one
Tyler's life is a blur of basketball games, prayers, volunteer work, and trying not to cry. For the most part, he does well. Not just with trying not to cry- with life. He fits in. He wears basketball shorts, even when it's twenty degrees outside, because as his coach told him, "it's always a good time for basketball". He does his part in making sure his team does well. He helps his mom with housework and plays piano at his dad's church. He gets good grades. Teachers love him.
He's missing something though. Well, a few things. And happiness is the most important. His girlfriend Jenna is beautiful. His friends call her hot. He should be happy. He's not. Everyone thinks his life is perfect. He should be happy. It's not and he's not. This is maybe why he hates happy people so much. Especially the punk kids. They do whatever they want, they get in trouble. Their lives should be messes. So why aren't they?
Tyler tells himself that this isn't why he doesn't like punk kids. He tells himself he doesn't like them because they break rules and because they sin and because they're loud and obnoxious.
Really, he probably hates them because they aren't afraid to be themselves and Tyler is.
-
School is undeniably boring. Even for a kid like Tyler who doesn't hate it. Chemistry and pre-calc and American history all kind of suck, and Tyler is starting to realize that lunch isn't much better. He still doesn't complain though. He sits at the basketball table and eats his peanut butter sandwich and listens to some freshman named Cody drone on about how he and Tyler should work out together. Cody is basically Tyler's mini-me; or at least he likes to think so. The kid had traded his blond bowl cut to a shorter length to mimic Tyler's. He paired up with him at drills and constantly asked his advice. Tyler thought it was endearing, but he had to admit it did get a little annoying, especially when the kid started asking Tyler about girls. That was when Tyler praised the bell for ringing and went to language arts.
Language arts would have been a good class, except Brendon Urie was in it. Brendon had always been a trouble maker. In elementary school he had been one of those kids who shoved glue down other people's shirts and cut off their hair during nap time. He had evolved since then. He always shouted offensive things in class and threw things and hit on teachers. Even the kid who sat next to him voluntarily, a pudgy kid with messy black hair, rolled his eyes at some of what Brendon said.
Creative writing, his last class of the day, though, was his safe haven. Ms. Degeneres, who insisted on being called Ellen, was funny, kind, and never made them share their work, so Tyler felt comfortable writing about more than what people expected- which was basketball. Until that fateful day when Ellen decided a partner project was a good idea.
"I'll be assigning you partners. You have to make a video. It can be a story reading, a song, a movie- anything as long as it's your work and it's creative."
Tyler dutifully wrote this down on a piece of paper, even though he could feel the dread building in his stomach. He hated partner projects. Especially in this class. He'd have to share his feelings, and that was terrifying. Maybe he'd get someone who was okay with writing about basketball.
"Tyler Joseph and Joshua Dun."
Tyler's body froze.
"Just Josh, Ellen," Tyler heard the boy say good-naturedly. He reminded her every period, Tyler recalled.
Josh was the only punk kid in the class. He had a curly blue mohawk and usually got in trouble for wearing snapbacks in school. He was quieter than other punk kids- he didn't shout obscenities or set things on fire. He just watched while kids like Brendon did that stuff. He wasn't the worst person in the world, but he was probably the worst person for Tyler to get paired with.
He'd zoned out. The next thing he knew he felt eyes piercing into him and looked up. Josh was standing in front of his desk. "Um, hi," Tyler said, his voice cracking unfortunately.
"Hi," Josh said. He didn't look any more thrilled than Tyler did at the pairing. "Listen class is almost over or, whatever, but my kik is joshuadun, no spaces. We can talk about it later, meet at someone's house or something."
Tyler nodded. "Um, okay. My kik is tyler_joseph. The underscore is important." Josh snorted at that. "Um, in case I forgot yours or something, that's- that's mine." And then the bell rang.
-
"What do you know about Tyler Joseph?"
"Who?" Brendon asked incredulously.
Pete looked up, "doesn't he play basketball?"
Josh sat down on one of the rickety band room chairs to stare at his friends. He nodded at Pete.
