the boy on the bridge ✔️

28. advice boy

Chapter 28 — advice boy

"Oh wow, I thought I would have to resort to kicking down your door and dragging you out," Josie comments when she sees her brother standing in the kitchen pouring himself a glass of orange juice.

"School," Josh grumbles in reply.

"And he speaks too — what a wonder,"

The blond gives her a pointed glare, but the younger girl isn't even in the least bit intimidated, and continues talking.

"Since when do you wear glasses?" she squints her eyes, inspecting her brother's face and the new accessory that adorns his face. She reaches up for it but Josh swiftly moves away, scowling.

"School. Late," he says rather robotically, walking out of the kitchen, grabbing his bag from the living room.

He doesn't wait to see if Josie is behind him and is very much intent on leaving her behind if she doesn't come out of the house in a few minutes. Fortunately for her, she's right behind him, calling after him.

"Wait, Josh,"

But Josh doesn't stop and gets in his car, Josie gets in the passenger seat. Maybe he shouldn't have been in such a hurry. Now there's no getting away from her; they're sat right beside each other. Josh quickly turns on the radio, hoping feebly that will stop Josie from asking him anything, but of course that was a futile attempt. She switches it off right the next instant and turns to Josh eyes narrowed, arms crossed.

"Seatbelt," is all Josh says as he pulls his car out of their driveway and on the road.

Josh's curtness doesn't deter Josie in the slightest bit. She is very much used to this kind of treatment from him. She puts on the seatbelt before starting with her questions.

"What's going on with you? You've been cooped up in your room all weekend,"

"That's how I usually spend my weekend, Josephine," Josh knows it's no use ignoring her questions so he decides to entertain her, at least until they reach their school; then he can go back to ignoring her.

"Usually," she points out with a small smirk, "You didn't even go out at night, I noticed,"

Josh's jaw automatically tensed at the mention of that and he refuses to reply anything to that. Maybe Josie could sense the drastic change in his emotions too, she doesn't prod for any response from him and sits beside him quietly. Josh can sense the questioning glance from her every few minutes however, but those are easy to ignore. They reach school, and fortunately Josie doesn't ask him anything even then. She only beside him goodbye and leaves.

Josh heaves out a big sigh, closing his eyes. He's definitely not ready for today. He's never been ready for school for a long time now, but especially today he's not ready even a teeny bit. Not after–

He opens his eyes and lets out another slow, long breath. He just needs time to recuperate. He will be fine. Maybe school isn't such a bad thing for him right now. Maybe school is exactly what he needs — with all the assignments, and school work and projects. Yeah, that can be exactly what he needs.

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Josh doesn't know why he is angry. But he is just that, and ten times fold. He is furious. Not once in his seventeen years of life has, he ever felt this amount of anger surging through his veins. And living with an individual like his father, that's something.

The previous two days he has wallowed in complete misery — listening to old songs, watching sad clips and movies, crying along to everything. And then when Monday came around, he knew he can't afford to be sad anymore and so he switched to pure rage, and evidently it seems to be better than being sad.