Nostalgia || Joshaya

chapter 9

"I love you, Josh. For everything." Maya spitted out.

Lesson two: Don't trust drunk people.

Josh wasn't even sure if he heard it right, but he decided not to answer. He was just rubbing her back and offered her a towel to wipe herself. After a few minutes, he decided to try giving her water. So he stood up and emptied the toothbrushes out of the glass and filled it with water, which he then handed to Maya.

"Hey, get some water." She turned around and took the glass from him, which she held with both hands for reassurance. "Thanks," she mumbled something like that. She drank the entire glass at once and asked for more. "Slow down, girl." He didn't want to jinx the sudden intake of water by causing another session of hugging the toilet. Josh handed her more water anyway, but he poured a little less this time, just in case she decided to take it as a shot.

"You think you're done?" Josh asked when she had only been leaning against the wall for a while and was no longer leaning onto the toilet. "Yeah..." she shook her head in agreement. "Ready to go to bed?" Josh stood up and bent down for Maya. She just shook her head again and wrapped her arms around Josh's neck to help her stand.

Josh decided not to bother Maya with walking and took her straight into his arms. She was a little lighter than before when he and Riley carried her but he had sobered up since then too, so maybe that made a difference. He laid the blonde in the bed and helped her roll onto her side. Then he turned over on Riley's bed and wanted to go lay down

"Josh." Maya whispered. "Yes?" He turned to her immediately. "Can you help me get my jeans off me?"

He got a bit surprised by the task, but he didn't hesitate and did it. Maya fell asleep just a little while after that moment. Josh remained sitting leaning against Riley's bed to keep an eye on Maya. He didn't really have a reason to be still up, but he blamed it on fear. If Maya woke up and needed something, he wanted to be there for her.

~

Maya woke up disoriented. Her eyes told her that she was in her room and Josh is sleeping on the floor in between beds, but she didn't remember how she got there. She had some flashbacks of yesterday's night, but she was sure she didn't remember everything. Starting with: "Where's Riley?" She found it difficult and uncomfortable to talk.

"Josh, wake up." She sat up, but her head spun, so she reflexively grabbed it because of the pain. "Fuck," she whispered. Her foot tapped Josh's back gently."Good morning," he meowed and sat up. "I'm glad you're up." Maya opened her mouth to say something but Josh did it first. "It's 1 P.M. tuesday, 15th. We told the parents you and Riley fought at night, that's why you're not well and she was sleeping in my room.""Wow, nice plan," she muttered. "Have a drink," Josh handed the blonde a bottle of water, "Lauren got you some rice and water." Maya didn't resist and took the water from him. "Nice of her." She would have rolled her eyes if she could. She sipped a bit from the water. And then it hit her. The embarrassment from last night. What she did, purposely or not, was some part of her doing that. "The guy deserved it," Josh chuckled while grimacing. "Can we just not talk about it? Please?" She squinted one eye and furrowed her brow. "Yeah sorry. I know how it feels." Josh apologized.

Maya scooted back, leaned against the wall, and planted her feet in a Turkish sit-up. She did everything slower though, because her hangover mind, didn't let her. "I fucked up." "No, you didn't." "Yes, I did." Maya insisted. Josh decided to be more honest this time. "Well... kind of. But that's normal." Maya had tears in the corners of her eyes. "I'm never going out of this room again." She lagged when her tears started falling down. "I fucked up."

Josh didn't know what to do. When one of his friends had a similar experience, they didn't talk all day, just slept all over it and the next day they were fine. But this was different. This was Maya. He decided to silently hug her. Maya didn't know what to say either. She felt sorry for herself. Mostly that she did all this in front of her childhood crush. Her best friend's uncle Boing. She was embarrassed, of course.Well, that's what you get, when you can't do it with alcohol. And when you take it too much.

Maya promised herself to never drink this much again. Or at all. Her body hurt. Head, neck, stomach or even her legs. Everything. It was the worst feeling. She never wanted to feel like this again. Josh then sat down next to Maya and she leaned against him. He scrolled through his Instagram and Maya just looked around. She was glad she was sitting at all. After a while, she got up and went to the bathroom. She looked in the mirror and tears welled up in her eyes again. She was embarrassed.

"Can I eat something?" She wiped the tears from her cheeks and walked out of the bathroom. "You only got rice from Lauren. And even if we had anything else, I wouldn't let you eat it." Josh acquainted.
Maya sat down next to Josh again, right after taking the plastic box of rice in her hands along with her fork. She looked at the rice disgustedly and dug around in it but nothing got into her mouth, so Josh decided to intervene. He took the box out of her hands, scooped the rice onto his fork, and opened it: "Open your mouth, Hunter, zoom zoom zoom the little airplane is arriving at the station." Josh said with a childish accent.

Maya chuckled and opened her mouth. Josh put the rice into it and that was Maya's first bit. She ate slowly, just in case her stomach wouldn't like it. Fortunately, nothing like that happened and she was able to get on with eating. "More uncle Boing, more!" Maya clapped her hands excitedly, the way little children do. They both laughed. Josh complied with her request and gave her another bite. "I'm not your uncle Maya," Josh said as he scooped more rice onto his fork. "Even better," she whispered before letting Josh put the rice in her mouth. "Feeling any better now?" He smiled at her and stroked her cheek. Maya's mouth was full, so she just shook her head in agreement.