Intimidation ♡ joshler

seventy two

The rest of the week went by quickly enough.  Tyler would play Overkill with Marie until Brendon would return from school, when Marie would excuse herself to make some sort of snack for them all while Brendon took his aunt's controller to play instead.  Then at night, Brendon would bring his phone to Tyler so he and Josh could talk for a little while.  To sum things up, the rest of the week wasn't as eventful as the last Tuesday.

So Tyler was actually a bit happy to be returning to school the following Tuesday, Marie's makeup hiding the blemish that has yet to heal from the boy's cheek.  And maybe happy's the wrong word, because school never fails to overwhelm and put a lot of stress on him, but the idea of seeing Josh again in person for the first time in a week brews up a tingly feeling in his stomach and dusts his cheeks with a pleasant pink.

But that overwhelming yet familiar sense of dread takes him as he's sitting in his first classroom, unprepared since he left his school bag at home, and too shy to ask even the teacher for a writing utensil when she is to come to class.

The final bell rings, signaling the start of block one, where Tyler is to sit timidly for ninety minutes, just to do the same thing in the next class, where he'll still be unprepared.  Serves Tyler right for thinking he can run from his problems—all he did was pile up more to suffer through when he inevitably returns.

"Where the fuck is the teacher at?" one of his classmates asks no one in particular—one of those rhetorical questions—and Tyler quickly scans the room; there's no teacher in here.

"Said we were getting a sub, remember?" comes another classmate's answer, and the one prior smacks his teeth.

"Same goddamn difference, bitch."

Before a response can be given, the door is pushed open and in comes a small elderly woman seemingly done with the world and everyone and everything to do with it, and that doesn't seem to exclude this class as she takes a moment to glare at a random few students.

"I'm Mrs. Turner," the woman's voice is loud , raspy, and matches the expression on her face, and Tyler already doesn't like her, "And I'm your sub for today. Someone take out a sheet of paper and make that your attendance list. What are you supposed to be doing today?"

"Work," another classmate says, as bold and confident as ever, and do we even need to express how unamused Turner is with his response?

"Attitude will not be tolerated in here today, and I won't hesitate to write anyone up if you even look at me funny."

And Tyler finds that to be ridiculous and especially hypocritical, because that's all she's been doing since she step foot in here: giving attitudes and funny looks.

"Man, I'm 'bout to skip," the boy sitting next to Tyler mumbles under his breath as he receives the attendance paper and a pen, signs it, and passes it to Tyler, and skipping doesn't seem so bad as Tyler signs the roll himself and passes it along.  But he can't just walk out, obviously.  Actually, he could, because this is a sub and she doesn't know his name, so how can she truly report him?  But that doesn't mean that she can't call security and have them look for him; he's seen teachers and subs do that before, and something tells him that Turner will be no different.  He could go to the bathroom—but Turner will have to write him a pass, and she'll know he's gone then.  If he's gonna skip, he'll have to sneak out and hope the sub doesn't see him.

When the last student signs the paper, she brings it up to Turner, who begins to check for each name on the attendance roster, and this is probably the best opportunity he's gonna get.  So he pushes his chair back as carefully as he can, slinks up and out of the room as discreetly as he can, opens the door, steps out, and closes it as gently as he can, and he's gone unnoticed by his substitute.

Hopefully his classmates won't tell on him, which isn't too likely—hopefully.

Standing outside in the hallway like a fool, Tyler ponders to himself the best places to hide out as he skips.  But, what are those places?  He's never skipped before, and he has no idea where kids go when they skip.  The bathroom comes to mind, so he rushes to the nearest bathroom and locks himself in the last stall, checking to be sure the toilet seat's clean before sitting down; he's gonna be in here for a long time. 

But Tyler has no way to track time—he doesn't own a watch and he definitely doesn't have his phone on him right now, so the best he can do is count every second that passes by.  Well, he doesn't have anything better to do, so he begins with a one, two, three, four...

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2223, 2224, 2225, 2226—

Tyler flinches a little as the sink turns on abruptly after.... thirty seven minutes of silence, if he calculated correctly, and pulls his feet up onto the seat; he doesn't want whoever's out there to see him, because boys don't turn their feet away from the toilet when they pee, and taking a shit in public seems to be a disgrace.

"No fucking soap? Cheap ass school," the other boy mumbles under his breath, and Tyler immediately perks up at the familiar voice.  He gets off the toilet and pushes the stall door open, and the boy turns at the sound of the door opening, offering a smile, "Hey."

"Hey, Josh," Tyler smiles back, and Josh holds his arms out as if asking for a hug.  Tyler's quick to close the distance between them and press himself as close to the older as he can, Josh hugging him back just as tightly.

"Why are you in here?" Josh asks, moving one arm from the smaller boy's waist to card his fingers through said boy's hair instead, as if the hug couldn't get any better; Tyler has always loved fingers in his hair.

"Skipping, what about you?"

"Sneezed into my hands. Why're you skipping? You just got back from being suspended."

"I don't like my sub," Tyler whines a little, and he wants to beat his own goddamn self up for it; he hates whiny shit, honestly, it's annoying.

"You have a sub too?" Josh asks, but starts talking again before Tyler can answer, "They should just close school if all these teachers are gonna be out sick. You should come to my class, I have a cool sub and she's letting us do whatever."

"Really?" Tyler asks, tilting his head to lock eyes with the other, "You sure she won't mind?"

"Promise," Josh reassures him before pulling away from the embrace to instead guide him out of the bathroom and to his own classroom.

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this is the second version of this chapter man the first one was waaaay better man i was actually proud of it but the page has to refresh the one fucking time i dont use google drive man fuck quotev honestly i hate that site i only like the surveys on it anyways

buuuut anyways, thank you guys! love you all! <3

btw! Viola_Cola0503  has offered another idea for the story which will be used in either the next chapter or the chapter after next! thank you again!! :^D

(writing on wattpad sucks honestly its unnecessarily difficult bc i do it on desktop and it wouldnt save the mention i had to use the phone app how lame or am i just a lazy fuck haha who cares yo)