Stay With Me (Joshler)

Mom

Josh pov

Once I get home, I decide that the best course of action is straight to my room. I already know that my mom will be downstairs in the living room drinking beer and I really don't feel like having another interaction with her.

I open the back door as quietly as possible and walk into the kitchen. I have to walk past my mom to get to the stairs, as they are in the living room) so here's hoping mother dearest is asleep.

I walk slowly...and...

"WHERE THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOURE GOING?" She boomed. Fuck. So close.

"To my room...?" I say while turning around to face her

"You left without eating breakfast or saying anything this morning. For all I know you were kidnapped. Do you know how stupid and hysterical your father will get if he thought you were just gone like that?"

"Mom, Dad has been dead for months"

"Right" she says. "I know that. But he will be coming home at 6:00 so you better prepare dinner for all three of us"
Oh God I forgot she's hopeless.

I start walking up the stairs and she suddenly stands up very quickly and with her beer bottle still in hand, and runs over and grabs onto the back of my shirt.

"You still haven't gotten your punishment, little boy" the words are like venom seeping out of her mouth.

She smirks and knees me as hard as she can in the stomach. I kneel over and she pushes me down the stairs. I hit my head on the wall and get slightly dizzy. She walks down and pours the remaining half of her beer onto me. She lights a cigarette and pretends to almost drop it onto me.

"Oops" she laughs evilly. She then proceeds to step on me to get by while taking a huge drag from the cig and blowing it towards me.

Fuck that bitch.

I struggle to stand and walk up the steps, but once I do, I get to my room and throw my things down. I grab some pain meds off the shelf and take like four. I grab the diary from earlier to try and distract from my own problems.

I open to the page I left off on. It looks like this person had a crush on a girl named Jenna.
[A/N no shade to Jenna, but her role in the fanfic will be evil. I don't hate her and she is very cute with Tyler, but it's convenient to the story. Nothing personal]

Apparently this girl liked them back and they went on some dates. Get it, whoever you are! Oh wait nevermind they broke up after one and a half years of dating because Jenna...oh...she...

Cheated.

But this says that she loved them. That she was their best friend, too. That must be why they're so broken. I see the downward spiral after that. I should stop reading now but I don't.

I skip to the most recent page to see what they must have been writing in the practice room.

"New friends" blah blah blah "stupid boy named Brendon" wait. "Guy I saw from next door is named Josh" WAIT. "I have music with him. He seems nice but pretty distant. Like he's avoiding me. I get it. I would avoid me too"

WAIT

NO

THIS IS TYLER

Oh shit I don't know what to do. I read this guy's diary and honestly I really want to help but I can't get too close. If I tell him why I want to help he will feel betrayed that I read it. But if I don't, then I can't help until he tells me his problems by his own free will. Wait. Does this mean. Oh no. This means that that boy. That gorgeous nervous wreck...hurts himself...a lot. Oh no.

Did I just call him gorgeous? I mean I appreciate his looks but like come on I'm not some gay little shit or something. Fuck that.

I think the pain meds are wearing off. I should go to sleep.

[So sorry about making Jenna a bitch, but it was convenient to the story. Again, I love her, but yeah. Also, yes. I know Josh is being very... problematic about thinking Tyler is pretty, but shut up. All will be explained also, as an apology for not posting earlier, I will post the next chapter before midnight at some point. It's already written, but I don't know when I'll think about it again and it still needs proofreading and editing]