I Saw You In The Water [Joshler]

Thirty four 🐚

Tyler stood in the middle of the garage awkwardly, staring at "William". He had no idea what he should be doing, maybe it's not Josh and Tyler is hallucinating from the lack of sleep. Tyler shook his head lightly and glanced at the man again. He was putting tools back on the shelf, Tyler shifted his weight from one leg to another awkwardly attracting Josh's/ William's attention. Everything was so weird that Tyler didn't know what to think anymore. The man finished cleaning up the garage and wiped his dirty hands on a rag. He handed the damp rag to Tyler.

"You touched something." Josh gestured at Tyler's forearm

As Tyler took the cloth from Josh's hand, their fingers lightly brushed against each other. Tyler felt the hairs on his neck stand up. The boy took time to examine the tattoo on the man's arm.

"Oh..." Tyler murmured and started rubbing his forearm "It's not coming off. "

Tyler had touched something on accident, the dark streak on his arm was thick and greasy looking. It also smelled like the inside of the car. Not the interior, but the literal inside of the car where the engine goes. Josh dampened the rag with some sort of liquid and grabbed Tyler by the wrist. The boy stared at Josh's exposed chest that was incredibly close to his face as the man helped the boy to clean the grease off his arm. The top hung loosely against Josh's chest, it had some damp spots on it and stuck to the man's skin due to sweat. Tyler bit his quivering lip when the familiar scent reached his nostrils. He tried not to inhale it deeply but it was so intoxicating, Tyler sniffed Josh without him noticing it. He smelled the same but different. It was the smell that Tyler could never forget, it was Josh. Even if his sweet masculine smell was hidden by the smell of gasoline and metal Tyler could still feel it.

"There you go." Josh's voice made Tyler snap out of his dream and unglue his eyes from Josh's glistening chest

The boy looked up and their eyes met. Tyler parted his lips slightly to say something but Josh was faster than him.

"You should wash your hands or the smell is gonna haunt you for the whole week. " Josh smiled

"Oh, okay." Tyler nodded and pressed his lips together, he had so much to say

"You can use our bathroom." Josh stuffed his hands into the pockets of his pants

"I'll wash my hand at home." Tyler murmured and wanted to scoot past Josh but the man grabbed his shoulder gently

"If I didn't know any better I'd say that you are afraid of me." Josh joked "Come on, I won't bite. "

"I'm n-not." Tyler's voice trembled "I'm just not good with people."

"Yeah, I see." a wide smile lit up Josh's face "You're weird."

"I'm gonna go now." Tyler turned around

"Hey, I didn't mean it that way." Josh stopped him "Weird in a good way, I like you, maybe we could hang out sometime? "

Tyler just shrugged his shoulders and stared at the ground while drawing invisible patterns with the tip of his shoe. Josh was silent for a bit, he let out a sigh that sounded like a sign of disappointment to Tyler.

"I'm sorry that I'm not that interesting anymore." Tyler thought to himself before pushing past Josh and exiting the garage.

The boy felt angry and disappointed. It was his Josh but different somehow. His Josh was shy and awkward just like Tyler, his Josh didn't have that fuckboy-ish glimmer in his eyes and his Josh certainly did not have tattoos and literal holes in his the flesh of his ears. Tyler sniffled quietly, he knew that Josh was quickly stepping behind him trying to catch up but the boy didn't turn around he just quickened his pace even more. Tyler wanted to go home. There was nothing more inviting in the world than his cold dark room where he didn't need to worry about people breaking his heart.

Josh finally caught up to Tyler, the boy stopped abruptly when he felt a rough hand gripping his wrist. Tyler turned around but kept looking at the ground. Josh's chest heaved rapidly, he had to chase Tyler across the sand since Tyler decided to take a different route. Josh opened his mouth to say something but only a breathy sigh escaped his chest. Finally, the man collected his breath and stood up straight.

"Look, I didn't want to scare you.' Josh apologized "I'm just not good with people when it comes to socialising. "

"That makes two of us." Tyler muttered under his breath

"Do you want to hang out someday?" Josh asked quietly "I don't have friends here, my only friends are my siblings and my girlfriend. "

Tyler freed his hand out of Josh's grip almost forcefully, his eyes blazed with anger and something else that Josh couldn't quite understand.It looked like jealousy but why would Tyler be jealous?

"Listen..." Josh stopped Tyler from getting away "I might sound like a weirdo but I feel like I've known you for a long time, it's like we have met before."

"I'm certain that we did not. " Tyler swallowed his angry tears back

Josh looked so sad when Tyler rejected him.

"I just wanted to hang out..." Josh sighed "Look, I don't remember much about my life and if we had some kind of beef in the past I'm sorry."

"Y-you don't remember?" Tyler's voice faltered

Josh nodded and smiled weakly. Josh parted his lips to say something but Tyler cut him off before the man could say anything. Tyler shut Josh up by his lips pressing firmly against the man's. Josh stiffened up, his eyes stayed wide open because he didn't have the time to realize what was happening. Tyler's eyes were closed, he cupped Josh's jaw softly and rubbed gentle circles on his rosy cheek as their lips began moving in synch.

Tyler pulled away slowly, his long eyelashes lightly fluttering as tears made them glitter. Tyler breathed heavily against Josh's hot lips, a thin trail of saliva connecting their lips as the boy slowly pulled away, his eyes darkened. Tyler's gaze flickered from Josh's lips to his eyes and it was that moment when he realized that he kissed a stranger. Tyler realized that it's not a Disney movie where a kiss solves everything, Josh stood lightly frowning with a veil of confusion thrown on his face.

Tyler's eyes were shrouded with tears, he quickly pulled away before Josh could stop him.

"I'm sorry, it was just a stupid prank." Tyler managed to choke out before tears came spilling down his face but the boy turned around Just in time before Josh could see him crying.

Tyler's feet moved quickly, he ran through the sand with no fear of tripping, he just wanted to get away from the man as far as possible. The ocean was dangerously close to Tyler. The waves were almost reaching his feet as the boy's feet hit the damp sand.

The boy heard Josh shouting his name, the wind carried his voice away.

"It's better this way." those four words were pressed into Tyler's brain with a hot iron and he wanted to keep it that way but then Josh somehow found out where Tyler lived and the boy started doubting his decision.

Tyler wanted to let go of everything but the past came back. "The past" was climbing up the stairs and coming into his room.