𝘮𝘺 𝘥𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘺.

𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘯.

"a date-date? i thought you guys were already a thing."

"w-we've only k-kissed l-like, twice."

"yeah but you both like each other i don't get it."

"i-it jus' hasn't been official i guess. h-he hasn't asked m-me to d-d-date him and i h-haven't asked him either."

"aw, this is gonna be the last time before my little bubble is gonna single!"

jenna cooed, leaning over to cup tyler's soft face. they sat in tyler's living room with the sound of princess and the frog in the background.

"j-jenna! n-nuh uh n-not true," tyler blushed, attempting to pry jenna's hands away. "h-he could, m-maybe not l-like me."

"are you joking?" jenna let her hands fall onto her lap. "you have to be kidding."

"h-he had a-a-a whole girlfriend, for y-years. t-they just b-broke up this year t-too."
tyler's eyes dropped, focusing on his twiddling thumbs.

"debby? don't think about it too much, okay? did he mention it to you or..?"
her voice veered off in curiosity. she knew that new information about josh and his love life was sure to worry tyler, which was the very last thing jenna wanted.

"h-he hasn't m-mentioned it. w-which worries me b'tause d-does he e-ever plan o-o-on tell me?"

tyler's eyes glazed over with tears. tyler had thought about this relentlessly. the same doubt had flown in and out of his mind. joshua had been in a serious relationship for three years. granted, him and deborah had been off and on since the 9th grade. it was now their junior year, the pair had split back in august. at least that's when josh had deleted all their photos together and they had unfollowed each other. he had a crush on him, they were details he just had to know. not stalker-ish.

"bubble, no," jenna clutched him close to her chest. "no, no, no. you can't think like that alright?"

"maybe he doesn't want to move so quickly, especially if his last relationship was so rocky, okay?"

"t-then w-why did he k-kiss me a-again?"
tyler hiccuped through his delicate tears.

"bub, he could've been really, really hurt. of course the first he'd want to after waking up is kiss you."

he sighed, understanding what jenna had meant. maybe she was right, jenna was always right.

"m-m'kay." tyler gulped, sleepily wiping awake his tears. the thought of josh wanting to kiss him felt comforting, tyler didn't mind keeping his mind there

"okay?" jenna stroked tyler's hair, practically holding him on her lap.

"m-mhm. 'm o-okay now." his delicate voice was barely a whisper.

"okay, bub. that's all i want."
jenna planted a sweet kiss on top of the boys chocolate tuffs of soft hair before he drifted off to sleep in her arms.

˚✧₊⁎⁺˳✧༚

"as some of you may know, a star of our school, of our team, won't be able to attend school or any games for the time being."

the coach of the football team was speaking over a microphone in front of the entire northwood high school. their high school had organized an assembly to honor josh, the team and mostly, to speak about safe driving.

"jesus, they act like he's dead." the boys from the rest of the football team laughter bellowed around the almost silent gymnasium. the team sat scattered throughout the rows directly behind tyler. more recently, the team had sat with tyler at assemblies or called him over at lunch. tyler knew no one from the team beside josh but he was too fearful to fight it.