Archive of Our Own

It was the middle of the day. Josh laid half off-half on, hanging upside down on the worn down couch in Zack’s apartment. He was hyper focusing on the television screen in front of him while Zack sat at his desk with his laptop set on it trying to bang out an essay that will be due in less than 48 hours. Josh told Zack more than just one time that he shouldn’t leave his 20-page organic chemistry paper for the last second, but he didn’t listen to him. That is how most of the friends’ college careers have gone: Zack having a very important paper due in a class, Josh suggesting that he just gets it done right away so he won’t have to worry, and then Zack saving it for the last minute. So Josh wasn’t very phased when he heard his best friend let out an aggravated holler out of nowhere.

“I can’t do this!” Zack exclaimed, throwing his hands up in defeat. Josh broke his focus from the movie playing on the TV to look at his distressed friend. “That’s it. I give up. I’m just not going to write this and pray that I don’t fail organic chem.”

Josh smiled and looked back at the television where some shitty horror movie played. “I think you’ve said that about every paper you’ve ever written while we’ve been at school, but you always manage to finish it.”

“I’m being serious this time, Josh.” Zack declared, pushing himself away from the desk. “I hate this class. It is the hardest class I have ever been in. It’s kicking my ass.”

“Along with always being able to write huge papers within a one to two-day span, you always get pretty high marks on all of them.” Josh added, not looking away from the horror scene on the television.

“But I really don’t think I’ll be able to do it this time! I have my cousin’s wedding to go to tomorrow. If I don’t finish it today, I won’t be able to finish it in time to hand it in on Monday.”

“How many pages do you have left to write?”

Zack returned to his seat, setting down a beer bottle on the table next to his laptop. “Seven pages left.”

Josh scoffs and adjusts himself so he is sitting on the couch normally. “Kid, seven pages? I have witnessed you write a whole 15-page paper in a day and a half.”

“Yeah, for easy classes. Not organic chemistry. This shit is brutal. Like I said, I have my cousin’s wedding tomorrow. So I only have like, the rest of today to write it.” Zack rebutted, looking over his should to make eye contact with Josh.

Josh half grinned and turned back to watch an actress having her fake guts ripped out of her abdomen. “If you finish this paper, I will buy us pizza from Tipsy Tomato tonight.”

Josh didn’t hear another word from his friend. Just the consistent sound of keys on the keyboard being typed.

*

Later that night, the pair of friends were sat on the old couch in front of the television trying to finish off a single extra-large pizza and two six packs of beer. They decided to watch another B-list horror movie that they found on Netflix. About forty-five minutes into the movie, there was a loud pounding on the apartment door.

Zack groaned, but got up off of the couch to answer the door. When the door was opened up, Josh heard a voice that made him want to die right there on the couch where probably a couple of people died before in the past. Zack’s brother, Tyler, makes his way over to where Josh was sitting, squeezes himself between Josh and the arm of the couch, and helps himself to a slice of pizza and the last beer. “What are we watching?”

“Killer Klowns from Outer Space.” Zack simply states, reclaiming his spot on the sofa besides Josh, who was trying to not give up his spot for Tyler, but awkwardly leaning closer towards Zack to keep his distance from his brother.

Josh wasn’t too sure what made him hate Tyler. He hadn’t done anything to upset Josh in the past, and Josh doesn’t know him all that well either. He knows that he’s Zack’s older brother, he plays basketball and goes to a community college to get his general education classes done before going to a real university; but there was something about him that made Josh have the urge to strangle the living shit out of him every time he saw him or heard his voice. Maybe it was that he could be obnoxious sometimes, like when he randomly shows up to Zack’s apartment, crams himself in between Josh and the arm of the couch, and steals the pizza and the alcohol Josh had bought for himself and Zack.

Josh also doesn’t keep it much a secret from either Zack or Tyler that he does not like Tyler. He feels that he shouldn’t be fake about it and act like he enjoys his company. Well, partly that and partly because Josh wouldn’t be able to keep up the façade of not minding Tyler’s presence up for very long anyway. Josh can tell that Tyler isn’t exactly fond of him either. Normally, Josh would probably go to Zack and ask why Tyler doesn’t like him, just out of curiosity, but since Josh blatantly doesn’t like Tyler for no real reason, he feels maybe Tyler shouldn’t have to explain why he doesn’t like Josh.

There were no words shared between any of the three of them for the next twenty minutes or so. Eventually, Tyler laughs close lipped at something that happened in the movie before he turns towards his brother and asks with a mouth full of pizza: “What are you wearing to the wedding tomorrow?”

Zack shrugs his shoulders, turning his head away from the screen to look at his brother. “I don’t really know. Probably just a button down and simple beige slacks. Why?”

“I might need to borrow something. I raided my closet this morning and I have nothing but causal shirts and black skinny jeans. I don’t think the fam would be happy if I wore a baggy open sided muscle shirt and skinnies.” Tyler joked, his attention going back to the television.

“Let me see what I have.” Zack said and then proceeded to get off of the couch and make his way towards the single bedroom in the apartment.

