Ruby ~Joshler~

1.1

Josh sighed and leaned back, away from his desk. He didn't want to be anywhere near it anymore. Too much work and it was stressing him out big time. 

Ruby was sleeping soundly in her crib, down the hall. Josh didn't know if his mother had left or not yet, but it didn't really matter anyway. 

The house was silent, except the occasional tick of the clock in the hallway. The pink-haired man leaned further back in his swivel chair, gazing down the hall. It was dark, but not pitch black due to the TV still on in the living room. 

Taking out his phone, Josh pull the little, metal string, turning off his desk lamp. He could always finish his work another time. 

The male groaned when a message popped up on his screen, warning him of the low storage on his cell. Great, another thing to stress about. His phone was an item of comfort and now it was demanding he clear up some space. 

The first thing he did was delete unnecessary apps he never used, then he moved to his camera roll. It was simple, swipe, delete, swipe, delete and so on. A lot he still kept, but the other he deleted. 

He loved seeing the memories. It was so magnificent that you could carry so many memories in your pocket. He smiled at them all. Pictures of family, vacations, him and Ruby and-

Josh's face immediately fell at the picture displayed on his phone. It was a picture of him and his daughter. And Tyler. Tyler and Ruby had fallen asleep on the couch and Josh took the opportunity to take a picture. 

It was such a pure, innocent picture. If anything ever happened to the picture, Josh would be so hurt. 

Josh swiped again. 

The next one was of him and Tyler. It was the day Josh took him to find his mother. They were outside, standing in front of a building made of bricks. Josh remembers Tyler running his nails against it and he cringed. 

"Jeez, why are you doing that?" Josh chuckled. Tyler shrugged and continued to do it as they walked down the sidewalk. "It's killing my ears." 

Tyler stopped and gazed up at the wall. 

"You okay?" Josh wondered, moving closer to the boy. 

Tyler smiled. "Yep-hey can we take a picture?"

Josh chuckled. "Sure. But, why?" 

Tyler shrugged again. "I don't know-why not?" He smiled. 

"Yeah. I guess you're right." 

Josh never found out why Tyler was so found of the building, but if Tyler didn't want him to know, then Josh would respect that. 

Swipe. 

The last one taken on his phone was of just Tyler. He was in the car. It was the day when Josh brought Tyler home. He was trying to lighten the mood by taking a quick picture without the boy noticing. Unluckily for him though, Tyler noticed and demanded he get rid of it. Josh had told the boy it was gone, but little did he know. 

Josh stared at the picture with sadness in his heart. It was a beautiful picture. It looked almost as it were moving. 

"Call him." 

Josh quickly pushed the button at the top of his phone, making the screen go dark. He played it off as if he didn't know what she was talking about. 

"Oh. Hi mom." 

"You miss him. Don't you?" She was standing in his door way. He couldn't see any of her features and Josh was surprised she didn't scare him. 

Josh looked down in his lap, as if he was ashamed. 

"Call him." 

Josh sighed and put his phone down on the desk. "I can't. He doesn't have a fucking phone." He took his cap off and threw it across the room, rubbing his head. 

"Language Joshua."She moved next to her son and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "And why is that?" 

"He doesn't have a phone." 

She hummed. "Well, how did he get home?" She smiled. 

Josh froze. "Oh my God!" He jumped up from his chair and hugged his mom. "Mom, you are the best!" 

She laughed. "Joshua, Ruby is still asleep and I think you should put if off until the morning." 

Josh had a huge smile on his face, nodding. "Yeah, yeah. It's late. I'd better get some rest anyway." 

"I think you're in love." His mother nudged him with her elbow. 

Josh scuffed, gathering up his work papers. "What? No. What makes you say that?" 

She shrugged, moving back into the hallway. "When he was here, you were happy. I've never seen you that happy since-" She paused, looking over at her son. "Since Debby." 

Josh brushed it off. 

"And now that he's gone, you've fallen into a slump." 

"Mom." Josh chuckled, shaking his head. "You're crazy." 

"What? I'm just helping." 

"Yeah. I know. Goodnight mom." 

She smiled at her son. "Goodnight Joshua."