ON HOLD Casino Lights • Joshler

2

"There's two of you?!" Josh's voice was a bit too loud. He must've gone crazy, he was probably drugged.

"I can explain" Tyler assured from the top of the stairs, walking down fast.

"Good luck with that" the other Tyler snorted.

"You, shut your mouth" the first Tyler threatened the other one with his finger as he jumped off the last stair.

"You're not the boss of me" the second Tyler sticked his tongue out.

Josh's head hurt from the mix of two same voices and he almost thought he was seeing double. He rubbed his eyes "Are you guys like twins?"

"Oh, you wish" the second Tyler snorted again.

"Shut. Up!" the first Tyler ordered through his teeth.

"What's with all the fuss?" another Tyler entered the room.

Josh was now certain he was drugged. Yeah, that's what happened. That's the only possible explanation.

The first Tyler groaned loudly. He approached Josh and apologized repeatedly.

From behind of where Josh was standing, two new Tylers walked together, watching something on a phone in one's hand.

"Okay, what the hell is going on?" Josh demanded, rising his voice rather desperately.

The only way he could tell which Tyler was which was because the first one had grey clothes, the third one had a colorful onesie, but the other three were in black jeans and black hoodies so they looked pretty much the same. They all sounded the same, so voice recognition was not gonna help him.

Josh rubbed his eyes again.

"Alright, which one of you brought this prostitute up here?" the Tyler with a phone in his hand asked angrily.

The second and third Tyler answered in sync "Tyler"

"I'm not a prostitute" Josh whispered, but nobody heard him; nobody cared. He was currently out of the conversation.

The first Tyler groaned again, placing a gentle palm onto Josh's right bicep. He whispered "I am so incredibly sorry about this"

"What did father say about bringing people to your house?" Tyler with a phone asked angrily again.

"I know, alright?" the first Tyler took a step toward the one with a phone "I just- I don't know! He won't do us no harm!"

"You can't know that!" the colorful Tyler exclaimed.

The first Tyler then took Josh hand and pulled him toward the staircase "Leave us alone or I swear to God I'll set all of your houses on fire and I'll tell Mother you did it yourselves"

Three of the four remaining Tylers laughed. The first Tyler and Josh made their way upstairs.

"I'm calling Father" one of them announced.

"No! I wanna call Father!"

"Nah-ha! I'm calling him!"

As Josh was being led to first Tyler's bedroom, he heard a loud fight erupting between the others. Words started being unintelligible, but also seemed irrelevant at this point.

The door was shut and both exhaled sharply; probably for different reasons.

"What. The. Actual. Hell?" Josh asked calmly.

"Allow me to explain" Tyler begged.

"Please do. Because I'm starting to feel crazy" Josh stated, gesturing toward his head with his hands and starting to pace nervously in a small circle.

"We're quintuplets" Tyler said simply.

Josh cringed "English, please?"

"We were- ugh, how do I explain this?" Tyler groaned, placing a palm atop his head and speaking with his eyes closed "We're brothers. Our mother was pregnant with all of us at the same time"

Josh's jaw dropped "You're all brothers?! How?!"

"What do I know? Ask my Dad, he made us" Tyler rolled his eyes "You know what. Don't ask my Dad. He can't know you were ever here"

"Why not?" Josh ignored Tyler's words of his name being the only thing he's allowed to know.

"That's a secret. I'm sorry, but this is the most I can tell you" Tyler repeated his former statement.

Josh sighed, bitting the right side of his bottom lip "Can you at least tell me if all of your names are Tyler?"

Tyler chuckled, crossing his arms on his chest "They're not. The clown is Thomas, but you probably know him as The Pantaloon. The rude ass bit- excuse me, that rude guy you first confronted is Troy, also known as The Judge. The quiet one is Taylor or Mr Misty-Eyed. And the bossy one is Theodore, Theo or Message Man"

"Whoa" Josh nodded, trying to memorize all the names "How do your parents tell you apart? How do you tell you apart?"

"Well" Tyler sighed "We know each other, so it's easy for us to tell which is which but I honestly have no idea how our parents know who is who"

"You must have a fun life" Josh commented.

"Oh, believe me" Tyler laughed softly.

"Are they always this...weird?" Josh questioned.

Tyler's brows furrowed "What do you mean?"

"Well, they're kinda attacking, y'know" Josh shrugged.

"It's just the influence our parents had on us. We're overprotective" Tyler rubbed the back of his neck as he attempted at explaining.

"What are you protecting?" Josh continued to push things.

"A secret" Tyler said simply, hoping to shut Josh up with a short answer.

But the pink-haired boy wasn't just gonna give up. He sighed "How old are you?"

"Gonna be twenty one this year"

"I'm nineteen" Josh nodded a few times, repeating Tyler's words in his head and coming to a realization "Wait. You're too young to be in that casino"

"Look who's talking" Tyler snorted, rolling his eyes.

"I wasn't playing cards" Josh narrowed his eyes, crossing his arms on his chest.

"I'm not too young when my Dad owns the place" Tyler smirked, winking.

Josh's jaw dropped "And he lets you guys do that?!"

"No, of course not" Tyler chuckled smugly "The guards know whose sons we are so they let us. Our Dad has no idea"

"Rebels"

"What can ya do?" Tyler grinned innocently.

Josh let everything sink in for a few moments before asking "You all live here together?"

"No. Hell no" Tyler's eyes popped at the very thought. Quickly, he got into explaining "These two floors are mine. The guys are just here because I live closest to the casino"

"Well, do you at least love each other?" Josh rose an eyebrow. The guys had a fight in front of him, and if there's five of them, they probably fight every day.

"Of course we do!" Tyler assured, eyes wide open, he nodded "But sibling rivalry is always present"

"Oh God, I'm so happy I never had siblings" Josh laughed softly at himself.

Tyler laughed a little louder.

There was rapid and noisy knocking on the door and both boys' heads shot up.

"Where do you keep the food, Tyler? I want pudding!"

Tyler rolled his eyes "That's Thomas"

Josh laughed. Thomas sounded like Brendon - always eating, never gaining weight.

"I'm coming!" Tyler yelled. He laughed with Josh before talking to him "I'll be right back, are you still gonna be here?"

Josh nodded happily. He liked Tyler, he can stay here a bit longer.