Intimidation ♡ joshler

seventy eight

"Damn it, Bob, why don't you just shut the fuck up and stop being such a dick? Maybe that should be a new thing," Pete snaps, and Tyler presses himself into Brendon's side as he wills himself not to cry. Who would've known this would turn out to be such a disaster?

"Fine, I won't say shit else!"

"Good, you're doing us all a favor!"

"Fuck this, I'm out," and Tyler watches hears him start to walk away, and jeez, he hasn't even uttered a single word but he still managed to fuck everything up and cause drama in this friend group.

No one says anything for a moment as the Bob guy leaves the hallway.

"What's been up with him lately?" Ashley asks, followed by a sigh, "Sorry about him, Tyler."

He hesitantly lifts his eyes to settle them on her nose, and she offers him a sympathetic smile.

"S'okay," he nearly whispers before averting his gaze again to his lap.

"You know, it's totally cool that you're here," the third guy says, and Tyler shyly looks his way.

"Yeah, Bob's just a dick," the second guy adds, and Tyler looks his way too—there's something strangely familiar about him in a way, "I mean, he's usually not that bad, but it's not you."

"Um," Tyler starts hesitantly, and how does he form words and use them? How do people do this so effortlessly?

"Yeah?"

"You—you—" Tyler stammers pathetically, and he desperately looks to Brendon for help, who only seems curious to what he's struggling to say.

"Oh, yeah! He's really shy," Ashley comes to the rescue and crosses the hallway. She bends over to his level as she nears him, offering him her ear. He flushes sheepishly as he reaches out to brush her blue hair out of the way, and he can't help but admire how soft it feels.

"Ahh," he whispers, leaning forward to be sure she can hear him. She smells really nice—a flowery scent, and it's honestly really comforting. "That guy, um, he, like, looks kinda familiar."

She smiles comfortingly at him as she pulls away, and he decides that he really likes Ashley—he wants to be her friend. Plus she smells like flowers, and he really likes flowers.

"She said you look kinda familiar," she says to the oddly familiar guy before turning to look back to Tyler. "You remember Gerard, right? The guy who drove us to the skating rink?"

Tyler nods, then looks back to the guy, and—ohh, they must be related.

"Yeah, I'm his younger brother," he confirms, and Tyler guesses that makes sense. "I'm Mikey."

"Tyler," he says shyly before realizing that they already know his name, and he blushes sheepishly yet again.

"He's cute, I like him," the third guy declares, and Tyler hides his face against Brendon's arm to hide his shame-stained face.

"Isn't he!" Brendon agrees loudly, wrapping both arms around the boy and rocking him—Tyler isn't sure if he likes it or not. "We're gonna turn him into one of us!"

"I'm down," the third guy says, "He's real quiet and shy, we could break him out of his shell like we did for Mikey and Ryan."

"Good luck with that," Pete says, and Tyler can't help but agree. He isn't sure his shyness is merely shyness to begin with—Josh once said something about social anxiety?

"This is gonna be awesome!" Brendon says loudly, and Tyler can't help but disagree. He's pretty sure this is gonna suck so bad.