Heartless Love (boyxboy) Book 1 (Slowly Editing)

Chapter 7

"Fear doesn't shut you down; it wakes you up"

― Veronica Roth

"This is our home," Joshua presented as we stepped inside the two story, blue painted house.

I'd noticed we'd left the richer parts of town, yet it wasn't like they didn't have a nice home. I suppose it was just smaller than I was used to. I hadn't given it much thought before, but I'd realized that all my friends came from wealthy families. I tried not to ask what that said about me as a person.

"It's nice," I complimented after we'd gone through the kitchen and entered the living room.

The living room was probably the most spacious room, and contained two couches standing opposite one another, an oval living room table in between and a flat screen attached to the wall.

"Thank you. Would you like anything to drink? We have most stuff," Joshua offered.

"You have any soda?" I asked.

Joshua nodded his head and headed for the kitchen.

My gaze swept over the living room and I noticed it held a lot of framed pictures. I did have pictures at home as well, of course, but they were all placed in a fashionable manner. Like on the wall of the staircase. Not like this. This was almost like an overload of pictures.

Even the mantelpiece held family photos. Basically every space that could hold one, did. Except for the living room table. It only held one framed picture.

I went over to that one since it poked my curiosity. Stepping closer, I realized it had to be a family picture. You could tell it had been taken by a professional photographer.

The parents, a good-looking woman – for her age, that is – with long, blond hair, and a man with strong features and chocolate brown hair, were sitting in what I guessed was like a nineteenth century couch with three kids sitting on the floor before them. Even though two of the kids hadn't even reached the age of ten, it was still easy to spot who was Joshua and who was James. Joshua was grinning widely, showing off his toothless face, whereas James had a sour expression put on.

So serious, even back then, I mused.

My gaze wandered to the third boy who was sitting furthest to the right. He was older than the other two boys, in his teens. He was smiling gently into the camera, sitting carefully so as not to wrinkle his suit, it seemed.

"Here's your soda." The sound of Joshua's voice made me quickly turn around. He was standing in the open doorway to the living room, holding two sodas in his hands.

I walked over to him. "Sorry, I didn't mean to pry."

"It's okay, they're just pictures. They're there for a reason," he waved it off, yet, there was an edge to his voice.

He handed me the soda and I quickly took it. "Thanks."

"So, what do you want to do?"

I shrugged my shoulders while taking a sip from the coke. I actually had no idea what the two of us could do. It wasn't exactly like I knew him or had hung out with him before.

Joshua chuckled, making me look up at him questioningly. "You have some coke on your cheek," he explained.

"Oh," I was about to brush it away with my sleeve, but Joshua beat me to it.

"Here, let me," he murmured and lifted his hand and gently wiped the coke away with his thumb, making me freeze up.

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