My boy Tyler looks like he's about to launch into another verse of Baby Shark 😂😂😂

Prepare for a long chapter!

  Jenna

"Have fun with Debby!" Josh calls from his car as I walk up the front steps of his girlfriend's very large house.

"I plan to!" I reply, waving.

"Bye!" Tyler yells. Mark waves at me from the backseat.

I wave one last time and turn to the rustic, wood front door after they drive off. I take a deep breath. I haven't seen Debby in years. How much has she changed? I know she's pretty famous now.

Well, I guess you'll never know until you come face-to-face with her.

"You're right," I mutter to myself. I press the doorbell, a faint bi-tone chime sounding from inside.

The door opens to reveal a round-faced girl with brown hair and eyes to match. "Jenna!" Debby opens her arms and embraces me before I can do anything else. I pat her back awkwardly.

"Hi," I reply tentatively.

She ushers me inside and closes the door. "It's so good to see you! Josh told me you were coming--well, I mean obviously he told me--but...it's just so good to see you! How've you been?"

I smile. "Pretty good."

Debby takes my arm and leads me into her huge kitchen. I sit down at the island, admiring its polished marble surface.

"Do you want anything to drink? Eat?"

I chuckle. "No, I'm good."

She turns to face me from the other side of the counter. "So...have you always lived here in LA?"

"Just the past year, I have," I reply. "Before that, I was in San Francisco attending California College of the Arts."

Debby nods. "Nice. So, did you get a job up here or something? I'm not asking too many questions, am I?"

I shake my head. "No, you're not. I mean, we haven't seen each other in years, so we need to catch up. And yeah, I originally moved up here to work for a magazine company, but I didn't get hired so I just settled for Starbucks. Then I got fired and ran into Tyler and Josh a few days afterward, and they asked me to be their band's photographer."

"Oh wow!"

"So how long have you been dating Josh now?" I ask.

"Well, we kind of grew apart after high school due to our own paths to fame, but he came in contact with me again and he asked me out this year."

"Oh, that's cool!" I reply, playing with my purse strap. "That sounds a lot like what happened to Tyler and me. Except, you know, I'm not famous."

She chuckles. "Yeah. So...Josh didn't really specify why you were coming over here..."

"Oh, well, do you remember Brendon and prom?"

"Yes," she scoffs. "The jerk. What about him?"

"Well, Twenty One Pilots got asked to tour with Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco. Brendon is the lead singer of Panic!, and they went to meet up with him and discuss tour plans today. And I don't really want to come face-to-face with him again yet."

"I don't blame you," she agrees.

"But what's worse is I'm going to have to see him probably on a daily basis because I'm going on tour with the guys."

"Oh no."

"Oh yes. But, at least he's married now. On the other hand, I don't know how nice his wife is."

Debby reaches her hand across the counter and grabs mine. "Dude, I will totally go with you if my schedule permits. I'm pretty sure Josh is going to ask me anyways."

I smile. "Yeah, he was planning to." I look around at her spacious kitchen. "So...what do you have planned to do?"

Debby puts both hands down on the counter with a slap. "Okay, so there's a gym not too far from here that I like to go to and they have a huge rock climbing wall. I figured we could go to that if you wanted to."

"That sounds great!" I exclaim. "Except...I'm not sure if jeans are the best rock-climbing clothes."

"Don't worry. I have a pair of leggings that might fit you." She beckons for me to follow her out of the kitchen and up the white-marbled stairs on the other side of the entrance hall. We turn left into a room with a huge bed adorned in satin fabric. Debby disappears into what I assume is a walk-in closet. She reappears a few seconds later with a pair of black leggings.

"Here. You can change in my bathroom." She nods toward the other doorway beside her closet. I walk inside and close the door behind me, then proceed to take off my skinny jeans and replace them with the leggings.

I walk back into her bedroom to see Debby reappear in matching black leggings, along with a white shirt knotted at the bottom left corner, and an army green dad cap, her ponytail pulled through the adjusting tab in the back.

"You ready?" she asks.

"Uh...yeah. Where do I put these?" I hold up my jeans.

"Here, just leave them on my bed. If we forget about them, I can always have Josh drop by and give them to you."

"Okay," I reply.

Debby grabs a purse hanging on her bedpost. "Okay, let's go."

After walking around to the side of her house and opening the garage, we climb into her black SUV.

"You never really struck me as an SUV kind of girl."

"Good. That means that paparazzi won't be looking for one."

I tilt my head. "True."

She turns the keys in the ignition and starts to back out.

"So, how far is the gym from here?" I ask.

"Not that far. It's a five-minute drive with minimal traffic."

