Purpose | Josh Dun (ON HOLD)

Hula Hoops

Life is like a hula-hoop. Things start off a little bit shaky, but once you get the hang of it, it could go very smoothly. But if you make one wrong movement, you can get off track, and everything starts to go wrong. That's when you realize that you need to try harder to keep the hula-hoop going. You can't let it drop after everything you did to keep it up. Sometimes no matter how hard you try, the hula-hoop will still fall. And the way I see it, you could either let it drop and give up, or you could keep trying. Inevitably the hula-hoop will fall; you can't keep it going forever. But you have you try. You have to try to keep it going as long as you could possibly can. Make it the best life you can. Don't ever give up, no matter how shaky things feel.

The sky was slowly dimming and the Sun was slowly making its way to its grave. The chilly November breeze surrounded me, igniting my skin with goose bumps.  I was sitting under a tree in Tyler's backyard. School ended a few hours ago and it was nearing six o'clock. The Sun was setting earlier than usual, due to the time change that takes place every fall.

It was quiet, with the exception of the birds chirping and Tyler and Josh giggling like children every now and then. The boys were standing a few feet away from me. They were playing with Maddy's hula-hoops, having nothing better to do. I watched as Josh swayed his hips, trying to keep his red and black hula- hoop spinning. His pink tongue was sticking out from the side of his mouth as he tried to concentrate. He was wearing the black hoodie he always wore and his messy mop of blue hair was hidden under a grey beanie. My heart started to hurt when I remembered what that hoodie was hiding. Tyler was standing close to him, trying to spin his pink hula- hoop around his tiny hips.

"We should totally have a hula-hooping contest!" Tyler suddenly shouted excitedly, causing a few birds to fly out of the trees.

"Okay! But what should the winner get as a reward?" Josh asked his best friend. Tyler put one hand on his chin and the other folded across his chest while thinking about Josh's question.

"How about the winner gets to tattoo their name onto the loser?" Tyler replied, waiting for Josh's reaction. A look of horror crossed Josh's face, his eyes widening as he looked at Tyler.

"Dude, no! Are you insane?"

"I'm just kidding, Josh, relax," he said, waving Josh off. "Besides, we should save that for the future," he said while giving Josh a smirk. Josh turned at looked at me, covering the side of mouth with one hand.

"My name is going to look so good on him in the future," he whispered, but loud enough for Tyler to hear. Upon hearing this, Tyler reached over and lightly hit the back of Josh's head, causing Josh to whine.

"The loser should have to dye their hair," Tyler said, finally coming to a decision.

"Okay," Josh said, shrugging his shoulders. I guess he didn't really care since his hair was already dyed. "What color?" he asked.

"Pink," I said, causing their attention to snap towards me.

"Sick," Josh said with a grin before picking up his hula-hoop and holding it by his hips. "Get ready to have pink hair, Ty," Josh said with a smirk. Tyler rolled his eyes before picking up his hula-hoop and getting ready to start.

"3...2...1!" I counted them down. The boys started to move their hoops, a look of determination on both of their faces. Both boys were doing exceptionally well; none of them were willing to give up. After what seemed like hours, Tyler's hula-hoop suddenly fell, causing Josh to cheer with joy. Tyler's face turned paper-white, realizing that he had to dye his hair pink.

"Please don't make me do this Josh! You know I can't pull that kind of look off!" Tyler started to beg.

"I don't know Ty... I think you'd look pretty sick with pink hair," his eyes gleamed in amusement when he said this. "Besides, it was your idea."