𝘀𝗵𝗲'𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗱, josh richards

fifteen

February 20th 2023
8:24 pm

Sitting in the toasty car in the almost deserted parking lot, Vada and Josh quietly sipped on their drinks, neither knowing what to say. Vada toyed with her fingers in attempt to avoid Josh, while Josh couldn't keep his off her. He found it hard to wrap his head around that after almost two years she was beside him.

"Vada" Josh spoke breaking the unfathomable silence. "What happened?"

"Huh?" She softly hummed.

"Vada just talk to me" He calmly asked.

"About?"

"About your fucking opinion on One Direction! Vada fucking silence for a year and a half and then texting me at fucking 3am being all 'I'm sorry'!" He exclaimed.

"I don't know okay! Just fucking forget about it, it was a mistake!" She was getting flustered.

"You don't do mistakes! What happened!" He demanded.

"God Josh, I don't fucking know!"

"Vada why can't you just talk to me!"

"About what!" She was looking at him now.

"Everything! What's going on, I'm not fucking dumb. It's obvious something's fucking wrong, or you at least had a reason!" He knew her too well.

"Well maybe I didn't have one!" She argued.

"Bullshit!" He countered.

"What do you want me to say!" She almost yelled with her voice cracking.

"I don't know! Just give me reason I mean fuck Nevada, I fucking l- missed you!" He stuttered.

"Josh I'm sorry okay! Can you just drive home please! I just wanna go home!" Her eyes were burning. She couldn't cry now.

"Just tell me why!" He pleaded.

"I can't! Okay I can't because I don't fucking know why! I just did okay!" She lied, slamming her hands on the dashboard. Of course she knew why she cut him off.

"Vada" He quietly spoke as he reached a hand over to her's. She pulled her hand away almost instantly.

"Drive Josh" Her voice cracked as tears began to swell in her eyes.

Josh didn't pester her again, he quietly shifted the car into reverse. He kept wanting to say something but he reluctantly refrained. He didn't want to push her. He wondered if she was still attending UFT or if she had ended up switching to York. York had a better teaching program than UFT, and Vada had been talking about transferring. She'd also jokingly mentioned going to school in Buffalo. He wondered if she was even still in a teaching program. It had been almost two years, and a lot could have changed in that time. He figured he'd ask her tomorrow, when she'd hopefully be more up to talk to him.

Vada awoke to the curtains in her bedroom being yanked open. No one was supposed to be home, it was a Tuesday, or at least she thought it was. it was between 11:30 and 1. She was leaning more towards 1.

"Get up" Josh said before walking into her closet.

"Get out" She grumbled into her pillow. Josh soon came out, but wasn't holding anything.

"Why aren't your outside sweats in your closet anymore?" He asked confused. She forgot she did that, separated her clothes into home and outside clothes. It was something she picked up from her mother.

"Out" She huffed as she sat up and pointed to the door.

"Nope. I took the time to find out your schedule from Karina and turns out today you have no classes so we're gonna talk and by me I mean you, because yesterday you said fucking nothing" God he was persistent. He never changed. She felt like they were twelve again.

"Shut up Josh" She groaned as her eyes throbbed. She was far too hungover for his antics. The car ride home the previous night was silent, both scared to utter a word. Vada couldn't sleep that night, and ended up drinking 3/4 of a bottle of vodka she found under her bed.

"No can do I've had three ice capps and a fuck ton of timbits" He smiled as he bounced up and down. He sounded wired.

"Either get in the bed and sleep or get out" She pointed to the door. Josh didn't hesitate one bit before practicing launching himself into Vada's bed. He slipped under her top blanket, it was a duvet with green, blue and purple polka dots scattered amongst it. Vada however was snuggled under three more blankets. First her a pink fleece blanket Josh given her, then a duvet she got when she was twelve that had various Eiffel Towers and Paris related things scattered over it, which was followed by her fleece turquoise Kate Spade Costco blanket, and finally the polka dot duvet. He didn't remember her sleeping with this many blankets. Maybe three but never four.

She turned to her side, facing him and his blue eyes. She missed him. A smile played on his lips as he admired her, unsure if when the next time they'd be like this would be. He wanted to kiss her. He loved her more than she would ever know. They were so close their noses almost touched. He couldn't help but notice her cheeks were almost hollow, far more than they had ever been, and her brown eyes that were once so full of life looked almost dead. Something he hadn't noticed yesterday.

"I'll come over in a bit, then we'll talk" She murmured, she was about to fall back asleep. Vada struggled to keep her eyes open.

"I can hang out here while you sleep" He suggested, he didn't want to leave.

"No it's good, I need to get up"

"Vada, sleep. I can hang out here, I need to answer emails anyway"

The two both ended up falling asleep, Vada longer than Josh. He woke up with her one arm spread across his chest and touching the bed beside him, and the rest of her curled in a ball. He picked up his phone, the time read 1:44. He had only been out half an hour. Unsure if he should wake Vada or not, Josh carefully sat up in her bed, causing her to stir.

"Fuck" He muttered.

"Hmm" She hummed in response.

"Fuck sorry"

"It's good" She yawned as she pulled the four blankets over her shoulders. "How's Dave?" She murmured.

"Dave?" Josh laughed. "Dave's very Dave. Obsessed with Taylor Swift more than usual"

"Good he should be, and Bri?"

"Also very Bri. She died her hair pink"

"You should go pink"

"Why"

"Why not! It'll be so cool as i'll do streaks, we can match!"

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3/8/2023

k, bye i love u -DARCYSBITCH