Room 241: A Josh Richards Story

35- Day with Friends

You don't even remember falling asleep, but when you wake up Josh is nuzzling his head against your hair spooning you. He whispers in your ear:
"I didn't mean to fall asleep so early, did you sleep ok?"

You nod and look over at Charli's bed and see Jaden asleep still sitting up with his back leaning against the wall, and Charli curled up head still in his lap. He opened his eyes and looked at you, then looked down to make sure charli was still sleeping.

Josh: *chuckling*
"You don't ever get to call me a simp again, dude."

Jaden: "What? She was tired, I didn't want to move and wake her up."

Josh: "Like I said, simp."

Charli started to yawn herself awake and stretched realizing how she had fallen asleep. She sat up awkwardly and started to get dressed. Jaden rubbed his neck that was sore from sleeping in the sitting position.

Charli: *teasing*
"Okay crybaby, I'll buy you some coffee to show my appreciation."

Jaden: "Do you guys want to come?"

Josh: "Actually I need to go to my room and change. I have some stuff I need to do today."

You try to make an excuse to stay home and help Jaden out, but Charli drags you out the door with them. After breakfast, Jaden tags along for some shopping you and Charli decided to do. It was so sweet to see how he treated her. He even grabbed her bags and carried them without being asked. In the last store, Jaden was wandering around the store while you and Charli were in the fitting room showing each other each outfit you tried on.

You: "Jaden is so much sweeter than I realized."

Charli: "You weren't saying that when you were waiting weeks for him to call you back."

She had a point, but even Josh had noticed that something was different about how he was treating Charli. He gave so much effort for nothing in return and just wasn't giving up.

You: "When someone is meant to be something special, effort comes a lot easier."

Charli: "I don't think anything else is going to come of this than friendship, sorry."

You: "I will always support you following your heart, but as your best friend if this is you running scared from your heart then I'm going to call you out on it."

Charli: "You think I like him?"

You: "You liked him enough to sleep with him..."

Charli: "Fair enough. I just- I don't know. What if he ends up just like another Nick."

You: "What if he ends up being another Josh... the right boy that heals your heart after the wrong boy destroys it."

Charli: "Yeah... but in that situation the destructive boy WAS Jaden. It's just hard to trust it enough to give it any chance at all."

Before you can reassure her more, your phone goes off:
"It's probably Josh. He promised to meet us for dinner after shopping."

Josh: "Hey baby, bad news. I am going to have to skip dinner."

You: "What? Why?"

Josh: "I have to get caught up on school work at the library. But I will see you later, ok?"

You: "I love yo-"

He'd already hung up before you could finish and Charli looks at you surprised by how short Josh had been:
"How is he already behind? It's literally the first day of class."

You pull your shirt back over your head and ask:
"Can we just go home?"

Jaden: *waiting outside the fitting rooms for you guys*
"Are we ready for dinner?"

Charli: *interrupting*
"Actually, Josh had to cancel... so we were thinking we'd just head home."

Jaden picks up what she's getting at and rubs your head when he sees you looking sad:
"Why don't you girls go ahead and head back to campus and I'll uber myself home after I get some stuff done."

Charli mouths the words:
"Thank you"

You get back to the dorm and curl up in bed. You can't figure out why you're so upset. You told yourself you were going to support him in school better this semester so he didn't fall behind and here you were being dramatic when he does it. After twenty minutes, there's a knock at the door. You peek out from under your blanket, but it's just Jaden.

Jaden: "I come bearing a feast. I thought you girls might like take-out."

Charli: "Thank you, but maybe it'd be better if she didn't have a bunch of people in the room because she has a headache."

You: "Actually, I really just want to go to sleep. Why don't you guys go to Jaden's room and eat."

Jaden sits a plate of pizza next to you and he and Charli leave.