Glowing Eyes || Adopted by Josh Dun

consolation

Tyler's POV

I knocked on Josh's apartment door, suddenly realizing how sweaty my palms were. I'd been frantically driving to every spot in LA I could think of, until I finally got the call from Josh that he'd found Lynn. It only helped my nerves at first. Then Josh explained what had happened to her.

Josh opened the door. "Hey," he smiled weakly,

"Hey," I looked down at my feet then back up to Josh. "Is Lynn okay?"

"Yeah," he nodded a little. His voice was soft and solemn. "She's alright. She's been talking to her friend Dael for a while, but now she's just laying in her room." He paused, his brown eyes falling back down to the floor. "I can't believe I let this happen. I'm supposed to be taking care of her. I'm supposed to keep her safe."

"Josh," I stopped him. He looked up at me. "This wasn't your fault," I insisted. "You had no way of knowing this would happen to her. Neither of us did."

Josh just closed his eyes and breathed. "Do you want to come in?"

"Yeah," I nodded and walked into his apartment, sitting on the couch.

Josh sat down next to me and ran a hand through his unkempt hair. He looked up at the ceiling, "I feel awful. When Lynn first got into the car, before I realized what happened to her, I got angry at her. I started yelling at her, and then she-" he sighed. He just shook his head, cutting off his last thought.

"You didn't know," I countered. "You have to parent Lynn sometimes. Without knowing what happened with Ryan, I would've gotten mad at her, too."

Josh nodded lightly, before blurting, "She asked me why I cared." He turned to me, and was met with a blank stare. I didn't know what he met.

He continued, falling back onto the couch. "She said if I really cared, that I wouldn't be fostering her. That I would let her have a chance with another family instead of keeping her around and forgetting her in less than a month."

I was silent for a long moment. "She didn't mean that," I began, but Josh cut me off.

"She believes it," he buried his head in his hands. "I saw it just looking at her. She truly believes I'm just going to forget about her."

I paused, my heart aching for my best friend. Finally I asked, "Have you ever considered that someone planted that idea in her head?" He looked up at me in confusion, so I continued. "I know Lynn doesn't want it to be true, I just think she's afraid. I would be, too, if I were her. She's never really had a family before, and now that she finally sees what it's like, she doesn't want to lose it."

Josh just nodded, staring blankly ahead of him. "I don't know what to do, Tyler."

"I know," I said softly.

We stayed quiet for another long moment, just sitting next to each other, thinking about everything and nothing all at once. Finally I asked, "Can I talk to her?"

"Yeah," Josh nodded. "She's in her room."

I stood up and walked through Josh's hallway, stopping at Lynn's door and knocking softly before opening it. I poked my head in sheepishly to see Lynn looking down at her wrist, jumping when she saw me.

"Uh, hey," she stammered, putting her hands back in her lap on top of her criss-crossed legs.

"Hey," I felt my heart break when I noticed the muffled red lines on her cheek. I pushed down a mixture of sadness and fury and gently shut Lynn's door behind me. "Can I sit down?"

"Yeah, sure," she nodded, scooting over. Her voice was scratchy and overused.

I sat next to her on her bed. "Why were you looking at your wrist?" I asked suddenly.