𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗮 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿 , grand army

𝒊𝒙. the concept of death

       Joshua Lawrence did not even know why he would so casually spit out something so personal to the girl who was recalled as Grand Army's biggest gossip. Sure, he knew that the young Latina too was no Hetero but he also knew about her crippling addiction to petty High School vengeance and retaliation, especially when it came to her, let's face it, fairly shitty exes. Joshua's racing mind thought of Mike━━ Mikey Brown, her first real boyfriend from the dreadful freshman year, the year that her naïveness had diminished by a greater level.

       Mikey Brown was an upperclassman, a senior to be precise that had quite the long and scandalous reputation attached to his incredibly douchey side smirk when it came to the girls at his High School. Obviously, when the older boy sparked interest on a younger, fourteen-year-old, more artless Evie, she was over the moon. She felt flattered as he ( unbeknownst to her ) manipulatively flirted with her at her locker in the ninth-grader area, complimenting the two, cute little dimples that would appear underneath both of her sugarplum-like cheeks when she smiled. His eyes would spark with mischief as he glanced at her with a look that indicated that he indeed knew that he was attractive. A sinful smirk was plastered upon Mikey's pale, sand-colored face as he effortlessly managed to score a date with the new, unknowing freshman. Sure, a part of her had wondered why one of the clearly more popular guys at school wouldn't go for a hotter senior girl but unfortunately, her happiness had clouded her judgment fairly.

       To make a long story short, after a few dates had passed, the last one resulting in the loss of her virginity, Mikey's attentiveness to the girl went downwards as he started to avoid her for reasons she was not aware of. The at-the-time young Evie thought of all the possible reasons as to why he felt the annoying need to ignore her every move, especially as he had begged her to send revealing, topless photos of herself just a few days prior. Little did she know that the reasoning would soon be apprehended once she overheard the boy talking about her nudes, bragging about the many ones he had received as he waved them around his friends like some sort of sick trophy. He was excited about his high score on the little game that he and his male, swim team classmates were playing━━ One that oddly resembled the watered-down Senior Salute game from the St. Paul's school in New Hampshire that resulted in the sexual assault of a student. The next thing she knew, he was charged with child pornography charges as revenge for spreading them around the school grounds. Even if she did undeniably get the satisfaction of watching squirm for a little while, then getting a fair amount of money as a settlement, she still got labeled as the school's slut and quite frankly, that reputation stuck.

       His thousand-mile-a-minute thoughts were cut short as he perceived a heartfelt embrace, arms being wrapped around his neck in a supportive manner. It was none other than his ex wrapping her frail arms around his skinny body in an attempt to assure the boy that his newly-outed secret, was safe with her. It was an odd feeling to finally sense the girl's stiff but protective and sincere squeeze as she rarely hugged anybody due to her trust issues and her cold personality. The only people that Joshua had seen the tan girl wrap her hands around in affection were Joey and George during the entirety of their doomed relationship. His arms enveloped themselves around Evie's back as a way to return the hug. He could get a whiff of the heavenly airy scent of her expensive lavender perfume that she would spritz upon her collar every single morning. A foreign aroma of smoldered fruit was also apparent but this time it was situated upon her jacket. The fragrance belonged to the E-cigarette that had been shoved inside of the pockets of her puffer jacket as the coil was burnt. It was an odd mixture of odors at first but Evie made it work.

       Breaking the lovely embrace, Evie was finally ready to speak her mind on the situation and his sexuality : " Honestly, I understand why you didn't tell me, coming out is hard. Hell, I haven't even told my mom yet. I've treated you so badly and I'm probably not someone you like right now but Josh, even if we're not together, I love you so much and I have so much respect for you. " A soft smile made its way upon Evie's face, replacing her usual cold look. She took Joshua's hand in her's as she looked into his hazy blue eyes, waiting for some kind of read.