keep it up ↠ joshler ✔

24

:::

when tyler awoke the next morning, he was happily surprised to find josh still there, sitting in the same bench from the previous night, holding two coconut smoothies.

"hey," he said with a smile.

"hi."

"brought you something,"

tyler graciously took the drink, and it froze his hands already.

"thanks, jish."

"no problem, ty-guy."

"how'd you get these in, anyway? i thought we weren't allowed in any outside food or drink?"

"i, um, convinced your 'roommates' to keep it secret."

"oh," tyler said, just then looking around the room to find three other beds, one of which was empty and two occupied.

one person directly across from tyler waved politely. he had thick framed glasses and sandy colored hair. on the table beside him sat a fedora and a ghostbusters coffee mug.

the other person had stacks of comics piled up on the small table besides him, and was currently reading one now named, 'the umbrella academy'. he had long black hair that fell just below his ears and eyes with too many lines around them to count.

the one with sandy hair introduced himself as patrick, but the other stayed quiet, too engrossed in his comic book. patrick said his name was gerard.

"who's in the other bed?" tyler asked curiously.

"oh, um, i don't know," josh lied, "they weren't here this morning."

"oh." tyler said, taking another sip of his smoothie.

"d'you want to take a walk?"

tyler looked down at himself, "i kind of think that's physically impossible, actually,"

josh chuckled, "in a wheelchair, silly."

"oh. sure."

josh quickly flagged down a nurse, it was crazy how fast they reacted when they saw him, and within a few minutes tyler was situated in the chair with josh pushing him.

"it was nice to finally meet you, tyler." patrick said as the couple left the room, taking a sip of his coffee and trying to secretly take a comic from gerard to read.

"what's he mean 'finally'?" tyler asked once they were in the hallway.

"oh, um, i don't know."

tyler shrugged it off and mixed around his smoothie a bit.

their walk was peaceful, nothing out of the ordinary. they made simple conversation as josh pushed tyler with all the strength he had, even though the boy didn't weigh much at all.

the walls were a boring, depressing white, but the faces passing them were mostly nice and welcoming. it was sad how many young children and teenagers there were in the ward they strolled though.

"are you hungry, ty? want to go to the cafeteria or something?"

tyler shrugged. he really wasn't hungry, but after finishing his smoothie, he figured real food couldn't hurt.

the cafeteria was surprisingly close, only a few turns away in fact. there were already a lot of young patients there for breakfast, all of which seemed to be between 13-20 years old.

"what do you want? i hear they have waffles and omelets," josh informed tyler, who was too busy thinking, 'wow, josh knows a lot about this place,' to answer the question right away.

"tyler?"

"oh, um, s-sorry, o-omelets sound g-great."

josh smiled. "i met with a few people in the waiting room who all seem cool, i'm sure they'll talk while i get the food. is that okay?"

tyler, albeit nervous about new people, shrugged anyway.

"cool cool."

josh rolled tyler over to a small table with only three others, who seemed nicer than tyler expected. there was a boy with curly black hair, a girl with short, blue hair, and another girl whose hair was a vibrant orange.

"tyler, this is matty, ashley, and hayley."

"you just met them yesterday?"

"yeah, you were out for, um, a while."

"oh. sorry."

"don't be! i'll just go get breakfast."

josh quickly pecked tyler's forehead before taking off, fiddling with his many bracelets.

tyler couldn't stop looking at his feet, avoiding the strangers his boyfriend left him with.

"hi, tyler, as josh said i'm hayley," one introduced herself, her voice holding a sweet undertone.

"h-hi..."

conversation seemed to stiffen in the group.

"i c-can go, if you w-want me to..."

"no! um, sorry, it's okay, tyler. it's fine. i'm ashley, but everyone calls me halsey."

tyler smiled weakly.

"so, erm, what type of music do you like?"

tyler shrugged. "different kinds. skrillex is cool, i guess. so's green day."

"i love green day!" halsey perked up.

"yeah, you fucking love green day. that's how you ended up here, idiot." matty said, nudging her in the ribs.

halsey rolled her eyes, making tyler smile a bit.

"ignore them, man. they're always like this. josh said you play the ukulele?"

tyler nodded.

"that's cool! what songs d'you know?"

"i k-kinda like to write the s-songs, a-actually..."

"dude, that's even cooler. you should let us hear them sometime!"

"sometime..."

there was a weird silence just then, and a disgustingly familiar voice popped into tyler's head again.

you're so weird. you can't even make friends.

but now, instead of tearing him down, it only motivated tyler to try harder to make conversation.

he finally looked up for once, planning on speaking again, but was met with the slight of halsey attempting to fling piles of cheerios off her spoon at matty, who held up his hands in defense, and hayley literally on halsey's back in attempts to get her to stop.

tyler began to laugh.

and actually, genuinely laugh.

the employees came over soon enough, pulling the three apart, but tyler was still wiping tears from his eyes.

josh appeared not long after, setting down a tray of food on the table.

"hey," he greeted them, swiping piles of cheerios away as if it were a regular thing and taking a seat next to tyler.