"What do we do with Carson?" Josiah whispered.
The movie had finished a few minutes ago, and Ayden had already stood up after carefully moving Carson’s legs off of her lap. The brunette had fallen asleep roughly a half hour after they started to settle down.
Thinking, Ayden tapped her lips with her chin as she studied her best friend who was still sleeping in her boyfriend’s lap.
“We’ll just let him sleep here. If he wakes up later and wants to go home, then I’ll take him,” the blonde said quietly. “But he probably won’t.”
Josiah nodded and then started to work his way out from underneath the sleeping figure. The older guy gently grabbed Carson’s shoulders--he was now laying on his back due to rolling over in his sleep--and lifted him up into a sort-of sitting position so he could slide off of the sofa. Once he was standing, Josiah slowly laid him back down, making sure Carson’s head was on the sweatshirt.
When he was done situating his friend, Josiah turned to Ayden for a quick kiss. They linked their hands together and walked through the apartment, not flipping on any lights until they got to Josiah’s bedroom. Ayden dropped her boyfriend’s hand and walked over to the bed, while Josiah went for his closet to get an extra blanket.
On his way to the door, Josiah turned right as Ayden tossed him one of his pillows.
“I’ll be right back,” he said.
To this, Ayden only nodded and gave a small smile. When he returned to the snoozing body on the couch, Josiah set the pillow on top of the coffee table so he could shake out the blanket. He laid out the fabric over Carson, made sure it was covering him completely, and then reached for the pillow. Once again, Josiah lifted the younger boy up slightly--this time just his head--so he could fit the pillow underneath.
Even after all of this, Carson was still sound asleep. He didn’t snore, but Josiah could hear his heavy breathing that always indicated he was going to be out for a while. Josiah turned around and powered off both the DVD player and the television. He sent one final glance at his friend to make sure he was still sleeping comfortably, and then he was on his way back to his room.
Ayden was waiting patiently underneath the covers by the time Josiah returned. She had swapped her sweater out for one of her tank tops she kept in Josiah’s dresser, and her jeans for a pair of her boyfriend’s gym shorts.
Josiah shut his bedroom door behind him and turned off the light. Ayden had already turned the lamp on that was sitting atop the nightstand, so he used that light to cross the room without tripping over anything.
“You know, I’m kind of worried about that kid,” Josiah said distractedly as he pulled his shirt off over his head.
Ayden sighed and watched unseeingly as her boyfriend stripped down to his boxers. “Yeah, I know. I feel the same way. I just want him to be happy, Joe.”
The bed dipped as the larger boy crawled into his own bed. He snuggled underneath the blankets and scooted closer to the blonde. Josiah kissed her on the cheek before relaxing with an arm draping over Ayden’s stomach.
“He will be,” Josiah said firmly.
He really believed it, because he knew it had to be true. Carson couldn’t be their tag-along forever, even though Josiah didn’t mind in the slightest. Sooner or later the brunette was going to meet someone he really liked and fall hard for him. And when that happened, he wouldn’t be able to spend as much time with his best friends. That thought made Josiah a little sad as well as delighted for the other boy.
“But when?” Ayden asked, looking up into sage-green eyes. “I know Carson would never say it, but he really needs someone he can be close to on a level like you and I are.”
“I guess,” Josiah said with a frown. “He had that with Jayden.”
“And then he cheated on Carson,” Ayden said. Her tone held a little bit of contempt in it when she pictured the guy who had broken her best friend’s heart last year. “It was with a girl, too. Like, come on. I knew he was bi, but Carson kept telling me Jayden swore he wasn’t. He was such a liar.”
Josiah stared off at the wall beyond Ayden. “I hadn’t really known you guys that long when they broke up, just a few months, but I knew Carson really loved him. I could just tell by the way he looked at Jayden.”
“Yeah, and then he was completely crushed when Jayden broke up with him for that skank.” In all honesty, Ayden didn’t know if the girl had been the homewrecker type. But just knowing that the girl played a part in ruining Carson’s happiness made Ayden hate her. The blonde sighed. “He was a mess back then.”
Josiah rolled over and laid flat on his back. He glanced up at the ceiling and let his mind wander. He tucked a hand behind his head and threaded it in his coarse curls. Ayden was close to falling asleep when Josiah suddenly realized something. He glanced down at the girl by his side and said, “The way Car was acting tonight reminds me of when Jayden dumped him. I don’t want to see him that upset again.”
