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1.
Tyler usually wasn't one to be overly social. He enjoyed curling up in bed and listening to music, not attending a party that reeked of alcohol and had music blaring at dangerously high levels. Jenna, his best friend, had somehow convinced him to go (it had something to do with free Taco Bell). Despite his reluctance, he still wasn't going to ruin this for Jenna, so he downed a few drinks and danced along to the music.
She stayed by him through the first hour or so, but she soon noticed a pretty girl from across the room and disappeared into the kitchen with her. Tyler didn’t mind all that much, but he did feel a bit of pain in his heart about the fact he had been basically single since his sophomore year of high school. He was now a sophomore in college and hadn’t had a serious relationship (or any relationship at all) in 4 years. Not many guys had ever expressed interest in him, so the last serious relationship was with a really nice girl who ended up being a lesbian. Ironic.
He was now dancing on the outskirts of the crowd with a red cup full of some drink in his hand. Someone had just walked by and grabbed his butt, but he didn’t really care that much. Once alcohol was entered into his system, he was a completely different person. He was no longer shy and quiet, but instead found himself yelling out in excitement and flirting with people he probably shouldn't be.
A prime example of this flirting was happening at this very moment. Tyler had been winking and staring at a red-haired boy from across the room. He had just jokingly (and somewhat sexually) stuck his tongue out and flicked it at the boy. All of a sudden, that red-haired boy started walking across the living room of whomever’s house they were in. Tyler felt his heart climb up to his throat and he started coughing. He was not expecting the boy to come over and he was not at all expecting the boy to whisper, “follow me,” into Tyler’s ear.
Tyler followed him like a little puppy, wrapping his smaller hand into the hand of the other boy. They walked into a laundry room and the boy motioned for Tyler to close the door after him. Tyler audibly swallowed. It was all hitting him; this boy was actually attracted to him. This incredibly hot boy was actually interested in being with Tyler.
“Hey, I’m Josh.” the boy said, smirking.
Tyler likely looked as if he were staring at the face of God himself (or at least an angel, which he kind of was), but he still managed to say, “I’m Tyler.”
“Well Tyler, I noticed you staring at me from across the room.” Josh said, getting closer and setting his hands on Tyler’s waist.
Josh’s mouth was hovering maybe an inch from Tyler’s mouth. Tyler could feel the beads of sweat starting to form on his forehead. He lied and told himself that it was because the house was so warm.
“So, I figured you wanted to have a little,” Josh paused and thought, “chat with me.”
Tyler nodded quickly, trying not to hit Josh’s nose. Josh’s hands trailed up the sides of Tyler’s stomach, making him shiver. Josh paused, checking with his eyes to make sure that Tyler was fine with it. Tyler nodded and smiled for a moment. Josh got closer and closer. He was so close that Tyler could feel Josh’s chest rising and falling with each breath.
All of a sudden, light flooded the previously dimly lit room. Someone had just opened the door to the laundry room. They pulled apart quickly and looked at the man who was coming in.
He had poked his head in for a moment before saying, “Oops, this room is occupied. We have to find another one, Gee!” before he disappeared.
The other guy groaned and two sets of footsteps echoed down the hallway. Tyler immediately mumbled some excuse about finding his friend before following behind the couple who ruined the almost kiss. He ran by Jenna and tapped her on the shoulder before exiting the front door. He jogged down the sidewalk for a while before stopping. He could feel his heart pumping in his chest. He wondered to himself is it was still beating at the same rate Josh’s was.
2.
A week later, Tyler had long forgotten about his encounter with Josh at the party. Okay, maybe he hadn’t forgotten about it at all and kept re-imagining it in his head with different endings, but he could pretend. He had no idea about where to even go to find Josh. He had no last name, a drunken interpretation of what he looked like, and a thousand guys named Josh on campus.
He had told Jenna about the mystery boy, to which she responded to by hitting him hard on the shoulder and calling him stupid. She was determined to help find Josh, no matter how difficult that would be. But at the moment, she had sent him out to get sprinkles for the cupcakes she was baking.
The town store was ridiculously small, cold, and overpriced, but it was the local town store so it was really all they had if they didn’t want to drive for twenty minutes. When Tyler first entered, he was hit with the cold wave of air and the smell of sadness. He always tried to get through that store as quickly as possible, so he ran to the aisle full of baking supplies that he knew so well, turned on his heels, and… ran into someone.
