The Boy I Married

II

His soft lips touched mine. The butterflies in my stomach grew bigger, and my heart thumped louder. Our lips parted. The kiss was short, after all it was in the middle of the cafeteria.

I glanced up at his eyes and we shared a look. He was 10x more gorgeous than he was five seconds ago.

"So I'll text you tonight about the party details?" Josh began.
"Yeah definitely," I was still in a trance.
Josh left. I was back to eating my sandwich.

... Friday

The party was tonight. I had no idea what to wear. Josh was coming to pick me up at 7:00.

errrrrr.
What type of party was it anyways??

I decided on jean shorts and and a baggy sweater. I did my hair and makeup a little nicer than usual. I mean, the party was casual... right?

I heard a knock on my front door. I scurried to go grab it. I opened it to Josh's sweet face.

"Hey!" I smiled cheerfully.
"You look great," Josh's eyes trailed up and down my body.
"Thanks. So do you!" I closed the door and walked out to Joshua's car.

We arrived at Josh's house. It. Was. Crazy.
Cars parked up and down the streets. Music BLAZING on top volume. Drunken people.

Wow. I'd never seen anything like this.

"Here it is," Josh laughed. "Pretty crazy, right?"
I had no words. I let out a small laugh.

We went inside and I helped myself to some soda. Soda was as far as I was going to go that night.

Josh's house was big. His yard was big. The party was big.
"Are you okay?" Josh asked me. I did have a look of worry on my face.
"I've just never been around anything like this," I mumbled.
"We can go upstairs? I doubt anyone's up there," Joshua stood up from the couch.
He doubts anyone's up stairs? Is he kidding himself? There's probably a dozen people hooking up!
"Yeah, sure," I stood up next to Josh.

Josh guided me through his overly large main floor to get to the stairs. We walked up. It was surprisingly empty and quiet.

"No one is able to find their way up here," Josh commented. "Especially when they're drunk."
"For a second there I thought you were going to lead me up to a hook up party," I laughed.

Josh lead me to a balcony off of his room. There was a good view of the whole party.
"I'll be right back, I'm going to go to the bathroom. Are you okay here for a second?"
"Yeah I'll be fine," I smiled at him and he walked off.

I had my cup of Pepsi in my hand. It was half empty. I heard foot steps. It wasn't Josh, he had just gone to the bathroom. I whipped my head around when I heard the door open.
It was a a drunken teen with a vodka bottle in his hand. I recognized him. His name was Ben?? Maybe? He was in my extra curricular class.
I put my Pepsi down and stood up from the balcony ground. "Hey..." I was half scared.
He walked up to me and put his hands lightly on my shoulders. I took a step away. "I better go," I whispered, then left to go find Josh.

I ran into Josh coming out of the bathroom. "Oh, sorry," I stated blandly.
"What's wrong?" He asked me, caring.
I had a look of distress.
"Someone joined me on your balcony,"
"Who?"
"I'm not sure. I think it was Ben,"
"What happened?"
"He just put his hands on my shoulder, then I left,"
Josh went into his bedroom. No one was there.
"No one is in here," he yelled from his room. I joined him. "Is it okay if we stay up here?"
"Sure," I walked out to the balcony and grabbed my Pepsi. I sat down where I was before.

Long moments of silence fell over us.

urrrggggg

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Josh's eyes on me. Now what?

I looked over at him. His eyes immediately changed direction.

why was I so bad at this??

"Lunch," came out of my mouth. Why? I don't know.
"Lunch?" Joshua turned his head.
"Yeah. What happened during lunch the other day?"

crud. why the crap did I say that????

"You talked with your mouth full?" He joked.

Yikes. He noticed that too.

I gave him a look of are-you-kidding-me.

"The kiss?" He muttered, tilting the side of his lip down.

All I did was look at him.

"I don't know what it mean't, Maddie." He turned his head the other way.
"Well neither do I." I put my hands over my eyes. Maybe all of this would just go away.
"Do you wanna talk about it?"

noooo. He did it, again. His voice. His care. His words. Him.

I said nothing. Joshua got closer to me.
"Do you want it to mean something?"

and what the hell was i supposed to say now.

I placed my eyes on him. Again, we were inches away. This couldn't happen again. Well... actually, I wanted it to happen again. But what if he doesn't. What if Josh doesn't like me. What if all he is doing is leading me on? What if...

SMASH.

The music alarmingly stopped. All the loud screaming, singing, and talking stopped. Everything stopped. Then I heard a voice similar to Josh's start screaming.

What the heck?

Josh jumped up.
"That cannot be good," Josh ran out of his room. "Come on."
I stood up and followed Josh.

Someone was throwing up in the bathroom.
Someone had a banged up bloody face.
Someone was laying on the ground unconscious.

Josh ran over to who I assumed was his brother. They were whispering some stuff. Josh started clearing people out. In the distance I heard an ambulance.

What.
Happened.

After everyone else left, and the ambulance left, Josh finally came and gave me an update.
"So apparently Ben was putting vodka in everyone's drinks, and people were getting into fights about it. I'm so sorry,"

frick! What if Ben put vodka in my soda?

"Oh don't worry about it. Do you need help cleaning anything up?" I thought maybe if stayed a little longer, maybe Josh and I would actually get somewhere with our conversation.

After a few hours of picking up Josh's living area, I laid down on the couch. I was so beat. My parents were spending the night away at a conference, and Joshua's parents were obviously gone.

Josh joined me on the couch. As he sat down, he scooped my legs up and propped them on top of his legs.
"Hey, thanks for helping me. It really mean't a lot." Josh gave a small smile.
"Of course. Thanks for letting me stay," We locked eyes for a moment. After a few seconds, I sat up. Joshua shifted over a few inches closer. I could feel his breathing on my nose. My heart raced and my stomach fluttered.  Josh's hand touched the side of my face and tucked back some pieces of hair. His lips slide onto mine with easy. His hand slid down my back. I was back to laying down on the couch, however, this time, Josh was on top of me.