Free & Flightless (Trench)

Chapter 9-Josh

Josh

I stifled a yawn. Waking up at six in the morning should be illegal. Tyler, beside me, seemed to agree when his face contorted into one of tired anger. Tyler and I had been at the camp for a bit over a week by now. There was a plan to leave soon, in the next few hours. Tyler's circles under his eyes were an alarming dark shade. Did he even sleep a single blink? I stared him up and down, at his oversized clothes and peeling yellow tape and his pathetic and continue stance.
The fire beside us had burned out, leaving nothing but a smoky scent in the air that gave Josh indistinct and faded memories of him as a young child at a barbecue. The memory of a boy with scared eyes staring at me with messy hazelnut hair. "Tyler?" I said aloud as I realized who the child might've been. Tyler looked up at his name from his lap.
"Yes?" He said, staring at me. With the same scared eyes as the young child in my memory.
"How long have we known each other?" I asked, curious as to what his answer may or may not be.
"I thought we just met." Tyler said, shoulders raised in tenseness. He seemed to almost have a memory tugging at him from the back of his mind as well, wanting to desperately be surfaced.
"I did too. But I was thinking about me as a young child, and...you were the kid in the memory."
"Perhaps it was a dream?" Tyler said, almost nervously. I stared at him, confused.
"No, I'm awake right now Tyler." I defended. Tyler gave me another look of bewilderment before abruptly standing up.
"I'm going to go get some water from the stream." Tyler said hurriedly. I watched him go, skeptical. He was acting weird. But I suppose this place and DEMA and everything else kind of got to a person. He had every single justification in the world to be acting weird. But why only now? Brendon sat down beside me with a smirk, his hair in its usual swoop to the side. He looked, unsurprisingly, smug. He waited for me to respond to his look of knowingness.
"What is it, Brendon?" I asked, my tone dull and uninterested. He stretched on the log, his knowing gaze unwavering.
"That Tyler guy is weird." He said after a moment of extremely awkward silence between the two. My eyebrows shot up.
"No he isn't!" I defended icily, my fists practically shaking. Predictably, Brendon smirked in response to see me on edge.
"You just met the guy, Josh. You were the one who kept saying oh be on edge Brendon, don't let her get to you Brendon about Sarah. Now look at us now, we're fricking married, you ass! So don't go saying you trust a guy you've known for what, a week?" Brendon threw his arms up in frustration. I didn't really know how to respond.
"I'm not you, Brendon. And Tyler isn't Sarah. What, are you saying we should get married?" I joked coldly.
"No, you dummy. You two are clearly and utterly one thousand percent platonic. Only an idiot would think otherwise. Besides, Jenna obviously likes him. Anyway, just watch him is my point."
Dismissively and basically saying or conversation was over, Brendon swiftly stood up and walked past me, off to god knows where. Pray for that idiot.
Tyler passed Brendon, holding a jug of water carefully. Brendon purposefully bumped into Tyler, just to get a kick out of it. Brendon flipped me off and I merely glared in response. I wasn't in a mood to fight Brendon. Today, anyway.
"Sorry about him," I said apologetically as Tyler sat beside me. Tyler shrugged in response, staring down at the water.
"Did you know this is all Will Smith's?" I said jokingly, waving my arm around to Trench. I was clearly lying.
Tyler completely believed me. "Who is that?" Tyler asked, voice utter fascination.
"He's a celebrity, but Tyler, I was joking," I said, snickering. Tyler's mouth shaped into a small "o" of surprise, and I laughed some more. He joined in.
"Oh! I believed you," Tyler said, laughing lightly. I smiled at him. This is when Jenna Black decided to walk over to us.
"Hi. Tyler, right?" She said, smiling kindly at him. Tyler nodded, seeming to be mesmerized. She sat down on the log beside him.
"I'm Jenna." She said warmly. He nodded, smiling.
I stood up and walked away to nowhere in particular. He seemed to fit into this place more than I did.

A/N: sorry this one usually takes longer to update. It's because I put a lot of effort and usually quite a bit of editing (that often fails me catastrophically lmao). Anyway, thank you for reading!
Also, very exciting news! Something very, very exciting is going to be published in the next day or so. Check Burnt Roses, one of my stories, for a explanation.