Letters From Prince Charming

8| Become Mindless Zombies

Chapter 8

"Why fit in when you were born to stand out." – Dr Seuss.

*****

It's Monday and I haven't talked to or seen Josh since the game on Saturday. And it's not for lack of trying. I didn't go after him immediately, I knew he would need some space and time to cool off. So yesterday was all the time I had hoped he would need since I was starting to get restless not knowing what the hell was wrong.

So I did what any sane person would do and I went over to his house. He wasn't there.

His mom answered the door and she looked kinda confused when she me. She thought I was with him. I ended up helping her bake some brownies and spending time with Will, but it was starting to get late and Josh still wasn't home yet. His mom knew where he was but I didn't want to push any further, he clearly didn't want to see me. But that didn't mean I was going to completely ignore him.

Me: Are you okay?

I didn't get a reply. Not that I was expecting any, it was a long shot. Okay maybe I was pushing a little, but was it wrong of me to worry? He's been getting into these moods a lot lately like one minute he'll be fine then he'll just go silent. Was it lack of sleep? I know he hasn't been getting a lot because I wake up to texts from him that were sent at like 2 am. We've gotten into plenty of bad fights before, but not where we would get so angry we just yell at each other.

I didn't even know what we were fighting about.

I was hoping to talk to him today, but my hope quickly plummeted when I saw Mason standing outside waiting for me, no Josh in sight.

"Hey Mason." I greet as I make my way over to him. He lifts his gaze from his phone and looks up at me, a lazy grin on his face.

"Morning Charlie. Before you ask and I can see you are gonna, no I didn't see him yet." Damn was I being that obvious?

I duck my head, suddenly finding my shoelaces very interesting. "He told you what happened huh?" I can still feel his eyes on me as he takes a while to answer me. "He told me...some things. Look Charlie, he's just under a lot of pressure at the moment. And I'm sure seeing you that cuddled up with Hunter didn't help him concentrate all that much." I furrow my eyebrows when I finally look up at him, he must have seen my confused expression because he hastily adds. "Not that that is your fault at all."

"Wait backtrack. What does Hunter and I have to do with any of this?"

"Nothing really. Josh is just very protective of you, we both are. I mean remember when Oliver Munn cheated on you and Josh got into a fight with him. He was sporting that black eye for 2 weeks."

We both laugh thinking of that memory. I almost forgot about that. Oliver and I had been dating officially for about 3 months when I had found out. Josh was actually the one to tell me about Oliver, he had overheard Oliver talking to his friends about how he 'scored' Danielle Vergara. I found out about it when Josh showed up at my house with a purple bruise over his eye. But Oliver easily looked worse with a cut on his lip and bruises on his cheek, and those were only the visible ones. Both of them got a week's suspension but Josh said it was totally worth it.

"He turned up at my house with caramel ice-cream, box of tissues, cheesy romcoms and a box of pictures of Oliver and I and scissors. He wasn't sure how I would react so he thought it was fit to have all the essentials that Google told him he would need."

We start walking into school. "Yeah sounds like something Josh would do." He says in amusement.

I look up ahead and notice someone standing by my locker. I don't know why I was expecting Josh but I was really surprised to see Hunter standing next to my locker.