The Cat on the Balcony

4- Taco Bell, Tyjo, and Spooky Jim

UNEDITED

I woke up around noon the next day. My fading pink hair, which I needed to dye again soon, was sticking up everywhere and I had a little drool on my chin. I unceremoniously wiped it off with the back of my hand before sitting up and grabbing my phone off the nightstand. I scrolled through my twitter for a bit before finally pulling myself out of bed.

Jenna sat on top of my dresser and started batting at my hair when I leaned down to pull a t-shirt out of one of the drawers. I slid the shirt on over my head before making my way down stairs. Yawning and stretching my arms over my head, I wandered into the kitchen.

"Good morning sweetie!" my mom said, cheery as usual.

"Morning ma," I mumbled while digging through the fridge to find something to eat. I could've sworn there was some leftover pizza in here somewhere...

"Good morning Josh." I froze and slowly turned around. There sat Tyler at the kitchen table with my mom. Jenna came running into the room and with a little meow jumped into his lap, which was very odd. She normally hates strangers.

Tyler was wearing black skinny jeans, a black t-shirt, and a floral kimono type thing. I looked down at my shirt with several holes in it and grimaced. Also, my hair looked like I stuck a fork into an electrical outlet.

"Uh, good morning to you too, Tyler."

"My mom suggested I show you around town and stuff today. Do you want to go?"

"Yeah! Sure, that sounds sick! Just, um, let me go put clothes on."

I jogged up the stairs and shut my bedroom door before hitting my head against it a couple times (softly of course, I didn't want Tyler to hear). Every damn time Tyler has been around I've made an awkward idiot of myself. I walked over to my closet with determination in my mind.

I'll show him I can be normal human being. He'll like me and we'll be great friends...I hope. I grabbed a pair of black skinny jeans, a white shirt with a floral pocket on the chest, and my snapback.

I put on all my clothes and slid my vans on before going into my bathroom and attempting to tame my hair a little bit. After a few tries I gave up. I swished some mouth-wash and spit it into the sink before heading back down the stairs, not wanting to keep Tyler waiting any longer.

"You ready?" he asked, setting Jenna down on the ground before standing up from the table.

"Yup," I answered, popping my lips on the "p".

"See you later, mom!" I called out as we headed out the door.

"Bye Mrs. Dun!" Tyler said with a wave.

"Bye you two, have fun."

An awkward silence filled the air between Tyler and me as we walked over to his car. "So, are you hungry?" Tyler asked as he was backing out of his driveway.

"Yeah, I kinda slept through breakfast."

"Maybe that's because you were out too late climbing onto people's balconies." I blushed and looked over to see his little grin as he looked at the road ahead.

"Oh hush..." I mumbled.

"Nah, I'm good. Do you like Taco Bell?"

"Heck yes!" I answered enthusiastically.

"Sick, let's go there then."

Tyler handed me a case of CDs and told me to pick one out. As I flipped through, I came across a curious disc,

"N Sync?" I asked; a faint blush spread over his face.

"It's not mine."

"Sure..."

"It's not! It's my sister's, she forgot it here. She's away at college right now."

"Whatever you say, Joseph." I chuckled as I continued flipping through. Eventually I settled on Blink-182; Mark Hoppus is basically my dad. We sang to the songs and goofed off until we got to Taco Bell. So far, so good; I didn't stutter or mumble the whole ride over.

We got our food and sat down. "So Tyler, tell me about you." I said as I worked my way through my second taco.

"Uh, well, there's not much to tell. I play ukulele and the piano. I sing a little bit. I have three other friends that you'll get to meet when school starts next week. Their names are Brendon, Patrick, and Jack; I think you'll like them. What about you, what do you do when you're not dancing in your front lawn?"

I groaned. "Can we not discus all the stupid stuff I've done in front of you? That'd be fantastic. Well, there's not much to me either. I play drums, I moved here from LA, and sometimes people call me Spooky Jim, because of what happened at a Halloween party a few years back."

Tyler chuckled a bit as he wiped his mouth off with a napkin. "Well Spooky Jim, I see this as the start of a very good, potentially awkward, but in the good way, friendship."

I need a nickname for Tyler..."Same here Tyjo, same here."

After lunch, Tyler took me to the park. We went on the swings and I tried to jump off of one, but my arm got caught on the chain and I fell on my back, causing Tyler to laugh at me for five minutes before he calmed down. We played basketball for an hour or so. Tyler was so sick. Yeah, I think we're going to be really good friends. Thanks, Jenna. I just hope his other friends like me...

A/N- Jack is going to be Jack Barakat from All Time Low :) thank you for reading this far! If you could vote or give me any sort of feedback on things I could improve or even just things you liked that would fantastic!