Glowing Eyes || Adopted by Josh Dun

the josephs

"How are you so good at this?" I asked, bewildered. Tyler and I had settled on going to an arcade that was part of a bowling alley, and were playing the basketball game thing. He shot every single one straight into the net without batting an eye.

"I played basketball in high school," he smiled, shooting one more basket before the time buzzer rang. He turned to me, "I went out and practiced in my driveway every night after dinner."

"Wow," I raised my eyebrows, "Dedication."

He nodded, "I'm a pretty sick basketball player." He looked down at the tickets, collecting them as they spewed from the machine with no sign of stopping.

"So, were you the captain? Did you get a scholarship or something?" I wondered out-loud.

"Yes to both of those, actually," he grabbed the last of the huge slew of tickets from the machine.

I laughed, "Wait, so you became real life Troy Bolton?" I smiled in amazing, "Dael won't believe this."

Tyler rolled his eyes, "I get that a lot." He let out a bubbly laugh, "Who's Dael?"

I shoved my hands in my jogger pockets and shrugged, "Best friend since second grade. We haven't been able to talk over the summer though, since her family's taking a trip all over Europe."

"Woah," Tyler raised his eyebrows as we started walking to another game.

"Woah is right." I laughed, "Her family is so drastically different from mine, or, was I guess. I'm guessing Josh filled you in on my family though..." I trailed off, looking at the patterns in the carpet.

Tyler's tone turned soft, "Not really, actually." He looked over at me, "Josh didn't want to tell me anything you didn't first."

"Oh, wow, that's..." I trailed off.

"Nice?" Tyler offered, smiling in amusement.

I chuckled softly, "Yeah." I paused before looking back up at him and asking, "So what do you know about me? That Josh didn't tell you, I mean."

He sighed, "Let me think. I know what happened to your mom, but you know that. I know all of the things that happened at the coffee shop with Josh, but not most of the conversations. Last thing I know is the day you showed up with a concussion and got-" he paused, trying to find a good euphemism "-the call. I don't know why you had a concussion, though."

I laughed, "You barely know anything." I shook my head, "But, to be fair, I barely know anything about you."

Tyler shrugged, "That's fair." He jokingly scanned the room, as if to check if anyone was walking, and whispered, "Don't tell Josh I know this, but he planned for us to hang out from now on so that we'd get to know each other better."

I raised my eyebrows, "Really?" I let out an over-exaggerated gasp, "The sly devil."

We laughed, before Tyler's lips curved into a knowing smile, "But it's also because he has a date with his girlfriend tonight."

Now this really surprised me. I stopped in my tracks, spinning to face him, "Wait, really? What's her name? What does she look like? Oh my gosh I want to meet her."

Tyler held his hands out, "Calm down." He giggled, "Her name's Debby. They've been together for a while. She has red hair and she's really sweet. I'm sure you'll meet her soon. Josh is planning to tell her about you tonight."

I felt my throat tighten, I forgot just how much of a burden I was putting on Josh. What if his girlfriend broke up with him because of me? Tyler must have seen the panic flick across my eyes, and he put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. He smiled down at me, "Hey, don't worry. Like I said, she's really sweet. I'm sure she'll have no problem with it, actually, I think she'll really like you."