Fake You Out - Joshler

Chapter Twenty-Four

"You know," Josh says, pulling the toothbrush out of his mouth as he stares at Tyler in the bathroom mirror. "What are we going to do when Michael starts school next year?"

Tyler looks at him for a moment, pausing the action of styling his hair for work in order to do so. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, am I going to still be staying at home or should I get a job? I don't know, I've just been thinking about it, because it's really not that far away, and we should be talk about this, right?" Josh asks, popping the brush back in his mouth to resume brushing his teeth.

"We have to talk about it now?" Tyler asks. "Because I have to leave for work in a couple minutes, and Michael isn't going to school for a while now, so there really isn't much point in talking. You're free to think about it, but maybe we should have this conversation further down the road."

Josh thinks about it for a moment, moving the brush across his molars. It's several months until they're close to even entertaining the idea of Michael at school, so he has nothing to worry about, but it's just, the thought crossed his mind right before he asked, probably because he's been watching Tyler get ready for the last twenty minutes while the kids are still sleeping in their bed.

Josh turns around and spits his saliva and toothpaste mixture into the sink, cupping a little water and cleaning his mouth off before he shuts the tap off and turns back to look at Tyler. "You're right. I just, I mean... No, you're right. I was just thinking about it since I was watching you get ready." Josh leaves out the part about how he probably couldn't even get a job due to his memory loss anyway, at least not until it fully returns.

Tyler nods his head carefully, flicking up a section of hair and running his fingers through it. "Don't worry about that yet, okay? Just worry about how you have three cranky boys to wake up," Tyler says with a smile." Also, Mrs. Hamilton is going to have to drive Gerard and Brendon to school, I'm leaving early today."

"I could probably walk them faster," Josh says. "She drives incredibly slow."

"She's an old woman, babe. Cut her some slack," Tyler says, leaning forward and kissing Josh quickly. "I'm out of here, see you tonight."

Josh watches him go, shakes his head before he goes to wake the kids up.

~~~

Josh has had a long day of nothing, or well, really, a long day of watching superhero movies with Michael until Brendon and Gerard got home. And now they're here, courtesy of the school bus, which Josh can't remember them ever using before. And after several unanswered and unreturned phone calls to Tyler, he realizes that Tyler is tied up at work, causing him to not be able to pick the kids up, but also not be able to eat dinner with his family.

"Why isn't Daddy at dinner?" Brendon asks, turning his head up to look at Josh when he sets his plate down in front of him.

"I don't know, babe," Josh replies, setting another down in front of Michael and then Gerard. "He hasn't answered his phone, remember? We're just eating without him tonight."

"Is that allowed?" Gerard asks, staring at his pasta in hunger before he glances up at Josh.

"Yes, I said you could eat, so you eat. I'll try calling him again." Josh sets his own plate down and goes to grab the phone, pulling it off it's dock and dialing Tyler's number, the one he's tried calling several times today only to not get an answer. It rings once and then instantly sets off to voicemail. Josh rolls his eyes, releasing a deep breath he turns back to the kids. "Daddy's not answering his phone, so tonight we eat alone."

"Alone? Without each other?" Michael asks, staring at Josh with wide eyes.

"No, without Daddy. His phone is dead, but maybe he'll be home while we're eating," Josh says, cutting Michael's pasta in a vain attempt to make it easier for him to eat the noodles.