Delinquent •Joshler•

Chapter 16: Valentine

a/n: wait 2 play song

Tyler woke up to the sound of drums being beat on heavily downstairs. He rolled over and felt the empty spot next to time that had grown cold. Pulling on a pair of basketball shorts he trudged downstairs still groggy.

"Josh what are you doing?" Tyler yawned standing in the doorway of the garage. Josh didn't hear him and kept banging on his drumset. The yellow haired boy's face was red with sweat dripping off of it. It was like anger mixed with desire and sadness, you could almost feel it every time Josh slammed his foot against the pedal for the bass.

Suddenly a loud bang rippled through the garage causing Josh and Tyler to both scream, Josh dropping his drumsticks quickly. The angry boy stood up and stared at the broken drum head before kicking it, tears seeping down his face.

"Josh? JOSH !" Tyler yelled finally getting his attention. Josh's head snapped up and he began wiping the tears from his face, inhaling deeply to control his ragged breathing.

"What's wrong?" Tyler said walking over to Josh and carefully putting his hands on the side of the sad boy's face, wiping a tear away with this thumb.

"The paper. Did you read the paper?" Josh said coldly. Tyler's eyebrows creased together in confusion and the brunette shook his head. Josh picked up the today's paper and shoved it into Tyler's chest.

Tyler flipped through the paper until he got to one that had obvious tear stains on it. It was the obituaries. He saw Andrew's and read the description of how and why he was killed, along with how his family didn't have enough money to have him buried and had no choice but to cremate him.

"They were fucking poor as dirt and they couldn't even bury their own son that I  killed!" Josh spat, red hot tears seeping down his face once again. "The thing was Andrew wasn't even all that bad sometimes you know? He just got into the wrong crowd, which was probably mostly my fault anyways."

"Josh he chose to do this. He got you into running drugs." Tyler said putting the paper down and pulling Josh into him, hugging him tightly.

Josh pushed Tyler away. "Yeah only after I told him how much money it made. I didn't think he would go and become a monster. I knew he loved breaking the rules and shit but god I could never see this coming." He said and sat on the ground hard, almost falling. Josh sat their crying harshly, his head wrapped in his arms.

Tyler didn't know what to say. "They took all the money he had didn't they? That's why they couldn't bury him." He said sullenly sitting down next to Josh and sighing. "What a shit thing to do."

Josh sniffed and nodded. "And I still have my money from my drug runs. I'm a terrible fucking person."

"You're not Josh. You changed and Andrew didn't. He put you in situations that are usually only in movies and you did that....Josh you did that for me." Tyler said thickly. Josh looked up with tears stained cheeks.

"I-I wanted to protect you." Josh sniffed. Tyler hugged him and this time Josh didn't resist.

"It was nobody's fault but his own. I know it'll take a while before you realize that, but it's okay. I'll be here to remind you every time you think bad about it." Tyler said and kissed Josh on the cheek. Tyler looked at Josh nervously picking his thumb that had a small patch of blood on it.

"Oh god Josh don't hurt yourself." Tyler said taking Josh's thumb and sticking it in his mouth to suck off the blood. Josh's breath hitched at the sudden contact and swift switch of emotions.

"I-I think I have anxiety problems." Josh hiccupped, his fingers shaking a bit around Tyler's chin.

"Did you tell the therapist?" Tyler said taking Josh thumb from his mouth and wiping it on his shirt before intertwining his hand in Josh's.