A/N: Okay... I had honestly forgotten about this chapter, and I have a feeling you guys are gonna hate it🤭, but KEEP IN MIND, I wrote it a long time ago now and it's from Skye's perspective!! I'm sorry, I just don't have the energy to rewrite anything and there are only a few chapters left until the epilogue anyway :)
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SKYLAR
However, the temporary guardians of a foster child are not obligated to provide long-term care, which can create a lack of certainty that leads to a false sense of stability and security for the
I was in my room writing an English essay for school when the doorbell rang. Since Joe was in London, I knew Taylor was talking to me when I heard her a minute later calling out, "Honey?"
"Yeah?" I called back as I continued to type.
child's future. With the knowledge that they can
"Skye?" Taylor called out again.
"What?" I shouted back, rolling my eyes before I skimmed through what I'd already written.
be taken
"Skylar!"
"What is it?!" I shouted, standing up from the desk and stomping out of my room to look for her.
As I walked through the kitchen, I found her standing by the front door, looking uneasy. Her mouth was tightly pursed into a thin line, and she was trying to look anywhere but at Josh who stood next to her in a fleece-lined flannel jacket, his hands tucked into the front pockets of his dark blue jeans. After getting ready for our date a few hours earlier, I had started doing some leftover schoolwork and completely forgotten about our plans. I felt a twinge of guilt for leaving Taylor alone with him for so long, but Josh didn't seem to notice how uncomfortable she was.
"Hi," he said, grinning at me.
I returned the smile and felt Taylor's eyes following me as well as his as I walked over to stand on my tiptoes and give him a kiss. "Hey."
"Alright, guys, break it up." Taylor walked over and put a hand on each of my shoulders, pulling me away from Josh. Josh just kept grinning, unaware of the frosty energy Taylor was giving off, but it didn't go unnoticed by me, and I looked up at her with uncertainty. She met my eyes and gave me a smile that didn't reach her eyes, but I had already made Josh wait long enough so I quickly went back to my room to retrieve my phone and purse.
When I came back, I put my coat on over the brown turtleneck that I was wearing and smiled up at Josh as I grabbed his hand.
"Ready?" he asked.
I nodded, and we said goodbye to Taylor and went out to his blue pickup. It was pretty cold out at around 40 degrees, but the temperature was unfortunately predicted to rise again next week.
"Have you ever gone ice skating before?" I wondered when we finally pulled into the parking lot of the ice rink. There weren't a lot of cars parked which hopefully meant there weren't a lot of people inside.
"Not really. I mean, I've gone with some friends a few times, but I'm not good at it."
"Okay, good," I smiled, relieved. "I only went, like, once last year, and I had to hold onto Zade the entire time. I almost even made him fall with me at one point." I laughed, but Josh didn't seem to think it was funny and instead looked deep in his own thoughts.
"You went ice skating with Zade?" he finally asked. We'd found an empty parking spot only a few cars away from the doors, but neither of us unbuckled our seatbelts.
"Well, yeah."
He turned from the windshield to face me. "Be honest, were y'all dating at some point?"
The question took me off guard and I smiled at him. "What, no? You know we didn't date. I haven't dated either Zade or Connor, you know that."
"But you liked him at some point, didn't you? You wouldn't have gone ice skating with him if you didn't like him."
I sighed. We'd already had a similar conversation about Zade when I first mentioned him to Josh, and I was a bit over it now. "Josh, we went as friends. All my friends from New York were there with us. Can we not do this now, please?"
He pursed his lips into a small smile and wordlessly nodded. Satisfied with that answer, I got the backpack that Josh had packed with hot chocolate and food out of the car, and he gently took it from me without a word when he'd walked over to my side of the car. I slid my hand into Josh's, and we made our way to the entrance.
"I'm sorry," Josh said, breaking the silence as he stood in front of the door to keep it open for me, and I brushed past him into the building. "I shouldn't have asked."
"It's fine," I shrugged. I just wanted to forget about it and move on.
He reached out and gently touched my arm, making me slow down. "No really, I mean it. I love you."
The simple words made my lips automatically tug upward. I would never get tired of hearing him say that. "Love you too."
There were surprisingly few people inside the cold building, so we quickly managed to buy a ticket each and rent the skates. As we stepped onto the ice, it was clear that neither of us were seasoned skaters — we wobbled unsteadily and clung to each other for support. I couldn't help but burst into laughter when I fell after just five seconds on the ice, and Josh's face broke into a grin as he held onto the rink boards and helped me up.
Despite it taking us about fifteen minutes to get the hang of it and actually start to move around the rink, neither of us minded tumbling or looking stupid in front of the other. After an hour of effort, we decided to take a break and have some food and hot chocolate in the stands.
"Did I mention your hair looks great?" Josh remarked with a playful smile. I assumed he was teasing me and knocked my shoulder into his, making him laugh. I had sent him a video of my purple hair a couple of days earlier, but he didn't seem to mind it one bit and had instead just found it amusing.
"Shut up. I told you it'll wash out," I mumbled, taking a bite of my sandwich. It had already washed out a bit, but I figured it would take more than a week for it to completely go back to normal again.
"No, it actually looks pretty good. I don't even remember what your hair used to look like," he grinned, and I rolled my eyes at him.
"For your information, mister, I actually happen to know someone who loves it."
"What, a ten-year-old girl?" he asked, and my eyes widened as I tried to suppress a smile. I had in fact been thinking about Molly's adorable reaction to it.
"How the heck did you guess that?" We both laughed at my reaction and the fact that he had guessed it correctly. "Also, not just her. Maeve liked it too, as a matter of fact."
