✺ 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 ✺- Josh Kiszka

Part 2

PART 2

  "Hell no, Violet." I retorted, looking at her phone closer to ensure I didn't see things.

Her smile faded.

"What, what's wrong?"

"Kiszka? As in Josh Kiszka?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"Yeah, they're brothers. Why is that bad?"

"Have you met Josh? He's in my first block and is the most obnoxious, unaware himbo I've ever had the displeasure of encountering." I replied, annoyance clear in my voice from just thinking about this morning.

That son of a bitch never gave my papers back. I suddenly remembered.

Violet began laughing, her hearty laugh that could make anyone in the room grow a smile.

"What are you laughing at?" I asked, a smile already creeping onto my face.

"Have you ever actually met Josh?" She replied. I just stared back at her, unsure of what to say. "Because if we're being honest, Josh is the complete opposite of what you just described."

"I mean, from what I've seen, he has no concept of time and is pretty unaware of his surroundings," I argued.

"Yeah, I mean, he is pretty lost in his own world, but that's just a small fraction of him. You can't just judge his whole character off of what you see for five minutes in a class period."

I suddenly felt pretty bad for how I had reacted.

"Yeah, that's true. I shouldn't be so shallow," I replied. "And I'm sure even if Josh was that level of obnoxious, Sam seems like a really good guy, and I'm really happy for you."

She smiled and took her phone back.

"The bell's about to ring. We should get going," she said, checking the time on her phone.

We walked out of the bathroom, said our goodbyes, and went our separate ways to the third period.

My class was on the complete opposite side of the school from where I was, so I was bound to be late. I strode through the school commons and past the library when I suddenly heard the sound of running and the squeaking of shoes on the school's tile floors behind me. Before I could even turn around, Josh slowed his pace and walked alongside me.

Speak of the devil, I thought to myself.

"Hey, sorry to sneak up on you. I just wanted to give these back to you since I didn't during the first period, and I figured it would be easy since we're going to the same hall," he said, holding out the two papers I had lent him this morning.

"Thank you," I said as I took them from him. "And sorry for being kind of a dick to you this morning, I was just tired, and you were just trying to be nice," I added.

"Nah, you weren't being a dick at all. Everyone can be like that in the mornings."

"You never are," I laughed. "You always seem to be in a good mood."

"That's not entirely true." he replied, "everyone has their bad days. Some people are just better at hiding it than others."

I looked at him for a second, almost feeling shocked that something deep like that had just come from him.

Stop being shallow, I told myself.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," I said sheepishly, looking from the floor to him. He was already looking at me when I looked up, beaming his large, white smile.

At that moment, I began to take in all of his features, looking instead of just glancing at him like I usually did. He had soft brown hair that fell around his face and ears in light curls and waves, dark brown eyes, and fair skin with red undertones. He had a pretty strong jawline and very prominent smile lines when he grinned. He was honestly not bad looking at all.

Stop it. Why are you even thinking that?

I force myself to look away from him and make a feeble attempt to continue our conversation.

"So what's with you and being late to literally every class?" I say with a laugh. "Including this one." I gesture towards our separate classrooms down the hall from us. We had stopped at the end of the hall when he had given me my papers back, and neither of us really had the urge to keep walking, being that we were already this late.

"Oh," he says, laughing and shaking his head. "My little sister, Ronnie, she's a freshman this year, and over summer all she would talk about is how 'shes going to get lost' or 'bullied by juniors and seniors.'" he said, still smiling. "She asked my brothers and me if we would walk her to her classes until she felt comfortable with where she needed to go. My brothers stopped walking with us after they could tell she was fine, but I sorta like her company, so I still walk her to class, even if I know I'll be late."

Wow, I am the biggest asshole on the planet.

"I know it sounds stupid and probably makes me look like I have no friends, but oh well," he said with a shrug.

"No, no, that's actually really sweet," I replied, returning his smile. "I wish I had siblings that I could talk to in between classes. Well, I talk to my cousin a lot, but I usually don't see her in school unless it's urgent."

"Oh, Violet, right? She's the one my brother Sam won't shut up about at home." Josh replied.

"Yeah," I laughed. "She was telling me about how he asked her on a date to the orchestra tomorrow."

"Dear God, finally," Josh replied. "He's had those tickets since like the first week he met her, but he hasn't worked up the balls to ask her." He said, "Well, until now, I guess he was running out of time." he laughed

"I guess so," I replied. "Holy shit, it's been almost thirty minutes," I said, pulling out my phone and checking the time.

"Yeah, we should probably head to our classes before we're marked absent." He replied.

We started down the hallway, and before we went into our separate rooms, Josh looked at me with an awkward stance,

"Well, at least my sister isn't one of my only friends now," he said as he put his middle and ring finger together against his forehead, flicking them off in an odd goodbye gesture, before letting his arm fall and smoothly spinning on his heel to his class.

Wait, does he think we're friends? This thought gave me an odd feeling in my stomach that traveled up to my head.

No, no, stop feeling like this. It's weird. You talked for half an hour. You don't know this guy.

Yet, why do I feel like I've known him a lifetime?