Child • Jøshler

chapter thirty nine

"At least we know he's alive" Tyler shrugged, trying desperately to find a good side in all of this. Josh was pacing the room nervously, pulling his hair and letting out a curse every now and then. Tyler just watched him. Tyler was naturally a calm being. And Josh was naturally a beautiful being.

So beautiful, oh God.

Tyler opened his mouth, going to tell Josh how pretty he looks

"What is it?" Josh asked, hoping Tyler had something productive to say. Tyler then quickly close his mouth and looked away. He sat down on Josh's bed, holding his chin cupped in his hands.

Josh groaned "Let's just call everybody to check on them?"

Tyler nodded, agreeing with the idea. Josh unlocked his phone and dialed Pete's number. He put the call on speaker.

"Yo"

"Pete, where are you?"

"Ah, we're in the woods"

"Brendon's with you guys?" Josh asked hopefully, remembering Brendon's last words being Patrick related. Perhaps they're all together.

"No, man, it's just Patts and me"

"Ask 'em about Brendon" Tyler whispered.

"Have you seen Bren?" Josh asked, making a mental note to ask about Dallon too.

"He flew away when he saved me" Patrick said; his voice was quieter due to him not being on the phone. Tyler and Josh fortunately heard him.

"Saved you?" Tyler's brows furrowed.

"That's not important right now" Josh stopped anyone from replying "Now, it's important to have everybody safe"

"I don't think we're too safe" Pete commented.

"Don't tell them" Patrick mumbled.

"I have to tell them, Patty"

"Tell us what?" Josh asked impatiently "Guys, don't take up our time, we don't have much"

"Patty can't transform"

Tyler jumped as both his and Josh's eyes widened "What do you mean 'Patty can't transform'?!"

"Can we please not talk about this?!" Patrick's voice came from the background.

Pete then lowered his voice to a whisper "He tried and he just can't do it. We don't know how nor why"

Josh cursed out loud.

"Calm down, Josh" Tyler said "If you need something supernatural, you have me and Brendon"

"And Andy" Josh added.

"Well, I still don't goddamn know what Andy is" Tyler crossed his arms on his chest, tilting his head at Josh slightly. Josh just waved him off.

"Don't worry, Josh" Pete assured "We can run"

"Have you heard from Dallon?" Josh asked, trying to change the subject in order of saving time and calming his worries down.

"He walked me home, but I haven't talked to his since" Pete replied, sounding kind of worried. If they were awaiting Pete, the might've been waiting for Dallon too.

"Okay, be safe" Josh said finally, looking into Tyler's pretty eyes "I'll call you later"

Before Patrick or Pete could say anything, Josh hung up. He threw his phone on the bed and himself along with it. Tyler let his arms down, rubbing his palms on the sides of his trousers. What now?

"Do you want me to call Dal?" Tyler offered, taking his own phone out of his pocket. He unlocked it and found Dallon's number in his contacts already.

"Sure" Josh nodded, rubbing his eyes with his knuckles. He was tired of all of this. He knew this wasn't gonna end well because they're all separated. That's never good. Sure, they're a little clumsy when they're all together. But it was much better to be all together than this. This was highly risky.

"Hello?" Dallon picked up after the first ring; Tyler let out a relived sigh.

"Hey Dal, it's Tyler. Are you okay?"

"Yep" Dallon replied, not sounding to cheerful. He sounded kinds of scared "Brendon's here with me"

"Where are you guys?" Tyler asked, giving Josh a nod in a way to say everything's okay. So far.

"Under our oak" Dallon answered shortly "Bren says hi"

"Say hi back" Tyler said.

"Have you been able to contact Patrick?" Dallon spoke, clearing his throat "Brendon wants to know"

"Yeah, he's with Pete"

"Tell him about Patrick" Josh said, slowly starting to sit up. Tyler gulped, blinking twice.

"Patty can't transform" he said quietly. The words sounded pretty odd to him. He had so much respect for Patrick and his power. Now, he was just as human as Josh or Dallon or Pete or anyone else.

Okay, Pete still has that post-vampire sense thingy.

"What?!" Brendon took Dallon's phone and basically shouted into the microphone. Tyler moved the phone slightly away from his ear; that was goddamn loud. He continued to shout though "How?! What the hell does that mean?!"

"W- W- We don't know" Tyler stuttered out, his left hand playing with his shirt absent-mindedly. Brendon groaned, passing the phone back to Dallon. Dallon apologized in Brendon's name and Tyler said it was alright. He understood. They were all very tense now.

A few short words later, the call ended.

"Andy?" Tyler asked. He was the only person the guys knew nothing about at the moment. He just vanished when they found out that... yeah.

"He smashed his phone, remember?" Josh laughed a little, shaking his head "He screamed, threw his phone and it smashed against the wall"

"Really?" Tyler's eyes widened, but soon squinted as he tried to recall what had happened. In the rush, he didn't even notice Andy smashing his phone. Hm.

"Well, how are we going to talk to him then?" Tyler wondered out loud, jumping the slightest bit at a somewhat silent sound that came from upstairs. Probably just Josh's foster parents... being alive? Yeah, alive people move and make sounds, that makes sense.

Tyler shook his head at his silly thoughts.

"I don't know, Tyler, I really don't know"

Tyler then felt a burning sting in his left wrist; he hissed in pain.