Flashback, it's the girl.

     "Tyler, just go ask her," Josh urged his friend on.

Tyler felt as if his heart was going to beat out of his chest. He watched the girl from across the classroom as she filled out her agenda. "What if I... walk the other way and we continue on acting like we still don't know each other? Yeah that plan sounds-" he stopped talking when he saw Josh's unimpressed face.

"You can do this," Josh said, nudging his friend. "You two have only been subtly flirting back and forth since sixth grade. Just ask her out."

Tyler shook his head, "What if I ask her out and she says no? I'm going to be made fun of for even thinking that I, Tyler Joseph, even had a chance with the Jenna Black."

"Yeah, but what if she says yes? You're going to have the Jenna Black as a girlfriend." Josh placed his hands on Tyler's shoulders and faced him towards the girl. "If everything goes wrong, which it won't, I'll buy you Taco Bell. If everything goes right, which it will, I'll still buy you Taco Bell. You can't lose on this one."

"Hey, why are we spending all this time on me finding a girlfriend? Why aren't we working on you?"

"Tyler, you are constantly talking about Jenna. Until I find a girl that I can nonstop talk about, we're helping you."

Tyler continued, ready to do anything, but ask a girl out. "Well I'm sure Jenna has friends that you might like. How about you walk over there and ask..."

"Tyler," Josh gave him a look, "Taco Bell or no Taco Bell."

" ... I do like Taco Bell," Tyler said.

"As much as you like Jenna?"

Tyler rolled his eyes and walked forward. A small "Hi," slipped from his lips and as he saw Jenna smile, he smiled back.

***

"Josh, it was awesome!" Tyler fell backwards onto his friend's bed. "Did I just go on a date with Jenna?" He asked in disbelief.

"You're like a cute love sick puppy," Josh through a pillow at Tyler's face, "stop it."

Tyler laughed, "Hey Josh, you're a nice guy." Josh looked at him. "And you're cute compared to the others in our grade."

Josh raised his eyebrow, "Are you trying to confess your love for me here?"

"No, no, no," Tyler quickly said, "I'm just wondering how you don't have a girlfriend yet." Josh rolled his eyes. "Okay before you say anything, you helped me ask out Jenna. Isn't there one girl— or guy, I support whatever way you swing. Anyone that you like or something?"

Josh nodded, "Yeah, I've had crushes on the majority of Jenna's friends, but they never lasted longer than a week." He sat up on the bed with Tyler, "When I do have the courage to ask someone out I'll come to you, okay?"

"Right away? Even if it's a small crush?"

"Sure," Josh said.

***

Now here the two friends sat on the same bed that hadn't changed. They were sitting across from each other, playing uno and trying to figure out what they missed in each others lives.

"So another Star Wars is coming out?" Josh asked.

Tyler nodded. He thought about what to ask. Would some things not be appropriate to ask. What if Josh was hurt while he was gone? And Tyler was too scared to ask about that. "Still hate bananas?"

"Oh yeah," Josh nodded like it was obvious. "Still a virgin?"

Tyler stared deadpanned at his friend. "Josh," he said, "shut up."

"Okay fine, fine." Josh let out a quiet snort. "Skip the question."

Tyler rolled his eyes, "Is it okay if I ask about where and what happened to you when you were gone?"

Josh bit his bottom lip, thinking. He gave Tyler an uneasy look, "Yeah, but if I want to skip a question—"

"You're free time skip as many questions as you want," Tyler said, "I'm just here to get to know my best friend again."

Josh smiled and nodded.

"Okay," Tyler started, "where were you?"

"Dema," Josh responded, he put down a four color card, "yellow." Tyler ended up taking three cards from the deck, "How are you and Jenna?"

"We're good." Tyler put down a switch card, "Where's Dema?"

"Not sure. Have you started that band yet?"

"Nope!" Tyler seemed to laugh at himself. He thought of another question while looking at his cards. As Josh put down another color, Tyler saw a black line peek out from the sleeves of Josh's sweatshirt. "What's that?" He asked suddenly.

"What's what?" Josh asked confused. Tyler pointed to his arm, where the black marks were permanently shown, he looked down and understood. "Skip." Josh thought for a moment, "I can't think of many things to ask."

"Yeah, same," Tyler sighed, he smiled for a second. "You got a girlfriend yet? I know you've only been back a couple days so far, but you had a glow up without me and I'm willing to bet at least five girls that you've never met have shown up at your door."

Josh bit his lip, holding back a smile. "There have been a couple passerbyers that are... interesting." He laughed, "I'm gonna try and get my life here back to speed before talking about that girlfriend thing."

Tyler raised an eyebrow. "What? A year and a half and Joshy finally has a crush?"

"Oh shut up," he smiled. "Uno," he said before placing down his second to last card. "I'll go to you if I need my best friend for moral support and things go wrong."

"Wow, I get to be there when you get a girlfriend?"

Josh's smile faltered, "Okay well, you see I already have one. I just lost contact with her."

"Oh, here I am thinking that i was special and everything—"

"Shut up you baby," Josh laughed, "now place down your cards so I can beat you in uno."

Continue?

Not trying to be annoying or anything,, but can this book get 1k before the year ends??? Pls🥺💕 I'm grateful for all the reads this has so far but I'm just gonna voice my personal goal for this, uwu