Josh kept his eyes glued to the movie, hoping that Tyler won’t try to make small talk with him. But, of course, why would that happen for Josh? “You busy tomorrow?” Tyler asked. His eyes were staring into the side of Josh’s head.

Josh shifted in his seat, trying to get comfortable; but with Tyler practically sitting in Josh’s lap, the action was useless. “Yeah. I was planning on sleeping until one in the afternoon and then spending the rest of the day either studying or playing video games while shoveling Chinese takeout into my mouth, or maybe a little bit of both.”

“You should come to the wedding with me instead.” Tyler remarked before throwing his head back and letting the last of the amber liquid travel down his throat.

Josh looked over to the other Joseph brother, his brow furrowed and eyes narrowed. “Me? Go with you?”

Tyler nodded and looked over to meet Josh’s gaze. “Yeah.”

“Why?” Josh implored, feeling more confused than he ever had felt before.

Tyler shrugged his shoulders, looking back towards the movie. “I dunno. I know we haven’t really hit it off very well so I thought maybe we could start over. We go together tomorrow, get to know each other a little bit more, and see where that goes.” Tyler turned his head back towards Josh and gave him his best fake smile.

Josh tilted his head and gave Tyler a look like ‘I know you’re lying. You’re just trying to make the reason you want me to go nice so I will say yes’. Tyler looked at his lap and sighed, twirling the empty brown bottle around in his fingers. “My boyfriend broke up with me earlier today. We were going to go together, and I was really excited about going with him. But now I have no one to go with and I absolutely can’t stand this side of the family.”

“I didn’t know you were gay.” Josh noted, his heart suddenly began to feel like it was hurting for Tyler. Josh tried to ignore that, hoping it would go away.

Tyler snickered and half smiled, his eyes still staring into his empty bottle. “Yeah. My family really isn’t proud that I am, so I try to keep it on the down low.” Tyler sighed again and shook his head. “That’s why I hate this side of the family. They’re a bunch of homophobes who make me feel unwelcomed at every gathering we have, whether I have a boyfriend in tow or not.”

Josh himself gave his own sexuality very little thought. He has dated girls in high school and gone out on a few dates with one or two since starting college three years ago, but the summer between freshman and sophomore year of college, he did question if he liked girls, boys or maybe both. He thought about it for a week, and then he had eventually forgotten about it and didn’t think about it again.

“Why do you want to bring a boyfriend along? Just to piss your family off?”

Tyler nodded and smiled slyly. “It kind of brings me pleasure watching them all be disgusted when I am standing next to my boyfriend.”

After a moment of not saying anything, Josh piped up, “Why me?”

Tyler made eye contact with Josh again. “Like I said before: we really didn’t start off on the right foot with each other and I— “

“No, really. Why do you want to go with me?” Josh inquired. “Like, couldn’t you just have gone on tinder or craigslist and try to find a fake date there?”

“I’d rather go with someone I kind of know, even if I don’t like them. I don’t want to take on that risk of getting murdered or have the guy I bring along end up falling for me.” Tyler put the empty bottle down onto the floor and looked at his hands. They were slightly shaking. “I don’t want to get into another “relationship right now.” He mumbled. Josh thought that might have been him talking to himself at first.

“I’m not gay, though.” Josh added, trying to not feel overly bad for Tyler. He did not want to go and he especially did not want to help out the guy he doesn’t like, but he did feel bad for the kid.

“Just fake it then or something. Please? I wouldn’t ask a favor of you if I wasn’t desperate.” Tyler added.

Josh watched as Tyler solemnly started at his shaking hands, and a twinge of hurt ran through Josh’s heart again. Josh didn’t know what he wanted to do: he was getting really into the idea of just sitting in his room eating mountains of Chinese and playing play station all day. But, at the same time, something about the way Tyler was acting made Josh want to just help him out. Josh could tell that the break up was hard on him and it was rather sudden or ended messy. However much he did not like Tyler, even for no reason, he wanted to help make this less hard on him.

Before he thought about whether this was his sober brain or his half-drunk brain talking, Josh sighed and said: “Alright”.  Tyler’s head shot up and looked at Josh with wide eyes. “I will go to the wedding with you tomorrow.”

Tyler broke out into a wide smile for a second, before he tried to play it cool and toned the smile down a notch or two. “Thank you, Josh.” Tyler stuck his hand out for Josh to shake, like this was sealing the deal that Josh will be there with him tomorrow. Josh took Tyler’s hand and shook it. “It’s a date.”

“A fake date.” Josh corrected as he let Tyler’s hand go. Tyler rolled his eyes and nodded. “Well, you will owe me one for this Joseph.” Josh smiled, hoping he won’t regret this decision to go to the wedding with Tyler in the morning.

*

Just as Josh suspected, the next morning, he regretted the decision to go to the wedding with Tyler. He woke up after only having about five hours of sleep to Tyler texting him saying that he would be at Josh’s place to pick him up around two in the afternoon, which was only four hours away. He had a hangover headache and would probably rather suffocate himself with the plastic Walmart bag he found in his closet while trying to pick out something to wear than go to this wedding.

