keep it up ↠ joshler ✔

20

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"hey, i was just wondering, where is your room?" tyler asked a bit later.

"huh?"

"we've been hanging in the living room and stuff, where's your room? i don't want to like, invade your privacy, o-or anything,"

"oh, um, you wouldn't really want to see it.. it's like, a huge mess, and- wait, what are you allergic to again?"

tyler raised an eyebrow. "shellfish,"

"oh, yeah, then. there's like, shellfish everywhere. shimp on shelves, crabs just scattered on the carpet...i keep them as pets. did you know lobsters are free? well, er, they are, if you don't get caught stealing them from the tanks at supermarkets, that is..." josh rambled, and tyler almost laughed.

actually, he didn't almost laugh, he did laugh. josh could only direct his gaze to the floor, unable to stop a tiny smile from growing on his lips at the sound of tyler's laughter.

"fine, fine," the blue haired boy said at last in defeat, "i'll show you my room."

the stairs creaked softly under the boy's weight as they made their ways upstairs. they were met with a long hallway, one where the walls were painted grey and there were multiple doors on every wall.

tyler followed josh as he was lead to a clean, white door, one that matched with the others. there was a small, blue sign hanging on the handle with the name "josh" carved into it, as expected.

josh turned the knob, the hinges squeaking as if the door hadn't been opened for years.

what laid inside was nothing like tyler had expected. the walls were a bright blue, the twin bed decorated with a thick comforter covered with airplanes. there were plastic trucks and cars sitting on the shelves, along with a white chest at the end of the bed. the curtains and rug matched the comforter, all the same colors with airplanes embroidered on them. overall, the room looked like it belonged to a third grader.

tyler turned to josh, who was looking at the floor and shuffling awkwardly.

"wow." tyler said, chuckling. "no wonder you didn't want me to come up here."

"yeah, i, um, never really spent a lot of time at home, as you can sort of tell.."

"oh. um.. where did you sleep?" tyler asked, rubbing his head awkwardly.

"when i was here usually in the basement. i fell asleep to horror movies a lot with ashley, but i just kinda moved around, you know? with friends and cousins, yeah, that stuff."

tyler smiled. "yeah, makes sense. you're lucky to be that close with your family. my sister would never watch horror movies with me," he scoffed. "hell, she wouldn't even talk to me."

josh stayed quiet for a moment, playing with his fingers, unsure of how to respond. "sorry,"

"there's no need to apologize. it's not your fault." tyler sighed. "i'm just kind of curious, dude, why don't you spend a lot of time here? your family's great,"

josh gulped before shrugging, looking down at the floor, when suddenly his eyes went wide.

"hey, i told you there was shellfish in here," he smiled, picking up a stuffed lobster with the word 'boston' embroidered into a claw. its boston lobster ahh

the two laughed lightly, but it wasn't enough to drown out the weird atmosphere that suddenly flooded the place because of how mysterious josh was being.

the room was filled with a thick sense of awkwardness, tyler looking around at josh's childhood room, not exactly sure of what to do or say next. he had always been socially inept, and this moment was making that rather obvious.