no homo, though → joshler

01

Third Person
—

Josh drives Billie to school, this morning. She gets out of his car first, and he waits a few moments. Before breaking up with Debby, he has to talk to Tyler, and Billie doesn't wanna be there.

Josh stares out of his car rearview mirror, waiting for Tyler to walk behind the car - just like he always does, every single morning. Once he does, Josh honks his car horn to get the other boy's attention; only to receive a jumpy, flinch like look from the boy.

Josh laughs, and steps outside of his car holding onto the door, to keep it open. "Please get in. I have to talk to you." Tyler's cheeks flush red, mainly from being embarrassed.

Slowly, Tyler gets into the other's car. Josh locks the doors, not knowing why. "Hey, so I know we don't talk, but-" Josh breathes in,"will you please be my fake boyfriend?"

Tyler bursts into a fit of laughter, and once he calms down he see's that Josh isn't joking. He coughs, to seem a little more serious. "Why would I do that?" He raises an eyebrow. "You said it yourself, we don't talk. Besides, why do you need a fake boyfriend anyway?"

"To break up with Debby," Josh states. "I don't wanna be rude to her, by just being straight up. So Billie told me to tell her that I'm gay, and make her believe it." Tyler nods, catching on a little bit.

"You know sexuality isn't a choice, right? Like, it took me forever to come to terms with being gay and it seems like you're treating this like some sort of joke." Tyler responds, and Josh looks at him blankly.

"Jus- can you please do this for me?" Josh asks Tyler, almost begging. Tyler shakes his head.

"Think of it as a favor," the artificial redhead offers. The smaller boy rolls his eyes, uninterested in this idea. "Look, you're the only gay kid in this school," Josh says. Tyler stares at him. "and you're not very popular, but I am. you do this for me, I get you popular. deal?"

"deal." tyler hesitantly agrees. "no homo, though." he adds, before they both laugh and josh gets out of his car, and walks away.

Tyler sits in Josh's car, realising that Josh left him alone in his car. Then Josh runs back, getting back in. "Maybe you should walk out with me, if I'm going to make you popular." Tyler nods his head, and off they walk together.

Everyone stares as the two walk with each other. Whispers all of a sudden, from every person. Tyler wasn't very popular, of course. In fact, people tended to make fun of him because he was the only gay kid. It wasn't that they were homophobic. It wasn't that, at all.

The students of Ohio Highschool made fun of Tyler because there was no other gay kid in the school, which meant no one else would love him the way he loved someone else.

Until' now, and even now.. It was fake. But Tyler was finally going to stop being made fun of.

Until' the secret got out that this was all fake, and then Tyler would go back to being the lonely gay kid. And Josh? Nothing would happen to him. He would continue being Josh, and he would forget all about Tyler.

When that time came, Tyler would never exist in Josh's life again.