While he showered, Josh thought about the borderline immorality of doing what he was going to be doing tonight. He was going to be assisting Tyler to make his family uncomfortable and angry at his cousin’s wedding just because they don’t like homosexuality. Yeah, Josh thought that was kind of shitty, but—now sober—he thought maybe that he shouldn’t get into the middle of this drama Tyler has with his family. But he knew it was too late to back out now.

‘Tyler is going to be bringing his fake gay date with hot pink hair to a heterosexual wedding where his homophobic family will be’ Josh thought to himself when he got out of the shower and was staring at his reflection in the mirror. ‘This is going to be an interesting night’.

After Josh shaved and put on his only pair of nice dress pants, a black button down shirt and bow tie on, he heard a knock on his door. As he walked over to the door, he checked the time. It was one forty-five. Josh pulled the door open and greeted Tyler. He looked Tyler over: white button down, black tie, black slacks, and black loafers. There was some time devoted to just his hair Josh could tell since it was messier than normal, but there was gel in it today and it still looked nice enough to go to a wedding.

Before Josh could say anything about Tyler’s attire, Tyler beat him to it by saying: “Could you look anymore gay?” Tyler maneuvered his way past Josh and into his apartment.

“Jeez, I’m doing you a favor today. Want to be a little more thankful for what I’m doing for you?” Josh maintained while shutting the door and making his way back to the bathroom.

Tyler followed closely behind Josh. “That wasn’t meant to be a negative comment.” Tyler argued. He leaned against the bathroom door frame and watched as Josh cleaned up the mess he had in the bathroom of his dirty laundry and shaved hairs in the sink. “I’m glad you look gay; it will be more believable that way. You look…” Tyler paused for a moment, looking Josh up and down and trying to suppress a smile. “Good. You look good.”

Josh half smiled and squeezed himself past Tyler through the door frame, making his way to the bedroom. “Don’t get the hots for me now, Joseph. Remember, this is a fake date for you and for me.”

Tyler scoffed and plopped himself down onto Josh’s unmade bed. “Only in your dreams would I have the hots for you.”

“Not gay.” Josh reminded as he looked at himself in the mirror one last time, readjusting his navy with white polka dot bow tie. He turned to Tyler, raised his arms slightly from his sides and dropped them back down, as if he were saying ‘What do you think?’ to Tyler.

Tyler smiled, and nodded approvingly. Rising to his feet, he asked: “Ready to go?”

Josh took in a deep breath. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

*

The pair drove past a large church in Tyler’s car. “That’s the one.” Tyler stated, taking his hand off of the wheel to point at the church him and Josh would be setting foot in in just minutes.

The church looked old, more than a hundred years old. It was cathedral style and was built out of bricks. On one of the towers was a clock, reading the time two forty-five. On the other, smaller brick tower were more than one cut out of the cross. Both of the towers adorned a similar cross at their tops. There were three lancet windows on the front and center of the building that drew most of Josh’s attention. Below it was two sets of stairs opposite of each other that lead to a landing in front of three sets of double doors. On the front of the landing, next to the sidewalk was a sign that read “Saint Mary Catholic Church” in old English font. The church was located in a city just outside of Columbus, Ohio. A city Josh has heard of, but has not yet visited until now.

The parking lot for the church was down a side street just off of the road where the church sat. Once the car was parked, Josh readjusted his bow tie for like the thirtieth time and climbed out of the car. There was an unsettling nervous knot inside of Josh’s stomach. It hadn’t been with Josh the entire car ride to the church, or even before he got in the car. He just started feeling it when he got out of the car. He looked at Tyler over the roof of the car as he locked the doors. It was probably just setting in for him that this was really happening at that moment.

(AN: I don’t really know many church terms, I just googled ‘church architecture terms’. So if I use a word wrong or anything like that, please let me know so I can fix it.)

Tyler and Josh walked in silence down the street and towards the church. When the two of them were just a few feet away from the church steps, Tyler grabbed Josh’s hand with a strong grip. Josh looked down at their grasping hands and back at Tyler, whose face was saying ‘just go with it’. So that’s what he did. He half smiled and interlaced their fingers together and started up the stairs. Josh held the door for Tyler when they got there. Inside, there was a small lobby before the nave. Two more double doors separated the lobby from the nave. At either side of the two sets double doors, an older woman wearing long solid colored dresses were passing out cards to the guests before entering and finding seat.

There was no one ahead of Josh and Tyler, so the four women all looked up at Tyler and Josh as they entered the lobby. Josh could feel their eyes staring at the interlaced fingers of the two men in front of the them. Josh immediately feel the knot in his stomach tighten. He wanted to let go of Tyler’s hand, but Tyler gripped his hand harder and pulled Josh towards the door on the right side.

