to all the glowing eyes ✎ joshler

december 23

tyler and jenna got back quite late from the bakery. with the holidays coming closer and closer, the place is full of costumers all the time. they took care of orders for the next day, just to save time in the morning.

when they got home, they ate a few slices of the pizza and that was it. there's not much noise or movement in the apartment, specially since brendon went to bed early to have energy for the road. jenna also went to bed relatively quickly. having to be preparing the same batch of cookies for more than 8 hours straight is definitely not a day at the spa.

tyler and josh are in the bedroom, mostly just enjoying each other's company until they fall asleep. they're on their phones, each one checking different stuff for entertainment.

"i'm gonna go get some water. do you want anything?" josh mentions as he gets up from the bed, putting his phone in his hoodie pocket to have both of his hands free.

the younger boy shakes his head, "no. 'm good." he doesn't take his eyes away from his phone to answer. he keeps mindlessly scrolling through tons and tons of posts on his timeline when the screen freezes for a second before displaying a call.

the contact picture, a selfie of a boy with sunglasses misplaced on his face, in collaboration with the name freaks him out. why is he calling so late? it's way past 2 am. tyler accepts the call and puts the phone up to his ear; normally he would use speaker phone, but it's too late for that. "uh," he clears his throat, "why are you up so late?"

"well hello to you too, ty," awsten laughs on the other end of the line, "it's barely midnight here. i'm not going to bed in a while. mom's making me wrap last minute presents. why are you up, buttercup?"

he can't help his cheeks take a faint red blush at awsten's sweet voice and words. "can't sleep. i had a long day at the bakery."

"wouldn't that make you tired enough to sleep?"

"apparently not," tyler looks at the closed bedroom door, the light from the kitchen coming through the small cracks on the bottom of said door. he remembers he's not alone. on the contrary, he's very much in company of someone. a certain someone who if awsten were to find out about, and the things they do, god knows what hell on earth might unleash. "why did you call? you just want company while you wrap presents?"

"not really. i'll watch a movie while i do it. i called to invite you to spend new years with me. my family's gonna go out to my dad's friends' house, so i'll practically have the house to myself. i'm gonna invite a few people over but we can be together. maybe we can pull off a few new years eve traditions."

the invitation sounds very promising, tyler's been dreaming of spending a holiday with someone special for so long. "i'd love to," he cuts himself off, he can feel his throat turning into a knot before speaking again, "listen, i need to tell you some–."

"really? oh thank god. i thought you were gonna say no."

"why would i say no?" he gets up from the bed, his eyes looking out the small window.

"i had the feeling that you stopped liking me."

the answer hurts him. tyler knows he's been a royal mess by not even remembering that awsten existed. his mind has been so focused on josh that he forgot about everyone else. how could he be such an awful person? there was a moment when he couldn't even go a moment without awsten interrupting his thoughts. all the things he told him now seem meaningless. he wasn't his first crush, not by a long shot, he wasn't the reason he realized his sexuality, he wasn't gonna be his first kiss...

"i still like you. we're gonna spend new years eve together, okay? you don't have to invite other people to not make me uncomfortable. it can just be us, a date."