They both fell onto the floor. The box that the other person was holding full of sprinkle containers fell on the floor and sent the contents flying out everywhere in the aisle. Tyler lifted his head up and looked at whomever he had run into. Just like Jenna had said five days ago, she would make sure that she found Josh Dun again somehow.
“Oh, hey. I didn’t realize you worked here.” Tyler said, nervously staring at the floor.
Josh laughed and stood up, helping up Tyler afterwards.
“Yeah, I work here now. I’ve only been here for about two weeks, but I really like it so far.” Josh said, his voice pausing before he said the word like.
“Oh, that’s nice.” Tyler said.
Josh bit his lip and looked into Tyler’s eyes. Tyler felt himself blush and he diverted his eyes to the ground. Josh grabbed Tyler’s hand and led him down the aisle and into a section of the store that was labeled ‘Employees Only’.
Tyler felt his heart start pounding and his breath quicken. Josh pulled Tyler tight against his body and set his hands on Tyler’s hips again.
“I didn’t get to kiss you before… It just wasn’t fair.” Josh whispered against Tyler’s neck, his words vibrating.
Tyler shuddered and pulled himself closer to Josh. Again their lips were centimeters apart. They both stared at each other and breathed in sync with one another.
“Josh?!” a man yelled from somewhere in the back room.
They again jumped apart. Tyler started to turn and leave out the door, but Josh grabbed his arm first.
“I don’t want to lose you again.” Josh said.
“You won’t.” Tyler said back.
“I live at 117 Wood Road. Please come see me Saturday.” Josh whispered.
Tyler nodded eagerly and smiled. No one in the whole world had cared so much about seeing Tyler. Josh smiled at him and Tyler left the employee section. Tyler picked up his container of sprinkles from the floor of the aisle and put the rest of the ones that Josh had dropped back in the box.
When Tyler got back to Jenna’s house, she asked him what took so long. He blushed and told her that the lines were just really long.
She knew exactly what took so long.
3.
It was Saturday afternoon. Tyler had woken up and tried on at least fifteen different outfits, all of which he absolutely hated. He finally decided on something, sent a quick picture of himself to Jenna, and started heading for 117 Wood Street. When he looked it up on Google Maps, it was only a 15 minute walk, so he figured it wouldn’t hurt to ride his bike there.
He approached a medium-sized house that had three cars in the driveway. He could only hope that one of these cars was Josh’s car, or else it would be a very awkward first meeting with his housemates. Tyler pulled himself together and walked up to the front door. He pressed the doorbell and heard it chime from inside the house. Someone from inside yelled that they would get the door, and soon Josh appeared right in front of Tyler.
“Hi! You actually came!” Josh said, smiling and holding the door open for Tyler to come inside.
Tyler stepped inside and saw a nice home that was well decorated and smelled really, really nice. Everything there felt so homey and warm. Just being in that house made him feel a bit homesick and he realized he should probably call his mom soon.
“I, uh, made a picnic thing for us. It’s in the backyard. We can eat it inside though if you don’t like the heat or the grass or something…” Josh said, the end of his sentence trailing off.
Tyler was actually really happy that he was no longer the super nervous one, but he made sure that he assured Josh over and over that the backyard was fine and that, no, he was not allergic to grass. Josh led him through the house and into the beautiful backyard. Everything was well-kept and bright shades of different colors.
There was a red blanket laid out on the grass with a picnic basket on it. They both walked over to it and sat down.
“I would have pulled out the chair for you, but there isn’t one, so just imagine it.” Josh said, his eyes crinkling as he smiled.
Tyler laughed and nodded at him. There was a lot of different types of food, including sandwiches, fruit, salty snacks, sweet snacks, and vegetables. It was so perfect that Tyler might have pinched his arm just in case this was a dream or a scene from a movie playing in his head.
They talked for over an hour and a half, all the while snacking on the different foods. Tyler liked the seductive Josh that he met at the party who pushed him against the wall and ran his hands up his sides, but he also really liked this sweet Josh who smiled all the time and cared if Tyler liked carrots or not.
They had moved to the wooden swing set that Josh’s housemate Rian apparently built. They had brought over the fruit tray and continued to snack from it.
“You know what my favorite thing was when I was a kid?” Tyler said.
