glory days ↣ joshler ✓

18. Tattoo

"Well you've come to the right place."

"I didn't know you guys were this close," Josh piped up.

"We aren't," Frank laughed. "If you're in Tyler's grade I actually used to go to school with you guys when you were sophomores. Ashley's come in here a good amount so I know her pretty well but Tyler's only been here once. It's pretty hard to forget the guy who told Ashley to sing All Star during her first tattoo to stop thinking about pain."

"He was in Gerard's class— the dude who thought we were stealing from Hot Topic."

"Ohhhh," Josh nodded and laughed when he saw the look Frank was giving them. "We didn't actually steal anything. Our friend just pretended we did cause she's a dumbass."

"Gotcha," Frank laughed. "Well do you know what you want?"

"No," Josh shook his head. "I know I want to get one behind my ear and I want it to be very simple but that's it."

"I can work with that," Frank nodded, grabbing a sketchbook and pen and walking out from behind the counter. "Follow me," he made his way over to a table with a few stools around it, right next to the tattoo chair.

The spent the next half hour thinking of ideas before finally settling on an almost closed box, the inner line gone making it open, and an X inside. He had Josh sign a bunch of legal stuff and show his ID before getting started. Frank was getting the stencil ready while Josh went and sat on the chair. Laying sideways and holding his unruly hair so Frank could tattoo behind his ear.

"I'm kinda nervous," Josh chuckled as he looked at Tyler who was sitting on a stool next to the chair.

"I'm right here," Tyler assured him. "You can always sing All Star to keep your mind off of it."

"I'm good," Josh laughed out.

"Ready?" Frank walked over.

"Yeah," the red haired man replied. Frank laid the stencil down and peeled the paper back, leaving a purple outline of the image Josh was getting.

He put gloves on and spent a few minutes getting the ink and needle ready. "Okay, I'm going in," he prepared Josh.

As soon as the needle hit his skin Josh winced. Eyes closed, he made a grabby gesture with his hand and Tyler immediately grabbed it and gave it a comforting squeeze. "It's okay, J," Tyler spike. "Just talk to me."

"I miss Jim," Josh laughed out, wincing once again.

"We've been gone for an hour. You've had him for like six hours how are you already so attached?"

"Who's Jim?" Frank asked, concentrating on tattooing Josh.

"My dog," Josh grunted out. "I got him for my birthday today."

"Are you excited to join the club of adulthood?"

"No," Josh replied. "Sometimes I wish I was still like nine. Life was easier when I was nine."

"But if you were nine you wouldn't be getting a dope ass tattoo," Frank explained.

"True," Josh forced a laugh out, squeezing Tyler's hand even harder. "We should get matching tattoos, Ty," he joked.

Tyler knew full well he was joking but the longer he stared at Josh's almost completed tattoo the more he thought about how cool it was. He was against getting tattoos for himself because he felt they would make him look unprofessional as a therapist but he knew it was small enough to stay hidden in his clothes. Besides, when he goes off to New Jersey it'll be like his home away from home.

"Okay," Tyler replied.

"I was kidding," Josh told him.

"I wasn't."

"Damn okay," Josh looked at him. "Are you sure? Don't do this just to make me happy."

"It can be our little memento of how long we've known each other. And no matter what I go off and do after New Jersey it'll be like a little piece of home on me all the time so I never lose it."

"Now who's being sappy?" Josh smiled at him.

"All done," Frank announced, scooting back on his wheeled chair. "Did you want one Tyler?"

"Yeah," Tyler nodded. "I wanna get the exact same one but I have no idea where. Maybe my arm."

"Inner or outer? Inner is gonna hurt a lot more than outer but it would look better."

"Inner," Tyler told him. "I can handle it."

"Are you sure?" Frank asked. "It's hell."

"Yeah," Tyler nodded. He had a real relatively high pain tolerance.

His pain tolerance was not high enough apparently.

He had been in so much pain that Josh made him scream the lyrics to All Star.

It ended up being fine though.

Tyler just had to keep his sleeve rolled up so his shirt didn't rub against the plastic covering his tattoo.

It ended up being $75 each and Tyler paid for both just like he said he would and they thanked Frank before walking out and heading back to Josh's.

They shared simple conversation the whole way home and when they got inside (Josh being greeted by a very hyper Jim and Josh showing him an abundance of love) they agreed they were both exhausted and decided to go to bed at 11:30.

As they were getting ready for bed, Josh began talking. "Thank you Tyler. You really turned this day around. I appreciate you."

"Of course. I appreciate you too," Tyler smiled. "Now lets get to sleep before I pass out."

"Okay," Josh laughed before they both crawled into his bed. "Goodnight, Tyler."

"Goodnight, Josh. Happy Birthday."

Josh was silent after that and Tyler knew he had fallen asleep. However, the brunette wasn't as lucky since his mind was running a mile a minute.

He thought about how he wanted to beat Brendon senseless for what he did to their friend group, but especially Josh. That dick made him cry. He thought about how he would go back and get his whole arm covered in ink just to make Josh smile. He thought about how a weird feeling surged through his heart after seeing Josh so happy and grateful for their night.

He then realized why he didn't like Jenna and his eyes widened.

It was because Tyler liked Josh.