glory days ↣ joshler ✓

41. Memories

August first.

The date was August first.

Tyler was leaving on the eighth.

He was fine. Kinda.

After his trip with Josh, Tyler realized he had to start packing his things for New Jersey. Josh would be going up with him to help him settle in so he had to make everything fit in his and Josh's cars. He didn't have much but he had a couple bigger things and neither of their cars were very big.

Josh couldn't help him pack since he was spending the day with his siblings so Tyler had asked Jenna to help him since they haven't hung out in awhile.

So that's what the two were doing, going through Tyler's things and packing what he knew he would need. "Aw, Ty," Jenna piped up. The mentioned snapped his head up and saw Jenna was holding up the playbill from his freshman play. He had only done theater one time and he had gotten the lead. It sounds impressive but the regular leads were out sick with food poising during auditions and the beginning of rehearsal so it wasn't a tough competition. It had been the musical too and since he took choir his first year of school to get the credit out of the way, his teacher recommended he tried out (she had also offered extra credit if they got a spot and Tyler had skipped a concert to help Josh with his photography project so he took what he could get.) "You made a good Danny Zuko."

"That's cool baby, you know how it is, rockin' and rollin' and what not," he replied with a grin. "I can't believe they made us smoke fake cigarettes," he laughed out shaking his head. "And I still know all the words to Summer Nights and could sing it in my sleep."

"No offense," Jenna giggled. "But are you sure you didn't know you were gay?"

"Haha very funny," Tyler rolled his eyes playfully. "Speaking of— if any of my family walks in and asks we fucked the other day at my cabin."

"What?" She asked, taken aback. Tyler noticed her cheeks didn't heat up like they would have months ago.

"Uh... I had to tell my parents I brought a girl to our cabin to "fix my issues" so I could get the key."

"Did you and Josh..." she trailed off.

"Yeah," Tyler's face turned bright red.

"I already knew. Hayley told us. We have a group chat without you and Josh and we just talk about how gay you guys are," Jenna snickered. "I just wanted to see you get all flustered."

"Jenna!" he threw a pillow at the mentioned girl, making her laugh harder. "I hate you."

"Mhm," she smiled back at him. "Sure you do."

Tyler just shook his head, a smile resting on his face. He bent down and began looking pulling out various boxes from under his bed. He took the lid off of the first one and realized he hadn't looked in anything under his bed in years.

He set the dusty cover off to the side and began picking up things. The first thing was his championship basketball trophy. He had stopped playing the sport when he was fourteen but he had helped his middle school win every game, being the best on the team. It had helped that Josh came to all his games to cheer him on when his family never made it. His other friends would come to some games but Josh went to every single one he played in seventh and eighth grade.

Next were some laminated photos from Josh's photography final freshman year. The one Tyler had skipped a choir concert to help with. The assignment was to pick a subject and photograph them in places that captured five different emotions. Josh had printed a few extra that he gave to Tyler for Christmas a few weeks after they had shot them and he still had them after all the years. Josh had even liked his photography teacher, Mr. Heaton, so much that he took his drawing classes all throughout high school.

Tyler looked through the pictures and examined each one. The first one showed fifteen year old him at an ice cream shop. He had the frozen dessert on his upper lip and was smiling widely. The second one was Tyler sitting on Josh's couch, crying. They had needed one of him being sad so they watched The Lion King. It wasn't a deliberately sad movie but Tyler was sensitive when it came to classics like that. Those were the only two Josh had been proud of so Tyler didn't have any of the others.

Suddenly the door opened and his mom peered in. "Hello, Tyler," she spoke coldly. She had been working from home more often to "keep an eye on her disastrous child." Her face softened when she saw Jenna was in the room. "Oh, hello."

"Hi, Mrs. Joseph," she replied back, no smile on her face. She wasn't even trying to be nice unlike Tyler with her dad. He didn't blame her though. His mom was a homophobic bitch which was worse than just being a bitch.

"I didn't know you had a girl over," Kelly spoke, hope in her voice.

Tyler looked up and hated himself for what he said next. "Yeah, that's my girlfriend, Jenna. I asked her out while we were at the cabin. You were right. It was just a phase. I think I was stressed about leaving so I acted out."

"Good," Kelly smiled. "I'm proud of you Tyler," she added but the words held no meaning. She had said them time and time before but she hadn't cared. She never did unless it pertained to her or her own success. "It was lovely meeting you Jenna."

"You too," the blonde spoke in a monotone voice, not looking up. If Kelly knew Jenna didn't like her, she didn't make it known. All she did was walk away, shutting the door behind her. "What a bitch," she mumbled under her breath. She rarely cussed but when she did, she meant it. Jenna looked over at Tyler "Does Josh know about your parents?"

No. "Yes," he lied. He didn't figure it was important. He had already told Josh he came out and if he told his parents they were together everything would get worse. As much as he hated his family, he at least needed them to pay for his college tuition.

"Okay, just making sure," Jenna replied.

Tyler pulled out another box from under his bed. This one had a dusty cover as well but 'Josh' was written on the top in his neat hand writing. He opened this one as well and his heart swelled with happiness when he realized what it was. His Josh box.

This was the box that held all the special things of just him and Josh. The other box must've been school stuff and accomplishes. Tyler faintly remembered being torn on where to put the pictures of him before putting it in his school box so he had more room in his Josh box.

He saw a stack of birthday cards dating through eight years (the one from his most recent birthday must've been on his bookshelf) along with pictures of the two, various small gifts that couldn't be displayed in his room, and the apology letter their teacher had forced Josh to write Tyler after he had accidentally hit him with a basketball at recess. Tyler wasn't even mad, he was just trying to teach Josh how to play. His teacher still made Josh write a note and he was reminded of them laughing over it for weeks.

He then saw a few Polaroids sitting in the box. Neither of them had a camera but Sarah had gotten one for her birthday sophomore year and let the two take a few dumb pictures with it. Tyler picked up one of them and they were both sticking their tongues out while Josh had his eyes crossed.

He kept looking around, his eyes slipping over a few things he knew he didn't need to take out but they stopped on a clump of movie tickets. And there were a lot. The one top was for Wreck it Ralph which they had seen in sixth grade. Tyler smiled to himself as he kept looking through the tickets.

"Ty?" Jenna piped up. "You okay? You've been quiet for awhile."

"Yeah," Tyler responded, smile still on his face. "I'm just taking a stroll down memory lane."

"Anything in particular you've come across?"

"Nah. I'm just realizing how lucky I am to have you guys in my life."