the boy on the bridge ✔️

38. ready boy

"Oh, okay,"

"And son," Josh tries to sneak off to his room without being noticed, but of course there is no chance of that, "I see you found your way home finally,"

I could tell you the same thing, Josh thinks bitterly, but remains silent nonetheless.

"Where were you last night, Joshua?"

Josh looks at his father in contemplation, if he'd should just come out and say it, that he saw him with another woman — his best friend's mother of all people, last night. It'd definitely feel good, smashing his gigantic ego into pieces, but his father isn't the only person concerned in the matter — he has to think about his mother, his sister and his best friend.

"At Zach's," he decides to say.

"So I was told," his father says cryptically, and Josh wonders for a moment if he'd caught him at the drive-in theatre — Josh concludes he doesn't care either way.

He was with his boyfriend; there is nothing for him to be ashamed of, Josh just shrugs dismissively, very well knowing his father's hatred of non-verbal answers.

"Why were you there?" he asks, his voice terse.

"For a project," Josh answers curtly, purposefully testing his father's patience further.

"And you were so busy with your project that you couldn't answer your phone?"

"Phone died,"

"Were there no phone chargers at your friend's house?"

"Forgot,"

"Son," he pinches the bridge of his nose tightly, exhaling through his nose, before fixing his eldest son with an unwavering glare in an attempt to assert dominance — Josh will be lying if he said he wasn't intimated, it is hard not to be, but still he meets his father's glare directly, "I don't know what games you're playing at, but you ought to know that this isn't the time to be fooling around with your friends, or anyone else for that matter. You're a senior now, your last year of high school — if you don't get your act together and score your exams, you might just as well say goodbye to your future, because trust me no good college is going to want a boy who doesn't know how to keep up his priorities in order. Do you get me?"

The blond keeps mum, although his blood is boiling — how dare he sit in front of him and talk to him like the most righteous man ever, when he is everything but.

However still, Josh manages to keep calm and give his father the answer he needs, "I'll do better,"

"I can't hear you,"

"I'll do better, sir," he says again, louder this time.

"Good,"

*****

"Hey, you," Elliot hugs him from behind, kissing his neck. "How was your day?"

"Shit,"

Elliot looks at him surprised and then fakes a dramatic gasp, "My golden boy just swore. What have this world come to?"

"Shut up," Josh scoffs, and then leans back so he is against Elliot's sturdy torso, and the latter wraps his arms around him.

"What's up?" he asks as he rests his chin on the blond's shoulder.

"Just my father," the blond sighs.

"Did you..." Elliot drawls unsure how to phrase the question in his mind.

"No," Josh says, and then untangles Elliot's arms around him, so he can turn and look at his face. He frowns, "He was at the house today when I went back after school and he did this whole interrogation thing, and you have no idea just how much I wanted to snap at him. But I just..." he lets out a heavy breath, "What about my mother, you know? And then there's my sister and then Zach?" he covers his face with his hands, groaning.