"Good little Christian boy. Not surprised you're after him," Gerard muttered, looking at Josh with a wicked grin.
Josh scowled. "I'm not. We're doing a project together, I just need to know if he's stupid. Besides, he's straight, isn't he? Dating that Jenna girl who pretends like she's perfect but comes to all of Brendon's parties?"
"The straight thing has never stopped you before," Pete said, at the same time Patrick says, "he's smart. All A's."
"There's no way in hell he's straight," Gerard announced, and Josh raised his eyebrows. He was suddenly slightly more interested in the conversation. "The kid plays piano at my mom's church. Helps his dad lead sermons. No one that fuckin' god fearing does it for the hell of being a good person. He has a guilt complex bigger than Brendon's fucking ego."
Josh grinned.
"Who gives a shit?" Brendon asked, rolling his eyes. "Joshie should just fuck me."
Josh flipped him off and left the band room. He had to get home. And message Tyler Joseph.
Josh was nearly to his car when he heard footsteps behind him. "Dun, can I have a ride?"
Josh knew that the question was only a question for formality reasons. It was actually just 'Dun, you're giving me a ride'. Josh was fine with it, since Gerard lived right next to him.
They were halfway home before Gerard asked the question Josh knew he was going to. "So are you gonna try to fuck Joseph, or what?"
"Maybe. He's cute," Josh told him absentmindedly.
"Be careful. He doesn't seem like the type who will accept he's gay just because you grab his dick."
"Whatever."
"Don't break the kid's fucking heart, Dun, is all I'm saying."
"Whatever," Josh repeated, getting out of the car and starting towards his house while Gerard walked across the lawn to his. "I'm fucking serious, Dun!" he shouted.
Josh smirked as he yelled, "whatever", one more time before unlocking the door and walking into his house.
The second Josh was in his room and blasting Green Day, he messaged Tyler.
Spooky Jim: Hey this is Josh
Tyler responded more quickly than Josh anticipated.
TyJo: hi joshua.
Spooky Jim: Just Josh please
TyJo: oh, right. i'm sorry.
Spooky Jim: That's ok TyJo
Spooky Jim: Anyways, my friend Gerard told me you play piano?
TyJo: at church, yes.
Spooky Jim: Cool
Spooky Jim: I play drums
Spooky Jim: Maybe we could do a song for the video
TyJo: that's a good idea. you can come over tomorrow if you want
TyJo: i mean
TyJo: to work on the project
TyJo: around noon? i'll get the address
Spooky Jim: You live by the church. I'll get there.
TyJo: okay. see you tomorrow, joshua.
Spooky Jim: Just Josh
Josh opened his window, crumpled up a piece of paper, and thew it at Gerard's window. Within seconds, Gerard's window was open and he was shouted, "if you fuck with that kid, Dun, I'll-"
Josh closed the window.
-
Tyler was nervous. So nervous he couldn't sleep and he missed almost every shot in practice the next morning. "Saturday isn't my game day," he told his teammates. He declined their offer of getting iHop. It was only an hour until Joshua Dun would be at his house.
Tyler didn't know why he was nervous. He reassured himself that it was because he'd never shared what he wrote with anyone, and he wasn't looking forward to sharing it with a punk kid who would probably get drunk and make fun of it at one of Brendon Urie's parties. Tyler started crying, so he got in the shower.
He could feel the doubt in the back of his mind. Joshua was an attractive guy, he thought. He was well muscled and had pretty eyes and his dyed hair suited him well. Tyler quirted shampoo in his eye on purpose so he could think about something other than Josh.
He could feel Blurry whispering how much of a sin it was to think about Josh that way.
Tyler didn't feel clean when he got out of the shower.
-
Finding Tyler's house was easier than Josh had expected. It was on the street over from the church. Not only were there crosses everywhere on the lawn, but there were two pickets with basketball numbers on them. Josh assumed he had the place. He was fifteen minutes early, but decided it was creepy to just sit in the driveway, so he got out and knocked on the door. A blond woman, Tyler's mom presumably, opened the door.
