The Odd Ball -minizerk AU-

16

After everything that went down Josh and I decided to meet up with my parents. We both knew the conversation was going to be about Juliard, which I definitely wasn't ready for. Now that Josh and my parents know I know that no matter what, if I get accepted then I'm definitely having to go.

"Hey, it's going to be...be okay no mat...matter what happens." Josh says squeezing my hand as we get closer to the table my parents are sitting at.

"Since when were you the one giving reassurance?" I asked laughing.

"Be...because I want to be th..there for you just like you are the...there for me." He said as I smiled.

"Simon! Josh! Are you two okay?" My mum asked as she stood up hugging the two of us.

"Yeah mum, we're fine." I said as she let go of us with a humongous smile spread across her face.

We both then sat down, I went across from my dad as Josh went across from my mum. At first it was awkward, I had no entire clue what my parents were going to say or do.

"We don't want to force you upon something you don't want to do, but we do want you to follow your dream no matter the cost." My mum said as I nodded my head.

"You know your mum and I will support you no matter what you do, but we do want you to follow what you have been for since forever. You love music more than anything else, I mean I remember listening to you strum your guitar over and over until you had to eat or sleep. It felt as though your guitar was a part of you. We are so proud of everything you do, but we were taking to Mr. Brown. He truly believes in you." My Dad said as I nodded my head again.

For the rest of the dinner I hadn't wanted to talk about anything like that. I didn't want to think about Juliard or anything to do with it.

Once we finished eating we said goodbye to my parents and they had went off to go to their hotel. Josh and I decided to just go on a walk and let out everything we were thinking about.

"I'm..I'm proud of you." He said as I just smiled and laughed a little.

"Why are you proud of me?" I said shoving him a little.

"Be...because you fol...followed your dream and have made it so...so far." He said as I smiled.

"So have you though. I mean you had your own show where people came to see your work and you work alone. They didn't need to be convinced to show up, they were truly just interested in seeing what you created." I said as he smiled and kissed me on the cheek.

"You are hones...honestly amazing Simon." He said as I just squeezed his hand.

"And you are a million times more amazing than I'll ever be." I said as he just shook his head and we both laughed.

———————

When we got back to the tree, the first thing we noticed were the letters from our universities. These simple little letters would decide what our future would end up being like and I couldn't be more scared than I already was.

Josh grabbed all of them as he then followed me up the ladder. I sat down on the bed as sat down next to me. We both just looked at the envelopes, there were three of them. One of them was Juliard and then the other was the university Josh and I had originally planned on going to. All of the envelopes were the same size.

"I'll open mine fir...first?" He said as I nodded my head too scared.

He slowly opened it up and quickly handed it to me. I knew he was scared and would rather have me read it than himself. Scared that he may have been rejected.