To Be Freed

Chapter 13

A/N: This chapter "ends" with a terrible cliffhanger that would be better left unfinished. The truth is, I just never had the inspiration to finish it nor do I want to. It's better this way tbh.

~Courtney~

"Come on we have a swim meet this weekend! Hurry up!" Coach's muffled voice became more and more harder to hear the farther Courtney swam from him. Her feet pushed against the wall as she propelled herself from it. One more lane to go, she told herself as the wall came closer and closer. When her hand slammed against the wall, her head emerged from the water and she took a deep breath.

Josh had become unbeatable for her. She looked at where he was in the lane next to her, and he smiled at her. She forced one of her own, despite her heaving breaths.

"Why don't you go faster?" He teased, which earned him a splash from Courtney. She was trying to find a sarcastic comment that would counter his remark, but was still mainly focusing on her returning breath.

"Okay everyone," Coach said, and everyone on the team turned to face him. "For the swim meet I want you guys to know something..."

"Swim as fast as you can, but if you cramp you're already done," Courtney mouthed with him as he spoke.

"Alright go to the locker room guys."

~Josh~

"You do like her, do you? Why has it taken two years for you to admit it to yourself?!" Daniel questioned him and Josh put his head down and closer to Daniel.

"Shut it skunkhead you know I don't like her."

"Why don't you just tell her?"

"Because I don't like her!!" This is childish, Josh thought. If Courtney were to know that he liked her, though, it would ruin everything within their two years of knowing each other. Their friendship, their inside jokes, their inseparable relationship that could indeed separate with a single confession, it would all go downhill.

But for some reason, he was willing to jeopardize that in order to make sure that Courtney knew every single thought that he had of her. If she turned him down, yes, it would shatter him, but at least she would know. He took a deep breath and sighed, his heart racing with anxiety.

"Fine. I'll tell her everything." He admitted reluctantly.

Daniel's jaw dropped. He swallowed and a smile cracked. "Josh Nanase, you are no longer going to be forever alone."

~Courtney~

Josh, for some reason, clouded her mind, and she didn't know what it was about him that made her feel so... Alive.

He had smiled at her from across the room in fifth hour. She turned around to see if the gesture was to someone behind her, but there wasn't anyone she knew that Josh would even think about. She turned back around and gave him the creepiest smile that she could pull. This resulted in another smile and a silent laugh.

"Do your work!" She mouthed to him. She held her pencil up for emphasis.

He picked up his pencil as well and gave it a wave. She began feeling queasy and butterflies began fluttering in her stomach. She smiled at him and looked back at the white board in order to write down the answers to the questions on it.

Just calm down, she told herself, taking a deep breath. She unconsciously looked back up at Josh after a little bit of time and he looked up too. She quickly looked away and rested her head in her hand to hide her embarrasment.

She looked at the clock and saw that it was almost time to leave, and as she was standing up to get ready to leave, Josh popped up next to her desk.

"Heya," he smiled at her and she returned one.

A/N: I'm kind of sad this story's over. It was something to laugh over between my friends and me and sometimes we bring it up and cringe. It just goes to show how uninteresting my life must've been if I spent so long writing this story. I had tons of fun with it though and working on it with you-know-who-you-are. Oh how young and cringey we were. Ah well. It's done now. I'm setting this bad boy free.