Josh hummed, a sign for Tyler to continue, while trying to chew the piece of watermelon he just put into his mouth.
“The white dip that used to come in fruit trays. It was so amazing. I could just eat spoonfuls of that stuff.” Tyler continued.
Josh scrunched his face up and said, “Firstly, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Secondly, eating spoonfuls of that sounds like a horrible idea for your health.”
“Shush! It tastes good, which means I can eat as much of it as I want.” Tyler said, putting a grape into his mouth.
“Sure, sure. Whatever you say.” Josh teased.
Josh put the lid back on the fruit container and walked over to set it on the picnic blanket before returning to his swing.
“So, did you have a good time?” Josh said, kicking at the ground.
“Oh, yeah. I had a really great time. It was so fun just getting to talk to someone, you know?” Tyler said, looking up at Josh.
He couldn’t help that his eyes automatically went to Josh’s lips, but they were so perfect. Either Josh could sense that Tyler was staring or he was just heartless, but he ran his tongue over his lips and then bit them.
Tyler felt his heartbeat quicken. He pulled his swing closer to Josh’s, so close they could almost feel each other’s heartbeats thumping at the same time. Tyler glanced at Josh’s lips once again and leaned in closer, only to be interrupted by the sound of the doors opening and someone’s voice.
“Hey Josh, sorry to interrupt! I just wanted to let you know that your mom called.” the boy said, holding out a cell phone as if Josh could see it from where he was sitting.
“Thanks Jack!” Josh called back.
The guy returned to the inside of the house and closed the door behind him. Josh sighed loudly, expressing his disscontempt for the current situation.
“We better head inside. Goodness forbid I miss my mother’s phone call for more than five minutes.” Josh joked.
Tyler helped Josh pack up and they headed inside, but not before Tyler said his goodbyes and explained how much fun he had. Josh made Tyler promise to text him and hugged him goodbye.
Jack walked out from the kitchen and said, “After the first two times you described, I had to make you suffer just a bit more.”
“You suck.” Josh replied.
+1
Tyler and Josh had spent the entire day together. It was the week before the fall semester started, so they were trying their best to have some fun before school started back up in full swing. They had spent the entire morning so far watching movies from the late 1980s, which Josh described as the, “actual best time period in the entire world, not only because the movies were the best but also because he was born in ’88.”
Jenna had busied herself all day with the girl that she met at the party, which took a lot of begging and none at all at the same time. He explained over and over again about how many times he and Josh had been cheated out of kissing until Jenna finally broke and told him to shut up.
Despite the fact it was mid-August, the two boys were sharing a blanket. Food was spread out around them and took up almost the entire giant ottoman in front of them. They kept laughing at the stupid technology that seemed advanced at the time. Tyler had managed to sneak in one movie that was from the late 90s, The Matrix, so they were currently watching that.
“Man, Keanu Reeves is so dreamy.” Tyler said.
“What?! You think Keanu Reeves is hot? He looks like he only eats lemons!” Josh exclaimed.
“Shut up, you’re just jealous of his extreme beauty.” Tyler said.
Josh pretended to cry and scooted away from Tyler, taking the blanket with him. Josh took this moment to look at his phone.
“Oh crap, I was apparently supposed to be home twenty minutes ago to help the guys move furniture into Alex’s girlfriend’s house.” Josh said, pulling the blanket off of himself and standing up.
“Oh! Well, you better go then!” Tyler said. He stood up as well and started helping Josh pick up his stuff that was strewn around the house. Once Josh got all of his stuff, he smiled at Tyler as he got in his car and started to drive off. Tyler sighed and watched him drive off. Tyler then returned inside and started cleaning up the food and putting it away. Once he turned off the movie and started putting the blankets away, he heard a faint knocking at his front door. He set the blanket down and opened the door.
Josh Dun was standing there, a stuffed teddy bear in one arm and a box of chocolates in another.
“What?” Tyler asked, knitting his brows together.
“These are my, ‘I’m sorry it took four whole meetings of ours for me kiss you’ presents.” Josh said, smiling sheepishly.
Tyler gasped a little and broke out into a smile. He excitedly took the items from Josh and set them on the kitchen table before hugging the boy. Tyler pulled back a bit and looked into Josh’s eyes and then to his lips.
Without another second of hesitation, Tyler pressed their lips together and felt fireworks explode in his chest.
And their heartbeats synchronized.