sober//joshler

INTRO

Josh was drunk again.
He normally was, at least he was when they went to Brendon's. Tyler sighed, running a hand through his sweaty hair. God, the living room was packed full of sweating adolescents, high on weed and drunk out of their goddamn minds. None of them were above the age of 18. This was illegal as hell, if they were caught it would mean deep shit for nearly everyone here. The host of the party, notorious drinker, druglord and rich kid, Brendon Urie, threw parties like this all throughout the weekend. He would sit in his hot tub, surrounded by guys and girls alike, smoking until his pupils were so wide they were all you could see in his eyes.
Speaking of Urie, where the hell was he?
Squeezing past two boys, one who recognized as Michael Way, making out in the corner, Tyler emerged, panting slightly, into the equally crowded bedroom. Fucking disgusting. At least the kids practically having sex then and there were above legal age. Maybe.
Tyler wrinkled his nose in disgust as he made his way to the bed when Brendon was, naturally, pressed against some poor person. At least it looked consensual, the smaller, scruffy boy seemed to be having a good time.
"Dickhead," Tyler hissed, tugging Brendon off his latest victim. Brendon whined and looked up at Tyler, his pupils blown wide, the blackness swallowing up anything but a dull, drunken light deep behind his eyes. Tyler narrowed his eyes in disgust and shooed the smaller boy away.
"Wh't?" Brendon mumbled through thick lips. He seemed even worse than unusual, his head kept dropping and his words were one long stream of sound. Shaking off his worry for him, as well as his disgust, he tightened his grip on Brendon's shirt.
"Where's Josh?" he growled. Brendon shrugged, seemingly unbothered by the disappearance of the one person Tyler had told him to take care of. Dropping Brendon and letting out a snort of disgust, he made his way out of the bedroom and slipped into the kitchen.
Josh Dun. Formerly Tyler's best friend. They had been inseparable since childhood, growing up with each other. Except, in Josh's case, growing up had involved several things neither boy had been prepared for. With the arrival of Urie into town, Josh, like so many others, had been sucked down into the poisonous glamour of parties and drink and, more recently, drugs. The boy Tyler had known and loved for his whole life disappears, and Tyler was left as nothing more than a designated driver.
The room was dark, save for the harsh light coming from the fridge. Tyler watched from the doorway as the haunches figure by the fridge, his glossy face illuminated by the artificial light, straightened up and staggered over to Tyler, nearly crashing into the table as he went.
"Tyl'r!" Josh grinned, his voice slurry as he gripped another pack of beers. Too many for one person. "Though you w'rnt 'bout the p...arty life, h'h?"
Tyler ignored the way his heart shriveled at on sight of Josh drunk out his mind once again. He reached over and gently prized Josh's clammy fingers off the beers and led his protesting best friend back through the crowd in the living room, ignoring the groping fingers begging them to stay, ignoring Josh's whines and the reek of drugs that followed him, shutting everything out, out, out. They needed to go home.
As soon as they were on the street, Tyler relaxed, the cold air shocking him out of the heat-induced haze he had entered. Josh seemed dismayed at being forced to leave, but Tyler didn't care. At least things hadn't escalated like they had last week, when Tyler had had to tear his friend off the poor recumbent figure of some passed out sophomore.
Things could be worse, he reasoned as he half-dragged Josh into his car. Yes, no one was pregnant, there were no hard drugs in Josh's body. Things could be worse.
But, Tyler countered to himself as he climbed into his seat, things could be so much better.
"Why'd you m-make me le-ave?" Josh wasn't whining any more, instead asking a dead serious question. Tyler sighed, biting the inside of his cheek to stop himself from losing it right then an there.
"You were going too far. I can't let you go too far." he reasoned simply. Josh snorted and hiccuped.
"Bull-hic-shit! I never go too far."
"You almost got someone pregnant last week. And Brendon had cocaine on him today, it was only a matter of time before you got into that." Tyler snorted angrily, hands gripping the wheel. "The beer is bad enough for you as it is."
Josh glared at him. "I don't need you to fu-cking tell me what to do, dipshit."
Tyler said nothing. He gripped the wheel so hard his knuckles turned white, ignoring the pain and fury that ripped through him. This wasn't Josh, he reminded himself. He hadn't seen Josh in so long, so many years now. Not since the first party, not since Tyler had lost his best friend to alcohol and drugs at the age of 17. Not since he had become nothing more than a designated driver to take Josh home and make sure he didn't die in the middle of the night, only to repeat the cycle again and again.
No, he hadn't seen Josh in a long time.
So Tyler slowly exhaled through his nose, rolling his shoulders and carefully turning the car on and backing up, the only sound filling the narrow space being the harsh beeping of the car.
"Where....whattya doing?" Josh mumbled angrily, swatting at Tyler's hands.
"We're going home." Tyler snapped, shifting the gear.
"Fuck, no." Josh growled, swiping Tyler's hands off the wheel. "'M not goin' home, there's a p-arty, fuck."
"Josh, stop," Tyler warned, hating the way his voice shook slightly, hating Josh's hands all over his, hating the smell of booze on his breath. Hating everything about the stranger next to him.
"Don't tell me what to do." Josh's breath was too warm and to harsh against his face as the taller boy leaned in. "You're not my fucking friend."
Maybe it was because he was so tired of this, so tired of driving this wasted stranger home, so tired of Josh. Or maybe it was because of that word, that horrible word that had ruined everything. Either way, he snapped.
Tyler lashed out, his backhand catching Josh on his lip. The blue-haired stranger leant back in surprise, looking slowly down at the blood spatters on his shirt, then back up at Tyler, a look of hatred in his eyes.
And suddenly they were fighting, screaming. Tyler let his fists fly, catching Josh wherever he could, not minding the blows he received. He didn't care, didn't care, didn't care. He was so sick of this, so sick of everything. Fuck Josh, fuck him.
Tyler shoved him back against the wall of the car, ignoring the tears that blurred his vision, the blood on his face. He glared into the eyes of the stranger next to him, the eyes that he had once loved but now he just hated. The eyes that, despite everything, still didn't seem to care.
"GET OUT!" roared Tyler. "GET OUT AND STAY THE FUCK OUT!"
There was a cold silence as Tyler released Josh's shoulders and watched unflinchingly as the taller boy stumbled out of the car, legs unsteady, blood running down from his split lip onto his shirt. Josh looked at Tyler, almost mockingly.
"I gave you everything," Tyler panted, his hands aching. "I tried to hard to save you. Well, I'm done. I can't do this anymore, I can't watch you do this anymore."
Josh scoffed deep in his throat, staggering slightly.
"I never loved you."
Tyler tried not to flinch at the sentence that came out of Josh's drunken mouth. He blocked it out, shut him down. He was done with this.
"Goodbye, Josh."
Tyler slammed the door, maybe harder than he should've. He didn't look to his right as he turned the car back on and pressed a shaking foot on the gas pedal. He ignored the figure of Josh disappearing as be slowly turned the corner.
And he did his best to ignore the tears blurring his vision as he drove down the street, down the highway, as far away as possible from the house, the party, the place.
As far away as possible from Josh.

//COMING SOON//