piece by piece~j.d

~83~

Aubrey didn't exchange a word with Ebony when they got to school on the Monday, not unless it was a necessity. She hated feeling immature but at the same time she had nothing to say, definitely not anything nice.

"Please just say something." Ebony pleaded at the end of the day when Aubrey was trying to gather her things quickly so that she could get the hell out of the school.

"No it's okay, and don't worry about it. I'll be here as soon as the year finishes. You were working here first." Aubrey sent her friend a tight smile. "I'm sorry."

"Oh... Well I'll see you sometime soon." Ebony nodded and allowed Aubrey to leave the room. As soon as Aubrey got out she breathed out deeply half laughing, not that any of it was funny at all.

"What a fucking time." She mumbled to herself as she made her way to her car where she showed herself to blast some sad music on the way home and just scream the lyrics as of everything in her life sucked. Not that there was any truth to that statement at all. Just as she pulled up and was ready to get out, her phone rang and she picked up, sitting back to get comfortable in her seat. "Hey B."

"Hi Aubrey, Pat told me what happened and who it was. First off, why didn't you tell me and secondly are you okay?"

"Sorry, a lot has been happening as of late and yeah I'm doing okay." Aubrey replied. "She tried to talk to me today but I couldn't do it."

"That's okay, one day you can work it all out when the pain isn't so prominent. It happened to you so you have to do what you're comfortable with, don't forget that." Bailey advised, it was times like these that Aubrey was reminded how intelligent her brother was though it was disregarded because of what he did.

"Thanks, how are you doing by the way? We haven't spoke in what feels like yonks."

"I'm doing okay." Bailey confirmed. "How about we go and get lunch on Saturday if you have time."

"Sounds all good to me, as long as we go and get some good sushi." Aubrey bargained though she knew that he wouldn't reject the idea. It was always something that they begged their mum to get them whenever they went to the shopping centres to buy other things.

"Also there's a girl that I think you should meet sometime soon." Bailey said, his voice was kind of quiet as if he was embarrassed but Aubrey was just excited. "If you want to, I mean I just feel like you should so I can get your opinion."

"Oh yeah." Aubrey said with a laugh. "How about on Saturday instead of just us it is us, Josh and this mystery girl?" Aubrey suggested knowing already that he would say yes.

"Sounds like a good idea to me, be there or be square." Bailey chuckled. "It means a lot to me though, thank you."

"Of course Baz, I'll talk to you later." Aubrey said.

"Bye, love you." Bailey said, not hanging up until she said it back.

"Love you too." Aubrey said and then she herself hung up the phone and took everything out of the car so that she could walk into her house and flop onto the couch for the day.

"You were in the car awhile, I was going to scare you at the door, but I got hungry." Josh said as he sat down on the couch watching Aubrey sort some of the things from her bag, he was taking bites from an apple every few seconds.

"Sorry, I was talking to my baby brother." Aubrey responded, stealing his apple and biting a part that he hadn't yet bitten. "We have lunch with him and his new girl on Saturday just by the way."

"New girl?" Josh asked raising his eyebrow and stealing his apple back. "Name, age, details?"

"He told me nothing," Aubrey frowned, then reached out and softly booped Josh's nose giggling as she watched him scrunch his face up, "stop being nosey my friend."

"Friend?" Josh crossed his arms. "Is that all I am to you, a friend?!"

"Oh come on, please don't be angry at me." Aubrey said, grabbing a hold of Josh's cheeks and squeezing them until his lips were puckered. "You can't be angry at me."

"You're right." Josh chuckled and leaned forwards to kiss Aubrey, who still had her hands squeezing his face, until they moved around his neck and the kiss got deeper. "Are you feeling okay?"

"What?" Aubrey asked, she looked up at him in confusion, he grabbed both of her hands from around his neck and moved them so that they were resting in between them. "Am I not allowed to kiss my boyfriend?"

"Of course you are, and trust me there's no complaining from my end. You just seem a bit off, I don't know what it is." Josh shrugged, his eyes searching around her face for a hint.

"It's hard to be at school with Ebony, I don't know, I guess I feel like I should be a lot more mature but I'm just not."

"You don't have to be, you didn't do anything wrong, I will remind you that it was her until the day that it gets through your head, or the day that I die. Whichever comes first." Josh promised.

"Please don't die, I kind of need you in my life at the moment and always. I don't think I would be able to handle that at all, so for now you're just going to have to stay alive." Aubrey said, tracing her fingers lightly up and down his arm.

"There's still a lot that I want to achieve in life, there's no chance I'm going anywhere anytime soon. Do you think Baz would tell me anything if I rang him and asked about the ever mysterious girl?" Josh said, successfully lightening the mood.

"We'll get there and he'll be sitting with Laith or someone like that." Aubrey chuckled and Josh did too. "I don't know what girls see in him, like so many girls."

"Are you kidding, he's sexy," Josh scoffed. "If I was a girl I'd be all up in his comments trying to get his attention and tagging my friends and all that."

"I literally hate you so much."

"So disrespectful."

will hayward and tim taranto are the same person in a slightly different font, cannot be convinced otherwise