blossom ↣ joshler ✓

14. Deal

Tyler sat on one end of the couch, doing his homework as usual. However, a few minutes ago the sound of two pencils writing filled the air as Joshua did his homework as well. Now, Tyler could only hear his.

He looked up and saw the older on his phone instead. Tyler frowned. "Joshua."

Joshua looked up. "Huh?"

"What could ever be more important than homework?"

"I was texting Brendon," he replied with a sheepish smile.

"As in the one you dated?"

"Yeah."

"Oh," Tyler nodded. "Alright."

"Why?"

"Just wondering," he paused. "Can I propose a question?"

"Sure."

"Did you guys uh...?"

"Fuck?" Joshua guessed.

"Language!"

"Sorry," he saw Joshua trying to hold back a smile. Tyler couldn't help but smile at that. "Have sex?"

"Intercourse is the preferred term but yes, have you?"

"Yeah."

Tyler scoffed. "Not surprised. Another sin to add to the list."

Joshua rolled his eyes playfully. "I lost my virginity to Brendon actually. And then we tried dating but it got too weird so we mutually broke up and remained friends."

"Have you just performed intercourse with him?"

"No," Joshua shook his head. "My body count is four."

"Body count?" Tyler asked confusedly, his head cocking slightly to the side.

"Yeah. It's how many people you've slept with."

"Four?" Tyler asked in disbelief. "You've had intercourse with four people all before marriage?"

Joshua's face turned slightly red. "Uh, yeah. Two guys and two girls."

Tyler wrinkled his nose up in distaste. "Disgusting."

Joshua just hummed in acknowledgement and went back to his phone. Tyler sighed, feeling a question nagging at him. He really wanted to ask it.

"Joshua?" He asked softly.

The mentioned instantly looked up. "Yeah?" He replied.

"How did you know you liked boys?" Joshua gave him a weird look. "Just so you're aware of your sins."

"Well," Joshua took a deep breath. "It actually happened when my Brendon came crying to me at the beginning of sophomore year and told me he thought he liked boys. This was before I knew for sure but always found boys attractive, I just didn't know if it was interest or me just being aware that guys can look good. I offered to kiss him to see how's he feel and it was so much more different than I thought it would be.

"Girls are wonderful, don't get me wrong. They've got tits and I love tits but guys are special. I don't know. I know it's a dumb stigma but I feel like when I'm with girls I have to act all macho but when I'm with guys I can still act macho but also have someone act macho for me. Relationships with guys are just more fulfilling for me personally. I think they're better in bed too but you don't care about that."

Tyler felt crushed. He felt crushed because this meant it was true.

"Do your parents know?" He continued, his throat feeling tight.