Chapter Text
It was a sunny afternoon when Tyler’s little sister, Maddy, announced her engagement to the family. Everyone had been overjoyed for her, hugging her and her fiancé, Will, like he was already part of the family.
Which he technically was; he’d already been on the annual Joseph roadtrip vacation to Jersey multiple times.
Tyler only felt the slightest bit of resentment on that day because, well, shouldn't he be getting married by now, since he’s the eldest? Life was clearly playing a cruel, cruel joke on him by the way his love life was going.
28 years old and still as single as he was when he was 15.
Why was love so difficult to come by? For him, anyway. All his past relationships ended horribly, the mere reminder of them almost enough to make him shudder on the spot. Either way, it was so dang hard for him to hold down relationships in general that hearing that his sister was engaged to her boyfriend since freaking high school only made him pity himself even more than he already does.
He got over it real quick because his sister didn't deserve his bitter attitude to bring her down from her love high. Maddy and her high school sweetheart can be as lovey-dovey as they wanted; Tyler loved seeing Maddy happy and he definitely wasn't going to put a damper on it because he was a petty love-cursed dude with no way to find love, ever, so long as he lived.
All the talk about love and relationships brings him back to his point: it’s a sunny afternoon when his family start to pester him into finding a date for the wedding.
“Come on, Tyler, I'm not gonna let you show up to my wedding dateless.” Maddy whines, setting her iced coffee down on the wooden table.
They were sitting out on the terrace at one of their local coffee shops, The Hive, discussing the final arrangements of the wedding since it’s, like, a week away.
“Mads, seriously—” Tyler starts, but gets cut off by his mother.
“You should bring Jon!” She exclaims happily, making Tyler cringe.
His ex-boyfriend was the last person he’d want to bring to his sister's wedding. His family thinks they ended on good terms, but Tyler had caught him cheating while he was out trying to jog.
Seriously, imagine it: the one time he tries to exercise and he’s hit in the face with the harsh reality of his relationship being built on lies. Exercise was truly ruined for him now.
“He’s out of town on a business trip.” Tyler lies through gritted teeth, fingers cutting up a piece of his blueberry muffin.
“What about Jenna?” His mom tries again and Tyler sighs inwardly because he sees exactly where this is going.
“Mom, Jenna and I broke up because she figured out she was gay,” Tyler reminds her. “Besides, she has a girlfriend. I don't think she’ll be too fond of me stealing her girl.”
His mother pouts childishly while Tyler shoves the piece of muffin into his mouth.
“What about Brendon?” Maddy suggests, eyes filled with hope that Tyler will crush.
Drugs. So many drugs, man.
“Do you really want a dude who’ll be high as all heck to be at your wedding?” Tyler questions, though it’s rhetorical. It does its job, making Maddy lean back with a pout on her lips, a mirror imagine of their mother.
“How about—”
Okay, Tyler’s had it. The only viable option is to say he already has a date and just show up without one with the excuse that they cancelled last minute. It’s a good plan, if he does say so himself.
“No. Enough, okay?” Tyler snaps. “I have a freaking date to the wedding.”
“What?” His mother and sister reply in unison, the incredulous tones in their voices only making Tyler’s fingers twitch in annoyance.
“Yeah, so will you two stop now?”
“No,” Maddy says, appalled and with a look of betrayal aimed his way. “I can't believe you didn't tell me. Who is it?”
And this is where it all goes downhill for him, because Tyler really hadn't thought this far ahead. He didn't even think they'd ask this question which, in retrospect, is his first mistake because of freaking course they’d want to know.
“Uh, my date—my date is, uh.” Tyler stutters, feeling his cheeks flush. “Can’t it be a surprise?”
“Absolutely not.” His mom eyes him like a hawk, waiting for him to make the wrong move and it doesn't help that Tyler’s brain just keeps shouting abort mission!
“Spill, Tyler.” Maddy leans forward, her elbows resting on the table.
“Josh,” Tyler blurts out, his eyes widening as soon as it's out of his mouth. “Josh is my date to the wedding. Are you happy now?”
“Oh my gosh, I knew it!” Maddy cheers, clapping her hands excitedly.
What?
“What?” Tyler voices his thought.
“Oh honey, you didn't have to keep it a secret,” His mother chuckles, nudging him with her elbow. “You and Josh have always had something special after all.”
“Totally,” His sister gushes and grabs her phone. “I won so many bets right now.”
“You guys were betting on me and Josh being together?” Tyler asks, the confusion and utter disbelief showing fully on his face as they both nod.
This is what it’s come to apparently: his love life sucked so much that everyone was shipping him with his roommate and best friend the entire time. No wonder he’s seen his family eyeing them closely during family barbecues or hangouts or whatever. It all makes sense.
And oh god, Tyler just confirmed it when it was completely fake news.
Josh is going to kill him.
Tyler’s face is red as a rose, he’s positive of it. Sure, he and Josh were always too close for comfort and he admits he may have the teeniest tiniest crush on his best friend, but he does a really good job of suppressing it and pushing it down to the point he forgets about it most of the time. He doesn't want anything to change between them despite his dumb feelings for him. Liking Josh romantically definitely isn't worth losing him and the idea of him admitting his feeling and having Josh reject him is one of his worst nightmares.
So, ignoring his emotions was the way he lived his life around Josh and it worked out just fine.
Only now he’s gone out of his way to ruin the dynamic he created.
On the inside, Tyler is freaking out, like, there are explosions and flames all over the place as he frantically tries to figure out how badly he’s going to screw this entire thing up, but on the outside, he’s calm and collected, forcing out a laugh and nodding.
“Oh, well, yeah. We were gonna surprise you at the wedding, you know. Showing up together and all.”
Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap.
“I’m glad you didn't, ‘cause you guys would've outshined me at my own wedding.” Maddy laughs, their mother joining in while Tyler just continues internally freaking out.
The conversation steers to flower and seating arrangements for the millionth time, so Tyler zones out, his coffee and muffin forgotten now that his appetite is gone. This lie was going to explode in his face and he’ll have no one to blame but himself for creating it.
The hole is dug and there’s no way out of it now, is there?
Unless… unless Josh goes along with it.
Josh is his best friend, his platonic soulmate since they were kids—if Tyler tells him how much this’ll mean to him, then there's no way he’ll say no.
Which brings him to the bigger, more complicated question.
How the heck is he going to casually bring this up to Josh?