i'm not a stalker, promise. ☻ joshler

fifty

he was smiling though.

and it made tyler smile too even though he was utterly confused.

"surprise!" josh said excitedly.

"why are we here?" tyler asked, oblivious. they were parked in front of tyler's favorite restaurant, a pretty decent one. not like applebee's or something.

"well your birthday was a few days ago, and we didn't really celebrate that much because you were with your parents. so i decided that i would take you out as a surprise." josh stated, making tyler grin happily. "you mentioned to me that you really liked this place, so i figured i'd take you here. you do like this place, right? please say yes because if you don't i'm going to feel really stupid."

"no, no this is my favorite. don't worry." tyler assured him, making josh let out a loud sigh of relief. "i just, i just didn't know we'd be going here. it's really thoughtful, thank you." he leaned over and pressed his lips against josh's for a moment.

"so, do you want to go inside or?" josh asked a bit awkwardly as he pulled away, unbuckling himself. he ran his fingers through the back of his hair and looked over at tyler.

"oh yeah, come on, i'm ready to go." tyler unbuckled himself as well and opened the door, stepping out. josh got out after tyler and walked around to his side. he grabbed tyler's hand and laced their fingers together, smiling.

the boys walked to the entrance, holding hands as they did so. josh opened the door for tyler, and walked in after him.

there was a hostess standing at a podium looking thing, and also someone that had greeted them. inside it was pretty nice, all except how everyone else was dressed. everyone was wearing something relatively nicer than tyler and josh. josh didn't really mind because he wasn't ever ever one to judge people on their looks. but this made tyler, on the other hand, extremely self conscious.

"hello, sir, do you have a reservation?" the hostess asked the two boys.

"uh yeah, it should be under dun." josh replied, glancing over at tyler for a moment.

"can you spell that, please?" she asked. josh smirked a bit at this, resisting the urge to laugh. did she really not know how to spell dun?

"d-u-n." josh said, running his thumb over tyler's knuckles as they stood there. he was starting to notice that tyler wasn't exactly content right now.

"oh, josh?" she asked, to which josh nodded. "okay, please follow me."

so they did. tyler and josh followed behind the lady as she led them to the table, holding hands through out the time they walked. eventually, they arrived at their table. the lady told them a bunch of useless information that they pretended to listen to and then walked away, now leaving josh and tyler alone.

"oh my god, josh, i look terrible, why didn't you tell me we were coming here. everyone else looks so nice and i just-" tyler started, uneasy about how he looked compared to everyone else. it was just his general anxiety messing with him. but it still got to him.

"tyler," josh said, getting tyler's attention as well as cutting him off. "i think you look great."

tyler frowned a bit. "but you always think i look great."

"because you always do." josh said simply, giving him a reassuring smile.

"thank you." tyler said quietly, grinning as he spoke. what josh had just said made him feel ten times better.

"anytime, baby boy." josh replied, happy to see that tyler was now feeling somewhat better.

the night went by smoothly. tyler and josh both got some sort of fancy, weird, pasta. it was good, just strange.