Hide And Seek ~ Josh Dun

Chapter 9

"Abby, calm me down. I need you to calm me down." Josh is sitting on the ground to the left of the stage, his elbows on his knees and his hands behind his head. His voice is thick with desperation, and I kneel infront of him.

"Take deep breaths, J. It's ok. Let's do some breathing exercises, yeah? Can you look at me?" I speak softly, placing my hand on his arm. He looks up at me, and my heart crumbles at the sight. His eyes are bloodshot, and his lips are all chewed up.

"Good. Now let's breathe. Breathe in for five, and out for seven. Close your eyes and pretend your chest is like a balloon. You want to fill it up, and then slowly deflate it." He does so, closing his eyes. His eyebrows are scrunched. While he is doing this, he grabs my hands, and I gently rub my thumb against his calloused hand. When I do that, he grips my hands tighter.

"You're doing such a great job. Keep breathing. I'm going to tell you a story to get whatever it is off your mind, yeah?" He nods.

"Ok, so let's travel back in time to when I was 20. Two years ago. I wanted to dye my hair a lavender color. Well little ol' me likes to do it myself, so I put it in my hair and waited around 40 minutes. Well, when I wash it out, my hair turned into a silver/lilac color. It looked so weird. But my niece, oh my god she loved it. Whenever I saw her she would always play with it. Her name is Anastasia. She would always listen to your band with me. All you had to do was hold her in your arms and sing, and she's bob her little head and sing along until she fell asleep. Precious little thing." By now, Josh is staring at me a small smile on his face.

"She sounds like a little cutie. I definitely have to meet her one day." His voice is quiet, almost inaudible. Squeezing his hand, I nod.

"You will. I promise."

"Thank you.." Looking away, he brings my hand to his face, and I cup his cheek, causing him to lean into it.

"I'm here for you, ok?" He nods, his smile growing bigger. "Good! Now let's stand up!" I jump up, and reach my hands out to him, which he gladly accepts.

~~
"Hey, Ab?" Josh whispers in the darkness. I roll over in bed and sit up.

"Yeah, Jish?" I wipe the sleep away from my eyes and look over to his bed. He is laying on his back with his arms behind his head, staring at the ceiling.

"Have your friends tried contacting you at all?" I'm shocked by his question. Standing up, I walk over to his bed and sit down at the end.

"No. Not even a text message." I watch him as he sits up.

"You deserve better than that.. Do you know why they did what they did?" He leans forward, placing his head on his hand.

"Not really. I know Liz didn't like me all that much. I don't know why though. I think I spaced out around her too much and it made her mad."

"Spaced out? You've done that a couple of times here. Does it happen to you often?" I sigh, laying down in his lap.

"Way more often than I would like. I don't even know when I do it. I'll just be focusing on one thing and the next thing I know it's almost 3 hours later or something.." He grabs a piece of my hair and twirls it around his finger.

"Do you know what causes it?"

"Not even close. Doctors weren't much of a help either." He uses his fingers to massage my scalp, and I let out a soft sigh.

"Well, still. That doesn't give them a right to do what they did. But I'm glad, because I met you." He smiles down at me, his eyes squinting, and I return the gesture.

"Me too.." He stares into my eyes, and I just let myself get lost in them. For a man, he is honestly one of the most beautiful things in the world.

"Sleep next to me tonight.." His voice is so soft, and his face gets darker with blush.

"Okay." His eyes widen, his mouth forming a small circle. I slowly sit up, and crawl up to where the blankets are and pull them down. He slide over, giving me room.

I lay down on my side, facing away from him and he wraps his arm around my waist, pulling me deeper into him.

"Goodnight, Abby-Lynn.." He breathes.

"Goodnight, Jishawa."