Looking for Tyler (Joshler)

one hundred and twenty-eight days before

pete and i were sitting in our room playing mario kart on my nintendo 64. we had to shut off the air conditioning because we were so cold in there, we could see our breath. so we were sitting in the lukewarm room, the windows open and inviting the sticky summer air into the room. i wasn't really focusing on the game, i was asking questions about the mysterious brown-eyed boy in room 96. i had so many questions.

what's his story?

"he's from columbus. it's the capital, and it's a big city. but tyler lives in one of the suburbs. his boyfriend is at ohio state on a scholarship for art, i think. plays guitar in some garage band. i don't really know too much about his family."

so he really likes him?

"i guess so. aside from the one drunken make-out with that troye kid, he hasn't cheated on him, which is a surprise."

and so on.

all morning, i was incapable of caring about anything else. not the heat, not the video game, not even my class schedule, which the eagle dropped off at the dorm this morning. and he introduced himself:

"welcome to worthington oaks, joshua. you have a large amount of freedom here, but you seem like a relatively well-behaved young man, so i have a feeling  that you won't abuse it. take care, now," and with that, he left our doorway, but not after staring at me in a way that could be perceived as serious or extremely malicious. "tyler calls that the look of doom. the next time you see that, you're fucked," pete tells me, plopping himself onto our couch and propping his feet up on the COFFEE TABLE. "but, enough with tyler already. there are ninety-two girls on this campus and one hundred and twenty-six boys and i'm sure most of them are a little bit less crazy than our boy tyler is. who, i might add, already has a boyfriend to make out with." pete stood up and shut off the n64 and the tv, as well. "come on, i want lunch, and it's bufriedo day." he shoved his feet into some shoes and walked out of the dorm. i followed close behind him, considering i had no idea where i was going.

"pete!" we both heard a female voice shriek, causing us to both spin around on our heels. a tall, slender girl with long bleached blonde hair ran over to us. "lynn!" pete grinned, giving her a quick hug. the thin girl smiled, showing off a pearly-white smile. "who's this? i haven't seen him around here before," she looked at me, cocking her head to the side, much like a kitten would do.

pete introduced me to her (as spooky jim), and she giggled. "well, it's nice to meet you, spooky. i'm lynn. and you can call me... well, lynn," she said with a small giggle, i nodded, giving her a tight-lipped smile, and the three of us walked off to the cafeteria.

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we all sat down at a shitty wooden table with our trays and ate. i inspected the fried bean burrito sitting on the styrofoam plate  in front of me before picking it up and taking a bite. i chewed slowly, savoring the bean-y crunch of it all. "is this the first time he's eating a bufriedo?" lynn asked. her mouth was full, so her words came out extremely muffled. "lynn, chew your damn food before talking," pete said with a light chuckle, causing me to let out a light snort. she swallowed the food that was in her mouth before smiling sheepishly. "sorry. i asked, is this his first time having a bufriedo?" she looked over at me, and i nodded. "and..?" I looked down at the food in my hands and shrugged. "it's pretty good, actually. better than my old school's food, that's for sure," i chuckled, taking another bite of the bean mess in my hands. we sat at the wobbly lunch table, eating our food and talking about how tyler's roommate  got expelled.