Two Friends. {JOSHLER}

4

Tyler's POV

I got home last night at 10:15 pm, an hour past my curfew on school nights. Both my parents were waiting on the couch for me when I arrived.

"Where were you?" They asked me, and I told them I took my friends out to a restaurant.

"Oh, then where was this?" My dad held up his phone and a picture of Brendon and the girl making out was right in front of my face. "Care to explain?"

I couldn't lie to my parents. I couldn't. But I had to. "That was his girlfriend. He didn't even come with us."

"Why did Ryan post it then? I thought you said you were bringing him, too."

"We met up with him afterwards."

"And he was making out in the bathroom of Kara-Okay?"

Shit.

"Mhm," my mom said. "You snuck into that bar we told you to stay out of."

"I didn't have anything to drink, I swear! You know Brendon, he's that type of person. And we didn't sneak in. Brendon has a cousin who makes fake ID's for people."

I was expecting a punishment, but I got the opposite. "Thank you for telling the truth. Now go to your room." I ran up the stairs and into my room, dreadfully wanting to get out of the conversation. I shut the door quietly, careful not to wake my siblings up.

I slipped into my pajamas, brushed my teeth, then my head hit my pillow and I was out.

••

Friday sucked.

I mean, Friday itself was fabulous, but the school part sucked. I had classes with my friends, but something was off.
Brendon wasn't there, probably hungover, and so was Troye. He never misses a day of school. Josh had mentioned to me something about Troye being in trouble, but I didn't worry about it. Troye always tried to draw himself attention, but he seemed serious about it.

Either way, I still shook it off.

Everything about Friday just seemed off. The classes were quiet for the second day of school and I hated it. Quiet was my worst enemy.

Then school was out and we all ended up at home. We had made no plans for tonight, but I wanted to get to know Josh better, so I texted him if we could meet up at the park down the street.

Of course he said okay.

I slowly walked down the stairs, careful not to make any noise. I didn't want attention drawn to myself.

But it didn't help. "Where are you going?" Jack, who was sitting in front of the TV, asked me.

I stopped creeping and finished my way down. "Out. I'll be back in a bit."

"A bit? More like an hour after curfew." Of course he knew about it. Mom and dad probably told them while I was away in my room, probably telling them never to do what I did.

"An hour or two, I promise." It was 4:30 anyway, so I wasn't expecting to be too late.

I grabbed my bicycle from the garage and started down the road. I didn't want to walk, it was too far, but I didn't want to drive, I would waste gas. And riding a bike isn't that bad, anyway. I hadn't used it a long time, so it was refreshing to use it.