Chapter Text
Tyler didn’t really understand why he had to move houses. Where he lived before, everything was fine - it had his friends, his school, his neighbourhood, his house - everything he grew up with. And now, he was being forced to leave it behind.
Sure, he could see it as a fresh start, but God, being the new kid sucked. Especially when he was going to be transferred to a new school right in the beginning of his senior year - also known as the point where everyone had their respective friend groups, and every new kid just has to hope that one of them will have enough of a heart to let them in. He didn’t really want to deal with ending up as a loner again. Maybe they had a basketball team that he could join? He was good at that. And maybe they had some music rooms that he could sneak off to when no one was looking… maybe.
He sighed flatly as he placed a heavy box on the floor of his new room. Much to his displeasure, It was on the second level - his mum said something about “getting him out of the basement” - so here he was, standing in an empty room of blank, poster-less walls, and wooden panel floors. All of which had absolutely no memories of his life, and therefore, were unappealing. He looked to the side to find a big window that overlooked… something. It had curtains covering it, and honestly, he wasn’t really interested in seeing the view of his neighbours’ houses. Tyler grumbled under his breath and sat on his rickety bed. His room barely even had anything in it… just his bed, his desk, and some drawers. Barely anything. The rest of his things were stuffed into boxes that he just didn’t have the energy to unpack.
Tyler’s ear pricked at the sound of a knock on their front door. The door creaked open, and he decided to crack his door open to eavesdrop a little.
“Hi there! Welcome to the neighbourhood, I’m Laura, from the house next door,” He heard an unfamiliar feminine voice greet his mother.
“Oh, it’s a pleasure to meet you, I’m Kelly,” There was the soft ring of bracelets jingling, so they were probably shaking hands. At least his neighbour wasn’t a pissed off old man like last time, he couldn’t help but think. “Were you the house with the big white car in the driveway?”
“Yup, that’s us!” Laura beamed.
Tyler did his best to tune them out. He wasn’t really in the mood to meet new people - hell, he wasn’t in the mood to talk right now. Even so, he couldn’t help but catch onto the question from his neighbour.
“Do you have any kids?” He heard Laura ask.
“Yes, I have a few! My oldest son is home, but he's in his room. You know how they are. All moody and secretive… I think he’s sleeping off the long trip at the moment.” He groaned into his pillow. More people didn’t need to know about him being the new kid… he hadn’t even started school yet!
“I have two sons and two daughters. My eldest would have come with me to meet you guys, but he’s at work right now… our other kids are taking naps or out doing who knows what.”
Tyler rolled his eyes lightly and pulled his headphones over his ears.
Today really just wasn’t his day.
---
He couldn’t sleep.
How could he? It was his first night, sleeping in this unfamiliar building; it was too soon to even begin to consider calling this place home. It was cold and empty, this room was too big and the feeling of homesickness was causing his bones to ache with need. Tyler grumbled under his breath and pushed the covers off of him. He’d spent the past hour or two scrolling endlessly on his phone, but not even that was enough to ease him to sleep. His gaze shifted over to the tower of boxes building in the corner of his room. Maybe I should just start to unpack? I can’t sleep anyways…
Tyler groaned and stood up, stretching his arms above his head before wandering off to the evergrowing pile. He decided to start with his notebooks and stationary; it was one of the lighter boxes. He trudged towards the desk and placed it down with a huff, before beginning to slowly unpack the contents. Notebooks of lyrics or half-assed homework, loose pens and pencils, polaroids of his old friends that he got forced to leave behind. He sighed quietly and carded a hand through his hair.
He wished he was back home.
Idly, he peered through his window, just wanting to look up at the night sky… only to see his neighbour’s window. Not that he was expecting a good view, but he thought he’d get something better than some brick walls, with a big glass window, and…
…a paper taped to it?
Tyler did a double take; it was a note. It simply read, “hi neighbour!! :)”, written in blue pen on crinkled lined paper. He couldn’t help but snort, and peer further into the window. The curtains were still pulled back, so he could faintly see inside. There was a boy, maybe his age, lying on his bed and playing on his Nintendo Switch with a blinky lamp flickering on his nightstand. The top half of his hair was a dark, murky brown mop of curls, but the bottom was a bright, vibrant red, just barely brushing the junction between his neck and his shoulder. He was… kinda cute. From what Tyler could see, anyways.
