the boy on the bridge ✔️

26. sneaky boy

Chapter 26 — sneaky boy

"I cannot believe it took me so long to figure it out," Josie bursts into Josh's room out of the blue, very loudly talking to herself. Once in the room, she finds that the bed is empty which is weird because her brother said he was going to bed a couple of hours ago.

And only then she sees him by the window, straddling the windowsill, one leg in, one leg out. Narrowing her eyes, and crossing her arms across her chest, she raises an eyebrow, "What are you doing?"

Josh blinks once, twice — stunned and slowly, taking in the fact that Josie in his room. He thought she had already gone to sleep; he didn't know anyone in the house was still awake. He tries to come up with a plausible enough excuse as fast as he can.

"Nothing, nothing," and just as he tries to swing his one leg that is hanging outside, back in, his foot accidentally catches in the window sill and he trips and falls, "Ow," he groans as he slowly he pushes himself up into a sitting position, and looks up at his sister who is still waiting for an answer from him, "I was just... trying out an experiment. For Physics,"

Josh curses himself internally as soon as he says that. Really — that is the best he can do? Even a toddler can see through that lie.

Josie only cocks her head to the side and purses her lips, and Josh knows he should keep his mouth shut, but he doesn't. He keeps talking, digging himself a deeper grave.

"You know, momentum, acceleration, mass... It's for school," he finishes very much pathetically.

The girl only shakes her head, and gets straight to the point, "You were sneaking out, weren't you?" she doesn't even bother referencing the lame reason of an excuse her brother made.

The blond knows he is definitely caught red-handed and there's nothing he can say that can save him, but still, that doesn't stop him from trying. He imitates Josie, crossing his arms, and lifts his chin a little, "I wasn't," and then lowering his voice a little, he nods towards the door which is still wide open, "Can you close the door first? I don't want to wake mother or father,"

"Right," she agrees, and shuts the door, and leaning against the surface, she redirects her gaze towards the boy on the floor, "So, you were saying?"

Again, Josh could have just admitted the truth but he doesn't, "I wasn't sneaking out,"

"You know I'm never going to believe that that was for a school experiment,"

"That's your own problem then,"

Josie lets out a sigh, exasperated, and moves on to her next question, not wanting to dwell on that trivial matter for long, "So, you haven't been doing drugs after all. You have a boyfriend. And that's why you've been sneaking out so late in the night,"

"Wh- What?" he sputters and lets out a forced laughter, "That's stupid. That's so stupid. And wrong. What?!"

"Why are you still lying to me? I thought we were past all that,"

"Hah, never. I will always lie to you,"

"Bitch,"

"Language," Josh glares at her, but she walks away from his face, sitting with a plop on his bed.

"So, are you going to tell me or not?"

"About what?"

"About your boyfriend?"

"No,"

"That means you do have a boyfriend, hah!"

Josh can feel his cheek heating up which probably means that skin must have turned a bright red by now, "N– No. I never said that,"