the effect heteronormativity has on how watchers view byler keeps me up at night so i wrote out their story but took out names & instead used "boy" and "girl" 
read this and tell me it's not romantic:
boy asks girl to be friends on the first day of kindergarten.
boy has girls artwork all over his walls. boy has a binder full of girls drawings.
girl goes missing in 7th grade and boy does everything in his power to find her.
when girl is found and is recovering in the hospital boy is the only one not sleeping while waiting for her to wake up and when she does wake up he runs to her room and lays his head on her chest.
a year later when girl is struggling with ptsd, boy is always there for her. when she leaves school early to go to the doctor, he stares longingly and sadly at her empty desk. he notices when she's quiet, even though she's always quiet. when she has a flashback on halloween he puts an arm around her and takes her back to his house safely and talks about what she's going through. when she's going through something extremely scary he sleeps on her floor so she won't have to be alone. when she goes back to the hospital, boy sleeps in a chair next to her bed. when girl is possessed and loses her memory, she only remembers her mom and boy. later on, boy starts crying and says asking her to be his friend on the first day of kindergarten is the best thing he's ever done.
when boy gets a girlfriend, girl and boy start having problems for the first time in their relationship. after 6 months, boy and girl get in a fight over boy ruining their friend group by spending all of his time with his girlfriend, and girl leaves his house. boy bikes across town in the rain to her house and bangs on her door screaming apologies and begging her to come out so they can talk.
when girl is packing to move away, she assures boy she won't move on from him and their friend group and he reacts like this:
then boy's girlfriend, who is moving away with girl's family too, says she loves him and kisses him and he reacts like this:
when boy is leaving girls house after she's gone, he looks back at her house sadly and bikes away. he goes home to his mom and this happens:
6 months later when boy goes to visit his girlfriend and girl across the country, boy is awkward to girl and won't hug her, even though it had never been weird for them to hug before. he just pats her on the shoulder.
boy, girl, and boy's girlfriend go to a roller rink where girl feels ignored and like a third wheel. boy's girlfriend gets publicly bullied and runs away. while boy and girl are looking for her boy gets angry at girl for moping, not talking, and rolling her eyes because she "sabotaged the whole day", even though it seemed like he was ignoring her.
their argument goes like this:
girl: well what about us?
boy: *stops walking and turns around* what?
girl: you're mad that i didn't talk to you? you've made it clear you're not interested in anything i have to say
boy: that's just not true.
girl: you called maybe a couple of times, it's been a year. meanwhile [girlfriend] has a book of letters from you.
boy: that's because she's my girlfriend!
boy: we're friends! we're. friends.
girl: well we used to be best friends!
boy: ...well maybe you should've reached out more, i don't know, but why is this on me? why am i the bad guy?
later on, boy comes in girls room and thanks her for knocking some sense into him because he was being a total self pitying idiot. when he starts to talk about the last few days, girl says she deserved it and boy assures her she didn't deserve anything he did to her. boy says their friends back home are great, but it's not the same without girl. and maybe he was worrying too much about his girlfriend and lost girl. boy says he wants them to go back to being best friends.
also during this trip, boy's girlfriend gets upset with him because he's never said "i love you" to her. he signed all of his letters with "from, boy", and he still doesn't say it even when she's crying and practically begging him to.
boy talks to girl about how he's afraid his girlfriend doesn't need him anymore and feels inferior to her.
girl gives boy a painting she made for him and confesses her love for him, but uses his girlfriends name to cover it up, so boy thinks this is actually his girlfriend's feelings. she says she's afraid of losing him and will always need him, and that he is the heart of their group and everything would fall apart without him.
after this, boy is able to say "i love you" to his girlfriend, but they are distant after it and his girlfriend doesn't talk to him much.
germansingergirl
snowghoul
discoholicmusic