As the two of them passed through the doors, they were each handed a card from the woman. Josh analyzed the woman that handed him a card. Her face was beginning to wrinkle, signaling to Josh that she was probably in her early fifties; maybe the mother of the bride or groom? Her makeup was very simple: light purple eyeshadow, light brown eyeliner, mascara and a shade of pink on her lips that wouldn’t even look like she was wearing lipstick if it didn’t have a little shine to it. Josh accidentally made eye contact with her for a second, and he could obviously tell that she was not happy about his presence.

The nave was a lot smaller than Josh had anticipated. There were only two columns of church pews. The area around the alter was very dramatic and more than gorgeous. On either side of the altar were two white columns. Behind it, there was a wood frame with cut outs similar to the shape of the lancet windows on the exterior of the church with pillars underneath each one. On each pillar was a religious figure. Tyler lead Josh down the center aisle and chose a pew on the left side of the nave where they took a seat in the middle of the pew.

“That was my aunt Carol.” Tyler whispered, leaning in close to Josh so another one of the relatives didn’t hear them talking about her. “She’s one of the lesser people that we need to worry about today.”

“Are you sure? She was like glaring hardcore at me when she handed me this card.” Josh looked down at the card. There was one woman and one man. The man had brown military cut hair and was wearing a button down and suspenders, while the woman’s hair was down and unnaturally curled. She was wearing a floral dress with a white sweater over it. The two had their foreheads pressed to one another and were looking into each other’s eyes. The man’s hand was resting gently on the woman’s cheek and the woman was smiling brightly. Below them on the white border of the card, engraved in gray letters read Fiona and Lucas Cooper April 12 2016. Josh tilted the card towards Tyler. “Which one is your cousin?”

“Fiona is. She’s my cousin on my mom’s side.”

Josh nodded and looked around. The church was still pretty empty. There were a few people hanging around in the center aisle talking to other family members. Josh noticed that a few were staring in his and Tyler’s direction. Some were just looking; others were giving them dirty looks. “So, who should I be most worried about.”

Tyler looked up from his own card and looked around. When he found who he was looking for, he pointed towards a woman sitting in the front row of the opposite column of pews. The woman was heavier set woman with dark hair cut in a bob shape. She had bags underneath her dark brown, almost black eyes. Her skin was very wrinkled. She had a large, slightly upturned nose and thin lips caked in an unnaturally red shade of lipstick. A gold charm of a cross hung around her neck on a matching gold chain. “Aunt Josephine is who we should worry about most. She is Fiona’s mother. She works as a secretary at a jewelry manufacturing office. She found out one of the women who bought from the company every month was a lesbian and she went off on a huge rant about how she’s going to burn in hell for sleeping with another woman.”

Josh chuckled to himself. “I bet Aunt Josephine got a very loving Christmas card from that woman that year.”

Tyler chuckled at this comment too, shaking his head. “Nope. The woman actually called Josephine’s boss and complained.”

“She wasn’t fired?”

Tyler sucked his lips in and shook his head. “Nope, she was not. That’s how it always works though, isn’t it? The bad people in the world always end up getting things working out for them in their favor.”

Josh could hear in Tyler’s voice how much he despised Aunt Josephine. Josh looked up at Tyler. He was glaring at the woman sitting in the front row. His eyes were locked on her and his lips seemed to be almost snarling. Josh couldn’t even begin to understand what having your family hate you for one seemingly insignificant thing that you cannot control. Josh sighed deeply and wrapped his arm around Tyler’s shoulder; half to keep up their fake date act for the night and half because he felt that Tyler might have really needed it right then.

*

The ceremony lasted longer than Josh was anticipating, but it was sweet. Josh kept his arm wrapped around Tyler’s shoulders for the entire ceremony. Half way through, Tyler reached across Josh’s lap and grabbed his hand. Josh looked to see Tyler’s face. His eyes were staring into the back of Aunt Josephine’s head. Josh felt a sharp pain in the left side of his chest, like he was hurt that Tyler was only holding his hand because of Aunt Josephine.

The reception was being held at a reception hall back in Columbus, so Josh and Tyler had another half hour drive in an awkwardly silent car. This gave Josh plenty of time to sort out what he’s feeling. He kept remembering that feeling of the first time when Tyler grabbed Josh’s hand when they were just outside of the church. Or when Tyler grabbed his hand again just because he was thinking about Aunt Josephine or whatever. He felt like something inside him was in pain because of that.

No. No, Josh refused to believe that he had a crush on Zack’s older brother who he has disliked for the last almost 4 years now. There’s no way. Also, he is not gay. At least, he doesn’t think he’ gay. Is he gay? Sometimes Josh just wished he could turn off his brain for a couple of minutes. Josh sighed and rubbed his eyes with his fingers.

“You alright there, buddy?” Tyler smiled, taking his eyes off of the road for a split second to look over at Josh.

Josh nodded his head and looked out the window. “Yeah. I’m cool. I’m just getting tired.”

“Well, don’t start dying on me just yet. We’ve only fought half of this battle. We still have to go to the reception.” Tyler remarked. “I think this is going to be the hardest part, you know. I need you to actually meet and talk to my relatives now. Please don’t make me look like a dumb ass. They already think very little of me.”

