Checkmate (Joshler AU)

Chapter 25

Josh's POV

It had been exactly a week and three days until I saw Tyler again. His mom had taken more time off to take Tyler to his appointments so I waited not so patiently for the return of my boyfriend.

It was halfway through our first period when the door creaked opened.

"Mr. Joseph, you're late," our teacher scolded.

Then something happened that I'd never expect from my sweet little Tyler.

"Yeah, well, I was kinda busy shaving my entire fucking head. Sorry my goddamn cancer's affecting my attendance," he snapped, slamming his book-bag onto the desk next to me.

Everyone sat in shock, especially me.

Then the murmurs came, everyone began to talk to each other about what had just happened.

I raised my hand.

"Yes, Mr. Dun?"

"C-can I talk to Tyler outside the classroom real quick?"

"Keep it short, Dun," he grumbles, pinching the bridge of his nose.

I quickly stood and pulled Tyler into the hall but before a word could pass from my lips, Tyler collapsed into my arms with tears streaming down his cheeks.

I took this time to run my hand over his head.

"Your hair..."

"I-I know! I'm ugly," he sobbed.

"No, baby. You're beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous."

He looked up to me, his perfect brown eyes were surrounded by the red of exhaustion. Bags sagged on his lovely pale skin, paler than it had been a week ago.

"N-no, I'm not."

I began to rub his back, surprised to feel the bones slightly protruding and moving as the sobs racked my tiny Tyler.

I tried comforting him but it turned into a sort of cry fest for the both of us.

You're not helping, Josh.

Screw off.

I know you're afraid of losing him but you need to be strong.

"We're ditching," I said with a small sniffle as I wiped my tears.

"W-wait, what," Tyler asked, his bloodshot eyes searching mine for a sign of humor.

"We're ditching. Let's go grab our stuff."

We quickly walked in the class and grabbed our bags.

"Where the hell do you two think you're going," our teacher asked in a furious confusion.

I walked out of the classroom behind Tyler, giving the teacher a very vulgar gesture to tell him to 'screw off'.

~

I had taken Tyler to lunch where he ate quite a bit.

His eyes seemed to brighten, his skin seemed to darken to a healthy shade, and the bags under his eyes seemed to fade a bit.

Now we just sat playing chess on his bed. That was up until his mother ran in.

"Tyler Robert Joseph. What in the heck happened today? Are you okay," she asked, sounding angry but concerned.

"I-I, uh..."

"The teacher called him out for being late and he snapped. We ditched the rest of the day. I just took him to eat and we came back here. I promise he's okay. He's just been sleeping or playing chess with me. But the whole school thing wasn't his fault," I explained as fast as I could.

"Oh," was all she responded with.

"Oh?"

"Thank you. He needed that," she smiled softly before waking away.

I sighed happily.

"She's right, Josh. I did need that. Thank you," he murmurs before pressing his lips to mine softly.