Kiss It Better? [Joshler]

Fifteen Years

A/N I apologize for the long wait and what's about to happen.

"You okay Tyler? You don't look so great," Josh said as he walked up behind Tyler to join him on his way to his first class.

"I'm fine," Tyler assured his concerned friend, although to Josh it sounded more as though he was trying to convince himself he was fine.

"You sure? You look really tired and... I don't know. Depressed."

At that word, Tyler whipped his head around and snapped, "I told you, I'm fine. Come on, we have to get to math." With that, he marched off and into the classroom, leaving Josh to trail behind.

"Morning Tyler," their teacher said as he entered the room. He ignored her greeting and kept his head down until he made it to the back of the class, where he sat down and laid his head across his folded arms on the desk. Josh frowned at this. Tyler always made a huge effort to be friendly with the teachers, and he had never seen him ignore them like that before. He just shrugged and sat down two desks from the front; obviously Tyler wasn't in the mood for talking to people, and even though Josh wanted desperately to know what was up with him, he decided to respect the boy's desire to be alone.

The class soon started with the teacher explaining some confusing new geometry concept, and then she passed out a sheet to work on for the rest of class. Josh thanked her as he took his, then watched as she worked her way to the back, where Tyler was sitting, his head still resting on his arms.

"Tyler," she said, trying to pass him the paper. "Tyler!" she repeated a bit louder, causing him to stir. "Here's your math sheet."

He nodded and took it, but rather than picking up his pencil and starting it, Josh noticed him just lay it down beside him and put his head back down. This was very unlike Tyler. He always got his work done, and hated homework, and so made sure to finish everything in class.

Josh turned back to his own page and bit the end of his pencil. It all looked very confusing, but he needed to get it finished so Tyler could use his answers if he wanted. An hour later, the bell rang to dismiss class, and Josh packed up his stuff with only one incomplete question left. He stood up and put his bag on over his shoulders before turning to wait for Tyler. When he did, he noticed the boy still had his head down on the desk, and hadn't moved to get ready for the next class. When he approached him, Josh realized Tyler must have fallen asleep at some point during the class.

"Ty," he said, shaking him gently. "Come on, you have to wake up so we can get to class." Tyler groaned a bit before lazily throwing his bag over one shoulder and grabbing his binder, then followed Josh out to the hall.

"Come on," Josh said once they exited the room, grabbing the boy by the wrist and dragging him off towards the front door. Tyler winced a bit, but didn't say anything, except to ask where they were going.

"Out. I was thinking maybe a Starbucks or something," Josh told him, still pulling his friend behind him.

"But we'll miss class," Tyler said, although he made no effort to get away.

"Not like you were doing anything anyway. C'mon, one little skip won't hurt."

Tyler shrugged and they made their way out into the humid parking lot of the school. Thankfully there was no sun, as it was already incredibly warm, and that only would have made it worse.