never mine// tyler joseph

chapter three

two years later

he was still in love with her. he had tried so hard to move on, to forget about the feelings that he had for her, but to no avail. it was impossible for tyler to fall out of love with her.

he was around her constantly. and every second he was with her, he could only feel himself being pulled in more and more.

so he stopped trying to forget. it was no use, anyway. he let the butterflies fly around in his stomach when he was around her, and he let the fuzzy feeling that he got whenever she touched him to envelop his body. he was just a lovestruck twenty five year old boy, and it made him feel like a complete idiot.

especially since she had a boyfriend.

oliver, the boy tyler had encouraged val to ask out years ago, was now her boyfriend. he did get jealous from time to time. he'd want what he couldn't have. but he always made sure to stop and change his attitude- being jealous wasn't right. oliver had always been nice to tyler, for the most part. based on conversations with val, he was able to tell that oliver did have his doubts about him, especially about hanging out with val alone. although tyler would've never tried coming between her and her boyfriend, he understood.

at this point, tyler knew how stupid he was for being in love with somebody for this long. and the fact that she had never found out- was he really so good at hiding it? he didn't think that he was. josh had caught on. so then why had val never seen anything behind tyler's constant stares and sweet words? maybe she thought that it would've been impossible for her best friend to feel that way about her.

one day in particular, tyler heard a knock on his apartment door. after opening it, he was met with a pair of green eyes.

"what are you doing here?" tyler asked, raising an eyebrow.

"it's nice to see you too," val replied sarcastically, pushing past tyler. she set her things down by the side of the couch and sat down. "i just decided to come over. oliver dropped me off." she must've just been hanging out with him, tyler figured. they didn't live together or anything. val still lived with her family.

"and he was okay with that? you know, he can come over too. he's welcome here," tyler had offered, sitting beside the girl on his couch.

"yeah, i know. but i told him i just wanted to hang out with you alone today," she explained, shrugging her shoulders.

"you know, that's just gonna make him more suspicious," tyler argued. "i'm not saying he should be worried about us together, but he's your boyfriend. he's automatically gonna worry about those things." oftentimes, tyler found himself helping val sort out issues with her boyfriend. he never got in the middle of their arguments or anything like that, he just happened to be her shoulder to cry on. she'd vent to him, and he'd help her fix things.

lately, it seemed as if they were having more and more arguments. and tyler had a feeling it was caused by how much time that he and val were spending together.

"i don't care. maybe he should learn to trust me. you're my friend, and i'm allowed to come over and hang out with you," she pointed out. tyler couldn't help but agree with her.

"well, now that you're here, what should we do?" tyler asked, stretching his legs out on the couch and kicking her in the knee. she slapped him in return, making him move his legs out of the way.

"i don't know. we could watch a movie," she suggested. "oh hey! you know what we haven't done in a while?"

"what?" tyler asked as he reached forward for the remote that rested on the coffee table in front of him.

"you, josh, aria, oliver and i haven't hung out all together in a while. we should go to the movies or something," she said. tyler thought it sounded like a great idea. hanging out with all of them was always good fun.

"yeah, we should," tyler replied.

"cool. then i'll text everyone and plan it out."

"sounds good to me," tyler responded as he picked a movie. "do you want anything to drink?" he asked as he stood up, making his way over to the kitchen.

"just soda, please," she called. tyler always made sure that his fridge was stocked up with good stuff to snack on when his friends were over.

he came back with a soda in hand for the black haired girl, and a red bull for himself.

"thank you," she told him when he handed her the drink. she scooted closer to tyler on the couch, resting her legs on the coffee table in front of them. now the sides of their arms were brushing against one another, sending a chill throughout tyler's body. he always wondered why she would sit so close to him. it was probably just because they'd been friends for the longest time, he guessed.

she confused him a lot, though. especially when they hugged. the way she held on to him and pressed her head against his chest. it made him feel like there was something between them. but then he reminded himself that she was in love with somebody else, so it must've all just been a figment of his imagination. the feelings were one sided, and he was just overthinking every little moment between them.

suddenly her phone started ringing, interrupting the movie. she picked it up and looked at the screen, and then shut it off and placed it back down.

"who was it?" tyler asked curiously.

"just oliver," she responded. tyler figured that instead of pushing her and asking why she ignored his call, he'd leave it alone. it wasn't his business anyway.

the rest of the day just consisted of tyler and val lounging around and watching movies. after it had gotten pretty late, tyler offered to drive her home.

so now they were sitting in the car together, the radio quietly playing in the background. they were talking about their plans for the weekend that they had just recently decided on.

eventually tyler pulled up at her house, so val opened the car door and stepped out.

"thanks for driving me home," the black haired girl said. "bye!"

"bye!" tyler responded with a little smile and wave. and with that, she shut the door. he waited until she got inside before he took off, making his way back home.

he thought about the day's events, replaying the small moments that they shared together over and over again in his head. he always did this, even though he felt stupid for doing so.

he felt even more stupid whenever he fantasized about them being in a relationship together. no matter how much he wanted to hold her hand and kiss her cheeks, he knew that he couldn't. and even if she did break up with her boyfriend, that wouldn't have meant anything for tyler. she still wouldn't have been in love with him.

he told himself a long time ago that he'd stop hoping for him and val to be together, yet for some reason there was still a lingering ounce of hope deep inside of him. it didn't matter how much he convinced himself that she could never fall in love with him, because part of him would still be dreaming that she could.

a/n: let me know what you think of the story so far 😎