the next friday, josh was working at the veterinary clinic instead of subbing. tyler moped around all day, finding school much more boring without josh there. he sat at lunch across from brendon and ryan who were tossing goldfish into each other's mouths.

ryan missed and hit brendon in the eye, making tyler laugh at his over exaggerated scream.

"fuck! i'm going to go blind!"

ryan felt bad at first but joined in laughing when brendon attacked his sides to tickle him.

"you guys make me miss josh," tyler whined.

"oh, boo hoo. you're always with josh. want to hang out with us tonight?" brendon asked, letting ryan regain his breath.

a night out with his friends did sound like fun...

"okay, sure. are we just gonna hang out somewhere?"

"i'm sure we could find a party, if you want."

"okay, just don't tell josh."

brendon nodded in confirmation. it was official, tyler was going to a party tonight. and josh would never have to know.

✨🌸✨

tyler wiped his sweaty palms against his jeans, worrying that somehow josh would find out about this. he knew the older wouldn't want him to go partying, which is why he just decided to tell him he was staying at ryan's. he awkwardly walked with his two friends who were laughing and spinning each other, making him, feel left out. he never realized how much being a third wheel sucked before him and josh got together.

"whose house is this?"

"this guy i know, alex. he's in college but said i could bring you guys."

great, college boys.

"oh."

the three entered together, brendon leading the way into the kitchen. ryan picked a soda out of the fridge and told them he was going to see if alex's boyfriend, jack, was here. apparently, they were pretty good friends.

"great, now let's get wasted," brendon grinned at tyler, who really would rather not, but he didn't want to be a buzz kill.

brendon filled up two shot glasses and said cheers, tilting his head back as he down the alcohol.

"was is this?"

"don't worry about it, just drink."

tyler hesitated but finally thought fuck it and downed the liquid. it burned his throat and all the way down into his stomach as he swallowed it. he reflexively cringed, face squishing in disgust.

"yuck!"

"come on, another one?"

"no brendon i-"

before he could finish, brendon was holding out another shot glass full of a clear substance.

"live a little," he encouraged, and tyler decided to just stop holding back from having a good time.

he drank from the glass in one gulp, the burning sensation overwhelming his throat. he coughed, laughing when brendon patted him on the back.

"the more you take, the easier it is."

he held out another.

tyler downed it.

another.

down it goes.

tyler was already feeling nauseous. he announced this before leaning over the sink and dry-heaving. brendon was laughing his ass off.

"it won't come out!" tyler yelled in frustration, spinning around to see brendon. he got extremely dizzy and ended up falling face first onto the floor at brendon's feet.

tyler laid there, head spinning, eyes rolling into the back of his head as he laughing maniacally, along with brendon. he tried helping tyler up, but was drunk himself, so he kind of just stumbled all over the room dragging tyler along with him.

they managed the get tyler to his feet, leaning on each other for balance as they stumbled out to find ryan. he was standing with two guys, who brendon announced were jack and alex.

"rrryan!" tyler smiled, switching from holding onto brendon to leaning on ryan. "how'sss it goin!?"

"oh my god, you two are already drunk."

brendon simply nodded while tyler was playing with jack's hair.

"it'sss sooo pretty!"

"god, brendon, you got him shit faced," jack chuckled.

"he nnneeded it," brendon slurred, relying on ryan to keep him upright.

the two ended up going off somewhere, leaving tyler with jack and alex.

"you two are sssso nice," he sniffled, tears forming in his eyes. "i'm so glad i have new friends! i loooove you guys!"

"you've known us for like five minutes," alex tried to explain but tyler wasn't paying any attention. he was distracted by jack's bright yellow shirt, which reminded him of josh's hair. he gasped.

"joshhh! don't tell hiimm!"

"who's josh?"

"yeah, i love josh," tyler giggled, pulling jack in for a hug. he nuzzled his face against jack's chest.

"is he your boyfriend?" alex continued asking questions.

"mmmhm. he's great, he's the best. i'd d-die for him!" he hiccuped in response.

a sudden commotion gained his attention, drawing him away from his new friends. tyler carefully carried himself to where a circle had formed, two blurry figures fighting in the middle of it. his eyes couldn't quite make out who it was thanks to the flashing strobe lights, but he definitely heard ryan screaming brendon's name.

fuck.

brendon was fighting someone. that idiot.

tyler knew he should stay out of it, but that was his best friend and he was getting the life beat out of him. nobody can hurt his friends like that.

tyler ran for the guy who, in that exact moment, sent his fist into brendon's face and sent him to the floor unconscious. tyler was yelling, which could barely be heard over the loud music. he saw ryan rushing over to brendon out of the corner of his eye. tyler was so angry. who was this guy to think he could hurt his friend and get away with it?

tyler launched himself at the guy, attaching himself onto his back and punching him in the head thinking it would hurt, but in reality his arms were like noodles and his punches were like little taps. the guy was much bigger and much stronger than tyler, so it was no problem for him to lift tyler from his back and shove him down to the ground.

the brunette's arms raised to cover his face as the guy started to beat his fists against him. tyler was yelling because god it hurt, but also because this guy had no idea what he was getting himself into if he were to leave a single bruise on tyler. josh would want to kill him. but no, tyler couldn't tell josh he went to a party. oh god, tyler was going to be in so much trouble. 

__a/n__

thanks for 5k wtf???