Just Friends //joshler&bryler [✔]

twenty

"who's that?" he heard brendon's soft voice.

he slowly blinked his eyes open, realizing he'd dropped the picture of josh onto the ground and brendon was pointing at it.

"nobody," he lied, quickly picking up the photo and stuffing it in his pocket.

"his hair's pretty cool."

"it's red now."

stop, tyler. stop talking about him. tell brendon to drop it.

"what's his name?"

"josh."

come on tyler just tell him to stop. you don't want to talk about it.

"cool, is he your friend?"

oh, but he wanted to talk about josh so bad.

"not anymore," he frowned, sitting up so brendon could take a seat next to him.

"why not?"

tyler hesitated, looking from the his lap up to the taller man.

"too personal?"

he shook his head.

"no... he replaced me."

"replaced you?" brendon frowned. "why would he do that?"

tyler felt a knot starting to form in his throat. he brought his shoulders up in a shrug, afraid to use his voice.

"is that why you left?"

he shook his head.

"want to stop talking about it?"

he shrugged. he did, but he didn't.

"need a hug?"

"n-no..."

"yeah you do. c'mere."

brendon held his arms out. tyler gratefully crawled onto his lap, letting the older give him a tight squeeze. he leaned into brendon, head resting in the crook of his neck. his hug was almost as great as josh's.

dammit, thinking about josh again.

tyler felt tears start to form, but he refused to cry in front of brendon. he could be strong.

"wanna talk about it later?" the older asked in a gentle voice.

"maybe..."

"we don't have to, it's fine. if it'll make you feel better, then don't hesitate to tell me. i won't give you crap for whatever it is."

"t-thanks, b..."

brendon smiled at the new nickname. "what happened to forehead?"

"fine, i'll call you forehead then."

"no no no, i like b. so can i call you t?"

tyler finally cracked a smile. "sure."