Josh scoffed and nodded. “I’ll make sure to think of some great first impression I had of you. Like you were walking down the street with two coffees in your hands and you tripped and threw them all over me before falling flat on your face.”

Tyler laughed out loud at this, using one of his hands to wave it in front of his face, telling Josh not to dare say that. “Think of something that will make me sound… charming.”

Josh smiled and nodded his head. “Alright, I’ll think of something.”

*

The reception hall was nice. It was a medium sized room with about thirty tables covered with a clean, white table cloth and five chairs with a baby blue bow tied around each at every table. The center pieces were shallow glass dishes with fake blue stones at the bottom. Fake white flowers sat atop of the stones and three white candles, all of different sizes, were place in the middle of the dish. Strings of lights were hung from the ceiling and the lights were dimmed low so that the lights could be on.

Josh and Tyler found their places and sat down at the table. Tyler scanned the room, looking to see if there are any family members who he thought he should introduce Josh to or if there are anyone they should avoid. Josh looked around the room as well. There were a lot more people than Josh thought there was at the ceremony. Most of the people that were at the reception hall so far were mostly older people: aunts, uncles, god parents, and grandparents Josh was assuming.

“Oh, fuck.” Josh heard Tyler whisper. He looked over at his fake date and followed his eyes to where they were looking. Aunt Josephine and a man, who Josh assumed was her husband, were walking towards the table. Josh looked over at Tyler, who had fear written all over his face. Josh bit his lip and felt his heart beat a little bit faster.

“Hi, Aunt Josephine.” Tyler fake smiled at her and got up to hug her. As Tyler outstretched his arms to hug her, she leaned away from him. The smile from Tyler’s face immediately dropped from his face and all the color was lost from it. Biting his lip, Tyler turned to the man that was walking with her and shook his hand. Josephine placed her coat over the back of the chair. ‘Fuck’ Josh thought to himself. ‘Of course she’d be sitting at the same table as us’.

“Who might this be?” The woman spat, her eyes drilling into Josh. Josh could feel his cheeks turning a bright shade of pink.

Despite that, Josh got to his feet and reached his hand out in her direction. “I’m Josh, Tyler’s— “

“Boyfriend.” Tyler suddenly interrupted. “That’s my boyfriend, Josh.” Tyler walked over to Josh, wrapping on arm around his waist and placing the other gently on Josh’s abdomen.

Josh, panicked and caught off guard by the term being used to describe him, tried to not show it. He smiled and nodded, wrapping one arm around Tyler’s shoulders. Josh noticed that the woman visibly cringed as she watched the couple embrace each other right before she walked away to talk to another family member.

Once she was gone, Tyler unwrapped himself from Josh and looked at him beaming.

“Boyfriend?” Josh questioned, slightly raising his eyebrows.

“Sorry!” Tyler apologized through a fit of giggles. “I just really wanted to upset her for some reason right in that moment.”

Josh smiled and shook his head. “Nah, don’t worry about it. It’s fine.”

Tyler nodded and returned the smile. “I’m going to go say hi to my parents and siblings. Will you be able to hold down the fort for a little while?”

Josh nodded and sat down in his seat. One Tyler had walked away, Josh took his phone out and began playing a Tetris. As he flipped the multicolored shapes around to fit in with one another, Josh’s brain kept repeating the word ‘boyfriend’. Why was this? He just wants to focus on his game, but his brain keeps screaming the word at him. It’s not real, they’re not really boyfriends. It’s fake. It doesn’t even matter if it’s real or not, because Josh isn’t gay.

At this point, Josh was only kidding himself. He can’t be thinking about Tyler and all the little things he has been doing to pull off this fake date thing and still think that he is 100% straight. That is just crazy. But why Tyler? He’s the obnoxious, intrusive older brother of his best friend. He just got out of a relationship. He said it himself, he’s not looking for a new one right now. It doesn’t matter anyway; Tyler probably doesn’t feel anything towards him. He’s doing a really good job of faking this entire night, so tomorrow everything will remain the way it was before they went to the wedding together. Josh only hopes he can shake this crush before then.

Out of the corner of his eye, Josh sees Aunt Josephine walking his way. He begins to act overly interested in his failing game of Tetris so maybe she’ll just walk right past him without wanting to disturb him.

“Jake,” she calls when she’s a couple steps away from where Josh sits. At first, Josh thinks that he is in the clear when she says Jake and not Josh, but, of course, she closes the gap between Josh and herself, pulling the chair from Josh’s right side closer to her so she can sit.

Josh meets her eyes and opens and closes his mouth for a minute trying to find the words and not look so totally overcome with panic. “M-my name isn’t Jake…. Ma’am.”

She waves her hand in Josh’s face. “I don’t really care what your name is.” She chided. “Both you and Tyler are plaguing my daughter and son-in-law’s lovely wedding tonight.”

