Sold To The Dun Boy • Joshler SHORT STORY

7

"Josh!?" Tyler yelled as the man turned to the door, pulling it open with too much force, making it thump on the wall and Tyler to jump back. "It's too late. There's already something here, why can't you just!" Tyler got so frustrated, yelling out at the man who turned in the corridor to look at him.

His mess had been cleaned, he was able to cuddle into Josh's lap when he didn't say anything after those words stabbed his chest. But he's had enough, he took a stand, and now he was fighting with the man like they've been married for years.

"Fuck! You don't understand." Josh yelled back at him, taking a few steps. "You will never understand that I have to do is to protect you. And I am trying with every fiber in me to let you go, you make it so fucking hard."

"You're real shit at telling your feeling without sounding like an asshole!" Tyler yelled back, they stepping chest and chest. Yelling in each other's faces. Arms flailing around, they were just not seeing eye to eye on this, although they were literally so close. "Keep me! Do everything you've wanted. Spoil me! Take care of me! Fuck me! Without feeling guilty after rubbing one out!" Tyler caught him there.

"How'd you?"

"Forget about that!" Tyler moved the topic. "You're thirty-seven Josh. What have you been doing all these years? I couldn't have been the first. I don't care who else was here. But you have to let that go." Tyler didn't realize it, but there were tears starting to brim and fall a bit, making the older man soften. "You're still living there. Cmon, keep me. Hold me. I'm not saying now, but eventually, love me. What is so wrong with that?"

Josh bowed his head. "His name was Brendon." He mumbled to the young boy. "We were high school sweethearts, he was there for me. We weren't the best when it came to our families and our financials. But we helped each other. Everything we did, we did it together. And B, he made a proposition. That we'd get into a different type of business." Josh gulped as he picked up his head to see Tyler staring at him.

"Y- You wanna sit?" Tyler asked. Instead of waiting, he pulled the man down with him. Josh sat crisscrossed, and Tyler with a bit of tentativeness moved to sit in his lap. Josh's problem had softened a bit, and Tyler made sure to be careful. He grabbed Josh's wrists, wrapping it around his waist allowing him to sink into the man's warm body. "Is this okay?"

Josh didn't answer, instead leaned in more. "Business was doing fine, but Brendon started getting full of himself. He was too stupid to think about the deals we make. He made one without me knowing, started using the drugs instead of selling them as we planned. Started fucking up. He left me that night, saying that he was sorry. That's all he said, find out the next day he died, a bullet to the forehead."

Tyler looked down at Josh, the man's eyes were glossed over. He raised a hand, softly carding his fingers through his hair. " I didn't know what to do for a while. But people were starting to get pissed that things slowed down on my end. Had to pick myself up, I did this all for him. Two years ago, I killed his murderer with my own fucking bare hands." The grip on Tyler got tighter, and Tyler tried to hold in a whine. "But it wasn't enough, and I felt like a true failure. I couldn't even kill the person, who killed the love of my life, with a god damn smile."

Tyler's heart was beating fast. He was trying to stay grasped on the words but slurred in his mind making him dizzy. "Maybe because you're not a bad person. You had a motive but you could have done something different. Things could have been different."

"No, Tyler." Josh looked down, unwrapping his arms from around Tyler. Tyler tried not to detest, maybe he needed his space, but Tyler wanted him to stay. "I don't want to cause anyone to go through what I went through. Losing a loved one, their life was taken from someone else's hand. I- what if it was you? What if it's not that you leave me, but you get taken away from me. You're my responsibility, you're mi- "

He stopped himself, looking away from Tyler. "I'm, gonna hit to my room." He stood up, helping Tyler also. No matter how much he didn't want to, he let the man go wherever. "Marley can help you with anything you need. You don't have to stay in your room."

The man began walking away, locking himself in his room for the night.