Holding On To You//Joshler

CHAPTER 14

The streets could drown him at this rate. I pictured Josh swimming helplessly in the rising water levels and then pictured myself glued to the welcome mat next to the door.  I felt as helpless as he did. I'm not sure what my daydream meant, in fact I didn't want to think about it. It hurt to be reminded that I couldn't always help Josh, but I brushed it off as I locked the door behind me.

//

✾Josh✾

I did not wait for Tyler to meet me before school, I don't think I could handle the embarrassment of walking in late to find him already there again. In my backpack I had placed Ty's jumper from the previous night, it had taken all my willpower to put it in there. As creepy as it might have sounded I didn't want to let it go, it was warm, cosy and most of all it smelt like him. It smelt of clean, crisp laundry powder, which suggested it hadn't been worn very often. The scent itself left a light layer of lavender on the jumper, come to think of it Ty regularly smelt lightly of lavender. The only reason I wanted to return it was to not furtherly anger Ty, I knew yesterday was his idea of chaos and I didn't want to worsen his mood by stealing something of his.

When I walked into the music room it felt odd, the room was now full except from one student - Tyler. Maybe he had waited for me, which made me feel horrible. I positioned myself in the back of the room, it was the only place that had a spare seat next to it. Sneakily, I grabbed the jumper from my bag and brought it to my face, I inhaled softly and found myself in a sea of Tyler. Realising that I probably looked borderline obsessive I folded it and placed it neatly in Ty's seat.  I scanned the room , no one had seen me be weird, at least so I thought.

A minute before the bell rang Tyler stumbled into the room, his back was hunched and a hood covered his face.

"Morning!" I cooed when I saw him but he obviously wasn't a morning person.

"This is mine right?" Ty said as he looked at his seat. He obviously wasn't angry about me not waiting for him, he just seemed to be in his usual bad mood.

"Yeah, sorry if its still a little damp"

"It's okay," he sighed, "Do you not want to keep it? I mean what if it rains again, you're only in a shirt"

"I'm sure it'll be okay, but thank you for offering" he shrugged as he sat down beside me. Why did I do that? He was trying to be nice and I ruined it.

"I'm sorry I didn't wait yesterday" Ty said out of the blue, his lips were quivering slightly, he wasn't used to this.

"I'm sorry I didn't wait today" I echoed, trying to make him feel less ashamed.

"I thought we were going to stop the apologising business" he said trying to lighten the mood.

"Sorry," I said sarcastically.

He kicked me from under the table, and I returned the playful gesture. But I have come to understand the good moments in our relationship come as quickly as they go.

Brendon sauntered over from his seat that was thankfully placed at the other end of the room, for some reason he had decided to break the invisible barrier that had been separating our worlds. He loomed over our chairs, he was obviously expecting us to speak first but neither of us wanted to give in to him and his childish ways.

He coughed harshly, "Are you too stupid to see me here?"

"No" Ty retorted harshly, "I just think you're too stupid to comprehend that we didn't care enough to do anything.

Bren comically raised his hands,"Woah, look who's Mr. Confident now that he's not all by himself"

"What do you want?" I said intending to be as harsh as Ty, but I hadn't quite grasped how to be rude yet.

"Tyler's a big boy now Josh, he can defend himself"

As on cue the teacher slid into her room and sighed heavily, "Everyone to their seats" she groaned in effort to continue her disinterested mood.

I nudged Tyler, "What was that all about?"

"I don't know, he's just weird that's all"

"You'd tell me if he got worse right?"

"I suppose so"

"Tyler?" Miss.Wright called, "Who are you sat with?"

"This is Josh" he fumbled, "He was in here yesterday miss"

"Ah yes I knew that," she forced a casual expression, everyone knew she was asleep in yesterdays lesson, "I was testing you, anyway I guess you finally have a partner for your project"