hooked ↣ joshler ✓

2. Josh

All he had to do was breathe. In. Out. In. Out. Josh took what seemed like a thousand deep breaths until he started to get light headed. There's nothing to worry about, he thought. They can't possibly know.

Shakily, Josh approached his locker and his fingers fumbled to open it. Finally, it swung open and he quickly set the textbook that wouldn't fit in his backpack on the floor of it.

He pushed his curly dark hair out of his eyes and grabbed another textbook instead. Josh shut his locker and jumped upon seeing someone standing where the metal door was seconds ago.

"Woah, didn't know I was that scary," he joked and held his hands up in surrender.

"Sorry, Dal. I'm just on edge."

"Is there a reason behind that?" The taller boy questioned, falling into step beside Josh as they walked to English together.

"Just didn't get much sleep," he hummed. Josh wasn't lying, he was just leaving out an important detail. The detail that's been playing in his head for hours.

"What the fuck are you doing up?" Alice snapped, facing her son.

"I-I heard beeping and wanted to m-make sure you guys were o-okay," Josh stuttered, fear sitting in the pit of his stomach.

"We're fine, your father's an idiot and doesn't know how to keep a cigarette away from the smoke alarm," she scoffed, sitting down next to her husband.

"At least I didn't buy a suitcase full of weed," Mike said taking a final drag of the cigarette that set off the fire alarm. He put it out in the cracked plastic ashtray sitting on the coffee table.

"Fuck off," Alice kicked her feet up into the table. "You know how much we can make off that shit?"

"What?" Josh asked before realizing he said something.

"Are you okay?" Dallon asked sincerely, breaking Josh from his thoughts. They walked through the classroom door and took their usual seats in the back of the classroom.

Josh offered him a small smile. "I'll be okay. I've been doing this life thing for a long time." He let out an uneasy laugh, attempting to lighten the mood. Dallon rolled his eyes, but smiled anyway.

"How's Patrick?" Upon hearing that question, a twinge of pain surged through Josh's heart. Not because of Dallon, but because of his parents and what they do to his little brother.

"Not good," Josh replied simply with a sigh. Dallon was the only person in the whole school, and probably even town who knew exactly of Josh's home situation, and he knew he was lucky that Dallon hadn't told anyone or ignored him after he found out. "He's only eight," Josh said sadly. "He's only eight and he's been through so much in his life."

"I know, Josh," Dallon tried, his voice soft and soothing. "All you can do is be there for him."

Josh nodded and kept his mouth shut, feeling the tightness in his throat. Besides, the bell rang cutting off any conversation the boys were going to continue.

Their teacher, Mr. Way, walked in and ran a hand through his bright red hair, something Josh always found intriguing. Leaning against the front of his desk, he folded his hands in front of him, waiting for the class to quiet down.

"So," he began as soon as the talking ceased. "Poetry," The voices that just stopped a few seconds ago started again when most of the class groaned upon hearing the topic of their next unit, in return Mr. Way mimicked their groans, throwing his head back. When he looked back up, he had a grin on his face. "Poetry's not that bad guys. There's some great pieces out there that don't make it totally miserable."

"Yeah, like what?" Brendon Urie, an annoying kid in their grade, blurted out. Josh looked over and saw Dallon try to hide a smile upon hearing the voice of the guy he had a crush on.

"Well," Mr. Way stood up and began walking around the front of the room, almost pacing. "For instance, Shakespeare. One of the oldest poets out there, but probably the most well known and praised. Besides, they made a movie with lawn gnomes based off of one of his plays," the class laughed at Mr. Way's poor attempt to make a joke, not so much at the joke itself. "And even if you find you don't like any poetry, Brendon, the lesson's only a few weeks. Trust me, if I could teach something else, I would– but the district requires this unit."

Mr. Way walked back over to the front of his desk and riffled through some papers, trying to find the poem the class was going to start off the unit with. However, he was interrupted when a head peeked through the door. "Mr. Way?" It was the principal, Mr. Iero. Mr. Way raised an eyebrow, as if asking what he needed. "You're needed in the office."

"Can it wait? I have a class," he pointed out, motioning his hand towards the rows of kids sitting in his classroom.

"I wish it could, but it's extremely urgent," Mr. Iero said, narrowing his eyes a bit. Mr. Way sighed and got up.

"I'll be right back. If this turns into a zoo while I'm gone, I'm failing you all on the next test," he said briefly before following his colleague out of the room. As soon as a quiet click sounded, meaning the door was shut, the whole class broke out into chatter.

"Do you still need a ride after school?" Dallon asked suddenly, doodling in the corner of the desk. "I heard it's supposed to rain."

"I've gotta stay after and make up a history test, it's fine," Josh fibbed, hoping Dallon wouldn't ask what his plans were. He just nodded and returned to drawing on the chipped wood.

Josh sighed and closed his eyes, hoping to get a few minutes of rest before Mr. Way came back. He knew Dallon would wake him up if he did end up dozing off.

He felt his what seemed like never-ending thoughts start to slow as he started to lose consciousness, but was stopped when he heard the talking in the room halt. Opening one eye, he checked if the teacher was back, but was greeted by two figures walking late into class.

Tyler Joseph and Jenna Black– who Josh assumed was his newest toy –waltzed into the room. Well Tyler did, Jenna just kinda awkwardly stumbled in with a blush on her face. Josh watched as she instantly walked over to the empty desk next to her regular group of friends– Debby and Tatum. As soon as she sat down, they began bombarding her with questions in a hushed whisper– the only noise in the whole classroom. The rest of the students seemed infatuated with the fact that Tyler didn't know how to get to class on time.

Tyler walked past him as he made his way to the desk on the other side of Josh and Dallon, in the back right corner. Tyler kicked his feet up on the desk and pulled out his phone and began lazily typing.

Suddenly, he sat up a bit, with his feet still on the desk and looked over at Dallon. "Where's Mr. Way?" he asked him. Dallon looked surprised for a minute before regaining his composure. The side conversations in the class had picked back up by now.

"Mr. Iero said he was needed in the office."

Tyler laughed, getting a few looks from the people sitting next to him. "Yeah, they're probably hooking up, he won't be back for another fifteen minutes." Dallon almost choked on air upon hearing him. Tyler just chuckled to himself before going back to his phone.

Josh watched him from the corner of his eyes with uneasiness in his stomach, remembering what was in his backpack and why he was so nervous to be carrying it around. Sure Tyler was intimidating guy, but Josh was more worried because of the plans he had after school, which just happened to involve the brunette.