Hard To Love (a Josh Hutcherson Fan Fiction)

Chapter 15

"It's long and depressing." I sigh. 

"Well then give me the short version." he laughs. 

i take a deep breath, "Orphan since birth, turned 18, ran away. Thats the shortest version I know, and I'll spare you the details for your own good." 

"Oh wow. I'm not so sure I want to know the long version." he says. 

"You don't. Trust me.." 

"You know, you're actually pretty cool." he says. 

I laugh, "you're pretty cool too I guess." 

There is an awkward silence and he sighs and then stands up.

"We should probably get back, Its getting late... or early, or whatever." he says, climbing off the playground. 

I nod and hop down and we start to walk back.

"So where ya from?" he asks. 

"New York actually. I was living in LA for a few days before I came here." 

"Who were you living with in LA?" 

"Ah, that is one of the small details that I decided not to say before." 

He nods his head, "Okay, understood." 

We get back into the house and I get back situated on the pull out bed. I rub my eyes which are stinging from lack of sleep and from crying. 

"Oh and Stella, Happy New Year." he smiles at me. 

"Yeah, same to you!" i smile back and roll over on the pul out bed and attempt to close my eyes as I hear his door shut.

Right. Happy fucking New Year. 

Josh's POV

"Josh, snap out of it man." Andre snaps his fingers in front of my face. I shake my head. "Dude you have been in this trance since New Years. That was almost a week ago, what is going on?" 

I shake my head, "its nothing. Just exhausted." I rest my head in my palms with my elbows on the table in front of me. 

"Hmm, and who the hell is this girl?" he slams a magazine in front of me and I see the picture on the front cover along with the headline, Hunger Games star Josh Hutcherson spotted with Mystery Girl.  

My jaw drops. The picture is of Stella and I at the airport almost two weeks ago, hand in hand. What took them so long to publish this? Usually pictures of me get out the day they are taken. "Oh dear God." I mumble. 

"What who is she? Did you meet her in New York?" he asks. 

I nod my head slowly, "Well where is she now?" he questions, flipping through the magazine. I just shrug my shoulders. 

"I met her when I was in Kentucky for the Thanksgiving game. She is why I went to New York in the first place. Her name is Stella. Stella Foster. She was an orphan and she ran away and stayed with me for a few weeks. She went to Kentucky with me for Christmas and my family loved her. Then we moved back here and well things got bad. We had a huge fight and now I don't know where she is." I sigh heavily. 

"wow man, thats tough." he looks at me with sympathetic eyes. 

"Yeah, and the thing is, I was falling in love with her. And she thought love wasn't real, but she wrote me a letter before she left saying she might have been falling for me too. She had so many insecurities and walls built up that I was trying so hard to help fix, but she thought she was nothing but a burden to me, but she wasn't. and I only wish I could tell her that."