Only In The Forest (A Continuation of the Forest Fic)

Lets Try This Again

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Sorry for the wait. I hope this chapter is good. 

Also, sorry for this time skip - it's morning and Josh hasn't called back. 

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"Hey mom, is Josh here yet?" Tyler says helping himself down the stairs. His leg is pretty much healed. The burns have left faint scarring. It just burns a little bit, his tight jeans rubbing up against the irritated skin. His side still hurt, though, there was a large bruise the length of his side. Somehow, he has to get by his mother with the bruised cheek of his. Tyler is shocked that his side doesn't make it impossible to move but Josh did get him those pain killers. 

"No" Kelly yells from the kitchen. She is making Tyler's siblings breakfast.

Tyler reaches the last step. He pops the pills he takes daily into his mouth. He looks down at the way too familiar label. It has his full name and the type of medication it was. He was never able to tell the difference. They all did the same thing, no matter what pills you got. So instead of taking all of them, these seemed to be the most effective. 

He wonders if Jenna knew what it was, or what it did. How it made him almost not himself. It gave him a lifeless shell that just moved him through the motions. What would she think of him? 

The doorbell rings. 

"TYLER" His mother yells, "JOSH IS HERE" 

"coming" Tyler pulls his hood of his Adidas sweatshirt over the right side of his face. He speeds walks to the door worried about seeing Josh. He acted weird yesterday. Tyler opens the door, Josh is standing there. 

Tyler steps out and closes the door behind him. 

"Hey," Tyler says looking straight into Josh's perfect mocha eyes. He can tell Josh is trying to avoid him. Josh isn't looking at him. 

"Sorry I didn't call you, I- I just needed some time," Josh says putting his hand on the back of his neck making him look down at their feet, making it a bit easier to avoid Tyler. 

"It's okay, as long as you're good now," Tyler says half as a question.

"Yeah, I'm good now," Josh says looking up. Their eyes lock for less than a second and they both look away and smile. 

Tyler laughs a little. "We should go. My first class is music today," Tyler walks past Josh. 

Josh turns around to follow him, "Yeah, I know your schedule,"

"But I am meeting Jenna there, and I don't want to be late." Tyler knew that wasn't the best thing to start the day off with just as the words slip out of his mouth. 

Josh instantly feels the heaviness press down on his shoulders. They both get in their separate side of the car.

"We talked about it yesterday, cause Mr. Nelson is having us create a song with a group and we had to pick groups, " Josh zones out of the conversation. By now they have turned on the road. Josh hears Tyler talking, but doesn't comprehend it. He is staring blankly at the road.

"JOSH" Tyler yells. Josh realizes that he has swerved into the other lane and there is a car heading towards them, but quickly fixes it.  

"I could have pulled the searing wheel, but that could have ended badly," Tyler says.

"Yeah," Josh says in response.

"Are you even listing?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm listening."