Eliska Foy is determined not to fall in love. What's the point? Love is just adrenaline, dopamine, and serotonin, after all. It's all just a cocktail of lies and chemicals.
Joshua Archer has never shied away from a challenge and Eliska Foy is the w...
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"Hey, you!" A boy's voice yelled down the hallway. Instantly, I knew that it was me they wanted and instinctively, I slow my pace until the person catches up with me. To my surprise, however, it is Micah Moran, Joshua's best friend, and resident Eliska-hater. "Where's Josh?"
I shrug my shoulder and feel some of my hair fall out of the messy, structurally insecure bun that I'd fashioned this morning. "How would I know?"
"Because you two are attached at the hip these days," Micah tells me, looking irritated by that fact. I know that he's best buds with Joshua but I never pinned Micah down to be the jealous type. Maybe my fauxmance was ruining his bromance in a big way. Looking over his shoulder, he turns slowly to face me again and says, "I get that whatever this is between you two is fake or not a hundred percent legit or whatever you call it but Josh talks to you about stuff. I haven't seen him all day and I'm worried. Do I have a reason to be worried?"
After his pre-season baseball practice, Joshua came over to my mom's house and we hung out. From the moment he stepped foot inside, I knew that there was something wrong but he wasn't willing to tell me until after we played Plead the Fifth. It was childish, of course, yet at the same time, I found myself enjoying it more than I thought I would, mainly because I'm a savage with zero shame. I asked the most horrific questions and after Joshua used his only Plead the Fifth, he had to answer the remaining questions. I, meanwhile, answered all of mine honestly, not particularly caring if Joshua knew these things about me. If I was embarrassed about anything, I wouldn't have answered but I'm shameless about my life, so I had nothing to lose.
After the game, however, and once my mom had finished stacking the dishwasher and left to go out to meet her friends, Joshua started to tell me about why he was acting weird. His sister- the full sister that he has, Julia- had been on at him again about going to meet their biological mother and this time, he was unsure about whether he wanted to go. Part of him felt as if he should go just to meet the woman that had abandoned him so he could close the door on that, but at the same time, Eva was his mother and he wanted to respect that by not going to see his birth mom. It was messing with his head and he wanted my advice, not that I could give him any. The best I could offer was, "Well, it's your choice, isn't it? Either go. Or don't go."
There are reasons I'm not an agony aunt for the school newspaper. This is just one example. I can think of a hundred more.
Joshua fell quiet after that conversation and stared at the screen while I watched reruns of The Great British Baking Show. He pulled his cell out a few times and text someone but I was too polite to look over to see who he was messaging.
Ok, that's a lie. I know exactly who he was texting just to make sure that it wasn't some other girl. He's supposed to make me fall in love with him and that certainly won't happen if he's screwing around behind my back. That's like anti-falling in love in my book. Anyway, he was texting Julia, making plans to see her today.
