emotions//joshler

liar

Mel orned her mouth, but no words came out.

"Mel," Josh said softly, the unasked question bursting in his voice. "You have the confession, right?"

And there it was. What he had been searching for, buried deep, deep down, in an area so hard to get to Josh could feel himself physically growing tired from keeping the colour visible.

"Pale orange..." he muttered aloud. "You're lying."

She looked up at him, and to Josh's vicious horror, her eyes were filled with tears.

"The confession isn't real."

Just like that, every single hope and shred of confidence he'd had in the fact that things would go well exploded into dust.

"It's a lie?" he heard himself say.

She nodded miserably, not meeting his or Pete's accusing gazes. Takng a deep breath, she began.

"When you met me, it was obvious you were desperate. I knew that physical fear wouldn't work with Chris, I knew that man. I hated him, I still do. And you were there and you were so desperate to do something to stop him, it got me thinking. What if I just forged a confession, a confession for the murder of that little boy all those years ago. We could take it to court, say that I found it on a private server. He could be convicted. Both parties would be happy. And if it failed..."

She paused.

"And if it failed, well...it-it wasn't me who was gonna suffer, that's what I thought. It wasn't me..."

Her voice wavered to an end and Josh felt a suffocating swell of anger burst in him.

"So not only did you lie," he said slowly, his voice shaking. "But you did this all to get back at a man just because, what, just becquse he fucking fired you? From your post as a secretary?"

"It was more than that-"

"Oh, please, tell me!" Josh hissed, voice oozing sarcasm. "I'm dying to hear!"

"He was making moves, he was hurting me! Don't you see-"

"The one boy I love is currently at home, thinking that everything will work out tomorrow. If it doesn't, he will be going straight back to hell. And I dont know a lot, but I know he won't last long."

This time she stayed silent, and the quiet was almost as bad as the arguments.

"You lied." Josh growled. "You lied, bitch."

Mel tried to speak this time, but Josh ploudged ahead. His hands shook in his lap.

"And now Tyler might eat shit because of it? That's real fucking classy of you, I commend you. God, what a wh-"

"Josh." Pete said gently, bringing him down to earth. Josh exhaled forcefully, feeling the waves of anger roll off his shoulders. He exhaled again, rubbing a hand through his silver hair.

"There's no point in getting angry, I guess." he muttered at the floor. "I'm sorry."

Mel just inhaled shakily. Pete got up and hurried into the kitchen, returning with a cup of water for Mel and a coke for Josh. He grunted his thanks and drank deeply.

"What's gonna happen now?" Pete asked, shattering the tense silence.

Josh could feel both Pete's worried gaze and Mel's fearful one on him as he chewed his lip. There really wasn't anything they could do. What's done had been done. As far as Tyler knew, they had concrete evidence.

And it was going to stay thag way for him. It wasn't going to be hospital, the sequal.

"We don't tell Tyler."

"He has the right to know-" Mel began but stopped at the looks both Josh and Pete threw her.

"He has the right to remain safe for as long as possible." Josh said pointedly. "You fucked up, and it's on you, Mel. I'm not letting Tyler suffer until there's simply nothing left I can do to stop it, understand? He doesn't find out it's a lie."

Pete nodded calmly. "And are you gonna play along with the evidence throughout the meeting too?"

Josh sighed deeply. "I mean," he paused, banishing the hopeless note from his voice. "What can we do?"

"Maybe he really did kill Jay," Mel muttered.

"Hopefully." Josh said to himself. Hope was a terrible thing to balance everything on, but at this moment it was the best they had.

"Chris won't take Tyler, right?" Mel asked fearfully. Josh shot her a furious glare and a flash of blue-black darted actoss her emotions.

She was afraid of him.

Josh relazed his tense arms. He hadn't even known his hands had been clenched, and he winced at the line of deep fingernail marks on his palm. Looking up, he shrugged helplessly. He wished he had something else to give, but he didn't. The confession had been his last hope to offer, but even that was gone.

Only luck could save Tyler now.

//ONE MORE DAY THEN I'M FREEEEEEEE also does anyone really like this story cause I feel like no one does lmao//