glory days ↣ joshler ✓

45. Gone

The sequel is up by the time you're reading this. It's called Close as Strangers because in case you couldn't tell I'm a 5sos stannie. What? You didn't really think this was the end of them, did you?

Tyler sat on the swing, shuffling his legs back and forth and watching the pebbles fall over his expensive dress shoes. He knew his mom would yell at him for scuffing them up but he didn't really care. He hated them anyway.

He hated the rest of his outfit too. The khaki pants, the collared shirt under the plaid sweater vest. He may have only been nine but he was smart enough to know he was a freak compared to everyone else. His uptight clothing clashed with the shorts, graphic tees, jackets, and light up shoes that his classmates were wearing. That was just one of the few reasons he didn't have any friends.

There was that one kid Pete who hung out with him when they had indoor recess but he knew he was only playing with him out of pity.

"Hey are you almost done on there?" A voice asked, making Tyler look up. He was met with a boy with brown hair standing impatiently.

"Pardon?" Tyler replied, speaking with manners. His mom always said manners were professional. He had to be professional.

"My friends 'n I wanna play on the swings," the boy whined.

Tyler blinked and looked over at the two empty swings next to him. "There's—"

"I've got two friends plus me. That makes three. 'N we wanna sit together."

"Brendon don't be mean he can sit there as long as he wants," another boy walked up, a third following behind him. "You and Dallon can swing I'll wait."

"Josh why're you bein' so nice to him?" The boy Tyler realized was named Brendon asked. "He's weird," Brendon whispered but Tyler still heard him.

"I am not weird!" Tyler defended.

The boy that must've been Dallon did a once over. "You're dress kinda weird. No offense," he added.

"You're the kid with the all that money, right?" Brendon asked, cocking his head to the side

"Yeah," Tyler nodded. "But I don' really care 'bout that stuff," he shrugged. "Being stuck up doesn't get you friends and that's all I want."

Suddenly, the final boy that Brendon had called Josh smiled and stuck his tiny hand out. "Well, I'll be the first," Tyler grabbed his hand and shook it. "I'm Josh."

"Tyler."

The brunette shakily unlocked his phone and pressed on a contact he was all too familiar with. He put it to his ear and it rang five times before going to voice mail. This was the ninth time he's tried to get ahold of Josh and it was currently 8:45. Josh was supposed to be there at 9 and they were going to leave at 9:15 but he didn't think that was going to happen.

A single tear slipped down Tyler's cheek as he was reminded of last night. Even if Josh didn't want to be with him anymore he didn't want to leave him on bad terms. He didn't have a choice if Josh wasn't going to answer though.

Tyler wiped the tear and pressed a different contact this time. "Hello?" A voice spoke when the person owning it picked up.