Josh felt the overwhelming urge to apologize to her since that is what he does when he feels as though he’s in trouble. But when he opened his mouth to speak, Josephine continued speaking. “You both are living in sin and it is absolutely rude of Tyler to bring his boyfriend here with him tonight. Nobody here wants to see you two kissing each other or dancing with one another, or even looking at each other, but that would be a little hard to avoid. So just keep you and Tyler’s disgusting life choices out of his family’s sight tonight, and everything will go well.”

“W-what do you mean?” Josh asked meekly, trying to keep it from being obvious that he is shaking with fear. Why was he so scared?

“No kissing, hugging, hand holding, dancing, caressing, and preferably no laughing at each other tonight. Do you understand?” Josephine hissed. Her eyes were narrow and so full of hatred.

Josh nodded obediently. Josephine fake smiled, put the chair back where she found it and walked away without saying another word. Now Josh understood why Tyler hated this side of the family so much.

*

The wedding was in full swing about an hour and a half after Josephine’s conversation she had with Josh about the limitations set on Tyler and him tonight. When Tyler returned, Josh barely looked up from his game of Tetris to welcome him back. He was scared that aunt Josephine would swoop down from the ceiling and decapitate Josh for saying ‘Hello’ to Tyler. Josh decided to not tell Tyler that him and Josephine talked because he didn’t want to upset Tyler. He seemed to be beaming when he came back from talking with family and he didn’t want to taint it. 

Josh wasn’t sure if Tyler was noticing the awkward distance Josh was making between them. Tyler had tried a couple of times to have a conversation with Josh, but Josh would just give one worded answers or make an approving or disapproving grunt without looking up from his phone. He didn’t want Tyler to think that he was mad at him or something like that, but Josh was really, really scared of Josephine; so scared that fear won over this fake date thing that was going on, even if his feelings for Tyler were slowly becoming less fake as the night went on. Josh just kept his head down and glued to his phone screen.

Tyler looked over to Josh after a couple of minutes of awkward silence and leaned closer to him. “What’s so captivating on that little box that you can’t give me a few seconds of attention?”

Josh looked at Tyler for a split second and shook his head and slightly leaned in the opposite direction of Tyler. “What are you? My clingy girlfriend or something?”

Although Josh wasn’t looking at Tyler, he felt just a wave of sadness radiate off of Tyler’s body. It took a moment before Tyler stood up from his chair, which then made Josh look up from his phone. He watched as Tyler quickly maneuvered his way through people on his way to the restroom. Josh mumbled some curse words under his breath and followed Tyler, pushing his way through the crowds of people.

Josh pushed open the door to the bathroom and met Tyler’s eyes in the mirror. Tyler had just been rinsing his face with water right before Josh came in. “Amazing. You looked up from your phone to even notice I left the table.” Tyler spat before he rubbed his wet hands over his face.

Josh sighed and bit his lip. “Tyler, look I’m sorry. It’s just— “

Tyler shook his head and began drying his hands. He turned to Josh. “If I had known you’d turn into a dick halfway through tonight, I just would have come here by myself. I don’t need to have my family hating me and then my fake date acting like an asshole on top of that.”

“Tyler can you please just let me explain— “

“You know; I was just starting to think that you aren’t such a bad guy. You come out here and be my fake boyfriend just to piss my family off even though you hate me for some reason.”

“Tyler, please— “

“I should have just come here by myself. I’m such a dumb ass, thinking that tonight would go flawlessly.”

Josh rolls his eyes and takes Tyler by his shoulders and, just shy of aggressively, Josh pins Tyler against the wall. Fear washes over Tyler, making him immediately shut up. “Can you listen to me for one second?” Josh barks.

Tyler doesn’t answer. He just nods his head slightly. His face is red and his eyes are filled with nerves. Josh sighs and lets Tyler go. “Look, Josephine came over to me and told me that she didn’t want us plaguing the wedding tonight by acting like a couple.”

“What do you mean?” Tyler asks, his voice is quiet and seems delicate.

“She told me she didn’t want us kissing, or hugging each other or dancing together tonight. She didn’t want to see us being gay, basically.”

Tyler didn’t say anything for a minute. He just looked down to the floor and pursed his lips, like he was planning something. “Is that why you weren’t talking to me at the table?”

Josh nodded. There was silence between them. Tyler’s eyes were still glued to the floor, lips still pursed, like he was thinking intensely about something. Through the walls of the bathroom, “Rock Your Body” by Justin Timberlake began playing. Josh couldn’t help but laugh. Tyler looked up at him and meet his eye. “I’m sorry.” Josh apologized through a fit of giggles. “It’s just they used to play this song at my middle school dances and all the teachers and staff would yell at the kids who were grinding on each other when it played.”

Tyler cracked a smile at that too before he busted into a fit of giggles as well. The pair of boys laughed as the song played out in the main room. Eventually their laughing died down, but Tyler had an evil smile on his face. “I don’t know whether if I should like that look on your face or if I should be afraid.” Josh stated, trying to catch his breath from laughing.

