• i have an unhealthy fixation on josh templeton and hyper obsession with the film, had this song in my head the whole entire time and just had to edit my autistic boy who deserved better.
A sense of some fire getting close
a super dark times fic
(chapter 4 up)
Josh and Zach do teenage things like crushing milk cartons, learning to drive, and realizing that being in love with your best friend fucking sucks sometimes fucks with your head and with your heart in ways you never thought possible
“Whatever,” Josh says, sighing it out like he’s exhausted. Like Zach’s exhausting him. And when he gets like this there’s really nothing that can pull him out of it. Since they were kids Zach kind of thought of it as quicksand. It pulls him down and holds him there, and just keeping his head above is about all Josh can manage. Like it’s not really something that either of them can help. “Just don’t—”
Just don’t leave me.
But of course, that’s an impossible thing to say to your best friend. It’s too big; it means too much. Josh doesn’t know how to drop all his defences like that, just sometimes he fucking wishes he could, wishes he could just say it and leave all this weirdness behind them. He can’t though. He can’t even get his mouth to begin to shape the words, so he finds the other strap of his backpack and says, “See you, man,” instead.
Not enough discussion about the difference between Josh “incel, school shooter-esque”Templeton and Zach “sensitive boy” Taylor because to me that’s one of the most interesting and important parts of the film.
Zach put his hands on your face and told you it was going to be fine. And you knew that you could trust him, because haven’t you always trusted him before? But this is the first thing that’s ever happened to you that’s too big to solve. This is the first time that Zach can’t clarify the situation for you, when you look over at him for help.
Zach put his hands on your face and held you together and told you it was going to be fine. And then he disappeared.
(or, Josh and Zach meet up again, by mistake, several years later.)