Youth || Joshler

20: Josh Is In Love

It was the school trophy case. Written in blue paint in messy lettering across the sliding glass was a sentence. Tyler didn't realize what all of the clutter and chatter was about until he approached the group  of students crowding around the crime scene. He pushed through the crowd curiously, and they seemed to sort of let him shuffle past. It was then that he saw, and his heart skipped a beat or two. It was written for the entire highschool to see,

I AM IN LOVE WITH TYLER JOSEPH AND I WANT THE WHOLE WORLD TO KNOW.

"Who is it?" Giggled some other senior girl beside Tyler nervously. "It's really romantic." Tyler knew exactly who it was, but he kept it to himself with s small giddy smile.

"No idea."

Once everyone seemed to be done with the scene and the chatter faded away, Tyler found himself almost skipping over to the mathematics classroom. He had only to knock on the closed door once; In less than a moment it was unlocked and open, and there Josh was on the other side of it. He let Tyler in without hesitation, a wide grin on his face.

"Did you see?" He said nervously. Tyler grinned and nodded. "So was it enough?"

"More than enough. The most you can do in your position," Tyler put his arms around Josh after the door was closed, the room empty aside from the two of them. They embraced for a long time. "Thank you. You don't even know how much that means to me, thank you," Tyler kissed him briefly.

"Any time," Josh murmured, kissing Tyler again. In between kisses, he announced softly, "I meant it. I love you."

"I love you too."

Josh sighed into Tyler's hair, "and I want the entire world to know, I really do. I wanna show you off to my dad, take you out.. shit, I want it so bad."

For some reason unbeknownst to the basketball player, he was crying softly into Josh's chest, moved to tears. The thing was, he wanted that too, wanted to show Josh off to the universe and beyond. He wanted him to meet his parents. He wanted to kiss him in front of everyone."Me, too," he gently sobbed.

"Look at me," Josh carefully urged, voice soft like buttermilk on a warm morning. Tyler did, gazing up into his eyes, looking lost but found at the same time. "They will. They'll all know soon enough. I promise, Ty."

"What does that mean?"

"I don't know. I'll figure it out." Josh kissed him again, making Tyler smile, "but soon enough they're all gonna know that Josh Dun is in love with Tyler Joseph."

"Okay," he whispered. "God, I love you so much."

-

At six o'clock at night, Tyler's phone rang and on it displayed Jenna's contact. He immediately froze up, eyes widening. As much as he wanted to ignore the call, he knew he couldn't risk that. Playing with Jenna was like playing with fire, and if everything had played out well so far for Tyler, it was an educated guess to assume that everything would go downhill now. This thought process was what drove him to press the green button, holding his phone to his ear.

"Hey," he said, voice cracking. It terrified him to know that she was on the other end of the line. But it was time to talk about it.

Jenna let out a long sigh over the phone, making the line crack with static. It was a long time until she said anything, but when she did, it was a soft murmur. "Hi, Tyler."

"Hi."

"I think we should talk about it," she said, and Tyler would notice how hurt her voice sounded if he cared enough. "I.. I want to talk about it."

"You wanted to talk about it to half the school before you wanted to talk about it with me," drawled Tyler unpleasantly.

The blonde girl sighed again, this time slightly more aggressive. The static screamed into Tyler's ear. "You can't be upset at me for that. I'm a teenage girl, I talk."

"That's not a fucking excuse-"

"Well is there an excuse for kissing 'im, Tyler? Is there a fucking excuse for that?"

His voice cracked, "I-I love him." He had to take a moment to compose himself, already feeling the tears well up, ready to pour down his cheeks. "That's my excuse. I'm in love with him."

"He's using you, Tyler," Jenna said tiredly over the line but Tyler wasn't having her bullshit. He cut her off, voice suddenly strong and fierce,

"Don't fucking do that." The other end fell dead silent. "Don't feed me bullshit information, don't try to manipulate it, I love him and I don't love you and too bad, Jenna."

She was crying. A few months ago Tyler would have felt bad, but now all he felt was a mere satisfaction. He didn't know wether her tears were fake or not but guessed that they were- and if they weren't, she deserved them. Perhaps that made him a bad person. But if you'd stop and consider all the shit she put him through, you'd feel satisfied, too.

"You were my date," she sobbed. "And you were my boyfriend.. and he took you from me," Jenna croaked. "He keeps taking you from me, Ty. You were the best thing that ever happened to me, I love you, and it's not fair,"

"You don't deserve me. Y-you-" he took a frustrated breath, "you can't trick people into loving you by spreading rumours- by lying- and you can't decide who I love. You-you're so hateful, Jenna."

She sobbed quietly for a while longer, and Tyler simply listened to the sound, ready to punch the wall. She tried to form a few sentences but always stopped, too flustered and messy to form a coherent one.

In a minute or two her crying had ceased to a silence. Tyler wondered if she was going to hang up, or if perhaps he should instead. When she whispered through the line he felt chills run down his spine.

"..if I can't have you, nobody can." The line went dead.