JOSH DUN VS THE WORLD ✓

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: IF HE'S COMING AFTER ME, IT'S BETTER NOW THAN LATER

SAVING...

SAVING...

SAVING...

SAVING COMPLETE!

{trigger warning: implications of sexual abuse}

Josh buys Tyler the three records and they head back to his apartment. He can feel the anger still radiating from Tyler as they walk.

Tyler isn't being honest. Josh can tell. He doesn't want to upset Tyler any more than he already is, but he's not a patient person and can only stay quiet for so long before he can't handle it anymore.

"Debby and I dated for three years before we broke up," he confesses when they make it to the door of his apartment. "I was so sure she was the love of my life, but then she started sleeping with Brendon while on tour and left me to be with him. That was a year ago."

"Three years to be with one person and lose them like that is a long time," Tyler says.

"I know, but I don't have feelings for her. I was just shocked to seen her. I didn't think she'd be back in town for a while. I'm sorry if it was weird back there."

"It's not like you haven't done it before."

Josh sucks in a sharp breath. "Ouch."

"Sorry. Just saying, the things I've seen you do before haven't exactly been monogamous."

"Thanks. That makes me feel a lot better. I guess I'm a cheater in every life then."

"Well, what else do you want me to say?" Tyler snaps.

Josh throws his hands in the air. "Oh, I don't know, maybe stop being a cryptic asshole and talk to me straightforward like a normal human being!"

"No offense, but we've known each other for two weeks. I'm not about to go and cry on your shoulder like a traumatized little bitch. I can handle my own problems by myself."

"I didn't say that. I just want you to feel like you can trust me enough to tell me things like this. Things I should probably know about so I don't screw up this relationship like every other one I've had and get murdered by your stupid fucking exes."

Tyler drops his keys while trying to get them into the lock, his hands shaking too much to hold them. Josh bends down to pick them up, but Tyler pushes him back, sending him flying into the wall.

"Ow! What the hell!" Josh shouts, touching the back of his head, seeing blood.

"I don't need your help!" Tyler retorts, dropping the keys again.

"I never said you did, but even if I did, that doesn't mean you need to throw me into a fucking wall!"

Tyler scowls and takes a step towards him. For some reason, Josh cowers away. He heard the first fight in a relationship was always the worse.

"What the hell do you want, then, if I'm not just another one night stand to you?"

"All I want is for you to be honest with me!"

"Fine. You want honest?" Tyler slams his fist onto the door, which unlocks and swings open. "When Brendon and I dated in high school, it wasn't just between us. There was a third guy with us. And I was... infatuated with him. Obsessed, even. But this guy- he didn't notice me until I left. He only started paying attention when he couldn't have me. So, he made me stay."

He's crying now. As much as Josh wanted Tyler to open up, he never meant to force him to.

"That manipulative dick turned me into his and Brendon's personal puppet. I had no control of my body for six weeks. Six. Goddamn. Weeks. I only broke out because of- because of Jenna, and now she thinks I owe her shit or something-"

Josh opens his mouth then closes it, standing up and crossing the hall to Tyler, who's pressing his knuckles into his eyes. He reaches out to touch him but stops himself, afraid that Tyler will leave if he does. "What did they do to you?"

Tyler grimaces, and slowly he turns, pushing his hair up and revealing a rectangular scar on the base of his hairline. Josh touches it before he could stop himself, and Tyler audibly flinches. "He used some stupid mind control machine on me. I was too strong that he couldn't charm me into his bed like with Brendon and every other sucker he fucked, so this was the only way to get what he wanted, and he wanted me."

"Oh my god. They didn't." Now it's Josh's time to be angry. "They didn't do that to you. Did they?"

Shame is written across Tyler's face, and all Josh wants to do is hold him close to his chest and never let go. If he ever gets his hands on the sick bastard who made Tyler into his sex slave, Josh is going to tear him to shreds.

"What's his name?"

"Josh-"

"Tell me," he pleads. "Please, Tyler. I- I need to know. I'll- I'll kill him for what he did. And if he's coming after me, it's better now than later."

"You don't get it." Tyler blinks, sucking in a shaky breath. "I don't know who's coming after you. This timeline is different. The first time around, it was Mark, Jenna, and D-" he pauses. "But you didn't make it past him. And now with Brendon in the mix, they'll- you don't have many lives left to live before game over. You're not strong enough or smart enough to defeat all of them."

"Why are you saying this?"

Tyler turns his head and looks up, tears in his eyes, before saying, "Because you wanted me to be honest, and honestly, I can't watch you die again."

Josh hears the pain in his voice and gives in, pushing the bag of records with his foot inside the doorway, and puts his hands around Tyler's waist. He kisses his shoulder as a way to show him that he's there, afraid Tyler will crack at any moment.

"You won't lose me," he whispers, pulling him closer so Tyler's back is flush against his front.

Tyler cries softly, soft hiccups in the back of his throat, and he sinks to the ground with Josh beside him the whole time. Josh doesn't do anything except hold him while Tyler's walls fall, crashing all around them. The vulnerability Tyler shows isn't something he has shown Josh often, if he ever had before. For the first time, he lets him in.

Whoever hurt Tyler- whoever dared to lay a finger on this short-tempered, cryptic, nihilistic asshole who happened to be the love of his life- has a hell of a lot more to worry about now, because Josh isn't going to stop until he kills them.