BF(F?): A Josh Richards Fanfiction *completed*

9

I woke up to my phone ringing well before my alarm. "Hello?" I groaned.
"Rise and shine!" Josh greeted me cheerfully on the other end of the phone.
I groaned again. "Why are you calling me before my alarm even goes off?"
"Why does your alarm go off so late?" Josh retorted.
"Why would your alarm go off any earlier?"
"Well, if I'm being completely honest with you, I never went to sleep," he admitted.
"God, you're a psychopath! I'm gonna hang up now so that I can get those few extra minutes of sleep before I have to get dressed," I replied. "I love you. Have fun being awake way too early."

I hung up, rolling back over in the bed. He's lost his mind if he thinks I'm getting up at five-thirty. Now that I was up, though, there was no way that I was falling back asleep. I groaned again, throwing my hands up in frustration.
I made my way downstairs to find my mom in the kitchen. "Oh, you're up early," she noted as she poured herself a cup of coffee. "Want some?"
I nodded. "I would love some. Josh called me for some stupid reason. I'm exhausted."
"He's always been an early-riser. When you guys had sleepovers when you were little, he would sit in the kitchen and wait for me to come downstairs. It was the cutest little thing," she reminisced, setting a mug down in front of me. "Any plans after school today?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. I might see if Jaden wants to hang out. Josh might have plans with Nessa already, so I don't know if he'll want to hang out."

She sat down at the table, wrapping her hands around her mug. "Who's Nessa?"
"Oh," I laughed. "That's, uh, well, that's Josh's new girlfriend. Josh was busy hanging out with her all summer. That's why we didn't really see much of him."
"Oh, her name is Nessa? You didn't tell me that. What about Jaden? Has he made anything official with you yet, or are you still waiting for him to grow a pair?"
"Jesus, Mom!" I exclaimed. "He grew a pair last night."
"Oh, honey, that's great! Now, I've got to go get ready for church. I'll see you later," she said, kissing my cheek as she left me sitting at the table alone in the kitchen.
I went upstairs, pulling on a pair of leggings and a football hoodie that I had stolen from Jaden. I threw my hair into a messy bun, pinning up some loose flyaways.
I checked my phone, and I chuckled angrily. "This is ridiculous. I'm making Josh take me to get coffee."

I left, opening Josh's front door. "Good morning, Mrs. Richards!" I greeted her in the kitchen. "Where's Josh at?"
"He went back upstairs a little while ago. How are you?" she asked.
"I'm doing alright," I told her, sitting down at the kitchen table. "How are you?"
She was packing Will's lunch, and she looked up at me. "Josh told me that you took a mental health day yesterday. How did that go?"
"It definitely helped. Maybe I was just being a little dramatic, but it felt like everything kind of hit harder than I thought that it was going to on the first day. Josh and I kind of grew apart over the summer, and that kind of sucked," I explained.

Josh walked into the kitchen with his sister, Olivia, following closely behind him. "Hey, Haley," Olivia greeted me, hugging me from behind. "Long time, no see."
"It has been a minute, hasn't it?" I said, patting her arm as she pulled away.
"Are you ready to go?" Josh asked, jingling his keys and tapping his foot impatiently.
"Hold your horses," I laughed. "You woke me up a half-hour early, so you can wait a little longer for me."
"If you get in the car right now, I will buy you Starbucks," he bribed me.

I got up quickly, saying goodbye to his family as I beat Josh to the car. "Let's go, slowpoke!" I yelled.
He got in the car, laughing at me. "I knew that Starbucks would motivate you. Do you want your usual? Are you feeling a bagel today?"
"I love you," I laughed as he buckled his seatbelt.
"Aren't you glad that I woke you up early now?" he asked as he pulled out of the driveway.
"Not really," I laughed. "Can I ask why you never went to sleep?"
He shrugged. "I guess that I just had too much adrenaline. I wasn't sure if Nessa would say yes, and as soon as she did, I felt like I was on top of the world."
"Trust me, I get that. Nothing comes between me and my sleep, though," I replied, looking at my phone to see a missed call from Jaden. "Not even Jaden."
"Speaking of Jaden," Josh began, turning into the Starbucks drive-through, "how long until you think that he's going to ask you to be his girlfriend?"

"Do the two of you not even talk?" I asked as Josh rolled the window down.
"Hello, welcome to Starbucks! What can I get started for you today?" the barista greeted us.
"Hello," Josh replied. "Can I get a trenta salted caramel cold brew, and a, uh, gosh, a venti iced surprise me drink, please?"
"Absolutely. Go ahead and pull forward."
"Of course we talk," Josh answered, pulling around the drive-through. "What's that got to do with anything?"
"I'm pretty sure that he would tell you when he's going to ask me out before he would tell me."
"Oh," he realized as we pulled up to the window, handing the barista his debit card. "I guess I never thought about it like that."

He handed me my drink before driving to the school. "He hasn't dropped any hints?" Josh asked.
I shook my head. "No, not really. Did you drop hints to Nessa?"
"I did," Josh said, nodding. "I'm sure that he's showing you something."
"I don't know. Maybe I missed it," I replied as we pulled into the school parking lot. "Besides, he asked me to be his girlfriend last night."