Tyler shook his head, took Josh’s hand and pulled him out of the bathroom. In the main reception room, it seemed like almost everyone was on the very small wood patch that qualified as a dance floor. Tyler saw a very small opening that lead to the middle of the dance floor, so he headed on that way. He turned back to look at Josh. Josh was confused and worried for what was about to go down. “I hope you can dance.” Tyler jokes before turning around and diving into the sea of people, Josh in tow.

When they get to the middle of the dance floor, Tyler tried to look around the room for Aunt Josephine. When he sees her standing a couple feet away from the large group dancing, Tyler smiles and pulls Josh to the outer circle of dancers so the pair are just off center from her, but still slightly hidden behind other guests.

Tyler smiles and turns around to face Josh, who is standing like a board of wood. Tyler giggles and steps closer to Josh so they’re chest to chest. Tyler begins moving his body in a slightly seductive kind of way. It takes Josh a second to kind of get the hint, but when he sees Aunt Josephine just a couple feet away from them, it clicks in his brain. Josh smiles as well and tries to do the same thing that Tyler is doing, but not totally copying him.

The two dance chest to chest for about a minute until Tyler turns around, his back against Josh’s chest and his ass against Josh’s groin. Tyler begins grinding his ass slowly into Josh’s groin and leans his head back onto Josh’s shoulders. Josh’s lips part slightly, half shocked, half trying to suppress an erection. Tyler takes Josh’s arms and puts them on his waist and whispers in Josh’s ear: “Keep dancing.”

It takes Josh a moment before he begins to move like he was before. Josh can see that Tyler is staring down Aunt Josephine. Josh can feel everyone’s eyes bearing into him and Tyler while they dance like they’re at some shitty club downtown. He didn’t really mind, though. All he could think about was how Tyler’s ass felt so great again his dick. Josh smiles a bit and puts his head in the crook of Tyler’s neck between his jaw and his shoulder, resisting the temptation to start biting at Tyler’s exposed neck. Josh felt Tyler’s hand on the back of his head, pushing his head closer to his neck, like he’s wanting Josh to kiss and bite at him. So that’s what he does.

“She’s looking this way,” Tyler mumbles to Josh after a second. Josh breaks away from Tyler’s neck (where he may or may not have left a hickey) and looks in Josephine’s direction. She is making direct eye contact with both of them, and there is an anger burning in her eyes. Tyler suddenly begins to laugh hysterically. He turns he head, pressing his forehead against Josh’s cheek. Tyler’s forehead is warm and has the slightest moistness of sweat on it. Josh smiles and presses against his force. “Dun, I really owe you one.”

Josh smirks and squeeze’s Tyler’s waist gently. “Now you owe me two for that incredibly terrible rhyme.”

*

The wedding’s end approached rather suddenly. After Tyler and Josh’s suggestive dancing, they toned it down a bit, but continued on dancing with the rest of the family to all those classic, cliché wedding songs. The entire wedding was pretty cliché, Josh thought, but he was having a pretty good time.  Aunt Josephine avoided Tyler and Josh the remainder of the night, and no one really said anything to the two of them. Yes, there were some dirty looks and quiet talk among the relatives, but nothing that was so in their face homophobic.

It was almost eleven o’clock and Josh was feeling in his head and behind his eyes that he was getting tired. Josh sat on one of the chairs that had somehow wound up bordering the dance floor as Tyler was right across from him near the entrance to the hall saying his goodbyes to his parents. Tyler watched as he smiled and laughed at everything his parents had to say. Josh’s mind wandered to what was being discussed. Was it about the wedding? Maybe they were making plans to have dinner in a few weeks. Could it be about Josh?

“Hey, lover boy.” Zack laughs as he takes a seat besides Josh. “You and Tyler really seemed to hit it off.”

Josh smiles and nods, his eyes still transfixed on his fake date. All the gel in his hair had been completely stripped from it. His shirt was unbuttoned barely, revealing a very small section of his chest. His tie was undone and he looked completely exhausted, but Josh still couldn’t take his eyes off of him. “You could say that.” He simply states.

“He’s not a bad guy, Josh. I never really understood why you didn’t like him so much.” Zack says. “I mean, I get that he can be a little extra sometimes and that does get annoying, but he really is one of the nicest guys I know. And I’m not just saying that because he’s my brother.”

Josh laughs at this and looks over at his friend. “To be honest, I don’t really even remember why I couldn’t stand him.” Josh replies, the smile not leaving his face. “I saw a whole new side of Tyler tonight that I just never really thought would be him.”

“What side would that be?”

Josh pauses for a second and looks back in Tyler’s direction. He’s giving his mother a nice, tight hug that lasts more than a normal hug. “The sweet and caring side. The side that makes you smile with every word he says, whether it’s funny or not. The side that shows that he really cares about what he believes in, even if that belief goes totally against from what everyone wants him to believe. The side that doesn’t give a damn about what anybody, even his family, thinks of him.” Josh pauses and pictures the smile Tyler had on his face when Josh said he’d go to the wedding with him last night. Josh smiles at the thought. “The side that is just so apologetically himself that you just can’t help but love.”

