Falling Slowly

Pt.3|Ch.6

I nodded. "Last night."

"I don't remember...did I say goodbye to her?"

"No," Josh shook his head. "You were asleep. But she kissed you on the cheek, so it's all good."

"I should call her today."

"We're all gonna call her today." I said, glancing up at Sky. "Maximum of three times."

"Dang it." He muttered under his breath.

"Anyway," Josh turned to me. "We just wanted to swing by and see if you wanted to grab breakfast or something before the matinee."

Ben pressed an offended hand to his chest. "You mean you didn't come to see me?"

"We didn't think you'd be awake!" Josh retaliated, raising his hands defensively.

"It's fine." Ben crossed his arms, looking away with a fake sniff. "I don't need you."

Josh rolled his eyes. "Right, and who would make sure you always made it home safe at night?"

"The sugar plum fairy." Ben shot back, an amused glint in his bright blue eyes.

I shrugged. "I could see Josh as the sugar plum fairy."

"So could I, but that's beside the point," Josh returned the conversation to its original track. "Do you want to go to breakfast with us or not?"

"Well," I looked back down at Ben, "maybe I should stay,"

He tilted his head. "Why?"

"Won't you get bored?"

"Eh," he shrugged, "I should probably call my mom, and that'll probably take up a fair amount of time."

"But we'd have to go to the theater directly after we eat." I winced. "That's over eight hours by yourself."

He gave me a smirk. "Do you mean 'by myself' as in 'lonely', or as in 'unsupervised'?"

"Seriously," I ignored his sarcasm, "I can stay—"

"No." He shook his head. "You should go with them."

"Are you sure?"

He nodded. "I'm positive. You'll be back here when I get released anyway."

"Alright." I surrendered. "When do you get released?"

"4:30."

"We'll come back right after the matinee." Josh promised, dragging Sky out of the room by the arm.

I looked back down at Ben. "I guess I'll see you later this afternoon."

He nodded, smiling. "See you then."

I pressed a quick kiss to his lips. "Try to stay out of trouble."

"Love you," He said, his smirk still prominently displayed across his expression.

"Love you too." I replied, following the boys out the door.

"You do realize that wasn't a promise to stay out of trouble?" Josh whispered to me as we walked down the hallway.

"Yeah, I know." I shrugged, smiling softly. "But it was good enough for me."

He gasped loudly and stumbled against the wall, feigning dramatic agony. "No! It's too much cute for me to handle this early in the morning!"

"It's almost eight o'clock." Sky mumbled.

Josh scowled and sped up his walking pace so he could vehemently repeat his sentence in Sky's ear, "This. Early. In. The. Morning."