the boy on the bridge ✔️

25. diner boy

"What?"

"You're behaving like a pig," Val exclaims, scrunching up her nose, and then gesturing at the blond, "He has something to tell us,"

"Cool," he tells, turning to Josh, completely ignoring the first part of Val's statement, "You don't mind if I keep eating, do you?"

"No,"

Another tissue ball makes its way towards Zach and he turns towards Val, almost exasperated, "What now?"

"Of course, he's going to say no, you dipshit. Just stop eating for a bit,"

"If you want one of my chicken fingers, just ask, alright,"

"Wh–,"

Josh decides this may be a good time as any and so he abandons his anxiety and speaks over the both of them, "I'm gay,"

That stops his friends' argument abruptly and the both of them turn to him.

"What?" Zach responds first.

Inhaling slowly, Josh says it once again, this time with both of his friends' attention on him, but it isn't as nearly daunting as he had anticipated, "I'm gay,"

"For real?"

This time Val stands up and leans forward, smacking Zach on the back of his head — the latter who hadn't anticipated the hit receives it and groans, rubbing the spot, "What was that for?"

"Do you really need me to explain?" she raises an eyebrow challengingly, sitting back down, crossing her arms across her abdomen.

"I didn't mean for real, for real," he tries to explain, "I meant..." he looks at Val and then at Josh and then back at the girl, rubbing the back of his neck, "Okay, yeah, I don't know what I actually meant," to Josh, "I'm sorry, man. I'll go again, okay. I don't know why I said that, but here's what I know: I have known you since like we were kids and you are my best friend, and that's not going to change, man. You're gay? It's cool. You're still you to me,"

"That's... what you should have said first. Damn, that was actually good," Valerie comments.

"Thanks, man," Josh chuckles, and feels a light tap on his arm.

He turns and sees that Val has her arms outstretched. Smiling even wider, he moves closer to her, and hugs her back.

"I love you," is all she says.

Josh doesn't even miss a beat, "I love you too," and his voice may have caught in his throat in the end.

Everything has gone way, way better than he expected and really there is nothing else than he can feel than pure happiness and gratefulness.

"Wait!" Zach suddenly exclaims, looking at Josh wide-eyed.

"Please don't say something stupid," Valerie mumbles out loud, looking up as if in prayer.

"Do you like, have a crush on me — and that's how you've come to realise that you're gay?" to Valerie, he raises his hands up in surrender and says, "You have no idea how many stories go like that,"

"And there he goes," Val lets out an exasperated.

"Ooooh," back at Josh, he asks, "Is that why you broke up with Valerie?"

Huffing, Val picks out an ice cube out of the empty glass of Coke Zach has left and throws it at him, "Fuck you,"

"I was just curious. Sorry!"

The girl only shakes her head, "That wasn't cool to ask, okay,"

"Yeah, okay. Sorry,"

However, pursing her lips, she turns to Josh, "You can answer the questions if you want to, though,"

"Hah, you're curious too, aren't you?"

"Shut up!"

"Okay, okay. Settle down, children," Josh intervenes, chuckling, more than used to both of their behaviours. It might sound like they're heading towards a big argument but they never really do fight — it's just a little good-natured banter.

He gives them a little shrug as he proceeds to answer Zach's doubts. He scrunches his nose in distaste as he thinks back to Zach's first question.

"Sorry, to burst your bubble buddy, but I don't have a crush on you. Never had one," he quickly adds, knowing that's what Zach is going to ask him when he opens his mouth.

Zach his mouth with a little humph which only proves that he was right to assume so.

"You're like my brother, dude. I'm never going to see you that way,"

"Happy to hear that," Zach bops his head up and down once, "But, I was thinking finally I was going to be living out the stories I read," he ends with a clock of his tongue.

"What kind of stories do you even read?" Valerie wonders out loud.

"Juicy ones," Zach answers without missing a beat, wiggling his eyebrows up and down.

"Forget I even asked," Valerie waves a hand at him, as if swatting away a mosquito and turns her attention back to the blond, "You always kinda knew you were gay, didn't you?"

Josh shrugs sheepishly, grimacing. He has been wondering about that, and the few instances he can recall does point that out to him more than clearly. Maybe he just had been ignoring all the while and it took him meeting someone he genuinely likes and can not ignore to make him face the inevitable truth.

"That explains why we never past second base when we were dating. I just always assumed you weren't ready,"

Josh blushes crimson at that unexpected statement, and Zach, on the other hand, looks livelier than ever.

"So, you guys are virgins?"

"Shut up, Zach," Josh groans out loud, covering his face with both of his hands.

Valerie doesn't mind at all though and says, "Well, you can't really blame me for that, or Josh — poor guy. All he needed was a di–,"

"Please, stop," Josh interrupts, pressing his hands to ears, while both of his friends start cackling.

After they settle down (and that took a few minutes), Zach clarifies, "Hey, no judgement from me at all. It's cool — virgins are cool. Non-virgins are cool too," and after a moment's thought, "No sex people are cool as well,"

"It's asexual, you idiot," Val informs him.

"Right, asexual. Cool. All very cool. Absolutely zero judgement from me,"

Val shakes her head at him, trying to hide her smile, while Josh chuckles openly.

After a few seconds, Val looks at Josh with the same suspicious look she had at first, "Is that why you're treating us out today?" she asks him, "Are you trying to bribe us into accepting you?"

Josh gives her a lopsided grin, "Worked, didn't it?"

"Haha, funny,"

"Would have worked with me, to be honest," Zach adds in, and earns a quick slap on his arm from the girl, "Ow. You've got to stop hitting me,"

"Once you stop saying something stupid every ten minutes, I'll stop,"

"This is ab–" but he ends his sentence short when he sees Josh shaking his head at him, mouthing at him to stop.

"I'm sorry, what were you gonna say?"

"Nothing," he shrugs, and pops a fry out of his mouth, and then looks at Josh momentarily alarmed, "You're still paying for all this, right?"

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