Fake You Out - Joshler

Chapter Two

Tyler stares at the television with his eyes glazed over and his mouth hung open as he listens to the news reporter talk to a doctor who is pleading with people in the camera. He's not listening to a word that's said because he can't take his eyes off the picture of the boy from his past, in the corner of the screen.

Tyler never thought he'd see him again. He thought that when he graduated high school and moved four towns over that he'd leave the past behind him and that Josh wouldn't follow.

He never expected to see the other boy at least with his image flashing on the screen with stark white bandages wrapped around his head or with his body covered in bruises and dried blood.

"Holy shit," Tyler breathes as he stares at the image on the television. "Oh my god."

"What?" Tyler hears Patrick ask. "Oh that accident. I know it's horrible. They've been talking about it all morning on the radio and everything."

"What are they saying?" Tyler asks as he cranes his neck towards Patrick but doesn't shift his eyes away from the screen.

"Just that one person was killed and another is in a coma, but they have no idea who the guy in the coma is since he's not from around here. They're having trouble finding out his identity and the doctors are worried about allergies and stuff. I don't know I wasn't really paying attention. It's sad."

"Why can't they just look up his dental records or try his thumb prints or something?"

"I'm not a doctor," Patrick says and Tyler hears a shuffling of papers. "I'm sure if they're begging people on TV then they have no other means of finding anything out. Now stop paying attention to that and get back to work before I fire you."

Tyler turns his head away from the television and looks at his boss so he can roll his eyes dramatically, because he knew Patrick would never fire him. He snatches the papers out of his hand and begins working anyway.

Tyler finds himself shifting into autopilot as he goes through the tasks of his day. He feels like his body is going through the motions but his mind is thinking about the image of Josh sprawled out in the hospital bed or the image of a car torn to pieces, scattered across the highway in a smoking heap.

He makes sure to try and function as normal as possible as he organizes the paperwork Patrick had handed him, sending out shipping invoices, and yelling at the new guy for screwing up one of the machines and setting them behind.

It's a normal day, and Tyler tries not to let what he saw bother him.

~~~

Tyler thanks Mrs. Hamilton as he carries Michael out of her house and across her yard back towards their own house. He's got Michael on his hip and giant red piece of construction paper in his hand.

"Are you going to tell me about this picture that you made?"

"It's flower," Michael says. "Made you flower."

Tyler holds the paper in front of them as they make their way up the path towards their door and admires the marker lines across the page along with cut up pieces of construction paper in odd places. "You did a drawing and a collage."

"I don't know," Michael replies as Tyler unlocks the front door. "Just flower."

"Well we're going to put your just a flower drawing up on the door using tape. How does that sound?"

Michael nods his head and lets Tyler carry him into the kitchen so they can rummage through the drawers in order to find the scotch tape that's always missing. Last time it was because Brendon had broken one of Tyler' DVD's and tried to tape it back together so Tyler wouldn't find out. Or the time before that where Gerard and his best friend taped each other's faces when he spent the night. And Tyler' personal favorite, the time where all three boys were playing cops and robbers and Gerard had somehow managed to convince Michael and Brendon to let him tape them to the kitchen chairs as their own personal prison.