Pretty Boy ☆ Joshler

twelve

"You've known each other for a week now and you haven't even kissed yet. What the heck?"

Josh didn't even look up from the game on his phone, "If that's how you think these crush things work then you've been reading way too much fan fiction."

"Maybe. I think I'm just used to moving faster." Brendon grabbed Josh by the sleeve and steered him from a telephone pole.

They were on their way to school, Brendon carrying a large but mostly empty duffel bag. He planned to fill it with clothes and other things after school, then he would go to Josh's.

"How are you and Sarah doing?" Josh put his phone away so he could see where he was walking.

"It's going really well. I think I'm going to come out to her soon. I mean, I trust her enough."

Josh smiled at his friend, bumping shoulders with him, "I hope she doesn't disappoint you man."

Because if she does...

Josh tried to picture what he would do if Sarah broke Brendon's heart. He didn't like confrontation but he would make her pay somehow. The convinced smile on his friend's face didn't assure him too much but he smiled back anyway.

They arrived at school and parted ways, Josh showing up to class a couple of minutes early.

Ms. Baldwin looked taken aback, watching the boy sit and pull out his supplies for class. He flashed a wide grin at her and folded his hands on his desk. Other students slowly trickled in, their small conversations creating a hum in the room.

Soon, class started and Josh was reminded of how much he disliked calculus. He was barely scraping by with a C in the class and that was purely by luck. Maybe it was time to give in and get a tutor. He opened his workbook to the page number written on the board.

'Find a vector v whose magnitude is 20 and whose component in the i direction is five times the component in the j direction.'

What the hell...

Math was practically a foreign language to him. Josh sat quietly, waiting out the bell. His breath quickened every time Ms. Baldwin called a random student for answers. A few more moments and he would be safe.

"Joshua-" The bell cut off Ms. Baldwin's comment and Josh didn't wait to see what she would say. As he ran from his problems, he wondered if anyone he knew was good at math.

The day pressed on and before Josh knew it, the lunch bell was ringing. He didn't see Brendon or Sarah in the hallway or in the cafeteria and he easily guessed the reason for that. The lunch table looked dead without Beebo trying to talk to everyone at the same time.

Dallon looked especially down, his hair hiding his eyes as he stared at his phone in his lap. Josh recalled seeing him in the same bummed mood when Sarah had first arrived at the lunch table. And a few times after that when Brendon seemed especially preoccupied with his girlfriend.

Josh sat across from Dallon and began unpacking his lunch. "Hey, Dal."

Dallon looked up to identify the person speaking to him and returned his attention to his phone screen. "Hey."

"You okay?" Josh felt awkward asking, seeing as he rarely talked to the guy. Last time they spoke, they were exchanging answers for a history worksheet.

"I'm fine." Preceded by a sigh and followed by deep frown, the claim wasn't persuading.

"Okay." Josh pouted his lips, "Where's Brendon?"

Another sigh, "With Sarah."

Josh nodded. He wasn't good at math but he could put two and two together. Dallon was quiet as Josh ate, creating pure awkward silence. Fortunately, Dal decided to leave a few minutes later, shoulders slumped as he slipped through throngs of students hovering around tables.