Holding On To You//Joshler

Chapter 15

✾Josh✾

The walk home from school seemed very quiet to me. I guess Ty's previous socialisation had been a product of anxiety and a sort of the heat of the moment response to it all. I would've liked to talk more, but I wanted our friendship to be more relaxed from now on, I didn't want to pressure Tyler into doing anything he didn't want to.

"Sooooo," he said whilst his tongue was dancing over the trail of elongated o's.

I smiled a little when I realised Ty was the first to initiate in conversation, he glanced over instinctively and shook his head when he noticed my expression.

"Are you going to get excited every time I talk?" he said moodily, kicking rocks as we walked.

"Do you have a problem with that?" I said cocking an eyebrow.

"No, I guess if you're happy then I'll keep talking"

I laughed softly.

"I shouldn't have said that out loud right?" Ty continued to look down in shame and kick rocks to pacify his urge to ignore his feelings.

"It was cute"

"I'm definitely not cute Josh," he said trying to use an intimidating tone.

"If you say so boss" I nudged him playfully but he just mumbled something under his breath. I checked the road both ways and began to cross, but before my foot could leave the path I felt Tyler grab my now sweaty palm.

"Just making sure you're safe, cant let you get hit on my watch"

"I looked both ways, you didn't even look!" I scoffed.

"That was a weird way of saying thank you" he said coldly, Ty squeezed my hand as we walked across the road at his normal fast pace. The protective, and somewhat naïve, version of Ty made my heart flutter like the wings of a lovebird. He tried to act tough and authoritative and I couldn't quite decide if he was cute because he wasn't very good at it ,or if it was because he was good and it showed he cared. Either way it was obvious that Ty wasn't used to normal friendships, but it was adorable to see him making an effort.

"Thank you, I guess. We made it across a two meter length road and didn't get injured"

"That wasn't genuine" Ty retorted.

"Thank you Ty, I appreciate you looking out for me" I smiled as I tried to worm my hand away from his grip, he politely let me go.

"I suppose I'll take that" the sides of his lips were curling, but only ever so slightly. "Do you want me to walk you to your door?"

"I'll be okay, but thank you"

"So I guess this is us" Tyler rocked back on his heels and placed his hands awkwardly in his back pockets.

"It doesn't have to be" I shrugged.

"The music projects only due next month, we have loads of time to start it"

"I didn't mean that, I meant that maybe we could," I gulped, I forgot how piercing Ty's eyes could be when he wasn't the one in control of the situation. "We could maybe text each other or snap chat, I don't wanna annoy you but it'd be helpful to plan ou-"

"I don't know what snap chat is" Tyler's wavering tone made me feel physically weak, it was a punch in the face. Tyler hadn't had any friends to message, I should have realised.

"Its ok, don't sound so worried. I'll teach you sometime, for now we can just text yeah?"

He nodded briefly and passed me his phone, "Can you make a new contact please?"