Enamored //joshler [✔️]

17. orchard date

3482 words

the cool october air blows across tyler's face, causing a shiver to run through him. he hugs josh's hoodie tighter against himself, smiling when he feels a warm arm wrap around him. he leans into josh's side, keeping his eyes trained on their dirty shoes walking along the dirt path.

today is their one month anniversary and to celebrate they decided to go to an apple orchard. they found the place online and chose it because it has a bunch of other things for them to do: a hayride, a petting zoo, a corn maze, etc. they're also able to pick their own flowers and vegetables, and they even plan on getting pumpkins to carve.

at the entrance to the farm, josh starts leading them to the line to buy tickets. tyler stops them in their tracks, earning a curious look from josh.

"i may have already secretly bought tickets for us because i knew you wouldn't let me pay for my own," he explains sheepishly.

"you didn't have to do that, hon," josh chuckles, taking the boy's hand in his own, "but that was very sweet of you. which tickets did you get?"

"um," tyler hums, pulling the tickets up on his phone, "the ones with everything included."

"well, okay then. i'm buying your pumpkin for you though."

"okay," he agrees.

they go through the other line and get their tickets scanned, a bright orange wristband fastened snugly on their wrists. once inside, tyler is immediately overwhelmed both at the amount of people and at the amount of activities the place holds. the path splits off into two directions and he isn't sure where to start, eyes anxiously darting back and forth.

"what're you thinking we do first?" josh asks, lacing their fingers together.

tyler inhales sharply, tightly squeezing his hand, "i have no idea."

"how about we start with the hayride?" josh suggests, "that way we'll get to see around the whole farm and we can think about where to go next."

tyler agrees, so they use the wooden signs scattered around to figure out where the hayride starts. while waiting in line to board the next ride, josh has one arm wrapped around tyler's shoulders. he's chatting about some conversation he had with ryan the other day, but all tyler can focus on is the way some of the people around them are staring.

he gulps, his shoulders sinking in a lame attempt to make himself less noticeable. he also happens to realize that, unsurprisingly, he can't spot any other gay couples. it's mostly parents with their young kids. there's a few teenagers and people their age, but they're either clearly with a group of friends or a partner of the opposite sex. they are in the middle of some small, rural farm town so tyler doesn't really know what he was expecting. of course they're getting weird looks.

"josh," he says lowly, interrupting whatever josh was saying. he begins shrinking when he locks eyes with an old man looking at him with his face contorted in disgust.

"what?"

"people are looking at us," he mutters, forcing his gaze towards the ground.

"hm?" josh pauses for a second before saying, "oh. so what?"

"i really don't like it," tyler urges, trying to shrug josh's arm off his shoulders but the older only pulls him in closer. "can we just, like, i don't know... pretend we're just friends or something?"

josh immediately dismisses the idea. "no. you're my boyfriend, not just my friend. i'm on a date with my boyfriend and i'm going to treat him like my boyfriend and if anybody doesn't like it they can kiss my ass," he states, slightly raising his voice with each word.