Eat a Bag Of Dicks! (Joshler) [✓]

12) the first wound

✦

when tyler slams the door at the sight of josh on the other side, it's like a thwack in the nose.

literally, because josh is standing too close to the door, so it hit him in the nose.

"ow," josh mumbles, rubbing his now red nose.

"um, tyler?" he cautiously asks.

he understands that it wasn't very nice just inviting himself over, but they were just speaking on facetime, so isn't it a tad more logical to just meet up-- considering they're neighbors.

humming, josh deems his wounded nose fine, and halts in his rubbing. he starts to wonder why tyler might've closed the door on him.

tyler looked fully clothed, so he wasn't closing the door to savour his decency.

maybe he forgot to turn off the stove, and has to go tend to that before letting josh inside.

or maybe he just doesn't want josh to come inside, and was only speaking to him out of pity, and actually can't stand the sight of josh.

josh frowns at that thought, that would suck. he snaps his fingers and tried to distract them from picking at his chin, just as debby peeks her head out of the apartment.

she exits the apartment, standing next to him and leaning on the wall,

"remember when i said the most important rule was not asking questions?" she said softly.

josh nods with a slightly furrowed brow.

"well, there's a few more very important rules," she confesses with a small smile.

✦

tyler is confusing.

tyler is an enigma.

it's as if josh is still struggling to understand english, whilst tyler was a fluent bilingual, knowing nearly every language except english.

they can rarely communicate without confused glances on josh's end, and tyler's confidence crumbling with every foreign word he speaks.

regardless of being nearly incapable of conversing, josh has downloaded google translate on his phone and is ready to try his best.

debby informed him of some more rules to follow, heading back into the apartment to speak to tyler, and leaving josh to wonder why tyler had about as many rules to follow as monopoly.

josh shrugs and takes a seat on the floor, leaning his back against tyler's apartment door.

after a minute of tapping his fingers on his thighs, and whistling quietly to himself, he hears shuffling on the inside of the apartment, getting closer to the door.

he feels the weight of tyler sitting in his same position on the other side of the door,

"i'm sorry," tyler whispers, voice hoarse.

josh twirls a loose thread from his jeans around his index finger, "don't even worry about it. did, uh, did you want me to go?"

after a moments hesitation, tyler replies quietly, "no,"

josh nods slowly, although knowing tyler couldn't see him, "so you want me to come in?"

it's quiet for a moment, before he speaks again with a small voice,

"...no,"

josh picks at his lip with furrowed brows, before nodding a coughing slightly, "m'kay,"

inches away, on the other side of the door, a teary faced tyler's phone chimes silently in a notification.

joshua: i'm not leaving until you tell me to

josh hears tyler choke on a small sob.

tylerr: and you have no idea how much i appreciate that.

✦

what did the O say to the Q?

"dude, your dick is hanging out."

✦