***
None of Josh's family members were home as usual, and we decided to head over to his place after we got tired of ice skating. I still didn't know much about his family, having only met his dad once and his sister a few times. He didn't like talking about them either, but I had noticed that his parents rarely checked in on him and didn't seem to care much about his life or what he was doing. They were hardly ever home, and if they were, it was just for a few minutes before they left again.
Comparing Josh's parents to Taylor and Joe, I knew how fortunate I was to have ended up with such caring and supportive people. As we headed to Josh's house, Taylor even sent me a text, saying "If anything happens, don't hesitate to call me".
I wasn't sure what she thought would happen exactly, but it was a nice reminder that she cared enough about me to text me that.
"What are y'all doing for Thanksgiving?" Josh asked me. We sat cuddled up on the couch with my back to his chest. The lights were dimmed, and music played in the background from his phone. I had my eyes closed and could feel his fingers gently combing through my purple hair.
"I think Mom talked about going to my grandma's house. Pretty sure it's just gonna be us and maybe Joe's family. Oh, and Zade's gonna be there too."
As soon as the words left my mouth, Josh froze and stopped playing with my hair, placing his hands on top of my head instead.
"Zade?" he asked.
I tilted my head back to look at him. "Yeah," I said, "you should meet him sometime. I think you'd like each other." I looked down and started playing with the rings on my fingers. "Anyway, his family is going to visit some relatives in, like, Georgia, but he hates them, so he asked if he could come spend Thanksgiving with us instead."
"You're spending Thanksgiving with your family and Zade?" Josh asked, and I could tell where this conversation was going if I didn't stop it in time. The room felt suddenly warmer, the air thick with unspoken tension. I shifted my weight on the couch and took a deep breath through my nose.
"We're just friends," I started, my voice tinged with frustration. "I already went through this once with someone, and it ended with us not talking to each other for a month. Can we please not do this?" I begged, looking up at him again with pleading eyes.
"You promise there's nothing going on between you two?" Josh looked down at me with furrowed eyebrows. It sucked that he didn't believe me the first time I told him and that he felt the need to double-check, but I could also empathize with his feelings of insecurity. After all, I knew what it was like to feel that way myself and could relate to his need for reassurance.
"Promise."
"Okay," he paused, then added, "I love you." He leaned down and kissed me upside down, and I smiled into the kiss.
"Do you wanna dance?" I asked suddenly and sat up properly to face him.
"Sure," he grinned, brushing his hand through his hair, and I felt a rush of excitement. I got up from the couch and started moving some furniture around to make space for us. He helped me push the table closer to the wall, the sound of its legs scraping against the floor making both of us cringe, and I went over to increase the volume on his phone. I pressed next on the song and went back to Josh as False God started playing from the playlist he had chosen.
"Do you really wanna dance to a love song your mom wrote about your dad?" Josh asked me skeptically. At first, I was so taken aback by the way he referred to Joe as my dad that I didn't reply right away, but as I gathered my thoughts, I realized that Josh probably had seen Joe as my dad from the very beginning. That 'Dad Talk' Joe had wanted to have with him had likely only confirmed Josh's view of him. It wasn't until that moment that I realized how much Joe had become like a dad to me, without me even noticing it, and I had a hard time biting back a smile at the thought.
Since I was a lot shorter than Josh, I couldn't wrap my arms around his neck properly. Instead, I draped them over his shoulders as best I could and felt him wrap his arms around my waist, his hands resting on the small of my back.
"Okay, first of all, I wouldn't necessarily call this a love song. I think it's more, like, a song about their relationship-"
"What's the difference?" Josh interrupted with a laugh as we danced to the song.
"In my head, there's a difference," I explained. "Secondly, we don't know who or what it's really about. And thirdly, it's Taylor Swift!"
"Also known as your mom," he grinned down at me.
"Not when we're listening to her music or watching her shows, she's not," I retorted.
"Okay, weirdo," he replied with a smile, leaning down to peck my lips before whispering, "If you say so."
When False God ended and Speechless by Dan + Shay began to play, Josh untangled himself from me and went over to grab his phone. Curious, I watched as he scrolled through his playlist and my jaw dropped when I realized he'd selected Breathe by Faith Hill. I followed him with my eyes as he came back over to me, his arms enveloping me once again.
I can feel the magic floating in the air, being with you gets me that way.
I watch the sunlight dance across your face, and I've never been this swept away.
"Josh, did you know this song-" I began to ask, but he cut me off.
"Was playing at the restaurant on our first date? Yup," he finished my sentence, a small smile playing at the corners of his lips. I looked up at him in awe as we swayed to the music in comfortable silence.
The whole world just fades away, the only thing I hear is the beating of your heart.
'Cause I can feel you breathe, it's washing over me, and suddenly I'm melting into you.
I moved closer to him into more of a hug and wrapped my arms under his arms instead. He responded by pulling me even closer to himself with his arms around my back. I rested my head against his chest and could hear the beat of his heart under his t-shirt as I closed my eyes.
There's nothing left to prove.
Baby, all I need is just to be,
caught up in the touch, slow and steady rush.
Baby, isn't that the way that love's supposed to be?
"Love you," I heard him whisper into my hair and I squeezed him a little tighter. In that moment, as we swayed to the music, lost in our own little world, all the bad or annoying things that had been bothering me just moments before just didn't seem to matter anymore. It was Josh and me against the world, and all that truly mattered was our feelings for each other.
I can feel the magic floating in the air, being with you gets me that way.
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A/N
Truly sorry to all the Josh haters out there✌️
I'll try to get the next chapter up soon to make up for this one :)