Virgin Mary

34/Thursday.

Josephine

Monday passed, absolutely no words to each other. No texts, barely looked at each other, nothing. Katherine left yesterday and I've been a mess hoping tuesday would be better. Of course I want to talk to Kat about it but she hates him and she hates the fact that I speak to him and so I can't talk to her about this because she wouldn't honestly just tell me to shut up and move on, which I should do but can't.

Tuesday passed, I went out to dinner with Mercy and still nothing. He's been at school but we don't look or speak at each other, I know I looked at him at least a few times but I don't think he looked at me once. No texts, no chasing and no words.

Wednesday passed, I went out to dinner and dessert with Jack, Ian, Felix, Morgan, Zain and Merch. It was fine but I felt like I was down the whole time. Of course Jack noticed something was off and kept asking if I was okay but if anytime someone asked me if I was okay I would feel myself tearing up. My dad hasn't been home either and I haven't seen him since the last time I saw him at Mercy's. Great. My mom is back but she's been gone and back, gone and back. I've learned not to care anymore because it is just going to keep happening and there's nothing I possibly can do.

It's now thursday, it's six after cheer practice because we had to stay a little later and I'm about to walk to the cafe. I changed into leggings and a hoodie with my hair in a high ponytail. It's cold but not crazy cold out, it's supposed to get cooler for the rest of the night. There were announcements about homecoming soon and about the football game tomorrow. I have a strong feeling Jack will ask me and I don't know if I'd go with him or not.

The sun is setting early and I have my backpack on just walking down the main road. I then get a text from a random number.

"Josephine, it's Alex. I got your number off Hero's phone and you need to get to our house as soon as possible, please." the text reads and I quickly turn around and make my fast walk to the frat house.

I should absolutely not be doing this but I know I need too.

Once I get the front of the frat house I just walk in and Alex is stressingly on the phone walking around the room and he points to the back sliding door to the backyard. I drop my backpack by the couch and run out the siding doors.

There's a huge pool with light all around, a ping pong table and a huge fireplace area with two huge L couches. I never looked out here to realize how nice it was.

I look around and Hero is sitting on a chair in the middle of the grass. He has a black button down dress shirt on and black jeans. Where was he?

He's sitting there downing a bottle of vodka. He has two bottles with him one of the table next to him and the one in his hand. He has a empty crushed beer can on the table next to him too. He's just staring at his hands until I shut the sliding door and he looks up. I feel horrible, this is my fault.

His hair is a mess and his eyes are bloodshot. I walk slowly over to him and he sits up. "Why are you here?" he asks.

"I was told to check on you. You need to put the bottle down." I gulp. He's definitely drunk and he can or will say anything. I am trying to mentally prepare myself for the hurtful things he's going to say.

He looks up at me and lets out a breath. "You? You check on me? Who told you to come check on me because I don't need checked on and even if I did I don't need checked on by you."

"Hero, you're angry with me and I understand but you haven't let me explain anything about how I feel and why I feel the way I do." I rub my hands on my forehead.

"You don't need to explain anything and I already know how you feel so how about you just go inside and fucking leave." he throws himself back and downs the bottle and I shake my head. "Stop." I say and reach over to grab the bottle and he grabs my wrist his other hand and my eyes widen. He gently puts my hand down and lets go. "You, stop." he says.