Broken Boy To Loved Boy

Chapter 18: Birthday Surprise

 
   As it was a special day for Josh when it was his 18th birthday today. Him and the girls did their time at school and Josh was excited about it. Cathy and Miranda were more excited about it since they are setting up a surprise party for him at home.

  Even his teachers at school gave him a birthday gift before he left the classroom. Ms.Becky gave him a birthday card with some cash in it. Ms.Jackie gave him a small radio. Ms. Scarlet gave Josh a gift card. Ms Jane gave him a globe. As for Ms.Kelly, she gave him a special brand new basketball. He was surprised about the gifts that he got from his teachers. I guess they wanted to make sure he knew he wasn't alone in this world.

  Even most of the students of the school mingled with him in a friendly way. Even the ones that were avoiding attention to him just became friends with him.

"Look who's popular now?" Miranda teased.

"Yeah. I just wondered about it." Josh said.

"What do you mean?" Cathy asked.

  "Like everyone didn't want me around earlier and now they started to treat me better and respectfully." Josh explained.

  "Well, is that you prove the will and strength you had to our community since you helped save someone, and stood up for yourself against Nathan and your friends." Miranda explains.

"I'm still worried about the investigation after Brandon died." Josh said with worry.

  "The detectives haven't called back yet ,and the oddest thing Nathan and Lucas aren't here in school today either." Cathy added.

"I bet they are at the police station telling lies about what happened at the arcade. They are trying to send me to prison to avenge Brandon." Josh predicted.

"Don't think like that. We witnessed it and there was security footage in the arcade anyway. And whoever saw the incident said you were only defending yourself. The cops said so." Cathy spoke as she tried to cheer him up.

"And besides, they could be facing charges of what they did to you in that alley that we found you at." Miranda added.

"I guess you're right." Josh agreed.

   Before heading outside to the school grounds, Cathy tied a blindfold around Josh's eyes after she told him to take his glasses off. They escorted him inside Kindle's car since they really wanted to surprise him for his birthday when they head home.

  Kindle started driving back home, and Josh wondered what was going on, but the girls didn't want to spoil the surprise for him. As they made it to the driveway, Miranda escorted him out and guided him inside. Kindle and Cathy hurried inside and got everything ready.

"What's going on?" Josh asked excitedly.

"You'll see," Miranda asked as she brought him inside.

Cathy signaled Miranda that she can take the blind fold off him.

"Ready?" She asked.

"Ready." Josh says with excitement.

   Miranda took the blindfold and his eyes widened what he saw. Cathy brought out a good chocolate cake in front of me.

"Happy birthday Josh!" Kindle says as she lights the candles of the cake.

  Josh smiled happily and hugged them while saying thank you to them. They all sat down at the kitchen table and he blew the candles and they had cake while having fun together. They played some party games together afterwards and opened some gifts that the girls got for him.

  They had fun all night till it was midnight. Cathy was in deep thought about wanting to have a dating relationship with Josh since he's eighteen years old now, but didn't want to rush asking him yet. Even Miranda felt the same way about it, but wanted to take it slow as well.

   As they all headed to sleep, Josh headed to his bedroom and changed to different clothes and Cathy knocked on the door.

"Come in." Josh says as closed the drawer.

Cathy came in and asked, "How are you doing?

"Doing good. But I'm just nervous about the exams tomorrow at school."

  "Well, just wondering if you want to do something tomorrow after school?" Cathy asked.

"Well, dinner together." Josh suggested.

  Cathy smiled and gave him a kiss on the forehead. Josh was surprised about it since it was the first time of it being more than a hug. He blushed a little while and sheepishly smiled after she went to her room. He started to see that he could be the one that she loved and not the only one either.

  Meanwhile, Nathan, and Lucas were furious that the case of Brandon being killed was dismissed since Josh walked free with self-defense by the evidence. Nathan flipped his coffee table with rage, and Lucas tried to calm him down.

"Whoa! Bro. Calm down." Lucas says as he makes him sit back down on the couch.

"Calm down?! That No-fur killed our best friend, and he got away with it." Nathan shouted.

  "Look, I know, but he shouldn't have pulled the knife out in the first place." Lucas said.

"Josh deserved it, he needed to understand that he didn't belong here in this world anymore. Now he had some nerve tripping Brandon to make him accidentally stab himself in the eye when he fell."  Nathan said with spite.

   What they didn't know is when they heard a knock on the door, and noticed a couple of Wolf officers waiting at the door.

  Nathan noticed that Cathy and Miranda knew about what he and his friends did to Josh in the alley, and that he was going to be arrested and questioned about it. Nathan pulled out a gun when Lucas went to the door and opened it for the police.

The cops went in, and Nathan pulled the gun out...

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

   He fired three shots, and bullet holed one cop in the forehead ,and hit the other in the chest and arm. Lucas was flabbergasted by what he did and they ran out the back door before the downed officer called for backup.

    They ran out of the suburbs and tried to head out of the city limits in the countryside. Nathan wanted to get back at Josh for Brandon. He had nothing to lose.