August 24th- Book One in the May 3rd series

Chapter 72 -- THEY'RE GAY, JOSIAH

Warnings ⚠: Child Abuse, Rape, Violence, Religion, Drug Use, Alcohol Use, Use of Slurs, Homophobia, Bullying, Mention of Suicide, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicidal Actions, Gun Use

Josiah's P.O.V.

-Saturday, November 27th-

The week passes agonizingly slow.

Damien seems to have some sort of problem with every place he finds. Every time he thinks he found a good one, before he'll even show it to me, he decides that it's missing that special thing. I once had the nerve to ask him what the hell that means, but he just told me that he doesn't really know yet, but he'll know it when he sees it.

That literally doesn't make any sense. Why is he turning down so many places just because of a special thing that he doesn't even understand himself?

All we need is a bedroom, a bathroom, and a kitchen. That's it.

Damien decided to bring me along today to that one apartment that he found. The one with the breakfast bar.

Is that the special thing that all the other places he has looked at for the past two weeks lacked?

I hope he's actually serious about this one. So we can just check it out and get this over with. So we can adjust as soon as possible.

Over the past four months, everything has changed.

It hit me recently how strange that is.

Does this sort of thing happen to people often?

Do they usually find their soulmate and just know like this?

I doubt it. But it's what happened.

"...Are you serious about this place?" I ask him finally.

I would say I don't think he would bring me to it if he didn't have some sort of feeling that this is the perfect place, but...

I don't trust him that much.

"Of course, or I wouldn't have brought you."

"You have brought me to, like, six places that you despised because they had carpet or some shit." I remind him.

"I only hated the one because of the carpet. And that was because it had it in the bathroom. I don't hate carpet."

"It's the only example I remember because I wasn't paying attention to any of the other houses. But, if you want me to take this one seriously, I will."

"I really have a good feeling about this one. The only thing that stopped me was those fucking stairs. But as for location and everything else, it's practically perfect. So if you could maybe consider it for real, that would be cool."

"The stairs... Oh no... Were they...carpeted?!"

"..." He sighs "I'm rolling my eyes. They're not carpeted. They're really steep. You'll see. But i won't get this place without your legitimate approval. And I don't mean you just saying 'It's fine.' just because you weren't paying attention. I really want you to think about it, okay?"

"I will. Are we going to live there for a long time for real, or...? Is this going to be something we do for a couple months before we're kicked out for being gay?"

"...I mean that's considered a hate crime, so no. We'll stay here until we outgrow it or become trillion billionaires."

"That's good. Does it have room for our six dogs, five cats, and two kids?"