𝐇𝐈𝐃𝐄| 𝐉.𝐁.

8: The situation

"All I do, the whole day through, is dream of you." I finish, singing the last line of the song I had just finished writing.

I then hear heavy knocking on my window and I jump, playing a wrong piano note.

"The hell?" I mutter, squinting my eyes to see who's there.

"Hey!" A muffled voice says and I chuckle, walking over to the window.

I unlock and pull it up, meeting Josh's dark eyes.

"Dumbass, you scared me!" I exclaim, swatting his arm.

"Sorry." He laughs.

"You couldn't sent me a text or call?" I scoff.

"Thought that was too boring. And considering I'm your friend, I thought climbing through your window is normal." He says and I laugh.

"Only for you, Bassett." I say and he cracks a grin.

"I like the song." He says.

"What?"

"The song. I heard you singing from outside the window. Did you write that song?" He asks.

"Uh, yeah. I just finished it actually." I say, crossing my arms and he nods.

"It's really good." He clears his throat.

"T-thanks." I stammer with an awkward grin.

We ended up just sitting in silence for a few seconds, staring into each other's eyes.

"So uh, why are you here?" I blurt out, breaking the weird silence.

"My mom came over to visit me. But of course, it led to an argument. And uh, I wanted to see how you were feeling." He says and my heart races.

"I'm sorry." I frown, rubbing his shoulder.

"Not your fault." He shrugs.

"And I'm feeling better. My fever is gone but my throat is a little scratchy." I say and he nods.

Wait, he left his mom alone? With his dad who could be drinking?

"Wait, Josh?" I ask in pure fear.

"Yeah, what's wrong?" He asks, panic in his eyes.

"Was your dad drinking today?"

"Yeah."

"And you left your mom alone with him?!" I exclaim and his eyes widen in fear.

"Shit! I, uh, gotta go." He exclaims.

"I'm coming with you." I say, throwing on my jacket and grabbing my bag.

"No, you shouldn't be there." He quickly objects.

"Too bad. Last time you were there, you ended up hitting him. Now, stop being protective for once and help me down." I say, tying my shoelace on my purple vans.

He sighs, giving in and helps me step out.

He climbs down as I follow behind him.

He jumps down and I turn around as he takes both of my hands and helps me down.

I look into his eyes as our hands are still laced together.

I don't even reach his chin so he's looking down at me like I'm a pet.

"If things do go down between my dad and I, you run, okay?" He asks.

"Not much of a runner." I say and he slightly smirks.

"Stop staring, curly fry. C'mon, I wanna meet your mom too." I say, letting go of his hands and he snaps out of his trance.

"You never met her?" He asks, catching up with me as we walk down the block.

"No. Like you said, she was always in Chicago." I say.

"Right. Sorry, I uh, never let you meet her sooner." He clears his throat.

"It's fine. You still have to meet my sister though." I say.

"Oh, right. How is she doing?"

"She's doing fine. I really hope she's out by new years. It would make my mom really happy." I huff, putting my hands in my jacket pockets.

"You wouldn't be happy?" He raises an eyebrow.

"Of course I would. But I don't know if I can trust her. It's messy." I say, flipping my hair.

"Not as messy as mine." He nervously chuckles at himself.

He puts his head down for a slight second and a single piece of curly hair falls down from his head.

"Josh, I'm really sorry about Emma. I wish I could've met her. She seemed like good person." I say.

If you didn't know, Emma was Josh's little sister.

She died in a car accident two years ago, she was only ten.

"Yeah, she was the best. I just can't stand him anymore. It's fine if he was drinking at home but he was drinking while driving his fucking daughter to school. I just can't wrap my head around it. And when we had that fight the other day, he had the nerve to talk about her like that. I just snapped." He says in a shaky voice and I move closer to him, intertwining my hand with his.

I see his body tense as he sniffles and I run over his knuckles with the pad of my thumb to hopefully calm him down.

"Hey, you'll get through this. I'm always here, remember that. Okay?" I ask and he looks up, meeting my brown eyes.

"Yeah." He says in a quiet tone, nodding his head as he swallows the lump in his throat.

I feel him hold my hand tighter and I couldn't help but crack a grin at him.

"Uh, how far are we?" I ask.

"What?"

"Your house. How far are we?" I say again and he clears his throat.

"Oh, one more block." He says and we start jogging down the sidewalk until we reach his house.

I stop when he stops and he looks up, his eyebrows raising in fear.

"What?" I say, catching my breath and I follow his gaze.

I hear and see his dad shouting from inside and he flips the table.

I then see his mom jump in fear and my heart starts to raise.

Oh no.