Him or Her? // Joshler

Chapter 16: Toothpaste

(josh's POV)

The next morning we went out to the bus and rode to our next venue.

Tyler sits down between Mark and I and winces.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

"Yeah. It just hurts to sit down right now," Tyler frowns in confusion.

My eyes pop out of their sockets as I realize what's going on and choke back laughter. Mark looks into my eyes, panicked.

"Oh my god... did you two..?" Mark looks grossed out and I can't help but laugh, so we both start laughing across Tyler.

"What?!" Tyler looks between the two of us, embarrassed that he isn't picking up on the joke.

"Tyler," I calm my laughter, "Can you think of anything that happened last night that would cause your ass to hurt?"

His eyes widen and he turns pink.

"Oh my gosh," He face palms in embarrassment.

"Wow, thanks for the lovely vision, guys," Mark rolls his eyes.

"What's so funny?" Brad asks from the other side of the bus.

I rush to come up with something, "Oh, nothing, we-"

"I made a fantastic sex joke," Mark cuts me off, I mentally thank him for saving me.

Brad calls Mark over and Mark pulls a random joke out of his head to cover up for us.

-

A couple weeks pass, filled with concerts, interviews, and exhaustion.

One night, fairly late, Mark, Tyler, Brad, some of the other crew members, and I find ourselves up playing card games on the bus and running off of pure Redbull.

Tyler slams his fists on the table and stands up, knocking his cards out of his hands in the action.

"You CHEAT!" He yells in protest. I burst into laughter along with the rest of the boys.

"Tyler, don't be such a sore loser. I won fair and square," I lean back on the seat with my arms crossed and a smug look on my face.

He huffs and marches over to our bluetooth speaker in the corner, turning it on and pulling his phone out.

"Any requests?"

Mark jumps up and snatches Tyler's phone from his hands.

"Wh-"

"This one's for you, Ty," Mark smiles and gently sets the phone down.

Tyler stares at him in confusion until he hears the music ring out from the speaker.

"Mmmm, I don't like it like that, she workin' that back, I don't know to act, slow motion for me.."

Tyler rolls his eyes and laughs, but joins in dancing when we all get up and mimic Tyler's dancing from a video he made a decade ago.

"Okay, I got the next one," I rush over to the phone and click on You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift.

Tyler perks up and starts prancing around the room like a valley girl, holding a fake microphone in his smooth, tan hands.

I laugh and copy his persona.

"Have you ever thought just maybeEeeEeeee... you belong with me!" Tyler and I sing loudly at each other and I twirl him around ballroom style for the end of the song.

"Dip him!" Brad laughs at pulls out his phone to Snapchat a picture.

I grab Tyler's waist and dip him, he points his toe and tilts his head back in a dramatic pose.

"The clique is going to have seizures over this picture," Brad says as he posts it onto his Snapchat story.

"Lemme see," Tyler says and he and I sit on the couch, he scooches in to peek at my Snapchat.

"No way, dude, this looks like a renaissance painting," I laugh.

Tyler loses himself in a fit of laughter. I can see tears actually brimming in the corners of his shut eyes. I fall back on the couch, unable to breathe from laughing so hard, but only because Tyler's laugh is so infectious and addictive.

"Goddamn, these people are so fast," Mark says as he scrolls his phone, "Check Twitter."

I click on Twitter and go through my mentions.

"This one's my favorite so far," Tyler points at a tweet on my phone that reads:

"I don't know if I want to stab myself in the kidney because of this picture or tattoo it on my forehead," With the picture attached.

Most of the tweets consist solely of "SACBIYCVSAYUV".

Tyler stops my thumb from its speedy scrolling and points at a tweet.

"There is no heterosexual explanation for this picture."

I look up at Tyler with rosy cheeks and we giggle at each other. It takes everything in me not to kiss his sweet, pink lips right now.

-

We all eventually get tired and head to bed.

I walk over to the sink in the teeny bathroom and Tyler's already in there, brushing his teeth. He finishes brushing and stands there, leaning on the counter and staring at me.

"What?" I say, muffled, as I still have toothpaste in my mouth.

He shrugs. I spit out the toothpaste and dry mouth off with a towel.

As soon as I straighten up again, Tyler grabs my face in his hands and kisses me softly. He pulls away and stares into my eyes with his hands still caressing my cheeks.

"Minty," I smile.

"There's no heterosexual explanation for that either," He laughs.

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sorry if this seems filler-ish, it's actually pretty important, at least to me, so you can get a taste of what their dynamic is like

i had fun writing this one anyways. i love to imagine josh and tyler doing cute little things like this in real life, even if it's just platonic dancing around. they're just cute

if you're reading this, i love you