His Name Is Blurryface *Joshler*

14

Later in the day, Josh had to drop by his office for some time to get some paperwork done. About an hour in, he heard some screaming coming right outside of his office door. Knowing that Tyler’s room was a step away from his office worried, yet comforted him. With that, Josh walked up around his desk and opened his door. He was greeted with Brendon clutching onto him and screaming into his ear. Once Brendon calmed down, he was able to tell Josh how Patrick told him to give Tyler his dinner while Josh was busy with work. Josh knew how scared Tyler was around unfamiliar people, unfortunately Brendon didn’t. Because of this, learning that Tyler was triggered into a panic attack due to Brendon’s presence wasn’t surprising.

“Bren, let me take care of this, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. No one can be near Tyler other than you. Man, I thought I was being nice and inviting!”

“Dude, I’m sure you were, but for now, let’s worry about your midlife crisis later and let me calm Tyler down.” Josh says as he nudged Brendon aside and stepped into Tyler’s room. Immediately, he saw Tyler fearfully jerk his head up out of the ball he curled himself into. Once he caught sight of Josh, Tyler sprang up from his position and jumped onto Josh. Josh instantly caught the boy and maneuvered his way to the bed. Josh held the shaking, teary eyed boy in his arms as he took a seat on the edge of the bed.

Josh took this moment to attempt to calm the brunette: “Ty, Ty it’s okay. I’m here now, you’re okay. Shhhh.” Tyler responded by gasping for air, trying to regulate his breath.

“You’re safe Ty, everything’s okay. Just breathe, okay? Breathe, everything’s okay.” Josh whispered into Tyler’s ear. After a few moments, Tyler was able to control his breathing and Josh helped ground him further. 10 minutes later, both boys were calm.

“You okay now Ty?”

“Ye-ah. S-sor-ry, I kn-o-w y-ou w-were-re b-sy-y.”

“Bud, I’m never too busy for you, okay? Never.”

“I-I c-can’t ev-n b-be a-arou-nd o-other peo-ple w-with-out f-freak-ng o-out-t.”

“Ty, there’s nothing wrong with that. I know that reaction isn’t your choice and that it’s instinctual. We’ll get over that together, eventually.”

“I-I C-CAN’T-T E-E-EVN-N TA-LK!” Tyler practically screamed, shedding tears.

“Ty. You’re doing better and we will work together to get there, okay? Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re doing so good. So good Ty. Yesterday, you let Patrick draw your blood. Just the fact that you let him proves that you’re already getting better. We’ll work on the speech and you know we will. It’ll get better in no time! Plus, I find it kinda cute.” Josh says, trying to lighten the mood.

“I-I’m s-su-ch a-a br-r-dn-n” Tyler mumbles as he drops his gaze down to his lap, breathing out slowly.

“Ty. No. Look at me.” Josh says as he slowly makes eye contact with Tyler. “No, you are anything but a burden Ty. You mean so much to me. You mean so, so much to me and I’m here for you because I want to be, not because I have to be. You’re not a burden, okay? You are /not/ a burden.”

“Mmmm” Tyler whispered as he lowered his head to Josh’s lap, snuggling closer.

For once, both boys were at peace. Enjoying each others’ company, worries melted away. Even if it was just for a couple moments, it was nice. Peace was nice.