these are things I'm reading on AO3 because I prefer Wattpad so ignore

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I 500 Baskets
emeraldcitydowntowngirl

Summary:

The rule was simple: Make 500 baskets, or you don't get dinner.
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Contrary to popular belief, basketball player Tyler Joseph doesn't have it as good as everyone* thinks he does

*Josh Dun, the quote unquote new kid with blue hair and crazy friends
Notes:

For smallghostkid.
OK SO-

i dont know if that whole "500 baskets" story is true because its like SUPER HARD to tell if tyler's bein serious or not when he's doing interviews. i watched the video and read the article and it seemed pretty legit, though?? i dont know

but anyways, i dont think people should really /joke/ about it because??? if its true thats abuse and abuse? isnt? funny? but then again, im writing a story about it :/ so IDK
Chapter 1

Chapter Text

The rule was simple: Make 500 baskets, or you don't get dinner.

And that was the way it had always been, and that was what Tyler was accustomed to, ever since he was a freshmen in high school.

His parents didn't have a lot of money, since Tyler had 3 younger siblings- the only way Tyler could get a scholarship to attend college was basketball, through sports, and it was decided: Tyler was going to be a basketball star. No one asked him what he wanted to do, it was basketball always, ever since he was a kid.

Maybe everyone knew that Tyler was going to be skinny and lanky and decided that basketball was a better alternative than football or any other sport, who knows. All Tyler has known since he was little has been basketball.

"It's for your own good" His mother would say, as she set up 5 dinner plates instead of 6- She would motion towards the back door, where the basketball hoop was, and if Tyler didn't go, he was sent to bed. And it seemed fair, you know? His parents were hard-working people, and Tyler was ungrateful if he was just going to sit at home and do nothing, after basketball practice at school, and just not practice for his future profession- Didn't he want this? Wasn't this what he was born to do? Was he supposed to just expect food if he didn't do what his parents expected of him?

And so, it would continue- Tyler would make his 500 baskets, counting off loud enough for his parents to hear from inside (or sometimes, his father would come outside and watch him and critique him) and he would come inside and he would eat, and then repeat- Wake up, go to school, go to basketball practice, do some homework, make 500 baskets, do more homework, sleep, repeat.

And Tyler never really thought much of it, honestly. It was a schedule, and the very few times he didn't make the 500 baskets, or he messed them up a lot, he cried himself to sleep and prayed to God and asked for his parents to forgive him for being such a disappointment, and he prayed to be a better brother and a better son and be a better example to others.

Tonight was one of those nights.

Tyler shared a room with his little brother Zach, so he couldn't sob in front of him, that wasn't "manly", and he felt so bad, so guilty for crying about this, because he shouldn't be crying about it, he did it to himself. But he was showering, scrubbing his body raw, the sound of the water hitting the shower floor masking his gasping sobs. The water was burning hot, scorching his skin, but it masked how hungry he was, so it didn't matter.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry" He cried, eventually falling down to the shower floor, letting the water rain down on him until his mom knocked on the bathroom door, yelling for him to hurry up.

At the sound of her voice, Tyler quickly turned the water off, stepping out of the shower. His vision was blurry because of the tears, and when he looked in the mirror, he was greeted with reddened eyes. And although they were his eyes, they were only red because he had been crying for so long, "like a girl", they looked scary and foreign to Tyler. "You're such a failure. You didn't deserve that dinner" His reflection in the mirror, blurry with red eyes, said to him, and well. Tyler couldn't disagree.