Yearbook Club. ||Joshua Bassett||

The New Kid

Josh parks his car in front of my house and takes the key out of the ignition. I take off my seatbelt, fixing to get out of the car, but stop when I notice that he's blankly staring out of the windshield. I rub my left wrist, which was still sore due to the way Mason was holding me down. I could feel Josh looking at me from the very corner of his eye. "What's the matter?" I ask him.

"I want to go back there and teach Mason a lesson." He says with his hands placed at 10 and 2 firmly gripping the steering wheel.

"I think you already did when you punched him in the face." He furrows his eyebrows and gives me a slightly shocked expression. "If you do anymore damage then he could press charges and I don't want you to get in trouble because of me."

"How are you so...okay with all of this?" He asks. "I mean, don't you think it's a little weird that I'm more upset about it than you are?"

I wasn't sure how to respond, I've never talked about my feelings with him before, but I suppose now is as good a time as any. "I'm not okay.." I say after a few seconds of silence. Josh softens his expression, something I've never seen him do with me. "I've never felt so...scared and violated in my life. And I'd hate to imagine what more he could've done to me if it weren't for you showing up at the right time." He looks down at the gear shift, not knowing what to say next, but that's okay. I open the car door, getting ready to leave, but before I do, I say one last thing. "Thank you, Josh."

Josh gives me a halfhearted smile. I head inside and straight up to my room. My parents are already in bed and my brother is still out. I change into some shorts and a comfortable shirt to sleep in, then get into bed, covering with my blanket, softly crying myself to sleep.

The events of tonight were a lot to process. I felt so incredibly stupid for thinking that I could trust Mason. I felt played and powerless on more levels than one. I thought that he cared about me, but after what he did tonight, I realize that I was just another girl on his hit list. I should've seen this coming when Josh mentioned that he's been with multiple people.

I didn't listen to Maddie and my brother when I should've. I could've saved myself from feeling this embarrassment— this empty feeling in the pit of my stomach. If only I stopped having so much hope in other people.

What's going to happen at school on Monday? I can't possibly show my face around him again. The thought of being anywhere near Mason makes me sick.

*************************

I head in the direction of the yearbook room, speed walking through the halls but something stops me when I feel a hand wrap around my forearm. It wasn't too tight of a grip though.

Scared, I turn around to see that it was Charlie who stopped me. Josh is stood behind him. I give him a confused look. "Uh hey guys... what's -"

Before I can finish my sentence, he pulls me into a soft hug. "Josh told me about what happened."  I give Josh a wide-eyed look, making him mouth the word
'Sorry'. "How are you doing?" Charlie asks as he pulls away.

"I'm okay, thanks." I cross my arms above my chest. "Who else did you tell, Josh?"

"Just Charlie."

"So Maddie doesn't know?"

"I do now." Maddie says approaching us. Her facial expression is hard, like Josh's was that night after he punched Mason. "What a scumbag.." She shakes her head with disappointment.

"I don't want to go to yearbook... not if he's going to be there."

"Well you're in luck, he left the club." Maddie says.

"What? He just.. dropped the class?" Charlie questions.

Maddie shrugs. "Guess so, Mrs. G said that since he's gone, we're getting a new reporter switched to our group."

The four of us exchange looks. "Who is it?" Josh says asking the question we all were dying to know the answer to.

*************************

"Max Simpson is your new reporter." Mrs. G says while the new guy sits down in Mason's old spot.

He was in another group, but they already had too many people so he got switched to ours, which was pretty convenient.

He was kinda short for a guy, had floppy brown hair, tan skin, and a small mole above the left side of his lips. He gave all of us a thin smile, to which we all did the same. The way Josh and Charlie were looking at him though, made me feel like he was another Mason.

During lunch, we all sat at our usual table talking about random stuff. I really appreciated that they didn't bring up what went down the other night, I think they could tell that I still wasn't ready to talk about it. "So what's up with the new Max kid?" I ask.

The boys give each other a knowing look. "He and Mason are friends. I don't think he's any better than him." Says Josh.

"I've never even seen them two together." Maddie replies.

Josh rolls his eyes, "Mads, he was there that night, at the party. But you wouldn't know because you left 10 minutes after we got there."

"He's right. I remember seeing him in his group of friends when I found him upstairs." I say, replaying that moment in my head.

Max was there, laughing along with the rest of his buddies when I walked up the stairs, seeing Mason drunk out of his mind. For all I know, he could've been the one who gave him the idea to drink more than he could handle.

And I knew, Max could not be trusted.