The Future Of Us: The kids grew up!

Are you kidding Josh???

"Brad look at this," I read the letter I just opened, confused as to what exactly it's saying "Josh isn't paying his rent again... and it looks like the neighbors are complaining too."

He takes the letter from me, reading it himself as I watch his expression.

I don't even have the chance to say anything before he's calling Josh to come over, more furious than I think I've ever seen him before.

As he hangs up, he turns towards me fuming.

"I don't know what to do with him anymore. Having parties, refusing to work more than a few days a month... this wasn't us, was it?"

"I... I don't know anymore. I thought we had set them up good, the girls both did so well, and he had so much ambition, but I'm scared now. I'm scared he's just giving up, and I don't want Kaid looking up to this."

"What if he never does anything with his life? He wanted to be an actor so bad, and now he never shows up. He has no work ethic, he's not the same person we raised and I'm just so lost on what to do! I want to help but I don't know how..."

"Okay, okay calm down." He walks over, wrapping his arms around me now that I'm a mess "Two out of four kids have turned out pretty great so far, we've done good."

"Brad our son refuses to do anything. I told you we should have never let him move out! Nagging is the only way to get him to do anything! He's never going to do any good for himself this way."

Josh bursts in the house a few seconds later, not happy at all that we woke him from his midday nap.

"What is wrong with you guys? I'm trying to sleep."

"From what? A night of partying? Staying up all night playing video games? You're nineteen fucking years old, Josh! You need to grow up! You can't keep expecting us to pay your rent just so you can act like a child!  Half the stuff you do isn't even legal!"

"Seriously? I'm just trying to have some fun! You've supported it before."

"We supported it when you were working, or at least showing that you aren't immature. Obviously we messed up there and should have never let you live like that."

Josh turns away from me, looking to Brad for any help he can get, but quickly realizes Brad is not going to be helping.

"Your mom's right, Josh. We let you move into the apartment so you would learn more responsibility but it's obviously not working. You said you wanted to get into acting so we tried helping you, we both recommended you for a few roles this past month, your mom even was told you turned them down. You need to do something, we aren't going to keep supporting this lifestyle."

"You guys supported Catie! You even help Ally, am I not good enough to deserve some support? I'm still figuring things out."

"Yes, we supported them, but they both were in school and had part time jobs. They were proving to us that they had ambition, that they would be able to support themselves when the time came. They even paid us as well, we didn't do everything for them. But we aren't going to sit here paying for you to run around doing ridiculous things when you need to be helping yourself! All those hours you spend playing video games are wasted, if you even spent half the time putting energy into finding a job, or filming a commercial you would be so much better off! We don't mind if you've had a change of heart, if you don't want to be in acting. We just want to know that you are able to support yourself, that you can take care of things."

"Having parties and doing illegal things all night because you have the place to yourself does not make you an adult," Brad adds, making Josh even more upset "We aren't dumb. We know what you're doing. We know you want to have some fun, and that's okay. But acting like you don't have any responsibility is not okay."

"So what are you going to do? Tell me I can't live there? I'll just move into grandma and grandpa's basement, or with Ally and Cam. None of them care if I have a little fun."

I pace around, trying to think of anything we can do. He's 19, we can't make him do anything, but as his parents we want to help him. We don't want to see our child fail or struggle.

"We have an opening at the production company as a secretary while our main one is out on maternity leave, you can have that for now until you find something yourself. If you can manage to pay your rent, which shouldn't be a problem, you can stay there. You'll still have time to be with your friends and have fun, but this forces you to have some responsibility. After a few months though, you need to figure something out."

"So I have to work for you guys? Like listen to my parents all the time? I just spent the last 18 years doing that."

"Well then you've had plenty of practice. It's either that or you go work at a fast food restaurant. You're smart, Joshua, use your brain. I made you one for a reason."

"So what if I don't find anything right away? What am I supposed to do then?"

"Well if you can show us that you aren't going back to whatever you're doing now, we'll help you. We aren't going to help if you continue to act like this. Your dad and I love you, but we have to draw the line at some point. There's so much for you to do, you're smart, you had ambition, you need to use all of that. If you don't want to do acting then you need to tell us, we'll help you figure out what's best for you."

"Maybe I don't know what I want to do."

"And that's okay too. But you need to figure something out for the time being."