Resistance to Existence

Ten after Four

Tyler and Josh were funny people. They couldn't eat their tacos without making some ridiculous face, or some ridiculous moan. Even with their silly obsession with Taco Bell, they seemed like the kind of people who would be down for an adventure.

As if he could read her mind, Tyler blurted out; "Hey guys? Let's go for an adventure!"

Debby and Josh looked at each other, blushed, and quickly looked away. Despite the palpable awkwardness, Tyler kept insisting that the trio go on an adventure, and eventually Debby gave in. Seeing that he was outnumbered, Josh quickly agreed.

You can't let her leave here alone with Tyler. She'll see how much better he is, and then she won't want to talk to you ever again. Josh was a little startled at how suddenly this thought came up, but he was more shocked at how true it was. Although Josh couldn't see it, Debby was falling for him - fast.

--

Debby was going to kill Josh Dun. Tyler's adventure had brought them to the beach, and now her new hair was totally soaked in seawater and Josh was dancing away, totally dry.

"Why would you do that Josh?" Debby asked, with a pout. She knew that he would fall for her fake sadness, and then she would strike him while he was down.

Josh just looked at her, shocked, before slowly walking towards her.

"I'm sorry Debby. I - I - I didn't mean it. Please forgive me?" Josh was seriously worried. He didn't want her to be mad at him. If she got mad, she would leave.

He tried to pull her in for a hug, but Debby had other ideas in mind. As soon as he was close enough, she whipped her hair around, splashing Josh and thoroughly soaking him.

The night wore on with a series of water battles, some between Josh and Debby, some between Josh and Tyler, and some between the three of them. Finally, at 12:04 in the morning, Tyler had decided that he was done with the adventure, and started across the dark, wet sand towards his car. Josh and Debby almost didn't notice him leaving, but as soon as they heard his car horn, they took off across the sand. They were slipping and falling all over the place, laughing their heads off, until Debby took a fairly significant tumble into an outcropping of rock. Josh kept laughing at her clumsiness until he noticed the dark stain spreading across her scalp. He rushed over to her, ready to pick her up and carry her to Tyler's car until he noticed that she was still laughing.

"It's just a scrape Josh. Don't be a worrying Wally." She laughed and laughed, thinking that she had just made the funniest joke ever. Her laugh was infectious, and soon Josh was laughing as well.

He helped her up, and started walking her back to Tyler's car. He kept his arm around her, in case she "needed help walking". And neither of them noticed the dark figure on the beach, looking on in jealousy.

--

Tyler took them both back to his apartment, knowing that they all had too much energy to be alone.

Josh ran into the main room of the apartment, took one look at the comfortable couches covered in blankets, and yelled; "SLUMBER PARTY!"

He began building a fort, while Tyler and Debby just looked on and laughed. Tyler walked back to his bedroom, and grabbed as many blankets off his bed that he could. When he got back into the room where he had left the other two, he was momentarily disoriented. What he had thought was his main room had been turned into a blanket covered mess. Josh was laying in the middle, laughing, while Debby sat with a single blanket over her head, yelling that she was a fort.

"Well this fort looks great," Tyler said sarcastically.

"Don't listen to Tyler, Debby. He's just jealous that he can't make a fort this awesome." Josh said with a fake pout.

"I accept your challenge Josh," Tyler responded with a smirk.

After building arguably the best fort that any of them had ever seen, Tyler started listing off movie titles.

"Children of the Corn, the Exorcist, Mean Girls, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Mulan, Human Centipede... Are any of these catching your eye?"

Josh and Debby took one look at each other before simultaneously yelling "Mean Girls!" and dissolving into a puddle of giggles.

Tyler just rolled his eyes before putting the movie in the player. Debby sat in the middle of her new friends for the whole movie, and by the time the ending credits were rolling across the screen, she had decided that she had never had better friends in her whole life.

"Hey," Josh whispered to her, "I think that Tyler is asleep. Do you want to borrow some sweatpants to sleep in?"

Josh must have sensed her confusion in the glow of the TV, because he pulled her up by the hand and led her down the hall. The room they entered looked like the stereotypical boy room. Every inch of the walls were covered in band posters, and there was laundry spread across the floor. Debby noted, with surprise, that there were quite a few musical instruments in the room, including a ukulele on the pillow, next to an open notebook. She wanted to look at what was written, but she didn't want to intrude.

"This is Ty's room, but I stay over at his house enough that I just leave a few pairs of sweats and things like that here. You can borrow some if you'd like." Josh looked a little sheepish as he said this. He was rubbing the back of his neck with his hand, something that Debby had noticed that he did when he was nervous.

"Thank you." She said to him, before quickly looking away as she blushed.

He wordlessly handed her a pair of sweats and a t-shirt from the top drawer of the dresser, and grabbed a pair for himself. He took her hand again and led her to the bathroom across the hall.

"You should change in here, and then we should go to sleep. It's really late - or early I guess."

Debby glanced at her watch. It read 4:10 am. Suddenly she felt very, very tired, and wordlessly closed the door to the bathroom. When she was ready, she went back to the main room, curled up between her new friends, and fell into a dreamless sleep.