anti-hero// joshler

16

word count: 308

joshua sits a foot to my right. his feet are swaying lightly. i haven't asked about his eye. i just gave him an ice pack and let him sleep in my room as i took ashley's.

i haven't slept in my room in a week since then. his skin in is my sheets and i can't get it out. i don't try to. i just don't go there.

"what.. happened to your eye?"

his eye isn't swollen shut anymore. but it's still yellow and i'm sure it hurts him just to blink.

"my ex-girlfriend punched me in the face," he answers like it's not a big deal.

"why?"

"i told her i had a friend..."

"oh really?"

"yeah.. tyler."

"oh- i'm sorry.

i watch his eyes closely.

"it's fine. i kicked her out yesterday."

"good. because you shouldn't have to run away in the rain when you can barely see because your right eye is swollen shut."

"thank you."

"for what?"

he stands up and walks over to the park bridge. watching the frogs jump, and the fish swim.

"i don't know... caring?"

his answer is delayed, and i don't know if that tells me he truly means it, or if it means he's lying.

"i used to play here as a kid," he says and kicks a rock into the water.

"really?"

"yeah."

"oh."

"it's so surreal. i remember kids screaming and yelling out of joy. and now it's abandoned.. it's sad and depressed. kind of like how those kids have grown up.. we've matured into depressed adults that don't want to conform to the normal nine to five. but we're stuck."

"we're depressed."

"we couldn't keep up. we couldn't conform."

"half the people i was friends with in high school are dead now. the other half is either on drugs or barely hanging on, last i heard of. and then there's the mixture of both, like ashley."

"god. the world just wants to squash and kill us, doesn't it?"

"it would seem so."

a/n: 

so, thoughts?