Chapter Text
People have many addictions. Sex. Love. Food. Drugs, or alcohol. Money. Power. Our addictions are what will destroy us and our lives. To be an addict is more than to desire, it is to need. I had no addictions, and I don’t believe I ever will. But I’ve experienced the product of addiction based insanity. I’ve seen what addiction does to people. It’s definitely not pretty. It’s not pretty at all. I can vouch for this.
;
I remember arriving on the island clearly. It was May, and my mother had gotten a promotion from her job, and an offer to meet with the CEO of the company she worked with at a banquet on his private island. I still lived with her, even though I was nineteen and old enough to live on my own. Ever since my dad died, I had not dared to leave her side. We were closer than anything. My mother was my best friend, and I wasn’t ashamed of the fact at all.
She, of course, wanted me to come along. I had no problem with going. Who wouldn’t want a weekend long vacation on a gorgeous island, free of charge? A week later, we were in our hotel room, deciding what to wear to the dinner.
“You know how important this is to me, Josh. You have to help me!”
“Mom, I’m a dude, how am I supposed to know what you should and shouldn’t wear to something like this?”
I was only met with a frustrated groan from her as she went into the bathroom of our hotel room to continue fixing her hair. I went back to adjusting the buttons on my shirt- button up shirts are nice, right? I knew for sure that no matter what I was going to feel incredibly out of place, so I wasn’t going to spend too much time fretting over what I was going to wear.
The window of our hotel room overlooked beaches of crystal sands and the bluest waters I’ve ever seen. Being from Ohio, I didn’t get to see oceans all that often. Visiting a tropical island in the middle of the pacific was a nice change of scenery from the gloomy overcast that always seemed to be hanging over the city of Columbus. Soon enough, my mother was pulling me out of a cab and into a building that I originally thought to be some kind of fancy business building or something.
It was the CEO’s fucking house.
It was massive, to say the very least. A mansion, probably six hundred times the size of the small apartment my mom and I shared. I shook off how intimidated I was by the place. People were already pouring into the mansion, dressed in expensive looking dresses and suits. Their lips spoke words of fabricated genuineness. Their eyes were wide with unrealistic happiness. I already despised these kinds of people, and experiencing their facades in person was even more exhausting to deal with.
Inside of the doors was a lobby type of deal, with two grand staircases on either side. The walls were decorated with fine paintings, and the floors were made of marble. I didn’t know what to do with myself, other than take my mother’s arm in escort in an attempt to look like I knew what the hell I was doing. My mother led us both towards a man who I assumed was the CEO himself. He was smiling, shaking people’s hands, greeting his employers as if he actually cared for each of them. A boy in a dark suit was next to him, chatting up a middle aged woman. I pretty much cringed when the CEO’s eyes met my mom’s.
“Laura Dun! It is so lovely to finally meet you.”
“It’s lovely to meet you too, Mr. Joseph. This place is absolutely breathtaking.”
“Oh please, call me Chris. This is your son, no?” He gestured to me.
“Oh yes, this is my son Joshua,” my mom answered, and I shook the man’s hand. “Joshua, this is the CEO of the company, Chris Joseph.”
The boy standing next to him, who, by the way, looked like he couldn’t possibly be out of highschool, reached out his hand towards me. He tilted his head ever so slightly, and examined me closely. The boy made me incredibly unsettled for an unknown reason, and I examined him back to try to figure out why exactly. His hand was freezing cold, as the sudden lack of heat nearly made me jump. I shook his hand nonetheless.
“I’m Tyler Joseph,” the boy, Tyler, spoke. “Nice to meet you, Joshua.” Something about Tyler’s voice captivated me for the few seconds he was speaking. His eyes as well, they were different from the rest of the people here. Tyler only gave me a few seconds to look into them, as the broke the glare we were sharing and went back to his father’s side.
My mother and I continued to linger around the mansion, her chatting with fellow employees and me trying to look interested. Eventually, I managed to escape while my mother was tasting foreign biscuits. A door led me out into a yard that overlooked the ocean. The moon was full and shining down on the waves of the water. It was late into the night, and the air was chillier than expected for a tropical island. It wasn’t until this moment, but I realized that I was really tired. A tree in the center of the garden caught my eye as a good place to nap. I scoped it, climbed it, and got myself just about as comfortable as a tree branch can get. I was peacefully dozing in and out of consciousness until I heard a startling thump from the ground below me. Peeking down after jumping about a mile high, I was met with a familiar face kicking something out of my view.
“Joshua Dun? Fancy meeting you here.”
I blinked and nodded at Tyler. “And you.”
“Have I disrupted a ocean side cat nap? I would have expected you to be with your mother still, sipping wine and enjoying our expensive delicacies.”
I sat up straighter, giving a small shrug. “I was tired.” Tyler gave me an interested look.
“What are you even doing out here? It’s like,” I pulled my phone from my pocket. “Three in the morning.”
“I like to get some fresh air,” Tyler replied, twisting strands of his hair between his fingers. He looked rather anxious. “Even I don’t like being in there.”
“The party’s still going on?”
“Oh yeah. What about you? Why are you here?”
I shrugged my shoulders lazily. “Same, I suppose.”
Tyler hummed in response, and began to crack the bones of his fingers. I let the silence reign supreme, as I found the sound of the ocean waves relaxing.
“Um,” Tyler began, looking at the ground below. “Do you want to come back to my room? We could play GTA or something. You don't have to if you don't want to, I just… You seem kind of bored.”
I gave Tyler a small, reassuring smile. “Yeah man. That would be pretty cool, actually. I can only imagine how huge your room is.”
Tyler snickered at that. “Beauty of your dad being so damn rich. Although I wish it wasn't my duty to uphold the Joseph legacy. I had other plans for my life.”
“Like what?”
“Music,” Tyler mumbled, suddenly less cocky than he had been a few seconds before. “That dream was crushed when I hit my tenth birthday. When my dad raved about me following in his footsteps or whatever. Business is not my cup of tea, or rather, it's not my cup of expensive coffee imported from Africa.”
“Hmm. Music.” I pondered that. “You don’t seem like the kind of guy, but alright then.”
Tyler gave a weak smile and waved me down. I let myself fall from the tree and followed him back into the mansion.