If This Was A Movie - A Joshifer Fanfiction

Chapter 14

I lead Josh back into my house, waving security as well as attendants away when I do. They don't need to watch us. I walk him to the sitting area where we were earlier and then pause. "I'm going to go upstairs and change, okay? I'll be back soon, Joshy." I say. "Alright." He says, smiling. I put my phone down on the coffee table and make my way upstairs. I reach my styling room and heave a sigh of relief when I see that my stylists are gone. I love them, but sometimes I just want to dress like myself. By dressing like myself, I mean wearing sweats and jeans and no makeup.
I grab a simple gray shirt and black leggings. I change, and then wipe the makeup off my face. Under the layers of makeup are my red rimmed eyes. The puffiness has subsided a bit, but it still looks like I've been crying. Oh well. I tie my hair up in a ponytail and walk out of the room, and that's when I hear the music. It streams from downstairs, and I immediately recognize the tune. It's The Hanging Tree. I cringe at the sound of my voice. I sound horrible. At the sound of the song, I run downstairs and see that Josh is on my phone, not his. He's playing the music from mine too... But I never bought it. "Josh! Did you buy The Hanging Tree on my phone?" I ask, playfully scolding him. "Maybe..." He looks up at me with a mischievous grin. I walk over to him and kiss him, taking my phone in the process. "Hey! Jen!" He says, teasing me. I laugh. The Hanging Tree still plays from my phone, so I pause it and shuffle my music. Shake It Off by Taylor Swift comes on. Now this is a song that I have to dance to. And yell the lyrics, too. I love Taylor's music. I start to sing the lyrics;
I stay out too late,
Got nothin' in my brain,
At least that's what people say,
I realize that I'm dancing around like a crazy woman, yelling Taylor's lyrics. I glance over at Josh and he's smiling... And he's filming a video. "Josh, are you filming this?" I ask, surprised. "Yeah." He says, before bursting into laughter. I do, too. "Are you..." I try to say, but falter as more laughter comes up my throat. "Are you going to post this somewhere?" I ask, laughter ringing in my voice. "Maybe." Josh says suspiciously. And then I realize he's filming on my phone, and try to run after him. He runs away, though, and I follow him. "Kid, give me my phone!" I yell at him, playfully chasing him through my house. "Never!" He says, joking. I laugh at his enthusiasm as I chase him through the kitchen. And then a series of hallways. And then we burst into the living room, the adjoining room to the one where we started. "Joshy! Hand me my phone!" I shout, laughing. He's across the room from me, and it looks like he's still filming. It's like we have divided sides of the room now, one's my side and the other is his. He playfully shakes my phone in the air, a gesture that I take as 'come and get it yourself!' And I do. I run over to his side, grabbing my phone out of his grasp. I'm laughing now, having grabbed my phone from him. I hit the camera button, which stops the recording. I make an impulse decision to go on Facebook and post the video, captioning it; we're a thing now. - Jen. Which is, of course, extremely risky. If the press finds this, they'll go insane. And I bet they will.
The song changes, and now a slow song plays. A dancing song. Honestly, how the hell did this get on my phone? And then I realize something. While I was upstairs, Josh must've not only downloaded The Hanging Tree but also made a playlist of other songs, too. Because there's no way that I would've bought a slow dance song on my own.
"Would you take this dance, Lady Lawrence?" Josh says, smiling at me. His smile is so genuine and bright, I don't think I've ever seen him smile quite like this before. I shift my eyes away from his smile and lift them to his own. I stand there, looking into his eyes. The emotion I find in them is love. Only love, nothing else to even cancel out the slightest bit of it. Pure, true love. And I hope he sees the same in my eyes, because that's how I feel about him. I love him.
I must be staring, because he looks away after a while, blushing. "Of course, Sir Hutcherson." I say, quoting what I said at the New York premiere's afterparty. The dance's song has already started, but it doesn't matter. I lean my head on his shoulder, and we begin to move as a unit. We move gracefully across my living room's floor, as if it were an actual dance floor. And then the music turns off, and Josh seems surprised. And then he laughs. Even through the slow dance music has ended, we still stand together in position. And when he laughs, I feel the vibration from his chest. My head is still on his shoulder, and I smile into it. Josh leans his head over to kiss me, and I don't pull away. This kiss is a soft one, one that rings of happiness and love. Sparks shoot up through my arms and burst into flames. And our lips don't part for a long time, because with him there, kissing me, I feel complete. I feel safe, too, because I know he'll protect me through anything that may happen. Maybe he was right about the King and the Queen idea.
