keep it up ↠ joshler ✔

3

:::

tyler held the mug tightly in his fingers. hot chocolate usually helped him calm down, but it wasn't working this time.

his parents were actually kicking him out. for real.

his hands began to shake.

he was going to die. there was no way he would be able to live by himself. he wouldn't pay his bills on time. he wouldn't find anyone with enough pity to hire him. he wouldn't be able to find a house. he wouldn't even be able to find food, and he would starve to death.

the mug fell from his hands and hit the floor with a large crash, shattering.

he instinctively raised his hands to cover his ears. this was just an example about how bad it would be. he would break everything.

he would break everything.

"i'm so screwed." he whispered.

before he knew it, he was rocking back and forth on his bed, trying to pull himself out of an anxiety attack.

"okay tyler," he said subconsciously under his breath, "name five things you can see, four things you can feel, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste."

when he was just starting to calm down, his door swung open.

it was his mom.

she looked kind of worried... for a second.

"tyler? are you okay?"

"not really." he whispered, wiping the tears from his cheeks.

funny. he hadn't even noticed he was crying.

his mother hugged him for a beautiful moment, before pulling away.

"mom?"

she raised an eyebrow at her son, before asking, "you're faking it, aren't you?"

"e-excuse me?"

"you faked a panic attack so we wouldn't kick you out!" she yelled, detaching from tyler and standing, placing her hands on her hips in the process.

"what? why the hell would i do that?"

"i'm- you know what? i want you out of here tomorrow."

"mom-"

"don't say anything, tyler."

she left his room, shaking her head on the way.

tyler took a deep breath to prevent himself from crying, and picked up his phone.

he scrolled through it, through all the pathetic 'friends' he had.

had.

yeah, like those two people who had rarely talked to him would remember him after high school.

so instead, he called josh.

"hello?" he answered.

"hi." tyler whispered.

"who is this...?" the voice croaked, sounding as if it was cracked. it was almost as if josh had just been screaming.

"it's tyler from the smoothie shop."

"oh, hey bro," josh said, laughter appearing in his voice, replacing the broken one from before. "i, um, just woke up from a nap, what do you want?"

"that's a nice way to greet me." tyler said, masking the fear in his voice with fake confidence, desperately trying to keep up his 'intimidating' rep.

"if i remember correctly," josh challenged, "you didn't have the nicest of greetings for me either, especially considering i tried to give you advice on how not to get lung cancer."

"you were ridiculing my lifestyle."

"it's a stupid lifestyle-" josh said, but suddenly stopped. tyler would have make a snarky comeback, but josh seemed flustered. "not stupid, you're not stupid, tyler, just try and be healthier, really. what do you want?"

tyler froze for a few seconds before shaking it off. "i need somewhere to live... need a roommate?"

"nope." josh answered, to tyler's disgust.

"and why not?"

"i, um, well, i-" josh stuttered, taking gaps of silence in between.

"josh?"

"sorry-" he said at last, "i live with my parents and my three siblings when i'm not bouncing from smoothie shop to smoothie shop, so there's not really room for any others. especially not strangers i just met yesterday."

"i'm not a stranger, we're bros now."

"oh really?"

"you said it yourself." tyler responded, thinking of how to phrase the next question as so he didn't seem like a loser (even though he knew he was). "well, if you're not going to let me into your family of blue-haired, smoothie-stealing weirdos, can you at least help me find an apartment?"

"okay."

"wait, really?" tyler perked up, surprised.

"sure. i'll drive you and everything, not like i'm supposed to be having tea with the queen or anything. meet me at the smoothie shop from yesterday?"

"why not at your house?"

"i'm not home right now."

"but you said you just woke up from a nap?"

"...on one of the comfy couches in the bookstore, duh."

"bro, people don't say 'duh' anymore."

"well i do. should we call off the house hunting?"

"no, no, i'm heading to the smoothie shop now. 15 minutes?"

"sure. see you, daddy."

before tyler could object to his new nickname, josh had hung up.

he grabbed his three things: phone, hoodie, and cigarette pack, before walking downstairs and storming out.

just then, however, he was put to a stop by his mom, who had appeared in the doorway right as tyler was leaving.

"where do you think you're going?" she asked, voice fuming. tyler was pretty sure that, if possible, steam would have blown out of her ears from rage.

"i'm going out to find a fucking place to live, isn't that what you want?"

"have you packed? have you searched online for an open house? have you done anything besides sit there and pretend to cry for our sympathy?!" she practically yelled.

tyler laughed dryly. "of course i didn't pack yet. i'm 'too lazy and whiny' for that, aren't i?"

"how dare you even consider talking to me like that?! i should ground you right now, then you'll see how pathetic you're being. an 18 year old boy, grounded!"

"firstly, trust me, i know how pathetic i am. secondly, you can't ground me because apparently i don't live here anymore! you kicked me out, remember?"

his mom suddenly held her tongue, but it didn't stop her face from turning a deadly shade of red. luckily, for tyler, his dad could hear the entire conversation.

"let him go, kelly. he is 18 after all, and how do you expect him to live on his own if you're stopping him from doing mature things, like searching for an apartment? really, come back here and we'll finish this movie."

tyler smiled, mainly in spite of his mom, and she let him go.

retracing his steps from the day before, he reached the smoothie shop just as a clunker of a car pulled up. glancing in the passenger window, he found josh sitting in the driver's seat.