Under The Covers {joshler}

junior year - part sixteen

Tyler's promise that the drama would blow over didn't seem to be quiet as soon as Josh wanted. It was the following Monday after the gossip had spread and it seemed to only have reached further, spreading amongst freshman, sophomores and even seniors now too. The pictures had been spread all over the school, not just of Emma but the ones of Jenna too. Everyone stared at Josh in disgust, and for a minute Josh actually missed being his freshman self, where people only shouted slurs instead of looking at him like he was scum, where most people in school called him Jonny and didn't actually know who he was.

His sister had done her best to help spread the real story along with her friends but there was only so much influence her and her artsy friends could do when they didn't hold much popularity.

Josh gripped the sleeves of Tyler's hoodie, that he'd refused to take off all weekend save for when he showered, the sleeves pulled down over his hands. He kept his head down, hood up and headphones in so that he could shut the world out but he still caught people whispering.

As he miserably pulled books from his locker someone flicked an earbud out of his ear startling him.

"Ya know, if you stopped looking like a teenage run away from a drama less people would probably leave you alone more." His sister said rolling her eyes.

"Shut up." He snapped but he pulled his hood down and removed his headphones anyway. "What do you want?"

"Do you have spare lunch money I forgot mine." She pleaded and Josh rolled her eyes but fished out a few crumpled bills from his backpack and shoved them in her hands. She thanked him with a kiss to his cheek before heading off to class, he didn't tell her it was the only money he had on him that day.

He sighed and tried to ignore people as he went to class.

He made it all the way to AP English before he started to get overwhelmed. Someone throwing a note at his head that asked if he had any more nudes to share pushed him over the edge. He gripped his desk to try to hide how violently he was shaking and as soon as the bell rang Tyler was at his side.

He held his hands and guided him up to the roof of the science building, just like they had a million times before. The moment the fire door shut behind them Josh was gasping for breath, bent over and Tyler rubbed his back.

"Give me the note." Tyler said slowly when Josh was a bit calmer. Josh fished it out of his pocket and handed it to Tyler who read it and then ripped it in half.

"Tear it up." He said handing the crumbled halves to him. Josh stared at him for a second before doing as he said, taking all his anger out on the creased pieces of paper. Eventually letting the wind carry them away. He felt slightly better and he nodded when Tyler asked if it helped.

"Talk to me." Tyler said gently, taking Josh's hands in his and kissing his forehead.

"I-I feel like some kind of freak show, people look at me like I'm scary." Josh huffed. "I literally scare people, like they didn't know I was capable of such disgusting thing and it freaks them out and it freaks me out more that people believe I would do that. There are people who praise me for what they think I did and it makes me feel sick. I can't cope with the tiptoeing around me and the whispering like I'm some kind of grenade with a loose pin or something, I can't take all the staring and the negative opinions of me, it's like I'm suffocating."

Tyler squeezed Josh's hands. His heart hurt and he wanted to kill anyone and everyone who so much as breathed in Josh's direction but he knew he couldn't do anything of the sort. He furrowed his brow as he listened to Josh try to hide his sniffles in the collar of Tyler's favourite Grouplove hoodie, it looked better on Josh than it ever did on him and that made his chest fuzzy.