HIGH ON COMMON SENSE 𝙅𝙤𝙨𝙝𝙪𝙖 𝘽𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙩𝙩

10

1 week later
Josh

"Guys please help me."

Josh was talking to Matt, Olivia, Dara, Julia, Frankie and Larry. Sofia was in rehearsals for a dance routine she had to learn in the next 2 days.

He was worried about how to talk to Emma. Again. The first proper conversation they had went really well and they have even text each other during the week. Unfortunately, they both had work so it was nothing more than 'hi how are you?' but he liked it all the same.

Last night, they had promised to give their instagrams to one another after spending the week hardly talking and putting it off. Boy was Joshua nervous. He knew Emma was getting worried and nervous about the Instagram situation and was also wondering what he could be hiding and he guessed she had had enough. Yesterday, when he text her hi, her immediate reply was that she was giving him her Instagram tomorrow and demanded he do the same. He had already realised that she didn't know who he was the first time he sent her a picture. Which was a surprise and honestly a relieve. But he knew as soon as she saw his Instagram that the little bubble he had created would be popped. He wouldn't be able to hide in his texts or be a normal person. He knew something would change. He just didn't know exactly what that would be yet.

"What's up Joshy?" Olivia asked.

"Well I was talking to Emma last night and we said that we would give each other our instas."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Don't be stupid Matt, he's scared that she's gonna change."

"And how would you know that FRANKIE."

"He's talking about INSTA Matt. Do you not see the problem?"

When Matt just sends Frankie a blank look, all you could see is Frankie roll his eyes. You could tell Matt didn't have a clue.

"Guys I don't have time for you to work this out, she could text me at any time. She finishes work in like 10 minutes."

"How do you know she finishes work? I thought you had your last conversation on the weekend." Julia asked.

"We've been.. talking."

"WHAT."

That was Dara and Olivia.

"Well we've both been working so it's only really been a 'hi how are you how was work?' type thing."

"But you didn't tell us?"

"No Liv because it's not a big deal. There was nothing to tell."

"Yes there is! You're talking to a girl that you don't really know and you could've stopped talking to her any time. There's no reason for you to keep talking to her. So IT IS a big deal that you still are."

Okay she kinda has a point but she doesn't need to know that.

He tried to deflect back on to the situation at hand.

"None of this is helping you know."

"Josh, just be a man. You either give her your Instagram and carry on whatever this is, OR you tell her you can't and stop talking to her." Frankie said. So not helping Frankie he thought.

Josh wasn't sure what one was worse. He didn't want to stop talking to her; even though the conversations weren't anything extraordinary he still liked them. So he knew that the wrong thing to do would be to stop talking to her. On the other hand, if he did let her see it, then he knew it wouldn't be the same. The conversation would surely change, it would be different, she would know every detail about him. There would be nothing to talk about apart from his fame and the show. He doesn't want it to be like that. He was damned if he did and damned if not.

He groaned and put his head in his hands. He didn't know what to do. No advice would help him and thinking about it wasn't helping either.

He lifted his head, looked at everyone there, looked back down and muttered 'fuck it'.

"I'm just gonna do it. Fuck it. The worst that could happen is I stop talking to her and she leaks our texts or make up a rumour. I know it won't be true and there's nothing that bad in our texts. Fuck it."

Olivia looked worriedly at the side of Josh's head. She moved her gaze to Matt and realised he had come to the same conclusion. He was losing it. She moved to the place beside Josh and put her arm around his shoulders. Matt also moved closer to the 2 of them.

"Look Josh, it will be okay. We're all here to support you and if anything does go wrong we know the truth and what's happened. But imagine what could come out of this if everything ends up good. Focus on that image in your head." Matt calmly explained.

"Yeah we all agree with Matt. We're here for you. We promise."

Sofia? When did she get here?

She walked towards the back of the sofa and without disturbing Olivia's arm, wrapped her arms around Josh's neck and squeezed softly. A weird hug that confirmed everything that they've just said. He lifted a hand and held onto Sofia's wrist and said thank you.

The sweet moment between the cast was interrupted by the phone on the table buzzing loudly. It was Josh's phone and everyone moved their eyesight toward it. He was sure that everyone could hear his heartbeat which had escalated the moment he saw his phone light up. He slowly inches closer to the edge of the sofa so he could reach the coffee table. After giving himself a pep talk, he cautiously picked up the phone and even though his hands shook, he managed to press the power button. He froze.

Dara was obviously too impatient and reached for the phone. After reading the notification she sighed dramatically and threw it back to Josh before she allowed herself to erupt in laughter.

"What, what's wrong?" Frankie asked.

Dara who was still trying to recover from laughter, once again grabbed the phone out of the boys hands and showed him. Frankie also started laughing before he handed the phone to Larry. Once again, Larry started chuckling before he handed the phone over towards Matts direction. He burst into laughter before chucking the phone over to Sofia and Olivia who were right next to each other. Soon everyone that surrounded Josh started laughing. Why are they laughing? It's not that serious. He couldn't see the funny side.

The thing that everyone, apart from Josh, was laughing at was that what they thought would be a text from Emma; which they were all waiting for, instead turned out to be a text from his mom who asked when they would talk on the phone.

"Hey! It's not that funny. Like none of you call your mom everyday after shooting."

Everyone knew it was true and tried to stop laughing. It was only down to a few chuckles when his phone buzzed again. This time, when he looked at the notification it was from Emma. Everyone sobered up in what seemed like 2 seconds while Josh opened up the message.

Emma🙈
Hi
Just got home from work

Here we go he thought.

"It's her."