Searching for Purpose (Twenty One Pilots)

Epilogue - This Is Only Chapter One

Before you go on and read the rest of this, I would like to say thank you. This story was a place that I could go to let out all my emotions and pour my soul into it in hopes of helping others and showing people like me that they aren't alone. So thank you for letting me leave everything here. I hope you were able to use this as much as I was. I would also like to remind each and every person that reads this that you are special and important and your life means so much, no matter what you or anyone else says. Things will get better, and if that day isn't today, there's always going to be a tomorrow if you keep trying. I believe in you. Stay street. You can do it |-/

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Tyler Joseph was the kind of person who liked to think that he was patient. He prided himself in being able to wait the full three minutes for his macaroni and cheese to heat up in the microwave, and he was always able to stay calm while waiting on his friends. The reality of it all was that he was a nervous wreck when it came to waiting for things. He was as impatient as most small children, with a leg bouncing problem and fidgeting hands to go on top.

"You okay, man?"

Tyler turned to his right. Walking through the door was the sole person who had helped Tyler make it all the way through college without any major catastrophes: Joshua Dun. Tyler was pretty sure that had he never met Josh in the first place, he wouldn't be around to enjoy the blue skies and fresh air the later years of his life had to offer.

"Yeah," Tyler answered as Josh sat down next to him. "Just nervous."

Josh smiled and nodded his head. He was happy. He was happy that college was over. He was happy that he got the job he had been wanting for years, head tech at the city's finest theatre, and he was happy that the weather had been so pleasant lately. He was happy that he and his girlfriend were still together even after she moved back home. He was happy that he still had his best friend.

The past few years hadn't been easy, but Tyler and Josh had made it through. Together they had beaten a persistent eating disorder, gotten rid of nightmares, come out on top of two more heavy waves of depression, one other attempt at life, and had seen .almost four years without any sign of new personally inflicted injuries. The two had been through hell, but they had been through it together.

"Relax, man," Josh said to his friend. "Everyone gets nervous about this kind of stuff. It's normal."

There had been times where neither thought the other was going to make it through to the end of their college career. There had been health cares, both mental and physical, and many freak accidents. Josh never thought that he would have been able to overcome most of his social anxieties, and Tyler, if he was being honest, never planned to see a majority of the days that had now since passed him. They had been through so much, and now at the end of the old and the beginning of tomorrow, they were happy that each of them had stuck around.

"Remember how scared I was to talk to MacKenzie that first time?" Josh asked. Tyler smiled and nodded his head, remembering how Josh had hid behind him in the store. "You'll be fine. If I could do that, you can do this."

Tyler glanced over at his friend with his eyes slightly closed, a look of disbelief on his face. "Really, Josh? Those are your great words of wisdom that you share with me on this great day? You talking to Mac is totally different than this!"

Josh smirked and shook his head, laughing a little bit as he did so. "I know, I know. Just trying to lighten the mood a bit. It's gonna be okay, you know that."

Tyler only smiled and shook his head.

As he sat in his spot, which was the only seat not taken up by laundry in the small two room apartment that he and Josh shared, Tyler's left hand fiddled inside his pocket. He was nervous, but in all the right ways. Days upon weeks upon months upon years had been leading up to this point in his life. Heartbreak and hospital visits, nights spent drowning in tears and days spent laughing too hard. It had been a roller coaster, and today Tyler felt like he was finally getting off the hellish ride. He had always been a fan of heights, but sometimes it was even too much for him.

"So what's the plan then?" Josh asked.

Tyler sighed. "I'm just gonna go with the flow. Do it when I'm ready."

His hands twitched even more inside his pockets.

"But today's definitely the day?"

"Today's the day," Tyler smiled back.

Josh watched as Tyler absentmindedly played with the small treasure he had in his pocket. He was so incredibly proud of his best friend. He had watched Tyler battle through his first year of college, and then some. Getting the apartment together had been Josh's idea. His main purpose for getting it was so he could keep a closer eye on Tyler, although he would never say it out loud. Tyler knew that was the reason anyways. Josh just wanted him to be safe, and the apartment was the only way he could think of that didn't involve being too over bearing.

The two sat in companionable silence for the next five minutes. The feeling of anxiousness was floating through the air, but the good kind where you know something big and exciting is going to happen but you don't quite know when. Butterflies were eating away at Tyler's insides, and the suspense was driving Josh over the edge.

A knock on their front door pulled them out of their deep thoughts.

"Hi," Tyler whispered as he opened the door. In front of him was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. The girl he had trusted his heart with. The girl he loved more than anything.

He remembered the first moment he met her. It wasn't a meeting to be rewritten hundreds of times in romance novels, but it was special and memorable. Tyler also remember the first moment he realized that he was in love with her.

They were lying on a hammock back at her parent's place while they were visiting over spring three years back. She had a flower in her hair that he had picked out for her and his arm was draped around her waist. He was softly humming a song while she sang the chorus. It was at the moment when she started laughing at the shapes the clouds were making that he knew he was truly happy in her presence.

"Hi," Jenna whispered back.

Tyler turned around from the door and smiled at Josh.

"We'll be back soon," Tyler said.

"Nah, take your time. Have fun," Josh replied.

Josh winked at Tyler, causing him to blush and Jenna to laugh.

Just before the door to their apartment closed, Josh caught sight of Tyler slipping his hand into his left pocket again. He knew the he was wrapping his long fingers around the small black box again. He knew he was thinking about opening it after saying those few words many had spoken before. Josh knew that Tyler was thinking about how Jenna would react when he opened it. He knew that she would love the thin silver band with the diamonds on it. He knew all of that.

But mostly he knew that Tyler was finally, completely happy, and that's all he could ask for.