"Oh, that's not bad at all," I reply.

"Yeah. It was worth the membership." She turns on the radio, and we're at the gym before the song is even over.

"Do I have to pay a guest fee or--"

Debby waves her hand. "I got you covered." We walk inside the gym, the cold air from the AC hitting me like a brick wall. Debby talks to the desk worker, waving her hands and gesturing to me. She swipes a credit card in the reader before the worker gestures for us to follow him through a door leading away from the main workout area.

Behind the door is a huge recreational room, complete with a dodgeball and basketball court. The rock climbing wall is on the far left side.

"Wow," I breathe. "Tyler would like this place."

Debby laughs. "Yeah, Josh would, too. There's a boxing area that I've been pestering him to try, but he's been too busy."

Josh? Boxing? That human is too innocent to box, I think.

"Here's the wall, girls. Sam over there will get you guys harnessed up." The worker gestures to a college-aged guy with strawberry blond hair before turning and walking back through the door.

We start walking towards the wall, where only a single girl is climbing.

"It's the best when it's not busy," Debby says. She waves at the boy, then the girl. "Hey Sam, hey Julie."

"Hi, Debby!" they both say.

"I'll be with you guys in a sec," Sam says, gripping Julie's cable rope tightly in his hands. He turns back to the wall. "Okay, babe, you're so close to the top! Remember what I said about not looking down!"

"Julie is Sam's girlfriend," Debby whispers. "In case you were wondering. He won't call you babe, don't worry."

"Okay." We both start snickering.

Julie starts breathing heavily, glancing at her feet. "S-S-Sam, I d-don't think I can do this."

"Yes you can," Sam says encouragingly. "You're already so close! You beat your personal record a few steps ago!"

"B-But it's so high!"

"Okay, Julie? Look at the rocks above you and focus on the sound of my voice. Okay? You're going to be so proud of yourself when you make it to the top, I promise!"

I smile. Sam seems nice. He reminds me a lot of Tyler. Tyler would talk someone through an anxiety-provoking situation. We watch as Sam starts giving his girlfriend step-by-step instructions. Julie slowly reaches a trembling left hand up to a rock, then pulls herself up to another foothold.

We watch her for a few minutes until finally:

"Sam! I did it! I made it to the top!"

"See? I knew you could do it! I'm going to slacken up and let you down now."

Julie nods eagerly as Sam slowly lets the rope slide through his gloved hands. She carefully descends the wall, then jumps a few feet from the floor. Sam runs over and engulfs her in a hug.

"Aw," I murmur.

Julie glances over. "I've been training weeks to do that! I have a crippling fear of heights."

"You were great, Julie!" Debby exclaims, a glimmer of pride flickering in her eyes.

Sam turns to us. "Okay, I'll get you guys some harnesses." He walks around to the side of the wall, which morphs into a hallway. He grabs some harnesses and helmets off of some hooks, then returns. Julie grabs some sterilizing spray from a nearby table and squirts the inside of the helmets.

"Okay, so Julie and I will man the ropes that way you can both climb together," Sam says. He squints at me. "I haven't seen you here before."

"I'm Jenna," I say. "This is my first time rock climbing."

"Nice to meet you, Jenna. If you want to start on one of the easier courses, it would be over here on this side." He gestures to my left, then hands me a harness. I look over to see Debby already securing hers, the helmet already on her head. She looks over at me.

"Here, I can help with the harness." She steps over and helps me step into the weird contraption, tightening the main belt and a few other straps. I slide my helmet on and buckle it together.

Sam gently grabs my arm and guides me over to the wall. "Okay, so here is the third-easiest section. I think it's about your level. Now, I'm going to attach this rope's carabiner here to a loop on the back of your harness." I glance at the hot pink rope as Sam attaches the carabiner, my eyes traveling up until I see it strung through a pulley on the ceiling. I look back down to see Sam studying me. "Don't worry," he says, "I'll be on the other end."

I nod, a pit of nervousness suddenly forming in my stomach. I glance over to see Debby already starting to scale the more advanced part of the wall. I step up to my section, surveying the colorful plastic rocks. Taking a deep breath, I place my hands on a pair just above my head and slowly pull myself up, my muscles tightening to adjust to my bodyweight.

"There you go, you're getting it," Sam says from below. I smile and keep climbing, remembering his instructions to Julie earlier by looking at the rocks above me. Pretty soon I'm at the top looking down at Debby, Julie, and Sam all cheering from below. I smile and start my descent downward. I jump a little more than halfway to the ground like Julie did, the rope behind me tensing to slow my fall.

Debby runs up to me and hugs me. "Woo!!! You did it!!!"

