5:45
I dialed Josh’s number listening to it ring and roll over to voicemail before ending the call and tossing my phone onto the bed in frustration. Three calls and two text messages since this morning, all of them unanswered; I was starting to feel like a stalker.
Why wasn’t he answering his phone?
Was he mad?
Why did I care so much?
Seconds later I nearly fell off my bed lunging for the phone as it buzzed to life with a text.
‘Whatsup’
Whatsup? We spend the night together and the last time he saw me I was walking the green mile, I’ve been trying to reach him ALL DAY to no avail and he has the audacity to say Whatsup? I mean…we did just fall asleep studying and he is not bound to me by any sort of commitment in any way but still.
‘WTF, where have you been I have been trying to reach you all day’ I press send and stare at my phone willing it to answer me.
‘Sorry…phone was dead after last night, I’ve been asleep, just woke up’
Must be nice, I would have loved to have slept the day away. Unfortunately I had to study. I seriously despised smart people. Not that I’m not smart, I am…but I have to bust my ass to be that way…naturally smart people like Josh irritated me to no end.
‘Everthing ok?’
I cocked a brow at my phone shooting it my best ‘are-you-fucking-kidding-me’ face.
‘If you are asking me if I survived this morning’s reunite with my brother then yes, everything is fine.’ I hit the send button a little harder than necessary and my phone seemed to react in pain as it wailed out my ring tone.
“Everything doesn’t seem fine.” Josh’s voice poured through the receiver as I answered the call.
“What makes you say that? You just woke up…you are still in that post sleep bliss, I highly doubt you are even capable of registering whether or not everything is fine. Which it is.”
Clearly lies.
“Alright then…so…your phone privileges still seem to be intact, I take it your brother was understanding about last night?”
“Understanding? Absolutely not”
“Are you sure you are alright? You seem…” Josh paused a moment to choose his words wisely, “irritated.”
Not wisely enough.
“You never asked if I was alright, you asked if everything was ok… oh, and you also said ‘whatsup’…you never asked if I was alright...which I am not.”
Clearly.
“What happened?” Josh questioned sounding genuinely concerned.
“I didn’t get into trouble for staying out all night, do you know why?” I questioned before continuing my rant and giving Josh no time to respond, “because Joe had a date last night with professor Davies…she spent the night and he didn’t even realize that I wasn’t home until the phone woke him up this morning…THAT is how important I am.”
“Wow…”
“Professor Davies! Of all the frickin’ women in this town he has to go and date one of my professors…as if the lines between my Chilton life and my home life weren’t quite blurry enough.”
“In his defense…Professor Davies is hot…” Josh piped in earning himself a nasty look through the receiver.
He didn’t seem to notice.
“They are going out again tonight by the way and I am being shipped off to Cat’s for the evening so there goes my plans for studying,” I spat as my bedroom door opened and Joe stuck his head inside.
“I’m heading out, Cat will be here anytime… are you packed?”
“I think I might be coming down with something,” I lied producing my best fake cough, “I should probably stay home…wouldn’t want to spread my germs to the fetus…”
“Nice try,” Joe said jutting a finger in my direction “you’re going.” I let out an exasperated sigh and nodded in understanding. “Behave, I will see you tomorrow.”
“Mhmmm”
“I mean it Cecelia,” He warned, “If I get anything other than a glowing report from Cat tomorrow there will be big trouble, understood?”
“Yes!” I spat immediately earning me a warning glare from Joe.
“You want to try that again?” he questioned, daring me to mouth off again.
“I understand, I will behave I promise…just go before you are late for your date.”
“Love you,” he said walking over and kissing the top of my head. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Love you too. Have fun with Professor Davies” I said shooting him a cheeky grin “…preferably enough to earn me an A on my econ final…I need all the help I can get.”
**********
A mere four hours after promising Joe I’d behave I found myself storming out of Cat’s door. I knew she would probably be on the phone with one of my brothers soon telling them what a raging brat I had been and how I had run off and yet I couldn’t bring myself to care.
“I walked out.” I spat the second Josh answered the phone.
“What do you mean you walked out?”
“I mean… I walked out,” I repeated, “I am now walking toward my house, by myself… in the dark.”
Josh let out a sigh, “What happened?”
