blossom ↣ joshler ✓

25. Library

"Hello?"

"Hey, Mrs. Joseph," Josh greeted, making his way towards Tyler's school as he listened to the call through his aux.

"Is everything okay with Tyler?" She asked nervously.

Josh let out a reassuring laugh. "Yeah. I'm on my way to get him now. I was calling to ask you something."

"What is it?"

"Tyler's been pretty cooped up in the house the whole time I've watched him and I was wondering if you'd let me take him to the library. I have to go check out a book for school and he was complaining that he was running out of books."

"I don't know..." Kelly sighed nervously.

"They close at seven so we'd be back by then. I'll probably just have him bring his homework to do there if you allow it."

"I..." she trailed off. "Okay. I trust you."

Josh smiled. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. Go ahead. If anything happens I need you to call me immediately though, got it?"

"Yes ma'am. Thank you."

She laughed. "You're welcome. Have fun."

"Bye!" He pressed the red button and grinned widely. His plan was going perfectly.

He made it to Tyler's school not long after that. He saw his boyfriend talking to someone else which he thought was weird.

He watched Tyler say goodbye to him before walking towards the car. As soon as he got in he spoke. "Do not kiss me until we are gone," he said quickly, shutting the door.

Josh frowned as he pulled away. "Who was that?"

"Ryan. He wanted homework answers."

"Did you give them to him?"

Tyler snorted. "Joshua, I have some self respect buried in the self hatred."

Josh's heart nearly broke at that. "Self hatred?"

Tyler looked at him. "Yeah. When you've been told being gay is wrong your whole life and then get a boyfriend you tend to feel negative about yourself."

Josh grabbed his hand. "Is there anything I can do to to help that?" He asked gently.

He saw Tyler's face soften. "Just keep liking me for who I am," he said quietly.

"Always," Josh smiled.

Tyler smiled back but the facial expression suddenly turned to confusion. "Where are we going? This isn't the way to my house," he stared nervously.

"Oh!" Josh remembered. "Yeah I was talking to your mom and she said I could take you to the library but we're—"

"The library?" Tyler gasped happily. "I love the library!"

Josh couldn't bring himself to tell Tyler where they were really going. The excitement on his face was the most adorable thing he's ever seen. "Yeah..." Josh trailed off, mentally changing the plan he had in his head. He had to go there now. "Wait why do you like the library so much? I figured you'd hate community books. Germs and shit."

"Language," Tyler hummed. "I don't really know. I think I find the building nostalgic. The one thing my mother did for me when I was younger that I enjoyed was take me to the library. I guess it just makes me feel safe. Not many things make me feel like that."

Josh's heart swelled. "What else makes you feel safe?" He asked, making sure he never made his boyfriend feel uncomfortable.

Tyler looked over at him, Josh meeting his eyes since he was at a red light. "You do, Joshua."

Before the light turned green, he leaned in and kissed Tyler softly. The younger brought his hand up to Josh's cheek and reciprocated. It made Josh feel so loved and appreciated. He wanted to bottle up the feelings he got when he was with Tyler and keep them forever.

Josh pulled back when the car behind them honked, him laughing with Tyler blushing.

He was falling in love with this boy.

---

"Joshua! Hurry!" Tyler tugged on his hand once they got there, practically bouncing up and down. For someone who didn't have sugar very often he sure was excited.

"Baby hold on, I have to lock the car," Josh chuckled. He thought it was the cutest thing that Tyler was getting excited over the library.

Once they got inside Tyler's eyes lit up when he looked at the nonfiction sign. Josh had never seen him so interested in something before. It was captivating.

Josh followed him over to the shelves and smiled when Tyler started mumbling to himself. "Goodness, I haven't been here in so long. They have so many new books."

It eventually got to the point where Tyler was too fast for Josh to keep up with. He would scan a shelf, grab a book or two, then move on. "I'm gonna go sit down," he spoke in his boyfriend's ear. Tyler just nodded, too focused to verbally reply.

Once he was on one of the couches, he pulled his phone out and saw text notifications.

Brendon
Bro are u and ur boy toy coming to see us or not

Brendon
U were supposed to be here twenty minutes ago

Josh
Sorry dude something came up. We'll be there soon

Josh
Promise

Josh
And shut the fuck up u know he's not my boy toy dumbass

Brendon
Uh huh hurry up we're getting bored

Josh looked up and spotted Tyler's tie from his school uniform from a few shelves away. He got up and walked over, surprised at was he saw.

Tyler was standing in front of another shelf, scanning the books. This wasn't new, however, in the span of the five minutes Josh had sat down his boyfriend had managed to find a stack of books that when in his hands was nearing his chin.

"Ty," Josh laughed.

The mentioned looked over. "Tyler."

"There's something I need to tell you..."

Tyler looked over at him, a scared expression on his face. "Yes?"

"Um we weren't originally gonna come here."

"We weren't?" He asked, disappointment obvious.

"No. I was gonna take you to go meet my friends. I told your mom we were going to the library so she'd let us go. You got really excited though so I drove us here anyway. They're waiting on us if you wanna meet them."

"Oh," he blinked. "Why didn't you just tell me?" He cracked a smile. "I wouldn't have picked out so many books."

Josh laughed. "Here," he grabbed them from Tyler. There was at least ten and Tyler was five and a half feet and scrawny and tiny. Josh was a little over six feet and pushing 200 pounds so if it was a lot of books for him he could only imagine how heavy they were for his boyfriend.

"I could've held those, Joshua," he huffed, crossing his arms.

"I know," Josh smiled. He looked both ways before kissing Tyler's forehead. "C'mon, lets go introduce my wonderful boyfriend to my friends."