The boy’s eyes shifted towards him, and instinctively, Tyler ducked behind his desk. Shit, he can’t get caught staring at his neighbour through the window! It’s creepy! And a terrible first impression! He dared to slowly peek out, only to see the boy giving him a toothy smile, and pointing to the sign on the window. Hi neighbour. Tyler could make out a pair of ear gauges in his bottom lobes, and his silver nose piercings glinted in the light. He’s even cute up close. Maybe even cuter.
Tyler blinked, surprised, before his initial shock melted into a small smile. He straightened up properly and opened his curtains. He waved back, and looked over at his empty room, full of boxes and empty furniture. He should probably unpack the rest of his stuff… soon. He held up a finger to the boy in the window, and lunged over to one of his boxes. Digging through it, he retrieved a flimsy notebook that was barely hanging on from pretending to study in school, along with a sharpie. In big letters, he wrote back. Hey.
He headed back to the window, where he found the boy waiting at his desk with a grin. He pressed his notebook to the window, sitting on top of his desk to get closer. The boy mirrored his movements, and Tyler watched him write on what was presumably a notebook before shoving it against the glass.
“I’m Josh. What’s your name?”
Tyler grinned and scribbled on his notebook.
“Tyler.” He wrote down another note before showing it to Josh. “Why are you up so late?”
Josh smiled. “I slept in too late… it’s the holidays, after all. How about you? Too weird to sleep in the new house?”
“That’s putting it lightly. This whole place feels weird.”
“It’s not so bad once you get used to it. Even if it takes an awful amount of time.” Tyler couldn’t hide his smile at the answer. “But anyways… what do you like to do?”
“Basketball.” He grabbed his basketball and spun it on his finger for emphasis.
Josh grinned in response, shooting him a thumbs up. “That’s cool! I don’t really do a lot of sports but I know how to shoot some hoops. Kinda.” Josh started writing something else before. “Btw… is that a keyboard leaning against your wall?”
Tyler’s face flushed as he tried to unsubtly cover it with his figure. Josh watched with wide eyes and pressed his face against the glass, a look of confusion on his face. Keyboard was something that he had only recently picked up as a secret hobby over the holidays after finding it in his closet. He had gotten it as a gift years ago as a child, but it never really interested him until lately. He’d been teaching himself, so it didn’t sound the best just yet… but trust the process, he said.
He sighed and gave up on trying to hide it. “...yeah. I only play it sometimes; I’m not very good at it yet, so I don’t really like to tell people about it.”
“Dude, that’s really cool!” Tyler let out a surprised but pleasant snort. “You into music?” When he nodded, Josh excitedly jumped up off his desk, and Tyler watched him pull off a cover off of a big lump in the corner of his room to reveal a drum set. “I like to drum! We should jam some time :)”
“Maybe,” Tyler wrote back, a small grin on his face. “I’ll give it some thought.”
He knew that he only just met this kid, but something told him that they were going to get along great.
---
“What bands are you into?”
“I like a few… Death Cab for Cutie is definitely one of them, so is blink-182.”
He perked up and grinned. It felt like once in a blue moon where he met people that liked bands that he did. Back home, most of his friends weren’t really into that stuff. “I like those too!” Josh had this excited look on his face that made him crack up.
Tyler had lost track of time of how long they’ve been talking. Maybe it had been thirty minutes, maybe it had been an hour or two; either way, it didn’t matter. Call it wishful thinking, but Tyler couldn’t help but think that he had made his first friend here in this new city. And maybe, if he truly was this lucky, maybe Josh was going to his new school, too. He couldn’t explain it, but he swore he could feel some sort of… connection to Josh, even if he only knew him through scribbles from their windows.
Josh yawned, almost animatedly, and wrote him another note, pressing the paper against the window.
“I’m getting kinda tired, so I might sleep. Nighty night, neighbour,” Josh smiled and taped up the note, leaving it there for the night. “Don’t stay up too late.”
He couldn’t help but laugh, already growing kind of… fond of him. “No promises.”
He flipped him off, and Tyler poked his tongue out as revenge. Josh grinned and waved at him before closing his curtains, presumably sleeping. He hummed softly to himself as he shut his own curtains, and lied down his bed, replaying their conversation.
Josh… Josh wasn’t bad company. If anything, it was like meeting his other half. Even though they just met, Tyler just felt so much more comfortable with him. And for him, it was incredibly rare for him to warm up to someone so quickly. He knew that better than anybody; he always had trouble trusting people, also scoping for their poor or hidden intentions… but with Josh? He seemed to be the only exception. It just happened to be a little bit of a bonus that Josh was also cute as hell.
Maybe this whole “moving towns” thing wouldn’t be so bad after all.