The Trap (Trapped Prequel)

Chapter 3

Josh visibly relaxes but he’s smart and puts a couple more feet between us. “Only if you promise to calm the hell down. I don’t want to have to hurt you,” he adds with a cocky smirk. That’s his idea of humor and his way of dialing things down a notch.

“In your dreams,” I say, keeping my temper in check.  

I’d like to think being a football player would give me the advantage in a fight between us, but we have similar builds and at six foot two, I don’t even have an inch on him.

Yeah, the guy works a desk job but he wasn’t nicknamed “Josh the Jock” for nothing. He may not have been good enough to go professional, but he’s better than average in all the sports that count, which would be football, soccer, basketball and baseball. His mom is a Canadian transplant so he’d include hockey on that list.

“I’m not feeling your calm vibes,” he shoots back smartly.

“Cut the crap.  Do you know anything about Paige being with another guy or not?”

In a flash, he’s turns all serious on me. “I just see her with that Calder guy sometimes and I can tell he’s got it bad for her.”

I relax my stance and breathe easy. “There’s nothing there. They’re just friends.” Believe me I asked her about Trent when we first started going out. The deal is that their mothers are best friends. Paige said she thinks of the guy as a brother and I believe her because she’s never given me reason not to.

Josh let’s out a dark laugh. “If you say so.”

“I think the guy’s got it bad for Erin not Paige.” And just as I thought it would, my bullshit statement takes the wind right out of his sails. I have no idea who Trent is into. But let Josh chew on that for a bit.

“What? Erin would never go for a guy like that.” Josh’s tone is dismissive but he doesn’t look too sure about that.

“Whatever. I don’t really want to talk about them.”

“Yeah, right. Not that I care anyway,” he says. “So are you serious, you’re just going to drop out of Warwick and that’s it? God, man, don’t you guys use protection? This shit doesn’t happen by accident.”

“She’s on the Pill. It wasn’t supposed to happen.” A wave of sheer helplessness washes over me.

Josh snorts. “Yeah, I’ve heard that before. I don’t give a shit what women say, I always come with my own protection. I’m not trusting that to any female.”

My friend has serious trust issues when it comes to females. But that’s a whole other story.

“Yeah, well I trust Paige,” I say with conviction.

“And I’ve heard that before too.”

I shoot him a look that makes him take a step back. “Fine, she’s your girlfriend. You know her best. But I’m just saying, females have been known to pull shit like this.”

“Look, I’ve got a lot to think about so…” I look pointedly toward the door.

His lips thin as he stares at me for a few seconds, then with a sigh, he turns and strides to the hall where he retrieves his basketball. “You sure you don’t want to talk about it?” he asks, staring back at me.

I bark a laugh. “Yeah, no. I think I’ve had enough of your pep talk.”

Some emotion I can’t discern flickers across his face. “Hey, I’m just looking out for you.”

Which is what he’s always done, even when I’d grown tall enough and became strong enough to fight my own battles. Sometimes, I think he’s worse than my sister, who is way overprotective of me.