I smile. "I did. Let's do it again!"

"Wasn't that fun?" Debby asks as we exit a café we decided to eat at afterward.

"It was!" I exclaim. "Thanks for taking me! That was great."

She grins. "You're welcome. It was nice to get to know you better."

"Same here. Maybe we can go again sometime," I reply, locating Debby's SUV in the parking lot. She pulls out her keyfob and hits the unlock button, the car's lights blinking.

"So should I drop you off at your house or is Josh going to pick you up?" she asks.

"Well, I think Tyler will want to see me again to tell me how the meeting went and I also need to get my pants, so...yeah."

"Oh, right!" she exclaims, chuckling slightly. "I forgot about that." We climb into her car. I remove my phone from my purse and text Tyler.

Me: Hey, are you guys done with your meeting?

Tyler: Yeah. Are you at Debby's? I'll come and pick you up.

Me: We're on our way there, yeah.

Me: Thanks. See you in a few :)

"Thanks again for having me over today," I say to Debby from her doorstep, now changed into my worn pair of jeans.

"It wasn't a problem! See you again soon!" We hug, then I turn to Josh's car as she goes inside. I laugh when I see Tyler stretching across the front seat to open my door. He never fails at being a gentleman.

"So how was it?" he asks after climbing in. It's just the two of us.

"I had a lot of fun! We went rock climbing at a nearby gym, and then went to a café afterward to eat back all of the calories we burned!"

He starts laughing. "That's great."

"So, how was the meeting with Panic!?" I ask casually (It's so hard to write Panic! with the exclamation point without it seeming like you're screaming at someone).

"It was good. We discussed tour plans and the date we plan to leave for our first show in Connecticut. Brendon seems to have matured a little. His wife came along and observed. She seemed nice." He turns left at the intersection with the pink wall.

"Well, it's good that everything went well," I reply. "Did you tell him that I'm coming with you guys?"

His brows furrow. "Um...well...Josh and I decided it would probably be best for you to cross that bridge when we get there. So no, we didn't tell him. I talked to Fall Out Boy and they didn't bring you up, either. We were all careful not to, actually."

"Okay. I mean, it's good that you didn't blackmail or threaten him," I say, laughing awkwardly. "I don't want my presence to cause a lot of drama."

"Don't worry, it won't," he reassures me. "We will take pleasure in having you along."

I smile. "So, when will you have to go back to Ohio?"

"In a few days, actually. All of my main instruments are there."

"Aw, so soon??" I whine. Ty smiles a little bit.

"Well, I actually was going to ask you if you wanted to fly back with us to save you a plane ticket," he replies, turning into my apartment complex's parking lot.

"Really!?" I cry.

He nods. "Yep. You can stay at my house there if you want, or you can stop by to visit your folks before we tour."

"That sounds great." I grin. "I haven't seen my family in a while anyway. It'll be nice to drop in unexpectedly."

"Yeah. It'll be nice for me to see them again, too," he replies, parking the car.

I turn to Tyler. "So, what day are you guys flying back?"

"Friday. I can come over one day and help you pack if you want me to." He rubs the back of his neck. "B-but you're probably perfectly capable of doing that yourself. It was just a suggestion. I mean--"

"I'd love your help," I interrupt, grinning. I get out of the car. He follows, probably wanting to make sure that I get to the door without knocking myself out or getting kidnapped like back in the good ol' days.

It's probably a good thing too because I trip on the stairs a few feet before coming to my door. Tyler's hands are immediately on my shoulders steadying me.

"Easy now," he whispers. His hands don't leave my shoulders again until we're back on level ground.

I pull my house keys out of my purse, then turn back to him. "What are we, Ty? We never really officiated anything. I mean, I kinda said I was your girlfriend at lunch with Fall Out Boy, but we never really confirmed it."

"That's true. Well...um, I know we're friends, b-but I missed you, and I want to be more than that but with the tour and all I don't know how that will work out and--"

I wrap my arms around his waist. "I'll settle that. Do you wanna be my boyfriend?"

His grin is brighter than the sun. "I'd never say no." He returns the hug, squeezing me twice as hard.

"Thanks for everything, Ty," I whisper. We break the hug and go our separate ways. I smile for the rest of the afternoon.

A/N: I'm sorry that this has taken forever to publish. I've been on a social media hiatus and I've also had writer's block, so the end of this didn't turn out too well. Sorry :(

After writing this chapter, I really started to get an interest in rock climbing even though I have like no upper body strength lol. I did some research and turns out, my hometown has a rock climbing gym on its outskirts that has really good prices. A summer pass with shoes is $35 for the whole season. Now I just have to beef up my arm muscles...