Hey... It's Me

Chapter 18.

Josh sat next to me. His face was messed up. He had a black eye and he had a cut on his forehead, lip, and a nosebleed. I placed my ice pack on his eye and held it on his eye softly so I wouldn't hurt him.

"What'd he say?" I asked.

"He just wanted me to tell him what happened."

"You didn't have to do this, Josh."

"I did. I can't see him bother you anymore. How's your face?"

"Josh I'm fine. It's you I'm worried about."

"You still look adorable when you blush, no matter what." He added.

We laughed.

"It hurt a lot though." I said.

"But you still look cute."

I shook my head and smiled.

"All we ever seem to talk about are bad things that happen to us." I added.

"You being cute is a bad thing?" He asked.

"Not that. I'm talking about this fight, Ellie's kiss, Rose's death, when you beat me, other things like that. Then in the end we always end up kissing."

"Oh yea. We gotta stop that." He said with a laugh. "Just the sad part though. I'd go crazy if I never kissed you again."

I laughed too. In this moment, I was happy.

"When do you think the sad stuff will go away?" I asked.

"It doesn't. The sad stuff just keeps going back but eventually you feel numb and it doesn't effect you anymore."

"Numb?"

"Dead."

"I don't wanna die, not now anyways."

"Me neither."

Ryan came out of the office and then they asked me to come in. Josh held onto my hand for as long as he could.

"Mr. Joseph, I'd like to hear your side of the story." Mr. Johnson said.

"Well Ryan he- he likes to pick on people and I guess Josh just wanted to stop him."

"What do you mean?"

"Ryan talks about people, sometimes he gets physical."

"What are some of the things he says?"

"They're mostly targeted at me but he'll tell me that I should kill myself, how I'm a stalker, a freak, stuff like that."

"And did you get involved in the fight?" He asked pointing at my black eye.

"Oh no." I replied. "I was trying to pull Ryan off of Josh and ended up getting hit."

"What do you suppose I do about this, Mr. Joseph."

"That's not my call." I replied. "Am I done here?"

He nodded and I left the office Josh jumped out of his seat as soon as he saw me.

"What'd he say?" He asked.

"He just wanted to hear what I had to say."

After about an hour, the school bell rang and we could go home.

"My place or yours?" I asked.

"Yours."

We took our bikes to my house and as soon as we got there I had him lay on the couch and I put an ice pack on his eye.

"You need one for yourself." He said.

"I'll be fine." I replied.

The only sound was the ceiling fan whirring around. Josh eventually fell asleep. I got a blanket and pulled it over him. He looked so peaceful I didn't dare wake him up. I spent the next few hours sitting on the floor just watching him.

Then my phone rang. It was Jake.

"Hello?" I asked.

"THERESA!" He shouted.

"Jake this is Tyler."

"THERESA'S DEAD!"

"W-what?"

"SHE'S DEAD TYLER!" He yelled. "COME TO HER HOUSE NOW!"

He hung up and I put a small slip of paper on the coffee table in front of Josh and wrote:

Josh, call me when you wake up.

I took my bike and rode as fast as I could to her house. Jake was sitting on the sidewalk in front of her house, crying. I sat down next to him. We couldn't go inside; there was police tape everywhere.

Who'd do this and who's next?