"You must be Joshua," she said, gesturing for him to step in.
"Just Josh, ma'am," Josh said, smiling sweetly. If he was going to get into Tyler's pants, he needed the kid's parents to like him. He thought the blue hair might have been difficult, so he wore a button up and Vans instead of an X-Files shirt and high tops.
Josh followed Mrs. Joseph into the kitchen, looking around. He saw a pre-teen girl, but no Tyler.
"Tyler is in his room," Mrs. Joseph echoed his thoughts. "It's upstairs, you'll see which one. Take these up there," she said, shoving a plate of cookies-gingersnaps?- into Josh's hands. "He's too skinny."
Josh snorted, said thank you, and found his way upstairs. There were four doors in a row, all decorated respectively with basketballs or cars with each kid's name. Tyler's was at the end of the hallway. His door was simple. It just had a name and a cross.
The door was slightly ajar, so Josh pushed the door open. Tyler, who was sitting on his bed, immediately stood up. "Oh, um, hi Joshua."
"Just Josh," he reminded the other boy, setting the cookies down on a desk. Tyler looked nice. Josh hadn't seen him in much but basketball shorts and sweatshirts, ever. The occasional tie on game days. He was wearing a floral button up and skinny jeans.
Who the hell was he trying to impress?
"So, for the song," Josh said, clearing his throat, "I was thinking- Gerard told me you could sing." That was a little lie. Josh assumed Tyler could sing. "That you do at church. I have an awful voice so," Josh cut himself off and smiled, sitting next to Tyler on the bed.
Tyler's face got red. "I, uh, I don't sing that often, but I guess, I could try," he admitted. "I, I um, I write a lot- just poetry and things, we could use one of those."
This surprised Josh. What jock wrote poetry?
Tyler gestured to a notebook on his desk, so Josh went to go skim through it. The notebook was worn out- purple and fading to white, the pages soft with age, and use. Tyler dated all of his poems. All of Tyler's poems were incredible. He'd have to tell Gerard about this kid.
"These are really good," Josh murmured absentmindedly. "How about this one?" he asked, keeping the notebook on one page as he went back to the bed. Tyler turned to look at Josh at the same time Josh turned to look at Tyler. Their noses were practically touching.
I should just kiss him, Josh thought.
This is wrong, Tyler and Blurry thought.
Tyler looked down. "Yeah, we can do this one. I have some chords for it actually," he managed to squeak out. "It's kind of- kind of more of a rap."
Josh laughed. "Sick! TyJo is the flow master. Alright, just, play it and I'll record it and then work out some drum stuff."
After Tyler had played the song, and Josh had complimented him, and Tyler had stuttered, and they both ate some cookies, Tyler walked Josh downstairs to leave. Just as the front door was being opened, the teens heard, from Mrs. Joseph, "Tyler, come in here!"
Josh saw Tyler pale.
"With Josh."
Tyler relaxed. The two boys entered the kitchen to see Mrs. Joseph buttering a raw chicken.
"Joshua-"
"Just Josh, Mrs. Joseph."
"I'd like you to stay for dinner. Tyler only ever has basketball friends over here, and I'm tired of it."
Josh froze. He was supposed to hang out with Brendon tonight. But then again, he hated hanging out with Brendon half of the time. He and Pete and Halsey always just got wasted. The only person that would miss him would be Gerard.
"Sure, thank you for the offer Mrs. Joseph," Josh said, smiling sweetly.
Score.
Once Tyler and Josh were downstairs and Tyler was setting up a game of Mario Kart, Josh texted Gerard.
Spooky Jim: I won't be at Brendon's tonight
gerard way: why the fuck not
Spooky Jim: I'm having dinner at Tyler Joseph's house. Maybe I'll come late.
gerard way: what the fuck
gerard way: i told you not to fuck with him dun
Spooky Jim: I'm not. Yet ;)
gerard way: i am going to fucking strangle you.
Spooky Jim: Whatever!!!