DOOM DAYS ✓

Chapter 41: Hydrokinesis

Hydrokinesis: the ability to manipulate liquids.

Josh falls asleep a few hours into studying, only waking up when he hears the jingle of keys outside of the front door. He raises his head from its indented place on his arms and watches as Hernando stumbles in.

"I didn't know you were off your shift already," Josh says, looking at the time on his phone.

Hernando ignores Josh's comment, kicking the door closed. He trudges up to the table and stands Tiana, who'd also fallen asleep on her stack of books. Then, to Josh's horror, he pulls out a large kitchen knife from... whatever he pulled it out from, and jams the blade deep into his daughter's back.

She doesn't even move, only jerking from the impact and letting blood flood out of her mouth and onto the books.

Josh flies back and out of his chair. His boys won't let him run or fight, only allowing him to watch in horror as Hernando moves from Tiana to Tyler, stabbing him in the chest.

"What the hell are you doing?" He shouts, tears already in his eyes as he fixated on the bodies of both his best friend and his crush. "W- what-"

"Now that I've got your attention..."

Josh looks up and sees that Hernando isn't Hernando anymore, but the twisted living corpse of Alley Cat. His discolored figure is hunched over and shaking, as if he was in pain.

"Let me guess. This is a dream." He sobers up quickly, tears gone and replaced with a snarl.

"It is. There's more ways to get to you three indirectly, you know."

"I don't give one single star spangled fuck."

Josh grabs a book off the table, hesitates, then slams it into his face. It doesn't hurt, but he feels the impact. He tries again, and this time it makes a sharp pain shoot up his nose to his skull.

"What are you doing?" Alley Cat asks, exasperated.

"Waking myself up so I don't have to look at your ugly Frankenstein's monster looking ass for another second," Josh says snappishly. "I'd rather gouge my eyes out. Why'd you bring me hear anyways?"

"Just to let you know that you won't be able to hide forever. Nice house, Joshua."

A spoiler of panic makes Josh drop the book. "How did you-" he stops himself. "You looked at Dr. Frangipane's records."

"I didn't just look. She gave me them. Good luck in school tomorrow."

Josh wakes up on the floor beneath the table, book half open on top of his face. Someone's shaking his leg.

"What?" He grumbles, pulling the book off his face.

"You were shaking," Tyler says from his spot on the floor, not under the table but close enough to touch Tyler. "Nightmare?"

"I guess.I don't remember."

He pulls on Josh's pant leg. "I'm feeling better. Do you want to get some food?"

"Yeah, sure, I think my mom has some leftovers in the fridge."

"No, I mean..." Tyler's voice drops. "Just us two."

Josh's face warms up as he catches on. "Oh. Oh. I- if you want to."

The older boy's face beams immediately. "Hell yeah. Yo, Tati, we're going on a date."

"Woah, wait a second, I didn't think this was-"

"It's about fucking time," Tiana laughs. "Use protection."

"Haha, you're so funny," Tyler says dryly, returning his focus to Josh. "Let's go."

They walk to the closest fast food place- Five Guys- with Tyler occasionally bumping shoulders. Josh is hyper aware of his own inhales and exhales, every breath feels manual. Tyler must notice he's nervous because he grabs his hand.

"Calm down, I was kidding about the date thing," he says.

That doesn't help. "You were?" Josh hates how disappointed he sounds.

"I didn't think you'd want to go on a date with me."

"Why would you ever think that? I had a wet dream about you."

"Yeah, but... you don't really know me, ya know? If you did, you wouldn't like me."

He stops abruptly in the busy midday street, making Tyler pause and look over his shoulder in confusion.

"You are the second biggest asshole I've ever met, second only to Alley Cat. You are aggressive and arrogant all the time because you're scared of being vulnerable," he says. Tyler's face falls at first, but Josh continues. "But you are also the bravest person I could ever have the pleasure to know. You're so sweet, so selfless. And I- I really like you. Nothing you can say will change that."

Tyler stares at him with wide, abashed eyes, cheeks glowing a shade of deep maroon. He shifts his focus down at their hands, still together, looks back up, and drops Josh's hand.

Then they're kissing. Josh is kissing Tyler, his celebrity crush for who knows how long. His rough lips are pressed so gently against Josh's. He swears every part of this boy is calloused, and he doesn't care. Josh's brain feels like it's rebooting, his hands frozen in the air.

Josh finally relaxes when Tyler's hands find the back of his neck, his own hands falling on his wrists. They stay like that, frozen in place, until someone bumps Josh's shoulder and they break apart.

When he opens his eyes, Tyler's smiling at him.

"Sorry, I'm not as good with words as you are."

"That's okay. You're a good kisser," Josh chuckles awkwardly.

He feels the cold touch of rain on his shoulders, and he looks up to see the gray clouds of an oncoming storm. Tyler slides his hands down to Josh's, holding them tightly.

"If you wanted to do the whole... dating thing," he says, not meeting Josh's eyes, "then I'd be willing to try it out too."

"Really?" Josh sounds good excited.

Tyler smiles and finally looks away from their linked hands, eyes and cheeks rosy. "Yeah. So I guess we're dating now."

They both laugh.

It's a good first date.