waiting for superman | book three

sixteen

This Metropolis

At some point in the duration of the day, Josh decided that he was going to talk to Chloe after school. He didn't know what he was going to say, but he needed her. Without her, the metropolis that is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania seems empty and claustrophobic.

Once the bell dismissed him from his last class, he made his way to the student parking lot and sat on the good of his Chevy, waiting for Chloe to appear from outside of the freshly painted school building. His mind wanders off to what he should say to Chloe when he sees her, when suddenly the unmistakable sound of Maddie's voice approaches him.

"Hey babe," she coos. She steps up onto the front bumper and sits herself down next to him, sliding close enough that he can feel the warmth from her thigh radiating on to his.

"I'm not your babe," he snaps back harshly.

"You are now," she giggles, slipping her hand into Josh's and squeezing with more strength than he expected her to be capable of. 

"Chloe's the only girl for me," Josh hisses. 

"That's too bad because you're not the boy for her. You're the boy for me," Maddie whispers in a failed attempt to sound sexy. Instead of sounding appealing, she sounds mousy and desperate.

"Yes I am," he growls.

"If you were, then she wouldn't have snuck around with Cody now would she have?" Maddie questions. Josh opens his mouth to reply, but his lips are interrupted by the pressure of Maddie's pressing up against them. 

They used to kiss all the time and so he is familiar with the feeling of her lips on his. It isn't the same as it used to be though. They used to be sweet and passionate, and now they're just angry and forced. He doesn't want to be kissing her and he doesn't feel anything while doing it, but she continues to kiss him, trying to spark some kind of feeling.

But he feels none.

When he's with Chloe, however, he feels everything.