text me, maybe?

voice of an angel

"Josh, when are you going to get a girlfriend?"

He hates when this happens. He generally avoids spending copious amounts of time alone with his father, but when he so happens to be caught in a situation where he is, the question always pops up.

"Dad," Josh starts, frustration evident in his voice. He desperately regrets agreeing to ride to the supermarket with his parent right now. "You know I'm not exactly looking for one right now..."

"Yeah," His dad interrupts, a stern look on his face. Josh notices his grip on the wheel tightens. "Because you're caught up in this nonsense that you're...gay." He spits out the word.

"Bisexual." Josh corrects.

"Whatever!" His father raises his tone. "My point is, no son of mine will like men. You just need to find the right girl and then you'll realize how disgusting and sinful you've been-"

Josh turns to the window and swallows down his rage. It's so unfair. He wants a distraction. He needs one.

He opens his phone and for some reason, decides on not texting Mark, Brendon, Debby, or any of his other close friends. Instead, his fingers hesitate before he sends a message to somebody else.

Please answer, Tyler.

~

Jish: please talk to me.

Jish: I just need to think about something else right now.

Jish: please.

Tyler answered immediately-he always does- and was startled, to say the least, at Josh's apparent frantic texts. He would be lying if he said he wasn't starting to get worried for the boy.

Tyjo: what's wrong?

Jish: I'll tell you later, I just want to talk about something else right now.

Tyjo: uhh okay I'll try my best but I'm not good at this stuff.

Jish: whatever you do will help.

Tyjo: do you have any pets?

Josh wants to laugh (Tyler really is bad at this stuff) , but he can't. He feels suffocated.

Jish: no, but I want a cat. I love cats.

Tyjo: oh, I'm more of a dog person :) What kind of cat do you want?

Jish: a tabby cat. Tabby's are the cutest

Light, meaningless conversation continued like this for the next ten minutes or so. Tyler hated small talk with the passion of a thousand burning suns, but he could tell it was calming Josh down from whatever worked him up, so it wasn't so bad this time.

Jish: okay, I'm good now. I took a bus back home because I couldn't stand riding in the same car as him again.

Tyjo: who?

Jish: my Dad

Tyjo: do you mind me asking what happened? If you don't want to tell me i'd understand.

Jish: no it's okay, I trust you

Tyler blushed at that, but he'll never admit it.

Jish: my dad and I have never really gotten along, especially since I came out to him a few years ago. We got into another fight about it and he got really mad.

Jish: I don't know what would've happened if I had stayed in the car longer. I hopped out at a stop light and ran to the nearest bus station.

"Came out" stuck with Tyler. Does he mean as in he's gay? Or lgbt? Tyler tried not to think about that until later, that wasn't the important part.

Tyjo: oh my god Josh are you okay?

Jish: yes

Lies.

Jish: no, but I will be.

Jish: can I call you?

Oh no.

~

Josh gets off the bus and wanders around until he finds a small abandoned playground. A few trees surround the rotting wooden park and gives it an eery feel, but he doesn't mind so much.

Josh sits down on a creaky swing, gently rocking his body back and forth as he lets the silence invade his mind. He wish things weren't like this.

He hates you

I know that already.

He wants you to die, you faggot.

I know that, too. He's told me that.

He's right.

I know.

Josh dials Tyler.

The dial tone rings far longer than Josh likes, but eventually, the receiver does pick up the phone.

"H-hello?" The voice on the other end stutters nervously.

Josh chuckles, but even he can hear how fake it sounds. "Hi, Tyjo."

There's a pause in the line. "Wow." Tyler whispers.

"What is it?" Josh asks. He can tell Tyler didn't mean for the other boy to hear him, and he smiles gently at how embarrassed Ty sounds.

"Oh um, it's nothing just...wow your voice is nothing like I imagined." Tyler hushes. " It's like an angel's."

Josh laughs. An honest, cheerful laugh that rings around the clearing and back into the phone. Tyler immediately starts blubbering things like 'oh my gosh that sounded really strange I swear I'm not a weirdo' but all it does is make Josh grin even more. He notices the more Tyler talks the more he stutters and sometimes his voice cracks at places. His voice is so velvety smooth and he's only been listening for a minute or so but he could do this forever.

"Hey," Josh says, interrupting Tyler's rant. He notices Tyler is much more nervous and shy in person, and can't help but find it cute. "You have a pretty sweet voice, too."