maybe, someday | hosie

[ 04 ] A Family Affair

When Hope got to Josie's room, the twins were sprawled out on Lizzie's bed doing homework together. Josie had texted her to bring her own stuff to work on, so she walked across the floor and tossed the bag to her ground beside the occupied bed. She then took a seat at the foot of the bed, nearest to Josie.

"You can use my desk." Lizzie offered.

"Or my bed, go ahead and make yourself comfortable." Josie suggested.

Hope just shook her head. "I'm fine here."

And she really was. It was still strange to her that she felt the need to be close to Josie; like she craved her presence or something equally nauseating. She didn't want to voice her reasoning for choosing the floor because she didn't want to deal with Lizzie's endless torment. But she also didn't want to move away now that she finally had the girl nearby.

"How'd the rest of your day go?" She asked vaguely.

She really wanted to know how Josie's appointment with Emma went, but she also left room for Josie to choose whether or not she wanted to discuss it.

"Fine." The brunette shrugged noncommittally.

"Well, mine was just horrible. I completely flaked on a test I had to take today so I'm sure I bombed it." Lizzie groaned.

"I told you, tell the teacher that you were helping me through some stuff and ask for a re-take. I'm sure she'll go easy on you." Josie told her.

"Josie's right. Teachers eat that shit up. Can you cry on demand? That helps too." Hope offered.

Lizzie and Josie stared at Hope with mortification etched on their features.

"You...lie to teachers like that?" Josie asked almost offended.

"What? You just suggested Lizzie do it so she could get a retake." Hope was confused.

"But I thought you didn't lie." Josie pouted as if her whole view of the world had suddenly shifted.

"I have never lied to a teacher. Do I exaggerate sometimes, well, yeah. Who doesn't. But seriously, you know the life I've had, when I told them I needed a mental health day...do you really think they'd argue? Or that it's a lie?" Hope replied.

Josie nodded in acceptance of that explanation. "I guess they wouldn't...no."

"It's not like I needed to use that excuse very often anyway, I'm doing quite well in my classes--thank you very much."

Hope didn't know why she needed Josie to remember that she was at the top of her own class. Or that she would never manipulate people for no reason, she wasn't her dad. She just really needed Josie to see the best in her. To see her.

As if she could read Hope's thoughts, Josie's hand fell on her shoulder and squeezed it in comfort. Or perhaps in understanding. Rather than removing her hand after the consolement had ended, she let it rest there. Hope really didn't mind. It comforted her and she was able to finish the chapter she needed to read for class. She pretended it took longer to read than it did though, because she thought that once she moved to put that book away and grab some more homework; that Josie would stop touching her. And as much as she hated to need anything from anyone, she definitely felt herself needing Josie's physical touch to ground her lately.

Eventually, Josie must have finished what she was working on, because she adjusted herself on Lizzie's bed and her hand dropped from Hope's shoulder. Hope took that opportunity to replace the book she was reading with another textbook.

"Oh! I can't believe I completely failed to mention that MG and I came up with an awesome plan. I'm so excited!" Hope said as she turned to face the twins.