Holding Onto You ~ Joshler

Chapter 2

I spent the rest of the day with Josh, we picked a seat on the field and ate together whilst Josh asked me about the history of the asylum.
" My great grandfather passed his old notes regarding the place down to my grandpa, and from what i've gathered he should still have them up in his basement", i told him. Josh took a sip of his caprisun and nodded slowly like a bobblehead.
" Okay, i want to do a little research before we go in there so we have a rough idea of what we're up against", he proposed. A thought popped into my mind and it made me smile like a complete idiot.
" What is it ?", Josh asked me. I shook my head a little to try and dismiss the grin playing on my lips, it didn't work.
" I was wondering if you wanted to come over to my place, like, maybe stay the night so we could go to the asylum together tomorrow", i asked nervously. He smiled and then giggled a little.
" You're kinda cute, you realise that ?", he asked me. My eyes widened and i felt my heart stop beating.
" Anyway, that's a great idea. We'll have to stop by my place and get a few thing's and then we'll head over to your place", he continued. My heart still hadn't started beating and the butterflies in my stomach had gotten their hands on machine guns and axes in which they used to destroy my insides with.
After lunch we attended our maths lecture together, (i sat next to him at the front of the class) and then we parted ways for our last lesson which we didn't share together. After school i made my way towards the front gate where we said we would meet up and lo and behold, there he was, he was sitting on a brick was which stood outside a strangers house. His legs were dangling off of the side and his face was buried into some horror novel i didn't know of as usual.
" Hey", i greeted as i approached him, he looked up from his book and smiled at me.
" Whatcha reading ?", i asked. Josh picked up his book mark which was lying beside him and placed it carefully on the page he was reading.
" It's called ' the shining, by Stephen King', the book is way better than the movie by the way", he commented as he closed the book and jumped down off of the wall.
We walked together, first to his house to collect some things and then to my house ; we made small talk on the way, i talked more about the asylum and i asked Josh why he was so fascinated by it. He said that from a very early age he had always been intrigued by the paranormal and aspired to be a ghost hunter, not the pathetic lyres you see on TV but someone genuine. I suggested to him that he created his own YouTube channel and made videos explaining ghosts, reacting to other videos of ghostly apparitions and give explanations and views on them, he really liked that idea.
We got to my house and i opened the door and let him in ; my parents were really chilled out people, most would argue that the didn't even care about me but i would disagree completely, they had really busy lives and often left me to my own devices, so i could pretty much do whatever i wanted and they wouldn't even notice. My mom walked out from the kitchen and frantically searched around the house for something.
" I can't find my keys, have you seen my keys ?", she asked quickly with panic in her voice.
" The last time i saw them they were in the bowl with all the others"
" Yes but they're not there Tyler, and i have a very important meeting i have to attend", she explained whilst searching the bowl of key once again more thoroughly. I looked over to my side at the shelf beside the front door and found her keys resting by the house phone. I rolled my eyes and picked them up, tossing them to her. She caught them and thanked me before rushing out of the house.
" Ooh, honey i almost forgot. You're father isn't going to be back from his business trip until next Friday and i have to stay at a hotel five hours away because that's where my meeting will be held, so you're home alone for a while unless your new friend is staying?", she said whilst she opened the door of her car and sat inside, not shutting the door.
" Yeah, this is Josh, he's staying over if that's okay", i said even though i knew she wouldn't care.
" That's fine dear, have a nice day", she said and smiled. She closed the door and before we knew it she was whizzing off down the street.
" She seems nice", Josh commented. " Busy, but nice". I laughed and nodded.
" Yeah she's alright", i murmured and walked past him into the house, he followed me and shut the door. We walked up to my room where Josh put his things down by my bed.
" Where does your grandpa live ?", he asked randomly.
" Uh, just, like, a couple of blocks away", i answered. His face lit up.
" Can we go there and retrieve the notes ?", he asked frantically. I couldn't help but laugh, his enthusiasm was cute and all but i was extremely worried about him when the asylum was involved.
" Yeah, okay, i don't know if they're in but if they are then we'll get them", i agreed. We left the house and i showed him the familiar route to my grandpa's ; he wasn't like my parents, he believed that time was extremely valuable and resented my parents for being so distant with me. I guess that's why he was so warm towards me, because in some way he felt bad for me. After about a five minute walk we were outside. I opened the front gate and made my way to the door and knocked on it. A few moments later my Grandma opened the door and smiled at me warmly.
" Tyler ! Oh how lovely to see you dear", she said and pulled me in to a tight hug.
" Yeah, yeah it's nice to see you too. Is grandpa in ?", i asked. She pulled out of the hug and stepped away a little.
" Yeah dear, he's in his study", she said and we both walked past her and into my grandpa's small, cozy study room.
"Hey gramps, is it okay if we go up to your attic ?" i asked. He looked at me skeptically.
"Why?"
"Well me and Josh here are doing an English project, the theme is haunted buildings so we kinda need your fathers old notes on the asylum", i explained. He sighed and took his glasses off, cleaned them on his jumper and then placed them back on his nose.
"Of course, but if i find out that you two even thought about going near that God forsaken building then i'll lock you both in your spare room without any technology until you decide against it", he warned. I knew that was coming, grandpa was extremely protective over me and he knew first hand how dangerous the asylum was.
"We promise we won't go near it, we just need the notes is all", i lied. He nodded, but still looked a little uncomfortable.
"They're in a small box beside the piano", he said. I thanked him and we walked up to the attic together, i climbed the stairs and getting submerged into almost complete darkness. Once up there i adjusted my eyes and searched around for the piano, once i found it i food the box. I checked to see if the content was still there and intact and then i left the attic and joined Josh at the bottom of the steps. I gave him the box and he did the honours of opening it and taking the first old, brown tinted piece of paper out. He smiled widely as he studied the paper.
"It's a map!", he said excitedly.

•A.N•
Hey guys. Back at you with another chapter. I'm just wanting this to take off like my other Joshler if I'm honest with you but I hope you all enjoyed it and I'll see you guys in the next one! Byeeee

-Pixeled74😜🧡