Summary: Tyler grew up with vivid, colorful dreams, whereas Josh was only met with darkness.
Warnings: Slightly triggering.
((notes at the end of chapter))
Tyler loved sleeping. Not that he was lazy (or inactive at all, he was quite energetic on the contrary), or even seriously loved the act of sleeping itself, no. He looked forward to dreaming.
Tyler's dreams were vivid and full of color, and almost always had some sort of beat in the background. Flashes of blue, red, and green swirled around his head, with an occasional glimpse of a towering tree with a dark blue sky. He remembers having them since he was seven, these crazily realistic dreams, and would tell his mother about them every night. His mother simply shook her head and smiled, knowing of it all too well.
When Tyler turned 12, his mother sat him down and explained to him about the dreams, and how she had them too until she met his father. He was still confused as to the concept of 'soulmates', but his mother simply said, "It will click when you meet her, Ty. You'll know."
The thing is, as Tyler grew up, he started to get a better description of this soulmate of his. And it didn't look like there would be any 'her' involved whatsoever. Tyler kept this part to himself, knowing that even though he couldn't help it, ridicule would be inevitable.
Not that Tyler felt guilty at all about the dreams. They were the best way to end almost every night (give or take the few restless or nightmare filled ones), these visions of the colors now taking the form of short, slightly curled hair, warm embraces from built arms, and deep but chiming laughter.
He was just afraid.
-
Josh grew up with only stories that friends told him of about their dreams of their soulmates. He was sixteen now and was met with nothing but a black screen when he shut his eyes. It upset him, to say the least, and every time his friends reminded him that he could be a late bloomer, he shrugged it off with a "yeah, sure" and continued to mentally plan his lonely future with twenty cats. It didn't sound too bad until he faced the whole 'crazy cat man' title.
And Josh didn't want to be a late bloomer anyway. It's been said that the later you receive the dreams, the more intense they are. And Josh was not one for intensity, even with his nose ring and blue hair. He was more on the team of pent up emotions and social barriers, keeping a tranquil aura in front of others, and most importantly keeping the hell to himself.
Josh then realized that this could be the reason as to why he wasn't getting the dreams in the first place.
-
When Tyler got into high school, he decided to flip fate the bird and go for a nice girl. He could change his love life if he wanted to. It was his anyways, right? And it wasn't that he was scared (granted, he fucking was), but he thought maybe girls weren't so bad if you, you know, squint your eyes. Have you ever done that? When your squint your eyes, and y- anyways.
Now, Jenna was the textbook definition of a nice girl. She was all shining smiles, meaningful hugs, and pure positive vibes.
But Tyler didn't love her.
Try as he did, he just couldn't. He liked her, he really really liked her, but the word love never really fit the situation. And in time they both broke down and admitted to each other of their real dreams. Apparently Jenna didn't swing that way, either. With the mutual breakup came an amazing friendship, because it wasn't bullshit when Tyler said he liked her.
