Josh's POV
It started out like any other evening; a few hotdogs on the grille for dinner, shooting hoops with my dad, my mom yelling at the two of us for ditching family time.
"Is that the best you've got, son?" my father had hollers at me as I dunk the ball into the hoop, hanging on the rim for a second to show off. I feel the sweat on the back of my neck, and roll up the sleeves of my sweatshirt.
I grunt as I head back down the drive way and make a jump shot,
"I'd like to see you do better, old man."
"Watch me."
A confident smile spreads across my face, I know I'm about to prove a point, and that's the thing I love most in the world. That's the thing - sports have always been here for me, even when girls haven't.
Granted, I might give up athletics altogether if I had to choose between that or being with a girl again, but that's beside the point. This is exactly what I needed to get my mind off things.
Unfortunately, you can only hide from the real world for so long.
After just a few more minutes, I hear the front door swoosh open, followed by my mother's voice echoing throughout the yard,
"Joshua!" I grimace at the use of my real name, "Telephone!"
"Alright," I call back, "I'll be there in a minute." I toss my dad the ball and jog across the lawn and into the house, pulling my sweatshirt up and over my head at the door. I've worked up quite a sweat in the past half hour, and the cool air feels refreshing against my arms and through the thin fabric of my t-shirt, although I can feel the sleeves sticking to my skin.
"It's Maddie.." my mother says, frowning at the phone. She still has no idea that Maddie's not a nutjob anymore, and for all she knows the two of us haven't spoken since we broke up, so I sigh and explain,
"We might be getting back together again."
My mother wrinkles her nose, "Well, if you're going to go out tonight, at least thrown on a fresh shirt, alright?"
"Mom! Girl on the phone, please stop embarrassing me.."
I lift the phone up to my ear a head upstairs to my room, "Hey Mads, what's up?"
There's silence for a moment on the other line, "Josh, I want us to be together."
I can feel my heart leap to my throat, and for a second, I forget how to make any noise whatsoever. And when I finally do, all that comes out is a cracking noise that I'm pretty sure isn't English. I swallow,
"I've been thinking about that, too."
The truth is, I've had a great time with Maddie lately, now that she's sane, and I thought this was what I wanted. But now that it's right in front of me, I don't feel the same way. Now I'm not so sure.
What if it was all about the chase - wanting what I couldn't have?
"Can I be honest with you?" I hear her high voice coming from the phone again.
I nod, but then remember that she can't see me,
"Uh, yeah. Sure."
"I don't want to say it... because it's not this way anymore..." she starts, then takes a deep breath, realizing it was too late to back out now,
"The real reason I started hanging out with you was because Brandon told me to break you and Chloe up."
Without another word, I press the 'End Call' button and whip the phone as hard as I can at the wall. It smashes to pieces, hitting the floor with a crash. The signal goes dead.
