bulletproof in black like a funeral

anathema

A/N

this seems so brendon centric but i just love him so much and i'm trying to get the point across that he is a wild beebo. anyway, double update because the prologue was short.

"Joshua Dun and Tyler Joseph" The poetry professor said.

Of course, of fucking course Josh got stuck with the popular basketball jock. He couldn't have gotten paired with one of his friends or someone of his popularity level, he got paired with the basketball player who was probably taking the class as a blow off. He would probably have to do all of the work for the project and not only that but he would have be stuck with Tyler for the entire semester. Even right now the kid wasn't paying attention to what the teacher was saying. He was doodling or doing something in his notebook the entire time the teacher was talking and only had picked his head up when he heard his name.

Tyler looked up from the new poetic lines he had lost himself in when he heard his name. He looked around for a second, first at the teacher and then Joshua, and finally the board which read "Final Project"

Joshua Dun... The name barely rang a bell in Tyler's mind. He hung out with Brendon Urie didn't he? That kid was basically famous in the Columbus area. That must mean that Josh is popular too... Tyler's mind wandered until he noticed someone standing above him.

"So I guess we are working on this project together" Josh said, his voice laced with spite.

"Y-yeah, y-you must be Joshua?" Tyler stuttered out. Josh looked intimidating. His hair was shaved into a mohawk that was red in the middle and brown on the shaved sides. He had a nose piercing and gauges. This kid was friends with Brendon?, he seemed more... punk (Is that what you would call that? Tyler wondered) than Brendon.

"You can call me Josh" He replied, his voice had every so slightly become less spiteful and he took a seat in the vacant desk next to Tyler. "Anyway, do you wanna meet up tonight so we can start working on this?"

"That sounds good, where do you wanna meet up?" Tyler asked attempting to pull himself together. He did not like meeting new people. He felt the need to impress them and blurry was constantly in the back of his mind telling him that the person he was meeting didn't like him or they thought he was stupid or too quiet. That's why he stuck to the basketball friends he had. People who practice and play together are bound to be tied together. He was used to being around his teammates and was too scared to branch out and meet knew friends. So he never did.

"Well, we can go to my house but all of my friends will be there. They'll be doing their own thing though so we won't be bothered" Josh offered, completely calm in the situation, unlike Tyler who was internally freaking out.

"Sounds good" Tyler whispered, and the boys exchanged numbers and addresses and eventually the bell rang and they went their separate ways.

Tyler pulled up to Josh's house a half an hour after school. He walked up to the driveway and knocked on the door. He was greeted by a short ginger kid he had never seen before.

"Josh!" The guy yelled into the hallway and within four seconds Josh came bounding up behind him and the kid walked back off into the house somewhere.

"Hey, follow me" Josh led him into the garage, except it wasn't really a garage because it had couches and a TV and gaming consoles in it. Over one of the couches hung a black home-made flag that said 'clique' on it in white. Above the word clique was the outline of a skull with a line running through it. Tyler thought it kind of looked like a key.

In one corner of the room was the guy who opened the door except now he was pinned against the wall and making out with slightly taller guy with black hair. Tyler looked at them for a moment and then quickly diverted his eyes. Two other guys Tyler didn't know were sitting in front of the TV playing grand theft auto. Lastly, on the couch under the flag, was a guy that Tyler vaguely recognized as Ryan Ross. On the other side of the couch was no other than Brendon Urie himself. He was sitting cross legged facing Ryan, clearly ogling him. He didn't really hold up to the reputation he had because right now, he looked pretty fuckin' gay.

"Guys," Josh yelled over the music that was playing off of a record player by the garage door. No one even flinched. "Guys!" Josh yelled even louder, this time more pissed off. They all looked over at him, the guys kissing door-guy lifted the arm off the record player and the room got very quiet, making Tyler nervous. "This is Tyler. Tyler, that's Patrick and Pete, they're really gay, but just ignore them" He said gesturing to the what must've been a couple. "That's Andy and Joe" He motioned a hand to the two guys playing Grand Theft Auto. The nodded and Andy raised a hand and gave a lil' wave. "And lastly, that's Ryan Ross and the guys giving him puppy dog eyes is Brendon, but you've probably hear of him before" Ryan rolled his eyes at the comment and Brendon laughed.

"Sup Ty" Brendon said smoothly, he was high or drunk off something judging from the way he slurred a little. Maybe he did live up to his reputations.

"H-h-hey" Tyler stuttered. He was so nervous. There was so much going on and he didn't expect there to be this many of Josh's friends to be here.

"We have a project to work on so shut the fuck up" Josh said. Pete flipped him off and started laughing as he put the music back on. Josh grabbed Tyler's wrist and dragged him over to the desk in the furthest corner of the garage. "Sorry, they seem like assholes but once you get to know them, they are actually really nice" Josh said.

"It's o-okay, they seem chill" Tyler replied. He pulled his blackbook out of his back pack and began re-reading some of the poems they could possibly use for the project.

Tyler seemed so much more anxious than Josh had originally thought. Josh had expected him to come in here and act like a stuck up dick, but Josh could feel the nervousness seeping out out of Tyler. Josh looked down at him in the chair, he was reading shaky handwriting out of his poetry notebook. Josh thought he looked cute, his perfect eyelashes swept over his cheeks as he looked down at the paper and he had his knees pulled up to his chest. Tyler wasn't anything like Josh had expected.

"So do you have an idea of what you wanna do this project about?" Josh asked him, once again finding himself initiating the conversation between them. Tyler nodded and shoved the notebook into Josh's lap.

"I wrote that, if you like it we can run from there or I can show you something else I guess"

You will never know what's behind my skull

So won't you say good night, so I can say goodbye

You will never know what's under my hair

So won't you say good night, so I can say goodbye

You will never know what's under my skin

So won't you say good night, so I can say goodbye

You will never know what is in my veins

So won't you say good night, so I can say goodbye

Won't you go to someone else's dreams?

Won't you go to someone else's head?

Haven't you taken enough from me?

Won't you torture someone else's sleep?

Tyler watched as Josh read and looked at him expectantly. "You wrote this?!" Josh said, his voice showing how surprised he was. Tyler nodded shyly.

Tyler Joseph wasn't anything like Josh had expected at all.