I Want You All To Myself

Two

Josh's POV 

When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was the softness of the bed under me. This was NOT normal. The bed they forced me to sleep on was hard and cold, not like this one. What the hell. I opened my eyes slowly and carefully. What I saw almost make me choke on my own spit.  

My room. 

"Shit!" How had I gotten there? Why wasn't I in empty old room 117 with my black bag and my tiny window and the scratches on my walls...? 

Oh, wait a minute. I remembered. I was free now, I wasn't stuck in there anymore. My rehab days were over.  

... 

So then why did I feel so empty? Strangely enough, I almost missed that crappy little room, that huge scary cafeteria, all those friendly junkies with their half made-up stories, even the white shadows floating around us, telling us what to do, treating us like zoo animals...  

Huh. No. I was happy it was over. Very happy. 

But I still felt lost. What the hell was I going to do now? I couldn't go back to school since I'd been expelled. I couldn't do anything else since I hadn't finished high school. Except maybe work at McDonald's. Wow. Dream job.  

Something caught my eye then. There she was, lying gravely on her stand in the corner of the room. God, I missed the feel of the strings under my fingers, the sweet sound echoing to my ears... I felt a smile creep to my lips. This was the answer to my question. Music. It was the only thing I still had.  

I got up as slowly and steadily as I could, trying to keep my head from spinning. The room was flooded with light, so it must've been midday. I had no idea what day it was. As for the month, I was fifty-six percent sure it was July. I also was three percent sure it was December.  

I ignored the pull of the guitar and headed for the door. Music could wait for now. My mother couldn't.  

I headed up the stairs hastily and almost ran into my sister who was rushing in the other direction. 

"Josh! You're awake!" She smiled and hugged me.  

I tried to smile back. "Yep, I am... Uh, where's mom?" Better get this done with. 

"In the kitchen. Oh, and there's someone else waiting for you there," she added with a mischievous smile. Huh? Who could possibly be waiting for me? I wasn't in the mood for guessing. I hurried to the kitchen to find out, and once I did I realised how obvious it was.  

"Josh!" Matt yelled, smiling widely. He was sitting at the kitchen island watching my mom cook something that smelled terribly good. I hadn't seen him in a while, since his mom didn't want him to visit the rehab center too often and spend too much time around "those people"-as if his best friend wasn't one of them-and the amount of joy that flooded me at the sight of him actually took me by surprise. In other words, I was REALLY fucking happy to see my buddy again.  

"Hey, Matt." I returned his smile and sat next to him while my mother watched me from the corner of her eye-it was overly obvious-and tried to keep from crying again-also overly obvious.  

"Did you sleep well, Josh?" she asked lightly. She opened the oven and started removing the trays busily in order to avoid looking at me. My stomach growled loudly when I saw what was in them. An industrial amount of perfectly beige, perfectly round and perfectly delicious-looking chocolate chip cookies. I felt like I could gulp them all down in one shot. I was starving. "Josh? Hellooo..." 

"Huh, what?" I tried remembering what her question had been. Oh yeah, if I'd slept well. "Yeah, yeah. It was fine," I said dully. I couldn't really remember much of it, but considering I'd probably slept more than in the past few weeks combined, it must've been nice. 

My mom nodded still without looking at me. An awkward silence crept in as I stared blankly in front of me. Well now what? 

"So... Josh," Matt started. "I got you something." He smiled feebly and reached into his back pocket. 

"Aw, how sweet of you!" I said in a mockingly small voice. "Is it an engagement ring?"  

He chuckled and handed me one of the two pieces of paper that had been in his pocket. "Marry me, Josh?"  

I grinned as I looked down at what seemed to be a ticket of some sort. And then my eyes widened. "Warped!?" I glanced at Matt and back at the ticket, bewildered.  

"Are you happy, Mrs. Webb?" he asked cheerfully. 

Was he kidding? "I'm... I mean... Of course!" I stuttered. "Wait, did you say 'Mrs. Webb'? Why am I the woman?" 

He laughed. "Well, it's obvious that if one of us was a woman, it would be you..." 

I put on a glum face and glared at him. "If you hadn't just given me this ticket, I would probably have hit you." 

"Josh!" my mother squealed.  

Matt and I burst out laughing. "I was just kidding!" I said quickly.  

Matt stuck his tongue out at me. My mom shook her head disapprovingly but a smile was lighting up her face. Then, she laid a plate of cookies in front of us and said, "Dig in, boys." 

Yes ma'am. 

Hayley's POV 

I was freaking out. I'd never played a show before. I'd never sung in front of so many people before. I'd never travelled so far from home, so far from my parents. It was the scariest thing I'd even done in my whole life. 

We only had to fill up twenty-five minutes. We had five songs. The rest of the time was left to me. I had to talk, entertain. But what did I say?  

"Paramore, you're on in fifteen."  

My heart skipped a beat. The guys were frantically rehearsing on their unplugged guitars, and Zac-our drummer-was tapping beats on the front of his chair with his fingers. I just hummed quietly, trying to stay calm. 

What if I messed up? What if the crowd didn't like me? What if I fainted? I wanted to express my fears, but these guys... They didn't need that. They were already stressed out enough. I needed someone who could listen to me, someone who could help me.  

I pulled out my cellphone. Zac's brother Jo...-whom I couldn't pronounce the name of since, ironically enough, it was the same as HIS-glared at me. "Who are you calling? Isn't it a bit late for that?" 

"Oh, give her a break," Jeremy snapped.  

Zac's brother shrugged. "Sorry, I was just saying." 

"It's ok," I said quickly. The last thing we needed was a fight. "I'm just calling Jack." 

Jeremy snickered. "He'll just make things worse, trust me." 

I shrugged and dialed Jack's number. He answered on the first ring, like he'd been expecting a call. "Hello?" 

"Hey, it's Hayley." 

I heard him huff loudly. Sighing in relief? So he HAD been expecting my call. "Are you alright? How'd the show go?" 

"Uh... We haven't done it yet. It's in like, ten minutes." 

It took him a second to answer. "Oh? Well then... good luck! Cause you're gonna need it, haha..." 

I frowned. "Why do you say that?" 

"Oh, I didn't mean it like that, I just..." He hesitated. "I mean, it IS a show in front of thousands of people so a bit of luck can't hurt, you know?" 

Wow. I felt so much better. "You're not helping, Jack." 

"Told you so," Jeremy mouthed. I rolled my eyes.  

Jack sighed. "I'm sorry. I suck at this. Listen, you're gonna be great, ok? You're talented and funny and beautiful... They'll love you." I could almost see his warm smile like he was right there in front of me. "I love you," he added. 

I smiled. "Thanks. I love you too." 

"Five minutes!" someone yelled again.  

"Oops, I gotta go. Bye, Jack!"  

"Bye." And he hung up. As soon as he was gone, my hands started shaking again. I focused on his words-the comforting ones-and shut my eyes tightly.