The music suddenly comes back on, scaring both of us out of our kiss. Deep In The Meadow is the song. I playfully punch Josh and then bury my head in my hand out of embarrassment. "Damn it, Joshy! You bought this one too?" I say, teasing him. He looks over at me and laughs, seeing my embarrassed expression. "Sorry, Jenny." He says, smiling. My smile fades. Jenny. He called me Jenny. Tears well up in my eyes. A sob threatens to make its way out of my mouth.
And before I know it, I'm running. I'm running through my kitchen. To my bedroom, to hide there. Sorry, Jenny. The words echo through my head. Only one person has ever called me Jenny before, and that person was Nick. I make it to my bedroom, close the door, and collapse on the bed, sobs wracking my body. And then the tears come back again. Streaming down my face. I feel like I've been hit in the face with a hammer. "Jennifer! Jennifer?" I hear Josh call around my house in despair. Jennifer. The name hits me like a truck. Not Jen, just Jennifer now. But... At least it's not Jenny.
I guess my sobs are loud, because soon Josh is at the door, knocking. "Jen? Are you okay?" He asks, concern flooding his voice. Not only concern, but pity. And it sounds as if he's holding back tears of his own. I can only choke out a single word; "No". Josh doesn't knock again, because he knows I can't answer. He opens the door and sees me crying, immediately rushing over to me. "Oh my god! Jen!" He says in shock. He's kneeling next to the bed where I lie crying. I reach for his hand and he gives it to me without hesitation. He suddenly wraps his arms around me in an embrace. A simple hug, but it's never meant so much to me to have someone there in this moment. The moment that I'm at rock bottom I have a shoulder to cry on, and that means that someone cares. The fact alone that someone cares about me is the most comforting thing in the world. That's why when he hugs me, I hug him back. Because I need a person that cares about me, and not just themselves. And that's who Josh is.
I'm still hugging him when I begin to tell him why I reacted the way I did. "Josh... I--" I begin, my body wracked by a sob mid-sentence. "Nick... Nick used to call me Jenny." I say shakily. Josh's expression changes to an expression that I've known to be my own sometimes; sadness, plagued by guilt. "He called me Jenny when I thought we were in love, back when he was probably off kissing Claudia." I continue, sobbing again. "Jen... I'm so, so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. And I... I'm so sorry about Nick. I'm honestly still processing my feelings about the news, so I understand why you'd feel a little bit more sensitive than normal about it." Josh says. I nod. He's right, I wouldn't usually ever react this profoundly. "Josh, I'm the one who should be apologizing. Today has been amazing, until I ruined it. Thank you--" my sentence is broken by another sob. "For being here for me. Through this. I know this is hard for you, too." I finish, looking up at him. He's looking at me, too. He caresses my face softly, as my father once did years and years ago. "I would never abandon you Jen, especially not in a time like this that's so hard for you. I couldn't leave you. I love you. We're like family, and, as someone wise once said, family means never leaving anyone behind. I-I'm hopelessly in love with you, Jennifer. I knew it the very first day we met." He says, looking me in the eye. "I love you too, Josh. More than anything." I say, truthfully. I feel a rush of warmth move through me, and it's encompassed me now. My tears have stopped, and now all I'm doing is staring at the first person I have truly been in love with; Josh.
I glance at the alarm clock on my nightstand and see the time. 2:34 AM. Holy shit! It's late! And I have a flight to New York tomorrow; which is in exactly three hours and twenty six minutes. I tell Josh this and his eyes widen. I notice how tired he looks and offer him the guest room to stay overnight in. He's been in my house enough times that he doesn't need me to lead him there, but as he's leaving I realize something; I don't want him to leave. "Josh..." I begin, faltering. "Stay with me?" I ask, just as I did earlier. "Always." He says. He lies down next to me and I place my head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat and drifting off into the most peaceful sleep I've had in a long time.