Fun In The Summer "Camp"-Joshler fic

Chapter Fourteen

tyler was back in the art room, because cruz granted him his wish of staying there for another day.

he’d already finished rinsing the shirts in separate salt water baths, and he spent all morning washing them out so that they’d be fine for the kids to wear today. he told his group to stay in the room while he went out back to check if they were dry.

he felt the material, the sun actually working fast on these, and he began to take them down. he did them quickly, as he wanted to get back to his kids before they wandered off or cruz yelled at him, or something else stupid. he eventually bundled them in his arms and returned to the art room. he saw emily holding a folded piece of notebook paper that he hadn’t noticed before. it was crumpled and it looked written on, but she held it out anyways for him.

“joshy came in here while you were outside!” emily giggled, watching tyler open it.

have a good day, today. i love you!

-josh

tyler smiled widely, his heart bursting. he folded it back up and kept it in his pocket, the simple gesture already brightening up his mood.

“thanks, em.” he said, patting her head.

he passed out the shirts to the correct kids, trying to remember who inked which colors on their shirts. he kept the bigger ones for him and josh, examining them to see what else it needed. he decided his was fine, but he wanted something else of josh’s shirt.

“hey, kids. you want to come write cute things on josh’s t shirt?” he asked, receiving nods from the kids.

he knew josh liked them, and that they liked josh, so why not? he went into the supply closet to grab a piece of stray cardboard and sharpies before returning to the counter, the kids surrounding it. he slid the cardboard into the shirt and flipped it to the back, allowing them to write on it.

tyler’s phone began to ring in his pocket, josh’s name flashing across the screen.

“nothing weird!” he called to them as he made his way to the back of the room. “hello?”

“hey, tyler. are you still on kitchen duty?” josh asked.

“nah, brendon volunteered in for me. why?”

“because i was wondering...if you...”

“want to eat lunch with you?” tyler asked.

“please? everyone left the table. brendon goes back to the cabin to sleep and pete and patrick, they-”

“say no more. i’ll come to your rescue in...” tyler checked the time, “twenty minutes.”

“thank you.” josh let out a sigh of relief.

“uh-huh. i’ll see you later, okay?” tyler bit the bottom of his lip again. “i love you.”

“i love you, too. bye.” josh said through a small laugh. those words always made him happy.

tyler blew out a breath, trying to get his heart rate to calm down before going back to the kids. he saw almost the entire back was filled out with messages from each of them, paired with hearts or stars. he wrote a message in an empty space, deciding it was fine and took the cardboard out of the shirt.

“okay, let’s go drop this off to josh.” tyler said, needing something to do for the next fifteen minutes.

he was looking forward to it, if he was being honest. it was just lunch, but still. it was different somehow. he held the door open for the kids, each of them holding their shirts while tyler held onto theirs. he took the back entrance to the cabins, making his way along the grassy field, where the spot was. he looked around, enjoying the warm breezes that nipped at his shirt or the butterflies that fluttered past him in the wind.