“Don’t sigh at me like I am in the wrong, I am the victim here…do you know how much studying I have to get done this weekend? A TON. I can’t just wing it…I have to study my ass off … if I tank my exams my brothers will KILL me. Joe sends me for this bonding experience without so much as asking me if I wanted to go…and she’s all ‘let’s watch a movie’, ‘we should make cookies’ and ‘I thought we could make homemade pizza’…seriously?”
“So… you stomped out of the house and are walking home in the dark because she asked if you wanted to make pizza and cookies?” he asked trying to clarify.
“Well when you say it like that it sounds ridiculous.”
“It IS ridiculous,” Josh growled, “You need to stop fighting this Cat situation, so far all it has done is get you into trouble. What is your plan exactly? Walk home, barge in on your brother and Professor Davies and ruin his date? I can tell you right now that would be a VERY bad idea. Turn around, go back to Cat’s and make nice.”
“No way! I am done being pawned off every time one of my brothers finds something better to do, I am supposed to be their responsibility, not Cat’s.”
“Fair enough, but how is that Cat’s fault?”
I promptly flipped Josh the bird through the phone.
“Who’s side are you on anyway??”
“I am not on a side,” Josh stated bluntly, “I am being the voice of reason here.”
“What you are being is a giant pain in my ass.” I corrected turning to take a shortcut through old lady Archer’s flower garden and managing to impale my hand on one of her prized rose bushes. “Fuck! Stupid piece of OWW!… son of a BITCH!”
“What is going on over there?”
“My friggin hand is bleeding.” I spat in frustration.
“You are the most accident prone person I know…did you fall?”
I let out a mocking laugh, “NO I did not fall…if you must know I was viciously attacked by one of old lady Archer’s rose bushes…it sliced open my hand and when I kicked the damn thing in retaliation it grabbed my leg.” I heard a stifled chuckle trickle through the receiver and flipped Josh another bird. “I am so glad you find my pain amusing.”
“I’m sorry, are you alright?”
“I’m fine.” I huffed untangling myself from my thorny captor and making my way through a row of lilac bushes that separated the Archer property from our own. “Crap.”
Josh snickered. “Now what? Another vicious shrub?”
“You are hilarious.”
“I’m here all week.” he deadpanned.
“Joe isn’t home.”
“He is on a date.” Josh stated simply.
“Yea but he left for the date over four hours ago.” I argued, “There isn’t that much to do in this town, even if he took her to dinner and a movie he would be home by now.”
“There are other things I can think of to do on a date,” Josh offered making me cringe.
“Great, now how am I supposed to get in?”
“You don’t have a key?”
I rolled my eyes “I have a key,” I said reaching the handle on the back door and hoping to find it unlocked. Nope. “I just didn’t bring my key.”
“You walked home in the dark knowing you didn’t have a way to get into the house?” Josh questioned incredulously.
“No, I assumed Joe would be here to let me in.”
“Well, you know what happens when you assume,” Josh teased, “you get locked out.”
“Great…now what.” I asked jiggling the handle on the front door to no avail.
“This isn’t your first time sneaking back into the house after dark… Isn’t there a window you can crawl through?”
“Oh yea!” I squeaked tucking my phone into my pocket and quickly scaling the tree outside my bedroom before opening my window and crawling inside. Dumping my heavy backpack from my shoulders I threw myself backward onto my bed and retrieved my phone from my pocket. “I knew befriending a hooligan would come in handy.”
“I aim to please,” Josh quipped “any other shenanigans I can help you with this evening Miss Jonas? Perhaps I could come over…you shouldn’t be alone…in that house…in your room…unsupervised.”
I pulled my bottom lip through my teeth seriously considering Josh’s blatantly inappropriate offer before my better judgment prevailed, “Well, as…NOBLE as that offer is, Joe is going to be mad enough when he comes home from his date to find me here…adding you to the equation would not be wise…besides, I need to study and you would be a distraction.”
“Yea, you are probably right…because my offer was not at all noble.” Josh conceded, his smirk practically seeping through my phone.
I smiled, “Goodnight Joshua.”
“Goodnight CeCelia.”
Chapter End Notes:
She finally friggin updated Chilton! WHAT.IS.LIFE! So yea...there is some serious trouble brewing...like a come-to-Jesus-bend-over-and-kiss-your-ass-goodbye-cause-you-gunna-die type trouble. I'm actually nervous to write it...I get too sucked in to the story and feel like I'm the one in trouble...and I dont wanna be in trouble...I swear I will be good.......ok...perhaps "good" is a strong word.... LEAVE ME LOVE BELOW AND VOTE! *Kisses*