the night went by excruciatingly slow for tyler, especially sitting through dinner with all the questions his family was tossing his way.

he understood their concerns, but he didn't see the need for them to question every little detail about what had happened in school. he told them the basics, that he had made two new friends and that no one was rude to him. after sharing the details his family let him be excused from the table and he shuffled up to his room, falling onto his bed with an exhausted sigh.

he went to unlock his phone and noticed four notifications that popped out amongst the rest.

'joshuadun has requested to follow you'

'brendonurie has requested to follow you'

'joshuadun has added you on snapchat'

'brendonurie has added you on snapchat'

he grinned to himself and accepted the follow requests, adding them back on snapchat as well. not even a minute later he had received a snapchat from each of them and had been added into a group that consisted of him, josh, and brendon, appropriately named 'edge lord, satanist, thrift shopper'.

the first picture sent in the group was a simple selfie from brendon, minus his glasses which took tyler slightly off guard. it went on like that for a while, the three of them exchanging selfies with the occasional teasing remark as the caption.

then it came time for bed; the time when tyler would have to take his tubes out so he could sleep. it shouldn't have worried him, because it really wasn't a big deal, but he couldn't help hating this part of the night. he was self conscious with the tubes in, and he was self conscious without the tubes in. it was irrational and he had trouble explaining it when he was asked about it, but he felt like a part of him was missing when he took them out. they had been a constant part of his life since he was a kid, and without them he worried about what would happen if his lungs happened to give out on him during the night, or even what people would think if they saw him without them.

tyler allowed himself to push those thoughts aside when he turned his lights off and continued to snapchat his new friends, taking a few different selfies until he felt comfortable with how he looked in it, sending it and waiting for the inevitable questions that were to come.

but there were none.

neither josh nor brendon mentioned anything about his lack of tubes, and he was slightly surprised, but mostly relieved. it really wasn't that big of a deal but he hated having to explain to everyone that yes, he could do things without his tank.

time passed before they all said goodnight to each other, leaving tyler to come up with a plan. he needed to get josh to say his sexuality, preferably in front of brendon, and he needed the two of them to come to terms with their own feelings for each other.

it would be difficult, he was sure of it, but he was confident in his ability to pull it off successfully. he may not have solid evidence of their feelings but he was a pro at romance and even the most oblivious person could see the way brendon and josh interact is more than friendly.

so that's how tyler fell asleep conjuring up a master plan on how to get his new friends together.

•••

i update this a lot oops
-carina