glory days ↣ joshler ✓

11. Picnic

"Abbie wants to go to the park," Josh spoke into the phone as he stirred his cereal slowly, watching the few bland Cheerios that were lift swim around in a milk drenched circle. "Apparently there's a Pokéstop there and she needs to use my phone to get it since her iPad only has WiFi or something. She doesn't actually want fresh air."

"Okay," Tyler laughed. "Am I picking you up or are you picking me up?"

"Why do you automatically assume I want you to go with us?" Josh joked.

"Why else would I care about you going to the park?" Tyler retorted.

"I hate you."

"No you don't."

"Unfortunately," Josh sighed. "I'll pick you up," he replied.

"I'm not riding in the back!" Abbie interrupted with a yell from her bedroom.

Josh pulled the phone down slightly so he didn't yell in Tyler's ear. "You're 10 years old yes you are!"

"Josh..." she whined.

"Do you wanna go or not?"

"Fine," he heard her grumble and he smiled a little before putting the phone back to his ear.

"My mom wants us to wait and take Abbie to lunch then too. I mean we could do that or..." Josh began.

"Or?" Tyler replied, smile in his voice.

"Number one on your list. Have a picnic in the park."

"Okay. I'm down. Do you want me to make the food?"

"Nah I'll do that. I gotta find a way to kill three hours anyway. Besides I have one of those cliche picnic baskets with a red blanket in it that my mom bought when we were younger:"

"Cute. Alright just text me when you're on your way. What time are you leaving your house?"

"Noon."

"Got it. Bye, J."

"Bye, Ty," he replied and hit the red button on his phone. A few seconds later, Abbie came trudging out her room with her red hair a mess and a scowl on her face

"What crawled up your butt and died?" Josh asked.

"Mom's doing laundry and she told me to ask you if you'd braid my hair," she huffed.

"Where's Ashley? She's better at hair than I am," Josh took the hair tie out of her hand and gestures for her to sit on the ground in front of him. He turned his body so he wouldn't face the table and began smoothing out her hair.

"I don't know. Probably holed up in her room listening to music."

"You stay holed up in your room playing video games you have no room to talk."

That got a giggle out of her. "That's not true! Sometimes Jordan plays them with me," she debated.

"Uh huh," Josh rolled his eyes as he tied of her braid. "There you go."

"Ew, Josh," Abbie stood up and faced him. "You did it too tight."

"Cry about it," he replied. "We're leaving at noon so make sure you're ready. And yes, I'm making you sit in the back so don't start complaining again."

She just dramatically groaned before stalking back off to her room. He shook his head with a laugh and stood up, rinsing and loading his dishes into the dishwasher before going to his room.

When he walked in he took off his sweatpants and t-shirt in favor of wearing actual clothes. As he was tugging his jeans on, he thought about what had happened at the party a couple nights ago. Brendon hasn't talked to Josh since the last text that was sent but that's mostly because Josh blocked him after sending it. The party was Saturday and it was currently Monday, meaning he had a few days to prepare for this Friday.

Josh had said yes to Debby because in all honestly, he was stressed and he hasn't "had a good fuck in awhile" as he put it when he asked Tyler for his advice. Of course, Tyler said he thought Debby was a weirdo ("She's weird, J." "Okay but she's also hot. Besides, if she's a freak then the sex has to be good, right? It's like the rule. I haven't had a good fuck in awhile." "I fucking hate you.").

Buttoning his pants and throwing an old band shirt on, he crawled back in bed underneath the covers to kill time before he had to go make lunch.

---

"Hey, fucker!" Josh yelled as Tyler opened the car door.

"You're an ass, you know that right?" Tyler replied as he put his seatbelt on. Josh waited for him to be secured before pulling out of the driveway and making his way from the gated neighborhood to the park towards downtown. "Hey, Abs."

"Hey, Ty!" She replied, a smile on her face as she played on her 3DS. Josh told her he was only going to let her collect what she needed from Pokémon Go and maybe catch a few Pokémon and then he was taking his phone back so she needed to bring something else to entertain herself while the two boys ate lunch.

"Abby don't tell mom I said 'fucker' and we'll go get ice cream after the park," Josh bargained.

"Hmm. Make it a banana split and you have yourself a deal."

"Got it," he laughed along with Tyler as he took a right turn.

Once they got to the park, Abby got out and ran somewhere in the park to go play her game while Tyler and Josh stayed around to carry things over. Josh knew his sister would be back over at some point to eat.

"What the hell did you pack?" Tyler laughed as he got the picnic basket out of the back seat. "Bricks?"

"Sandwiches, grapes, juice boxes, and crackers. Oh yeah and a few rocks but I forgot the bricks at home, sorry," he replied, getting the blanket that was next to it. He shut the door and locked the car before the two went over to a grassy area underneath a big willow tree.

Josh laid the blanket down and the two sat down. They both took things out of the basket and after everything was laid out they began eating.

"Thanks for this," Tyler said after swallowing the bite of sandwich in his mouth.

"Of course," Josh popped a grape in his mouth. "You skydived with and as lame as your stuff is it's nice to take a break and relax," he joked.

"It's not that lame," Tyler defended.

"You want to climb a tree. You've literally never climbed a tree before. The one thing you want to do before college is climb a tree. You're a dork," the red haired man deadpanned.

"Y'know what," Tyler stood up. "Fuck you. I'm gonna climb a tree right now," he walked over a few feet to the smaller oak tree next to the willow they were perched under. He stool his foot on the first little indent and lifted himself up and stood there for a few seconds. Turning, he gave a sheepish smile. "Josh I don't know how to climb a tree."

Josh rolled his and smiled. He stood up, making his way over Tyler. "You're still a dork."

"I know."