Lost and Found {joshler}

four

the song is 'Passenger Seat' by Death Cab for Cutie.

💫

Once they made it out of the frat house, Josh steered Tyler towards his car. The fresh air helped him to regather himself a bit.

He went to open the car door when he hesitated, looking over the top of the vehicle at Josh with wide eyes. "Wait, what about your band, or-or your gear?"

Josh laughed. "My bandmates packed it up and took it, we practice in his basement so he keeps all the stuff." He assured. Tyler almost told him to cut out the laughing, it was intoxicating and he was already too drunk to cope.

Josh motioned for Tyler to get in his car and he did, Josh opened the glovebox when they were settled gesturing at the stacks of CDs inside.

"Feel free to pick something." He smiled before concentrating on pulling away from the frat.

Tyler nodded and began flicking through the collection. He chuckled to himself and Josh gave him a curious look.

"Death cab and rage against the machine don't exactly feel like the same vibe." Tyler snorted before shuffling through the CDs again.

"Yeah but they're good albums. Transatlanticism is my favourite album probably of all time." Josh replied with a smirk.

Tyler smiled and put it in the CD player. Just listening to it made Tyler feel like he was exposing a part of Josh's soul. He blushed a bit.

"All I brought with me was an n*sync cd." Tyler mumbled but it made Josh burst out laughing, a hearty laugh that made Tyler's head feel light.

"Dude that's sick." Josh wheezed, wiping a tear of laughter from his eye. He still couldn't stop laughing and Tyler found it infectious, laughing too.

He was so screwed.

After the laughter died out Tyler found himself a little sleepy, the calming music of Death Cab allowing him to soak in the lateness of the day. He sunk lower into the car seat but continued to make easy conversation with Josh, like they were childhood friends simply reconnecting not two people who had only met that morning. It scared Tyler how much he was willing to tell Josh already, how intense their connection was but it also excited him beyond belief.

By the time the short drive was over, however, Tyler felt more awake than ever. As Josh parked up Tyler realised he didn't want to get out, he turned to Josh.

Josh sighed and smiled a little.

"Do you maybe wanna go get food? I really feel like In 'N' Out." He asked hopefully and Tyler smiled, nodding almost instantly.

"Sweet." Josh's grin grew as he focused on pulling out of the parking lot and driving them to the nearest fast food joint.

The two boys talked for hours over burgers, getting to know each other until they realised the sun was coming up and they really should get some sleep in at some point.

When Tyler finally made it into his dorm room Mark was asleep. He tripped over his shoes and crashed into the corner of his bed causing Mark to stir and Tyler to yelp with pain.

"Dude, where were you?" Mark said, voice husky from sleep, rubbing his eyes as he sat up. "I was worried. You didn't answer your phone." He was too tired to sound as angry as he felt. Tyler flopped down on his own bed, rubbing his leg. He fumbled for his phone before realising it was dead.

"Sorry battery died." He shrugged, blindly reaching around for his charger and practically blinding himself when his phone finally powered back on. He went about throwing off his clothes and climbing into bed. After laying there for a while he couldn't stop the fuzzy feeling that spread through his chest. "We talked about everything it was amazing." He said whistfully.

"Hmm?" Mark responded basically asleep.

"Yeah, Josh's really cool. We talked about how he lives with some friends just off campus and he's majoring in music. He said he wants to be in a band some day, and I don't know it was crazy but he just- he gets things, he thinks about stuff in a way I didn't think anyone else did." Tyler rambled on a bit longer smiling at the memories as he stared up at the ceiling. Light was already seeping through the curtains.

"He sounds great." Mark sighed smacking his lips and rolling over. "Did you tell him your name isn't Mark?" He mumbled pulling the covers over his shoulder.

Tyler's heart stopped, a feeling of sick dread flowing through him as he realised he never corrected Josh. "No." He whispered, sure Mark was already passed out again.

His mind swirled as Mark's words brought him crashing back to reality.

There'd been no need to correct Josh because he'd never actually used the wrong name, they were so busy connecting that maybe even if Josh had called him Mark he probably was too fixated on Josh to really pick up on it. He'd spent so much time thinking about how Josh bit his tongue when he laughed and rested his chin on his hand and scrunched his nose to actually take in half of what he said and the other half had just resonated so much with Tyler's own thoughts and desires that he was too in awe to think about something as trivial as the name Josh was calling him.

What if he'd gone too far, what if he told Josh now and he lost him.

Dread filled Tyler. If Josh found out he'd been lying about who he was this whole time, then he might feel betrayed and hate Tyler and Tyler wouldn't cope with that.

What if his soul mark doesn't even say Tyler, and I misread it. It could've said Taylor or something. What if he doesn't feel the same about me or is mad because he doesn't want me as his soulmate.

Eventually Tyler's racing thoughts tired themselves out, his body too exhausted and sleep deprived to fight off sleep any longer. Tyler's head feeling groggy, his stomach heavy in a way that had no correlation to a hangover, despite how much alcohol he'd worked off chatting to Josh.

He was so screwed.