Year one, sophomore year

     The halls of the high school were busy and jumbled. Confused freshman wandered the halls, confused as to which direction their next period class is.

"Who's your teacher for English?" Jenna asked Tyler in the midst of the chaos.

"Ms. Jenkins, and then I got Mr. Smith for science." He replied loudly. The two walked over to the dead end of a hallway, it was less crowded and they were in no hurry to go to their classes.

"Do you think we're going to get homework?" Jenna asked.

Tyler looked at her and chuckled, "It's the first day of sophomore year. Of course we're going to get homework."

Jenna groaned, "My sleeping schedule is not ready for this. By the time I get home today, I'll be sleeping and never waking up."

"Hey!" Tyler said, "We have a date woman. You expect to go get coffee and complain about life by myself?"

Jenna rolled her eyes dramatically, "Fine." She said extending the 'e'.

The couple walked over to their first classes. They didn't have the first class with one another but they would meet up during passing period to second.

When Tyler sat down in his seat for the first hour, he looked around the classroom. It held posters of about the Constitution of the United States, maps of America and Europe. It looked like a basic classroom for History and Geography.

The teenager put us head on his arms to at least catch up with a few minutes of sleep. The bell soon rang and the classroom started to quiet down. The teacher went through all of the daily morning announcements. It wasn't bad until the teacher ended it by saying, "...and a moment of silence for Josh Dun."

Tyler felt eyes burning into him. Even though Josh and him were never popular, people still knew who they were. The great benefits of living in such a small town. People knew who the two boys were, they were inseparable.

So when Josh's name was mentioned, the rooms attention shifted to the fifteen year old sitting in the center of the class trying to block himself out from the world.

"I heard that Tyler murdered him in the woods." whispers started.

"I heard that they did it as a prank." another said.

"Maybe Josh got sent into the upside down and we have to fight demogorgons-" one spoke.

"Mike, Brendon, Dan, shut up you nerds, you are all talking about this kid while his best friend is right there." one voice shut them up.

"C'mon, Nicole. You always ruin the fun."

Tyler sighed quietly and stared straight ahead at the board. Oh, he can't wait to start the school year. Whispers and rumors are always at the base of a student community. And how great it is for the topics to be about him and his friend.

"You know, I think Josh ran away on purpose. I mean I would do it but I depend too much on my parents to actually leave."

"Pete, that's horrible."

"Hey it was just a thought! Especially if there was a girl." The voices said.

Tyler dug his head deeper into his arms. He knew that this was going to be a very long school year. 

***

"Hey Tyler, how was school?" his mom yelled when she heard the door unlock.

Tyler dropped his heavy backpack on the ground. He walked into the kitchen and went into the pantry. "It was fine." he said.

"Are you and Jenna still hanging out later?" She asked. Tyler nodded while looking for a snack. "Do you need money? What are you looking for? I can make you a sandwich-"

"Mom I'm fine." Tyler said. He grabbed a granola bar and left the kitchen.

Tyler knew what she was doing. And she wasn't the only one. Everyone around him acts like they're walking on eggshells. Like if they said one wrong thing, he would snap and crumble.

Tyler doesn't think that they understand that he has already fallen apart. He collapsed the first day without Josh and now he's just trying to feel normal again.

***

Jenna and Tyler sat at a park bench, drinking whatever they ordered at the shop earlier.

"...Okay well it should've been Steve who used the gauntlet to snap out Thanos." Jenna said. Tyler laughed as she went on a full rant about some movie. "Steve literally had backwards character development. Like I understand that being with Peggy made him happy and all but things happen for a reason!"

"Jenna it's just a movie-"

"No, he interrupted Peggy's stable life and put himself right next to her. He left his two best friends that were there for him through a lot of shit and I don't stand for that!" She said waving her hands around dramatically, "I would've been happy if Steve died and Tony would just be a tad traumatized after everything but at least he would have Peter, Morgan, and Harley. Then Iron Dad would even more canon than before."

"Jenna I literally only asked if you were hungry." Tyler laughed.

Jenna crosses her arms over her chest, "I still stand by my opinion."

He smiled at her lovingly. The sun was starting to set and he thought he better get her home before it was too dark out.

They only walked around town since Tyler hadn't gotten his license yet. Jenna suggested that they could take their bikes earlier but he respectfully declined. By the time they had gotten to Jenna's house it was almost completely black.

Tyler walked to his house alone. There were no cars out and the insects were loud in the night. He walked at a quick pace and let his mind wander to the amount of assignments he already has piling up. He never tried to think like a basic high school student but damn, high school sucks.

Tyler continued walking, almost down to his neighborhood. He had felt his foot get caught on a hard object and he felt himself fall straight onto the pavement of the sidewalk. He looked back to see what he tripped on and saw a helmet just sitting there. He wondered how he could not see something like that when he was walking.

He got up and got ready to just kick the helmet to the side until he noticed something. The red J.D. initials in the back.

The teens eyes widened and he grabbed the helmet and looked at it closely. Hoping- no praying that he didn't recognize the helmet as his friends. But he knew it was Josh's. From the amount of times he's seen the back of this helmet he should know.

The boy looked around his surroundings. An uncomfortable chill crawled up his spine. Tyler held onto the helmet and continued walking home. He was looking around much more wary of finding something he doesn't want to find.

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