flower crowns and other neat stuff - joshler

part 3

the rest of the week was fairly uneventful. tyler met a guy named ray who helped him pick up his books after some asshole had knocked into him, making him drop them. he stared at josh dun a bit. he really didn't do much else.

at the end of the day on friday, he waved at ray on his way out before starting to walk home.

before he could get very far, though, his path was blocked by none other than pete wentz.

the slightly disturbing outfit of the day was a highschool musical jersey, hot pink basketball shorts, and another pair of heelies. there had been a different pair every day that week. please, somebody, for the good of the world, stop him immediately.

"hey t-man! what's cookin?" pete said enthusiastically. tyler stared at him in horror.

"don't- don't call me that. ever," tyler asked pleadingly. pete really tended to do whatever he wanted, but tyler hoped that if he begged enough, he might listen.

pete shrugged. "i dunno, i kinda like it. anyway, i'm not here to talk about nicknames," he said lightly.

tyler waited a second for him to go on and tell him why he was there, but after just standing there in silence for about five minutes, he figured pete wanted him to ask.

"what brings you here, outside of the school that you go to, of all places, then, if not to give me a terrible nickname?" tyler asked dryly.

pete frowned. "no need to be salty, my fine, tastefully dressed friend. i'm here to do you a favour."

for some reason, tyler had a hard time believing that whatever pete was planning would be favourable to him, but he'd probably go along with it anyway. despite being weird as hell, pete was a really nice guy, and tyler found himself catering to his questionable sanity.

"what would that favour be?" tyler asked tiredly. even if he was playing along, he wasn't going to act happy about it.

pete ignored tyler's tone and answered him. "i'm inviting you to a party at my house on sunday. it's something that we've been doing since freshman year as a back to school thing. you're coming."

oh. that was a problem. tyler was okay in relatively smaller crowds like the not-a-squad friend group, but in party situations his social anxiety always decided to make an unwelcome appearance, sadly, and made pretty much every party he'd been to a shitty experience.

tyler shifted uncomfortably. "um, sorry man. parties and crowds and stuff aren't really my thing."

pete shook his head. "nah, i got you, it's not really mine either. it's just the guys we normally hang out with and maybe one or two other people playing video games and eating pizza. nothing crazy, no prostitutes or mosh pits. i don't think my mom would be cool with that, for some reason."

tyler snickered. "gee, i wonder why. if it's only going to be a couple people, i'm cool then. what time?"

pete grinned even wider than usual. "rad! come by any time after three. in the afternoon. not morning."

tyler rolled his eyes. "damn, i was planning on coming at the asscrack of dawn. i only have one problem with this. i have no idea where your house is, man."

pete giggled. "you were planning on coming at the asscrack... sorry, ignore me. i'll text you the directions."

"sweet. i need to go home now, though, so if you could get out of my way, that would be great." pete stepped off towards the side of the path.

"right, sorry. see you sunday?"

tyler shot a small smile towards pete. "see you sunday."

- - - - *dividery divider* - - - - - -

tyler was outside, which was a rare occasion. it was saturday, a day that he would normally spend in bed, but his mother had forced him to go outside because she wanted him to actually know where stuff was in the new town.

tyler was probably just going to find the nearest bench to sit on and text people, but then he saw a forest.

an actual forest. there hadn't been any forests in his old city, so he immediately went inside to explore.

he wandered aimlessly for about thirty minutes before he realised he had no idea where he was or how he could get back into town.

whoops.

he briefly considered texting one of his friends that he was lost in the woods, but he was pretty sure that would result in him being ruthlessly teased for the rest of his existence.

he picked a direction and began walking in it, hoping it would lead back into town. that plan was going well until he heard someone singing softly in the distance. it was amazing, and tyler (no matter how disney it sounded) had to know who it was.

he walked in the direction that the voice was coming from until he stumbled upon a clearing with none other than josh dun sitting in the middle.

sunlight streamed through the trees, framing everything in a pleasant green glow. josh was hunched over a book, headphones on and singing along to whatever song was playing. the moment was just so aesthetically pleasing, and tyler hated to ruin it, but he was sort of lost.

his mother was probably worried. it wasn't every day that he actually went outside for more than ten minutes, let alone two hours. tyler walked out from under the cover of the trees and behind josh. he cleared his throat.

no response. he walked over and tapped josh on the shoulder, causing the other boy to jump.

he pulled out one of his earbuds and looked at tyler. "um... hi?" josh said, surprise in his voice.

tyler shifted uncomfortably. "uh, yeah, hey. i'm like, kind of lost, so if you could tell me how to get back into town that would be pretty rad."

josh just stared at him before shaking his head as if to clear it. "um, sure. i probably need to go home anyway, i'll walk you back."

tyler smiled. "sweet, thanks! i'm tyler, by the way."

josh smiled back at him. "i'm josh dun, though you probably know that by now."

he stood up before wiping the grass and dirt off if his jeans. he began walking in the opposite direction tyler had been going, and tyler caught up enough to walk beside him.

"where did you move from?" josh asked, still looking ahead.

"columbus. it's in ohio," tyler replied. josh made eye contact with him, smiling. "really? i'm from there too. we're like, ohio soulmates."

tyler blushed. what else could he do, a cute boy had just said they were soulmates. "we should start a band and just sing about ohio in every song," tyler suggested.

josh grinned at him. "we'll sing about snow in april and advertisements about incest!"

"and corn," tyler added.

"and corn."

they reached the edge of the forest. josh turned to tyler, looking nervous. "um, i'll see you around?" josh said, phrasing it like a question.

tyler nodded. "definitely. you're pretty neat."

josh ducked his head. "so are you. and your flower crowns."

they parted ways, each of them on the other's mind.