▎. . . In which seven boys meet in the school counsellor's office every week and are given a group project to work on for the year.
UNDERGOING REWRITING
sidemen...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐀𝐖𝐊𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐃. Seated before two melting faces, stained with crystal tears, and clutching the arms of the couch as if they were allergic to one another.
Was this what they had come to?
Opposite sat their son, raven-haired and tired-eyed, wishing he was anywhere else but here. The couches were of peeling red leather, pulling apart at the seams, gluing Josh in his place with the summer heat. It would sting when he stood up, eventually, but at least he'd be feeling something.
For now, numbness. He didn't care, at this point, about whatever the fuck was going on between his parents.
Josh had created a routine for their relationship: rush about for work and avoid each other at all costs before 9AM; thank God you're busy with your own life until 5PM; return home and see right through each other at dinner; wait until your son escapes upstairs at 6PM, then have the clearance to scream at one another until the street lights turn on and you retreat to bed. Then, start again and repeat. Forever.
This wasn't Josh's first rodeo, meeting with them like this. He was six, he was seven, he was nine, he was eleven... and they were back, easing him onto the same damn armchair they took with them to every new house. Daddy is leaving for a while. Mummy has feelings for someone else. Hey, Josh, this is your new stepdad! Things didn't work out; Mum and Dad are getting back together.
Josh was, frankly, exhausted by it all. So, spinning the mental wheel, he tried to predict what it would be this time.
"Joshua, you know we both love you very much."
Fucking hell, this catchphrase again? We love you, Josh, but we're ruining your life by moving house all the time and making your teachers incredibly confused at every parents' evening!
"Your father and I haven't taken this decision lightly, just like with every choice we make that includes you."
Tell that to the nine Sold! signs in nine different front gardens. Tell that to the dozens of friends Josh had to bid goodbye as he traversed the country yet again. Tell that to the memories Josh hadn't had the time to make, the promises that weren't kept, the trail of exes and echoes of arguments and the utmost dread Josh felt whenever a school show came up and he wondered which parent he could take without an uproar from the other.
