Just for a Moment

48 | No Word

"It sure is taking them a long time."

"I know. You'd think that by now they would've given up." They were many rounds into Uno, and Joshua and Matt were still nowhere to be seen.

"I'll call Matt and see if they're done yet," Joe said, grabbing his phone. The others continue to talk while waiting for an answer. "Hmm, straight to voicemail."

"That's weird. I'll call Josh," Olivia says.

"Put it on speaker," Frankie adds.

"Uh, ok." She's confused by his request but does so anyway. It doesn't even ring; they hear his voicemail message almost instantly.

"That's... odd," Sofia comments.

"I wonder where they are," Julia says.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They were all scattered around Olivia's living room watching a movie. It's been at least another hour, and there's still no sign of Joshua or Matt, not even a text.

By now, about half of them were sleeping. They're jolted awake by a pounding coming from the other side of the hallway. "What the hell was that?" Frankie mumbles, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

They sit in silence for a second in case they were just hearing noises since they were half asleep a moment ago, but it happens again. "I'll get it," Olivia groans, throwing her blanket off herself and going to the door. The pounding doesn't stop until she opens it. When she does, she's confused as ever; even in the dim lighting of the hallway, she could tell who it was. "Josh? Wha-?"

"Do you have your phone on you?" he quickly rushes out. He was panting heavily and leaning on the door frame.

"Uh, it's on the couch. Why d-?"

Joshua pushed past her and quickly walked into the living room. When the others hear the footsteps, they look up at him and are just as confused. "Josh? What took you guys so long? And where's Matt?" someone asked.

He either didn't hear them or just ignored them; his brain was on overdrive, and the only thing he could think of was trying to find a phone. "What does it take to find a goddamn phone in this place?!"

Joe holds his out for him. "Here, but why d-?" Joshua quickly takes it from him and steps away from the group.

He puts the phone to his ear, and his next words catch everyone's attention. "My friend and I were in a car crash and need an ambulance immediately!"

Everyone was wide awake now. "What?!!" they scream.

"Shh!!" he hisses. Joshua proceeds to tell them the streets they were on when it happened. He hangs up eventually and tosses Joe's phone back at him. When he turns around, the sight is horrifying. There were small cuts dotted across his face that had small, dried blood trails coming from them; his right eye had a gash above it and was half open; and he was holding his right arm weirdly.

"Josh," Olivia says, approaching him, "what happened? Where have you been?"

"Oh, you know, the usual; car comes speeding through a traffic light, slams into the driver's side, most likely totaling my car. Just your typical Tuesday."

"How are you here and he isn't?" Julia asks.

"I've spent the past hour running the last six fucking miles back to the apartments!!" he exclaims. He takes a deep breath to stay somewhat calm. "Enough of that right now. We need to head back to Matt." They nod and start running down the hallway. Joshua's legs felt like they would just fall off at any point, but that wasn't important at the moment.