Warnings: Angst

Word Count: 1275

You glanced over at Josh. He was sitting on the far end of the couch, sipping peacefully on his coffee while he watched the movie that the three of you had picked. It was hard not to stare when he looked good doing practically anything.

Tyler, who was sitting in between the two of you, must have noticed because he turned to you and raised an eyebrow. You felt your cheeks go bright red as you turned back to the TV. He already knew about the massive crush that you had on Josh, but you still felt embarrassed for being so blatant about it.

Josh leaned forward and set his mug on the coffee table before getting up off the couch.

"Where are you going?" you asked.

"Bathroom," he answered plainly as he walked off down the hallway.

"That was a dumb question," you muttered once he was out of earshot.

You leaned back just to make sure that Josh was really gone before excitedly turning to Tyler and repeatedly tapping his arm.

"What?" Tyler grumbled.

"Did you see how cute he looked when he was sitting there with his coffee? He's just so attractive," you sighed.

"He was just drinking coffee," he shrugged.

"Well, yeah. But he looked really good."

"Can you stop fawning over every single little thing he does?" Tyler snapped. "It gets annoying really fast."

"You told me that you didn't have a problem with it!"

"Well I changed my mind," he huffed before grabbing his phone and beginning to scroll through Instagram.

"I just don't see what your problem is," you said.

"Problem with what?" Josh asked as he walked back into the room.

"Nothing," you said quickly.

"Alright."

Josh sat back down on the other end of the couch. Tyler put his phone away and paid attention to the movie once again. You had no idea what his issue was. There had been countless times where you had commented on Josh doing something and Tyler had been totally cool with it.

It wasn't long before you caught yourself staring at Josh again. He was just tapping idly on his legs as he watched the movie, the coffee that he had been drinking was now long gone. Tyler was in just the right spot that you could stare without Josh noticing.

"Geez, Y/N. Will you stop staring at Josh?"

You felt the color immediately drain from your face. Josh was staring at Tyler in confusion, but Tyler was too busy glaring at you.

"What the fuck, Tyler?" you said, immediately standing up. Tyler followed suit.

"You've spent like half the movie just staring at him instead of paying attention. Why don't you actually do something about it and tell him that you're practically in love with him rather than just sitting there?"

Your heart was pounding and your mind couldn't seem to decide which emotion was the most prevalent right now. Tyler had just exposed what you considered your biggest secret for no reason in particular, right in front of the one person you wanted to keep it from.

"You're in love with me?" Josh asked, now looking at you. He, too, had gotten up from the couch.

"I mean, I wouldn't call it love," you said, although it wasn't entirely true.

"You told me she wasn't interested!" Josh said, now turning on Tyler.

"What?" you all but screeched.

Tyler's jaw was clenched tightly and he was avoiding eye contact with either of you.

"How long has Tyler known that you like me?" Josh asked. It was obvious that Tyler wouldn't be answering any questions at the moment.

"Four or five months, maybe," you shrugged.

"Dude!" Josh yelled. "Why did you lie to me?"

"Wait, you like me too?" you asked.

"Yes! I have for like three months, but Tyler told me you weren't interested so I didn't pursue it."

You bit down on your lip to stop from smiling. Despite learning that Josh reciprocated your feelings, you were still angry at Tyler for bringing it up like he had. There was a lot to be worked out between the three of you.

"Will you two stop?" Tyler finally snapped.

"Ok, what's your deal, man?" Josh asked.

"My deal is that I love her too, alright? That's why I lied, because if you knew that she felt the same then you two would end up together and I would be stuck as the third wheel who was still in love with her."

Your felt your breath catch then. Never in your time of knowing Tyler had you suspected that he had feelings for you. He had hidden it extremely well, especially considering how often you had expressed interest in Josh.

"Wait, what?" you asked.

"I love you, Y/N. And I have for awhile. That's why I snapped earlier. I put up with you talking about Josh for a long time, and tonight was just... too much."

"I'm so sorry, Ty. I had no idea, otherwise I wouldn't have talked about him so much."

"You talked about me a lot?" Josh asked, a slight smile on his face.

"Yes, but now isn't the time," you said. "What are we going to do?"

"Well it's pretty evident that you don't share my feelings," Tyler said, flopping back down onto the couch.

Josh looked between you and Tyler a few times, "I do love you, Y/N, but it just isn't fair to date you when Tyler has feelings too."

"Right," you nodded. It felt like your stomach was sinking straight down your torso. "Right, that makes sense."

"Don't let me be the reason you two aren't together," Tyler interjected.

"Are you sure?" Josh asked.

He shrugged, "Yeah. It sucks, but there's no reason for you two not to be happy together just because I happen to have feelings for Y/N. It doesn't sit right with me."

"But lying did?" you asked.

"Listen," he said, turning to you. "I'm not saying I'm proud of how I handled things. There were a lot of emotions running high at the time. And I'm sorry about snapping at you earlier, that wasn't cool of me. Also for lying, that was a dick move."

"It's ok," you said. "I get it."

"Just don't do it again," Josh added,

There was a pause in the conversation. You shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot.

"So," Josh finally said. "Are we going to like..." he pointed between the two of you.

"Yeah," you nodded. "I think that's a good idea."

"Great," he smiled.

The two of you sat back down on either side of Tyler.

"We cool?" he asked, holding out a hand on either side.

"We're cool," you said, giving him a high-five and a fist bump.

"Yeah, we're cool," Josh said, doing the same.

The three of you turned back to the TV. You quickly realized you had no idea what was going on in the movie, as it looked completely different to the last time that you had been paying attention.

"What the hell did we miss?" you asked.

"A lot, apparently."

"Eh, it wasn't that good of a movie, anyway," Josh chimed in.

"Agreed," you and Tyler said in unison.

Tyler began to look for a new movie. Meanwhile, Josh reached over the back of the couch and tapped your shoulder. You looked at him, and he held out a hand. Smiling, you reached over and held it. Everything that had happened in the last hour felt surreal.

"Are you guys holding hands behind my head?" Tyler sighed.

"Maybe," you said.

"Get used to it, dude," Josh added.

"As long as you're happy."