<10:10 am, Sunday>

When Tyler woke up the next morning to an empty spot beside him on his bed, he nearly had a heart attack at the fear of Josh being gone. He bolted out of bed and into the kitchen in a sleepy panic to see Josh standing in the front doorway, smoking a cigarette and talking with Pete.

"Oh," was all Tyler said when he walked in. Pete nodded with a cigarette identical to Josh's in his hand. He motioned to the half eaten pizza on the kicthen counter. Two matching suitcases were lined up beside the front door.

"Hey, sleeping beauty," Pete sneered. "Forgot about our trip already?"

Tyler gulped and shook his head. He had forgotten actually- him and Patrick were planning to go on a road trip during Christmas, without Tyler of course. They both had the whole month off, but Patrick was worried about leaving Tyler alone for so long in case another "accident" occurred.

Patrick was sprawled across their futon, typing furiously on his laptop. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and waved dismissively at Tyler.

"Don't worry. We'll be out of your hair in a minute, just as soon as I finish this email."

Tyler hated their apartment They could afford more if they weren't all knee deep in student debt at age twenty. As soon as you walked though the front door, you were in the living room. On the right, the futon sat flush against the wall when it was pulled back into a bed. In front of it was their glass coffee table that had three foldable chairs.

To the left was kitchen, which was just a stove, mini fridge, and built in cabinet acting as a wall to separate it from the living room. Straight ahead of the doorway was a hall that led to the bathroom the three shared and then the two bedrooms. Connected to Pete and Patrick's room was a glass door leading to their tiny porch.

It definitely wasn't a space for three grown men, two whom were in a relationship and the third a suicidal idiot, so for Tyler to have the space alone for a while was refreshing. Maybe if he saved up enough money, he could eventually get his own apartment far, far away from Columbus.

"When are you guys coming back?" Josh asked. He pulled a slice of pepperoni pizza and held it out to Tyler, who took it.

Pete exhaled slowly and tapped the ashes of his cigarette into the ashtray beside him. "January 6th. Make sure Tyler doesn't do anything stupid while we're gone, will you, Dun?"

Josh sent him a salute. "No promises, Wentz."

Patrick slammed his laptop shut and stood, nodding in their direction. "Sorry, but we have to leave like, right now. Our flight's in two hours."

"It's fine," Tyler smiled. "Have fun."

Pete snuffed out his cigarette and leaned against the doorframe, one of the suitcases in hand. Josh did the same and walked in.

"Don't do anything idiotic while I'm or I'll kick your ass," Patrick warned. "And don't eat all the pizza rolls in the freezer, or Pete will kick your ass."

"You bet I will," Pete said.

Tyler nodded. Patrick sent him a sharp and worried look before running like a bat out of hell. Pete nodded a goodbye and closed the door behind him.

Josh rubbed his hands together, turning his head to look at the clock on the wall. For a brief moment, Tyler could see the black ink covered by white gauze just behind right his ear clearly. The skin was still red and raised, which made Tyler self consciously rub the inside of his elbow where he had gotten a tattoo identical to Josh's.

"Let me guess," Tyler spoke before Josh had the chance to. "Road trip."

Josh looked at him and grinned. "You can just read me like a book, can't you?"

He stepped into Tyler, cupped his face, and kissed him. Tyler didn't react immediately, a million thoughts running and crashing through his mind like trains derailing simultaneously until they all fell into one big thought.

How the hell was he going to save Josh? He was so adamant about dying that he didn't even flinch when Tyler mentioned their due date. Now he's knocking out the bucket list one by one at rapid speed and that's almost as scary as dying.

Josh seemed to notice his hesitance because he pulled away, an anxious expression on his face. "What? Does my breath smell bad? Was it the cigarette? I can stop smoking if you want me-"

"It's not that," Tyler reassured him, smiling so he didn't get worried. "It's just- we've done the road trip thing before. Senior year. Maybe we could do something different."

"Like what?"

Tyler shrugged. "I don't know. Let's do something we've never done. Roller skating, try food from different countries, something so we don't die with any regrets."

There was a small voice in Tyler's head that still wanted to go through with their plans. It was quiet compared to the rest, but it was still there. That drove Tyler to sound almost like he was back in the game. That gave his words more honesty than desperate stalling.

"Let's be stupid teenagers. God knows we didn't have the chance before."

Josh covered Tyler's hands with his, pulling them from his face and holding them. Tyler searched for a trace of doubt in Josh's face, some hope that he would change his mind about this.

He didn't find any.

"There's a hibachi restaurant downtown," Josh said to their bare feet. "I've never been. Maybe after we check off a few places from our map, we can eat dinner there."

Tyler tried to smirk, but it only came out as a goofy grin. "Are you asking me out on a date?"

Josh nodded, kissing his cheek. "It's about time I did, don't you think?"