation would fix itself.

He pressed the call icon with shaking fingers and swallowed thickly as the ringtone sounded.

"Please pick up," he muttered again, not even sure if he wanted Josh to pick up.

To mixed feelings of horror and delight, the reciever crackled slightly and a voice sounded.

"Hello?"

It was Josh, sounding just like Josh always did when he answered the phone. Light, airy voice with a hint of the smile he always wore around Tyler. There was an undercurrent of pain and fear, too strong for Tyler to disregard. He swallowed again, bracing himself and spoke.

"Josh?"

Damnit, say something.

"Hey, Tyler."

There was a long pause. Tyler desperately wanted to say something, anything, but the words ran dry in his mouth.

"I'm sorry for running away," he blurted out at the same time Josh said, "I didn't mean anything," in a voice with too much strain behing the words.

There was another huge silence. He knew what Josh was thinking, because after all these years how could he not? They were thinking of the ending question, the question that had bee clawing through Tyler's brain then second he had slammed the hotel door with his key still locked inside. They were thinking about the awful start to the even more awful night. Tyler felt his throat constrict and he blinked back tears as the memory flooded back to him.

*

"Can you pick up your fucking socks please?" Josh snapped from his side of the room. Gone was the happy closeness between them, gone was the movie nights and cuddles. Instead the room was full of half-formed insults and cheap jibes.

"I'm sorry, no need to get so pissy," Tyler retorted, scooping his socks up and flinging them across the room.

Josh shot him a filthy glare. "Well I wouldn't be so pissy if you cleaned up after yourself like I asked the first hundred times. Jesus Christ."

"Don't say that, you know I don't like it," tyler implored, trying to keep the bite out of his voice. Josh was really pushing all his buttons today.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Josh drawled, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

"Dont be so immature, please. It's a simple request, you're just too much of an idiot to follow it."