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the school week passed quickly and before tyler knew it saturday came around; the day brendon and josh invited him to "a secret spot" that apparently he would love, according to them. they told him that the only thing he needed to bring was himself (and obviously his oxygen tank, as josh had joked), so that's just what tyler did. he sat on the curb in front of his house, head resting in his hands as he waited to be picked up by his friends.
soon enough the familiar black jeep pulled up in front of him and he hopped into the backseat, noticing the picnic basket sat on the floor next to him.
"a picnic?" he asked with a small giggle, opening up the top of the basket to see a bunch of juice boxes and peanut butter and fluff sandwiches.
"do you have something against picnics?" josh scoffed, tapping his fingers to a random beat on brendon's shoulder.
"no, i just find it cute." tyler smiled and josh raised his eyebrows in surprise before shrugging and joining tyler with a bright grin of his own.
"what can i say? we're all cute people, we deserve cute picnics."
"touché," brendon mumbled without taking his eyes off of the road.
it wasn't long before they were pulling into the dense forest, parking the car at the beginning of a small trail that led to god knows where. tyler lugged himself along with his tank out of the vehicle, following behind his friends as they began to walk down the trail. their pace was fast, which was fine at first, but tyler quickly found himself panting and out of breath. he willed himself on despite his fatigue, wanting to prove to himself that he could do it. he knew that josh and brendon would slow down if he just asked, but he was stubborn and pushed on.
brendon was the first to notice tyler lagging behind, a good ways away from the group. brendon rushed to his side in worry, josh following his lead, stopping in front of tyler.
"i'm sorry for walking so far ahead, we can take a break if you want." brendon's tone was concerned and it rubbed tyler the wrong way.
"i'm fine," he snapped, a fit of coughs escaping after his words. "let's just continue."
brendon haphazardly agreed, paying extra attention to the way tyler's breaths were uneven and staggering. he could tell tyler wasn't actually okay, so he stopped abruptly.
"josh, lean down. tyler, get on josh's back for a piggyback ride. don't bother protesting because it's not gonna work."
tyler sighed but did as told, climbing onto josh's back with a hum of relief at the way his lungs were screaming a million 'thank you's at him. he still wheezed and coughed and had difficulty catching his breath, but anything was better than the sensation he was going through before as he struggled with each breath he took.
