Oceans {Joji Miller}

Chapter 3

     My feet seemed to have wings as I ran as fast as my legs could carry my down the dirt road that led into the forest. I was chasing him, but at the same time, something was chasing both of us. Something dark and terrifying. I tried not to lose sight of Joji, but I couldn't run. Something, or someone was holding me back. Suddenly, cold hands graded me by both of my sides, scratching me with their jagged nails. I screamed as loud as I could, but soon the screams became quiet and Joji was out of sight. Drained, I stopped trying to resist as the thing pulled me away into the forest.
     I woke up with a jolt, sitting up in my bed and causing a few specks of dust to rise up and become visible in the sunlight. I reached for my phone, leaning against the headboard of my bed and sighing. I rubbed my eyes and saw that I had almost no notifications. It was Sunday, meaning tomorrow I had to go to work. I got out of bed, pulling my tank top down and making my way to the kitchen. I made myself some coffee and thought about my plans for the day, sighing.
I finally decided to ask Joji to hang out again, since I didn't have any other ideas. I tapped on his contact, calling him. Immediately, the call went to voicemail. That's weird. I thought to myself. He usually always answers. I shook my head. I shouldn't be this obsessed. He's probably still sleeping.
I tapped my foot as I set my phone down, whistling. Maybe I should just stay in all day. I thought. Suddenly, my phone buzzed. Finally, he's awake. I chuckled as I grabbed it from the counter and unlocked it. My smile quickly faded as I read the text message from the same number. "Good morning sunshine!" It simply read. I finally decided to reply. "Who are you, and what did I do for you to try and terrorise me?" I sent the text.
I recieved a reply almost instantly. "Don't you know?" It simply said. I stared at my screen. I locked my phone and decided to drive to Joji's house because of how scared I was. I got dressed quickly and did nothing with my hair except brush it. I locked my apartment door behind me and double checked if I had my phone, keys, and wallet in my backpack.
I started my car, pulling out of the parking lot and soon arriving at the familiar house. I hopped out of my car and knocked on the door. A girl that looked to be about 20 years old answered. I stared at her. "Hello." She said hastily. "Hey..." I said at a loss of words. She had chestnut brown hair and green eyes with a blue tint near her irises. It almost looked like her eyes were stained glass, they were beautiful. Her skin was soft and pale, and her body was perfectly toned and hourglass-shaped. She was wearing a burgundy tank top and some grey sweatpants.
"Hey. Is Joji home?" I finally muttered. She looked behind her and back to me. "He's busy." She said calmly. "Let her in." I heard a voice say quietly. I glared at the girl, scanning her with my eyes one more time before walking into the house. It smelled strongly of weed and perfume. "Hey." Joji looked up at me from the couch, where he was sitting shirtless. I felt the anger building up inside of me, but I decided not to express it. Instead, I smiled my fakest smile and stared into his eyes.
"So, I'd like to meet your friend here. What's her name?" I asked, looking back to the girl, who was staring wide eyed at my intense smile. I squinted at her. "Oh. Her name's Joline." Joji coughed. I nodded. "Hi Joline." I beamed. "My name's ______." She was still staring. I tried to make my facial expression as intimidating as possible.
Finally, I looked away and back to Joji, who was scrolling through twitter and looked completely unaffected by this. My voice softened as I spoke. "Listen, I came here to talk about the number that sent me that picture yesterday..." I whispered. He seemed to tense up as he locked his phone and looked up at me. "What about it?" He asked. Quietly, I reached for my phone and showed him the conversation.
"This has to be someone you know." He said finally after looking over the conversation multiple times worriedly. I took my phone back and thought. "I barely have anyone that I talk to on a regular basis that also knows where I live." I stated.
Bzzt bzzt. I felt my phone buzz just as I said that, my stomach dropping. I flipped it over to read the text. It was, of course, from the same number. I read it out loud: "Awe, how cute. ______ cries to her crush about me. I feel so special..." My voice trailed off and I felt a mixture of emotions hit me at once. Embarrassment, exhaustion and anxiety. Joji was silent.
"How does he know that I like you?" Was the first thing that came to mind, and I regretted it right as I finished saying it. I cupped a hand to my mouth and looked to Joline, who looked genuinely confused. "Maybe it's one of your close friends...?" Joji suggested, not acknowledging the last part of my sentence. As a wave of relief swept over me for a mere second, many thoughts ran through my head, but I decided that most of them were invalid.
My phone buzzed again. The next text read, "Joji boy has a good point." I slammed my phone down and flung myself onto the couch. "I should leave..." Joline whispered, and I realised that she was in fact either a close friend or even a relative and that my anger was unnecessary. Why would she just calmly leave if she wasn't? I heard the front door open and close softly. Joji wrapped his arm around me, pulling me closer to him. "That was my cousin." He said. I felt a pang of shame wash over me. "She was just picking up some money that I owed her, I sensed you were a bit jealous." Joji chuckled as I sighed.
My phone lay on the floor and I didn't bother to retrieve it. I was comfortable for once. He picked up a strand of my hair and played with it. "Sorry." I muttered simply. "It's all good, I'm sure she'll let it slide." Joji said softly. "Hey, you said that the person texting you knew that you liked me?" He asked, still fiddling with my hair. Shit. I quickly thought of a response. "Uh- I'm just- really flirtatious, maybe they thought that I liked you because-"
He cut me off mid-sentence. "You're so bad at lying, it's cute." He said, releasing my hair and letting it fall into his lap as he returned to scrolling through twitter. I assumed that he got the point, so I lay there silently. Finally, after what seemed like ages of him laughing softly at tweets and me almost falling asleep, he locked his phone and leaned back, rubbing his eyes.
"I don't know about you but I really feel like watching a movie today." He finally said, stretching. "Can I stay over? I was planning on originally doing that alone but I got really scared so I came here." I half-said-half-whispered to Joji. He nodded. "You realise that me saying that was basically inviting you to stay for a movie?" He said, laughing lightly. I shrugged. His smile is actually going to be the end of me. I thought as he flipped through Netflix searching for something to watch.