keep it up ↠ joshler ✔

13

:::

in an awkward silence they passed small shops, playgrounds, hot chocolate stands, and more all while on their little walk to nowhere in particular, but the only thing that stopped the two from awkwardly shuffling around was when a kid threw his basketball a bit too far and it rolled in front of tyler, stopping in front of his toes.

"sorry, can we get the ball back?" the kid asked, walking over.

tyler picked it up and tossed it over to them, then turned to josh.

"i used to be great at basketball."

"really? you don't seem like the basketball type." josh challenged.

"bro," tyler said, the slightest bit of laughter in his voice. not a lot, but it was there. "test me."

smiling finally, josh followed tyler over to the court behind the apartments where he picked up a spare ball.

the younger boy stood on the three point line, dribbled the ball a bit, then tossed it. to even josh's surprise, it went right into the basket without taking the rim.

tyler turned around and smirked at josh before going to get the ball.

"you've proved your point..." josh smiled, sitting on a nearby bench. "but you can't make it from the central line, can you?"

tyler's feet found their way to the central line, and with a small jump, the ball landed in the net again.

seeing tyler smile at this made an idea pop into josh's head.

this is making him happy.... basketball is making him happy.

"can you spin it?"

"what?"

"like on your finger, man,"

without even tearing his eyes away from josh, tyler put the ball on the tip of his finger and made it spin.

"what? did you think i couldn't?"

tyler was somehow happy, like the entire two months before didn't exist. they didn't feel important, and now he realized, he just missed josh. he'd rather spend time with josh than hold a grudge against him.

now josh was back, and he even apologized. the best thing to do, tyler thought, was to ignore everything that happened before.

he was just glad to have josh back.

it was incredibly weird to react like this, normal people would still be avoiding josh, but to tyler, josh was all he had.

he just had to keep his cigarettes in his sleeves instead, where they would never be noticeable.

"josh...do you maybe, um, want to play one on one?" tyler asked hopefully.

"i've never played basketball in my life, ty."

"what? how have you never played? not even for an hour with your friends before as kids?"

"nah, sports just... weren't my thing."

"come on, then, i'll show you. i'll still beat your ass but at least you'll know how to play." tyler offered. josh had had shown him music, now tyler felt like he could return the favor.

josh, however, stiffened. "i don't think that would be a good idea..."

"come on, man, just for like, ten minutes."

josh's face fixed itself, hiding whatever emotion he was feeling before, when he put his hands up in defeat. "fine, fine, but only for ten minutes."