to all the glowing eyes ✎ joshler

june 28

all night long josh tossed and turned around his bed. his brain never wanted to turn off to sleep. now at 9 am, he feels like he's dying. he's drinking a cup of coffee to get through the day. he doesn't understand why he couldn't sleep, but his main idea is yesterday's date. he cannot stop thinking about it, about tyler and the kiss. he'd kissed tyler before, this wasn't his first time. still, something about this one makes his heart beat a thousand times faster.

he's tempted to ask him out again today, it seems too soon though. tyler could have other plans. one day he doesn't see him won't hurt. at least that's what he's telling himself.

josh puts his coffee aside and opens up his laptop to get some work done. it may be the beginning of summer vacation but one of his students asked him for extra help on his ap history class. the kid doesn't need extra help, in josh's opinion, he's already top of his class but nowadays you can't never be too good. while he types away on his computer, jim begins to play with some of his toys in the living room.

being awake so early, josh already walked him around the neighborhood, twice actually, meaning that jim has gotten most of his energy out. he entertains himself, although he knows that josh might need some fresh air and take him out again after lunch. in summary, jim is living his best dog life.

the cell phone on the counter starts to ring when josh is writing out a quiz to send to his student. he gets up from his chair and gets to it before the call ends up in voicemail. he doesn't see the caller id when he accepts the call. ''hello?'' he talks into the device while going back to the dining room table. out of all people who could call him, he never expected this person to call him out of nowhere.

''hey, man!'' the one and only pete wentz says on the other side of the line with an enthusiastic tone. after graduation, the whole soccer team lost touch. the only few people who kept talking were josh, jon and someone else. josh forgets who.

''oh, hey. what's up? why are you calling me out of nowhere?'' usually whenever pete wants to get in contact he calls ashley instead. whatever reason he has to call him must be pretty important.

some background noise interrupts the call. pete seems to talk to someone before returning to the call. ''i wanted to ask you about the fourth of july party. dall and i are gonna go but we kinda need to make a road trip for it. do you need any groceries from boston by any chance?''

''what? how do you know about the party?''

''uh, your mom invited us. i think she like, invited everyone in the soccer team from senior year. didn't you know?''

''clearly not! what... oh my god,'' he messes up his own hair and fixes it again with his left hand since his right one is holding the phone. why did his mom invite his old high school friends? he doesn't even have many of their numbers anymore. why does his mom have them? ''who else did she invite?''

''as far as i know, she asked patrick, ryan, alex, jack, jon, dall, me obviously, and some other people. i'm not sure who's said yes, but me and dal are so in.''

knowing his mom, she did it out of the kindness of her heart. however that doesn't count when your whole past life is coming back all at once. ''okay. um, i don't know any of the logistics. call my mom for that.'' it's weird to refer his friend to his mom, it's like he's back in elementary school and everything was his parents' responsibility. now that he's thinking about it, that's what they're experiencing with his youngest sister. weird how that works.

''got it. cool. see you soon, bro.'' pete isn't a man of many words, so he hangs up immediately after saying his goodbyes. honestly josh is grateful for that.

he puts his phone on the table next to his laptop and looks back at jim playing in his own little world. the dog looks up from his toy and tilts his head. for some reason, josh swears that jim can understand him whenever he talks or even his moods alone. it can't be explained. he can feel it in his heart and that's all that matters. the dog walks over to him and lets out a cry. josh pets him and gives him a weak smile before going back to the kitchen for some treats.