When Anna Met Josh

Chapter 4 - What He Wants

Josh is 17, his favourite colour is green and his birthday is the 27th of April. He'd moved to the Central Belt for a few weeks whilst his Dad, who owns a software company, pushes through a deal with another investor. Johanna was his cousin, which is how he had ended up at the party - she'd invited him so that he could get away from his dad and his boring business for a while. He doesn't normally go on business trips with his Dad, but it is apparently about time that Josh started taking an interest and playing some sort of role in the family business, since it will be his one day. Josh doesn't want the family business; for now he's quite happy with his part time job in the local supermarket and once he's finished college he wants to become a PE teacher. He hadn't liked high school much, since he had to move to a private one, about a year and a half before he'd just stopped going. He got an A in English and PE and he failed maths, so he didn't take it again, but his teacher was funny. He started taking History, but he dropped it part of the way through the year. He couldn't be bothered with it and the teacher used to hit a belt off of desks to get people's attention.

He is 5'8, something that he's insecure about, but from he's oozing confidence you'd never really guess that. He plays football on a Saturday and Wednesday.... I think he's a mid-centre but I'm not really sure what that means. He likes to watch football too, and play it on his game consoles. He has an older sister and two older brothers, but they've all moved out now and have families of their own; it tends to be just him and his mum most of the time. His Dad's always too busy with work and traveling, which annoys Josh. He has two cats -called Chewbacca and Rosie- and two dogs - Buster and Pongo, both dalmatians. He's got a goldfish called Archie too, but everyone forgets about him.

He's never broken a bone, but one of his friends once chipped his tooth with a miniature pool ball. He's been to Paris and Holland and skiing in the Alps once. He likes skiing but he doesn't get to do it much. He wants to go to Malian. He'd like to get a tattoo and thought about getting sleeves, but he's scared that he wouldn't like them after a while, so he might just get something small on his calf. He's never had a girlfriend before, but he's been close twice.

He thinks that I'm beautiful.

We'd spent the rest of the party together, talking. Then he walked me home and as soon as I had crawled into bed he had utilised the number that I had written on his forearm in thick, black marker. We spoke until I feel asleep just after 4am. I could've listened to him for a lot longer though.

I woke up as my phone pinged. "Good morning beautiful xx"

The message was from Josh. I squealed, my body tensing up with excitement. No one had ever sent me a message like that.

"Good morning <3 xx" I quickly typed a reply before I climbed out of bed.

I turned on the shower. I smelt like cigarettes and alcohol and had slept-in makeup smeared over my face so showering was necessary. I climbed in and let the warm water trickle over me, washing away the remnants of last night, as I thought to myself. The shower is my favourite thinking place, for some unknown reason.

This morning, I was thinking about Josh.

Milly had said last night that he liked me. And I liked him too, I just wasn't sure if it was in that way.

Did he like me in that way? Or was it just as friends? Milly hadn't said, but if he did like me like that what would I do? I'm not really ready for a relationship after what had happened with him and I don't really see him like that, I see him as more of a friend, rather than a boyfriend and don't want to lead him on and hurt him. He's a nice guy and he doesn't deserve to be hurt like that. I like him, he's really nice, but he's not really my type. I don't want to lose him completely though, I just want him as a friend... but is romance the only thing that he's interested in and I would lose him as a friend if I told him I just wanted a friendship?