Zack is quiet, and Josh knows he knows that he’s falling for his brother, but Zack doesn’t mention that. Not right now anyway. Tyler says his final goodbye to his parents and makes his way back over to Zack and Josh. “What are we talking about?” Tyler chimes in.

Zack looks in between Josh and Tyler, smiles and shakes his head before standing up. “Nothing at all, bro.” Zack hugs Tyler, and whispers something in his ear before he walks away and out the door. Tyler’s face turns a shade of red and his smile grows a bit bigger.

“What did he say?” Josh questions, his smile not faltering from his face.

Tyler pauses for a minute, opens his mouth to say something, but then Whitney Huston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” begins playing. Tyler’s smile grew three times bigger. “I love this song!” Tyler exclaims. He grabs Josh’s hands and starts dragging him back towards the dance floor. Josh rolls his eyes and follows Tyler back towards the dance floor, despite his body’s sleep deprivation refusals.

On the dance floor, Tyler doesn’t let go of Josh’s hands. He just holds them in his own and begins jumping around on the very empty dance floor while he sings along to the lyrics. Josh smiles more and looks around. They are the only ones that are on the dance floor and everyone that is left are just watching them, big smiles plastered across their faces.

Josh hesitates for a moment before he begins copying Tyler’s bouncy movements and signing along to the song, like it’s the ending of some cheesy 80’s movie. ‘Fuck it’ Josh thinks to himself as he belts out the chorus of the song with Tyler.

*

Tyler pulls up to the curb of Josh’s on campus apartment complex. Josh sighs and looks over at Tyler, who looks like he is ready to sleep for three days. “Thank you for bringing me along.” Josh says, smiling at how cute Tyler is without even trying.

Tyler smiles sleepily and shakes his head and waves his hand a little bit. “I don’t think tonight could have gone any better than it did. All thanks to you.” Josh tries to hide a blush by looking down into his lap. “We are now the Masters’ of Deception.” Tyler raises his hand for a high five.

Josh giggles and smacks his hand against Tyler’s. He doesn’t even think before he interlaces their fingers. He looks at Tyler, who is lovingly staring at their intertwined hands. His lips are still in a smile, and Josh has to fight back every muscle in his body to not lean over the center console and kiss his pink lips.

“I’m sorry,” Josh mutters after a moment in the silence of the car. Tyler looks up from their intertwined fingers to look at the boy sitting across from him. “I don’t really know why I’ve hated you for all these years. I just thought you were kind of annoying, I guess.”

Tyler chuckles, closes his eyes and shakes his head. “Nah, it’s good. I thought you were some narcissistic asshole who hasn’t helped another person ever in his life.” Tyler’s smile fades and he gently chews on his lip, looking Josh up and down before locking their eye’s on one another. “You’re not…”

Josh loses all self-control. Leaning over the console, he stops a centimeter from Tyler’s face. Josh can feel Tyler’s breath on his face as he tries to wrap his head around the situation. Tyler closes his eyes and presses their foreheads together, their lips not even a centimeter apart anymore. “You owe me one…” Josh whispers. He could feel Tyler’s lips against his own as he spoke. Josh closed the distance between them, pressing his lips against Tyler’s. He felt Tyler reciprocating the action, which made Josh smile against the kiss. He gently cupped Tyler’s cheeks in his hands, Tyler put his hand on Josh’s knee, deepening the kiss.

Josh wanted to just sit there all night kissing Tyler’s perfectly soft pink lips, but he retracted from the kiss anyhow. They both looked into each other’s eyes for a minute before Tyler started cracking up. Josh wasn’t too sure what was so funny, but he began laughing too. “All night,” Tyler said breathlessly though hiccups of laughter. “I tried to tell myself that I wasn’t into you because you said you weren’t gay.”

Josh nodded and caught his breath, resting his head against the headrest and staring at Tyler. “I was too. I actually thought the whole time you weren’t interested in me between you really selling the whole fake date thing and saying you weren’t looking for another relationship. You were really going hard with that whole fake date thing.”

Tyler smiled and patted Josh’s face gently. “I was pretty much sticking with that the whole night, until I felt your boner against my ass. That’s when everything changed.” Josh laughed again and looked out the window to his drab apartment complex that was hidden in the night. “I still owe you one more favor, you know.” Tyler said, breaking the silence that Josh hadn’t even noticed was there.

Josh rolled his head back over to look at Tyler, who was still beaming and fighting back giggles. “Take me to your next family wedding so we could rub our homosexuality in their faces again?”

This sent Tyler over the edge. He fell back into a fit of laughter and smiles. “I don’t know when the next Joseph family meet up will be and I don’t know if I could wait that long until I see you again. How about we go out for coffee sometime soon?”

“It’s a date” Josh smiled, holding his hand out for Tyler to shake. Tyler rolled his eyes, taking Josh’s hand and pulling him in for another kiss.

“A real date.” Tyler corrected when their lips slowly parted.