fanboy ❀ joshler

twelve

My vision is very disoriented when I begin to open my eyes that are covered in some sort of dried liquid, which can either be tears or blood. It takes me a solid minute to fully be aware of my surroundings. I notice the fuzzy silhouette of a few unrecognizable people, and as much as I want to spring up and ask where Tyler is, it seems like there's a lag in my body, and how it's three steps behind my thoughts.

But, then, everything catches up and not an inch of my body isn't engulfed in excruciating pain. I squeeze my eyes shut, and I hear people around me scramble a bit.

"Mr. Dun? Mr. Dun? Put up one finger if you can hear me." A woman's soft voice enters my ears, and if I wasn't in so much ache, I would say her tone is soothing and almost motherly. I raise my index finger, and I hear her sigh in relief. "I can clearly see you're in high levels of discomfort, and understandably so. We're going to put you on some morphine, is that alright?" I give a single nod, but another surge of pain rushes through me and I let out a muffled cry, noticeably startling the doctors in the once silent room.

Although all this happened, a single question lingers on my aching brain - where the fuck is Tyler?

~

"Hey, Josh?" A finally familiar voice fills the room, and I weakly smile. "Jesus fucking Christ, how are you?" My eyelids open to reveal Brendon sitting on one of the chairs in the hospital room, filled with beeping heart monitors and IV's.

"As good as anyone could be after they got their ass kicked." The chuckle that erupts in my throat only sends me with a shiver of pain that makes my muscles stiffen. Even through the clouds of morphine, the pain still demands to shine through like the sun after a rain.

A blush spreads across Brendon's cheeks as he mutters, "Yeah, sorry. Stupid question." I can't help but notice when he ran his fingers through his dark brown hair, his knuckles were busted.

"Hey, what happened after I was knocked out?" I manage to sit up, the pain eating at every muscle that moves.

"Well, he got on top of you and started just, you know. Then, I, uh, knocked him off and started hitting him." He scratched at the back of his neck, and I sit there in shock.

"Brendon, why would you do that for me? We just met -- no offense." Cringing at my accidental rudeness, I mutter a few scattered 'sorry's.

He scoffs sarcastically, "Don't flatter yourself, Dun. I could only imagine if that was my boyfriend or I in your shoes, and so my blood-boiled self thought I should put those boxing lessons I do to use. Homophobic asshole deserved it."

I raise my eyebrows suggestively, "You got a boyfriend?" The mere question of Brendon liking boys never came to mind.

"Shit, did I say that?" His earth-toned eyes widen as his plump bottom lip slips under his teeth. "I had one, we just recently broke up."

At the same instant that I was about to open my mouth again, Tyler rushes to my bedside. His lips touch mine in the softest way, but it still pings me with pain, so I pull away against how much I don't want to.

"Josh, baby, oh my God." He cups his fingers around my jaw, as he inspects my beaten face. He frowns as he furrows his eyebrows in worry. "I talked to the cops, and they're arresting that dick as we speak." I give Tyler a slight nod, somewhat signifying me paying attention and somewhat motioning towards Brendon, who he must've not have noticed.

He understood the motion and turned his head, flinching a bit when he saw Brendon sitting in the chair. Brendon gave him a weak smile and stood up, "Hello, I'm Brendon --"

"I know who you are," Tyler cut him off and at first, I thought for a split second his tone was bitter, but he softens up in seconds, "you're the one who kicked that guy's ass! I swear to God, if you didn't jump in, he would've killed him. I don't know how to repay you!" Tyler gushes, and I feel my face heating up with a blush.

Brendon chuckles and waves his hand in dismissal, "You don't need to repay me at all, I'm fine with just knowing you two are alright." This achieves a scoff from Tyler, and I take a mental note that he isn't one to take no for an answer.

"Nonsense. When Josh heals up, I'm inviting you to dinner with us." Brendon shrugs in defeat with a goofy grin on his face, and sparks up another conversation with Tyler. Although I've only known him for less than a day, I can tell he has a talent for talking. To anyone. About anything. Their mindless chatter I'm not paying attention to and the beeping of the heart monitors are the only things filling my ears until I can't remain conscious while my eyelids refuse to stay open.

I wake up in the same hospital bed I did before, except this time my brain isn't full of confusion and my body isn't pulsing with pain. Tyler's sitting on the edge of bed, his eyes occupied by the television that's placed on the wall of the room, his fingers circling my knuckles.

"Hey Ty?" His head turns to face me, and the softest smile forms on his pink lips.

"What's up?" His voice is soft and raspy, and his eyes are somewhat puffy with a red tint to them.

"Were.. were you crying?" My hand finds his and I intertwine our fingers. His skin is soft to the touch, my thumb running over every bone and dip within his hand. "What happened? Did that guy say something to you?"

Tyler waves a hand in dismissal, and purses his lips that are still curved in a smile. "Just worried."

"Hey, you don't have to be worried. These doctors will make me as good as new." I return a smile and he leans down to connect his lips to mine. Thankfully, it doesn't inflame any pain like it did before, so I can fully appreciate his touch that I've been craving ever since he got off that train.

Tyler pulls away, but his face is still only centimeters away from mine. "Josh, I love you."

"I love you, too." My eyes flicker up from his plump lips to his eyes. Taking in every single detail, to every freckle on his cheeks to every spec of gold in his copper irie

And I mean it. Wholeheartedly.

author's note;

AAAA I'M SO SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG AND IT'S KIND OF A SHITTY CHAPTER BUT !! HERE IT IS !!

so the next chapter will most likely will be after josh has recovered and whatnot so just to avoid any confusion. just a lil note.