Anklebiters - Joshler

7. Disappearance

"He didn't say anything before he left. Why do you care so much anyways?"

"I-.. I don't know." Tyler spluttered, truly stumped.

Ryan shot him a knowing glance before shrugging again. "He'll be back soon enough."

"How do you know?"

"He does- Did this all the time, back on tour." Ryan hummed.

"Did he ever get hurt? How long was he usually gone for?" Tyler frowned.

"I mean- He got hurt but it probably isn't related. Maybe a night? Or like, 3 days."

"He got hurt before?" Tyler's eyes widened.

"Ty, people get hurt all the time." Ryan sighed, not at all phased by their conversation.

"But not Josh." He frowned. "People like me get hurt because I'm usually asking for it, people like him don't seem like the type of person to start a fight."

Ryan grinned. "You really need to hang out with Josh more, the man's badass."

"Not when he's crying over Gucci." Tyler rolled his eyes.

"Absolutely not." Ryan laughed.

Tyler stood up. "I'm going to go look for clues."

"What the fuck have you drank at 11 am to already be this weird." Ryan sighed.

"The power of friendship, Ross."

"Tyler..." Ryan laughed.

"I'm not kidding, I'll catch you later. Just going to go see if little Joshua is hiding away at home or something, if I was missing, I'd always check my own house first."

Ryan sighed and just nodded, humouring Tyler.

Tyler slipped out of his seat and took off towards the door, not even noticing the pillow that he knocked off as he set his mind on Josh and Brendon's home. It wasn't far, he could probably even jog there. Not that he would though, Tyler's lungs and overall health in general was terrible.

"Thank you for the coffee, Jen!" He called into the kitchen as he sped through the open doorway which was coated in a wall of hanging beads.

Tyler didn't believe that Josh was gone and even he didn't really understand why. Maybe it was because Josh just didn't seem the type, or more specifically that no one just disappeared for fun except for people like Tyler. Josh had mentioned being homeless so it didn't take a genius to work out that the guy hadn't had a perfect childhood, but Tyler couldn't think of anyone he knew who did. Perhaps he cared about Josh more than the narrow-sighted part of his mind let on. Perhaps he was comparing Josh to himself too much, and feared that a random disappearance

could lead to something drastic.

Perhaps Tyler feared that Josh wasn't going to come back.

Tyler was picky about who he let into his life and if Josh was going to throw their budding friendship into the gutter-... Tyler wouldn't let that happen. Josh was a rarity. He called Tyler out when he was being a jerk and as much as he hated being told he was wrong, he felt like he could breathe easier. He hated having people do whatever he asked of them, as if he were some God because it always had a negative effect on him. He'd feel so dehumanised, but he couldn't make a fuss because that's what every celebrity goes through. Even his parents would tell him to suck it up whenever he mentioned the stress back home. He craved people like Josh.

Tyler found that the only thing which could numb his pain was drugs, because sometimes the thoughts which plagued his mind were too blasphemous for him to even voice to Ryan. So he'd curl up on his bed and pick his poison, whether it was a line of cocaine, pyramid of ecstasy, pile of marijuana, or a shot of heroin. It always helped despite the neverending lists of life-long problems drug abuse could bring on because feeling numb was a lot more tolerable than the looming desire of death.