Ayden rubbed at her eyes while she listened to her boyfriend’s words. “I didn’t even think of that,” she said. “God, I hope it’s not like that. He was borderline depressed. Josiah, we need to help him find someone else. Or try to spend more time with him. It just gets worse when he’s alone all the time.”
Josiah nodded, now more worried than before. “Hopefully once he gets Gabriel out of the picture, things will get better. That guy is such an ass.”
Ayden shifted onto her side and curled her body around Josiah’s. She let her head rest on his bare chest as she spoke. “You don’t even want to know what Gabriel sent him earlier.”
This piqued Josiah’s interest. “Actually, yeah, I do. Spill, Ayd.”
The blonde sighed and closed her eyes. “Well first, he was chewing Carson out for hanging up on him. Then, he called him pathetic and dumb or something.”
Josiah grumbled something incoherent. He already didn’t like what he was hearing, and he knew that wasn’t all there was to the story.
“It gets better,” Ayden said sarcastically. She hugged herself tighter to Josiah, who half-heartedly wrapped his arms around her. He was just too distracted and upset to focus on much else. “Gabriel was saying rude things about you, and then basically ended his little rant by calling Carson a ‘little faggot’.”
“What the--no. Just no,” Josiah said angrily. He was wide awake now, feeling absolutely livid. “Who does he even think he is? I don’t care if he’s older than me, I will still kick his ass. He has no right to say something like that. He can be pissed all he wants at Carson for ditching their stupid two-month, but there is nothing he could have done to deserve that.”
“Babe,” Ayden said, looking up at Josiah. “Calm down, you’re getting a little loud.”
“Shit,” Josiah mumbled. He had almost forgotten that Carson might wake up and hear him. With his volume more in check, he said, “Still, though. That prick can say whatever he wants about me, but when it comes to Carson, hell no. And he’s his boyfriend! You don’t tell your boyfriend stuff like that. It’s just cruel and wrong.”
“I know,” Ayden said sadly. “It sucks it’s gone down this way, but I have to say I’m glad Carson’s getting out this early in the relationship. At least he’s not a year in and then Gabriel starts hitting him or something like that.”
When Josiah heard that, he felt sick to his stomach. The thought had never even crossed his mind that Gabriel could be abusive. But then again, all the signs were there. He yelled at Carson over petty things and constantly tried to tell him what to do. Josiah pursed his lips. He didn’t even want to think about it anymore. If he did, he might not be able to stop himself from going and looking for the older guy right that minute. Josiah almost didn’t even care if it was almost midnight. He was nearly upset enough to rip the guy’s head clean off of his shoulders.
Ayden heard nothing but quiet breathing from Josiah for almost a minute. She was starting to regret having told him about what was in that text message. She knew Josiah was typically the calm and collected type. He liked to sit in coffee shops and read books. He drank tea, and watched sitcoms like his life depended on it. He wasn’t a party-goer and he preferred nights in with his friends or someone’s family.
These were all part of the things that added up to how amazing she thought Josiah was. Even the fact that he could get really protective over the people who were close to him, was yet another thing she loved about him.
Ayden remembered that in high school, the darker-skinned boy was quite popular. He ran track and he was really good at it. He had a lot of friends but he still managed to keep to himself and spend countless hours of his free time in the library. Josiah was an observer--quiet and polite, but he still had all of the skills necessary for social interaction. He just preferred smaller groups of people.
He had told her, shortly after they had started dating, all of this. Josiah explained that once he had graduated high school and gone off to college, he had strayed from the group of kids he had been friends with before so he could grow as a person and become more independent. Josiah even told her that a lot of the reason he was so reserved and, dare she even say sensitive, was because he spent a lot of time wondering where he fit in.
Josiah was half black and half white. And growing up in New England, where mostly everybody was white, made him feel kind of like an outcast. His skin was darker than almost everybody’s he knew except for his parents who were both in the same boat as him. Even his hair was different from everybody else’s. Josiah essentially felt like he was too black for the white kids, and too white for the black kids--not that there had been very many in his hometown.
Luckily for him, though, he knew how to be outgoing when he needed to, so when he started his last four years of public education, he went all out. He joined a sport, made friends with the guys from football and track, and started dating the popular girls. It didn’t take long for him to feel like he was finally fitting in.
Not that Ayden hadn’t liked him when they were still in high school, but when she ran into him during her sophomore year of college, there was just something about Josiah that called out to her. They used to run in completely different friend groups, and they hardly ever interacted, but she knew enough about him to say that he was still the same guy now that he was older. It was just that his best qualities had grown into being a million times better.
“Are you okay?” Ayden asked in a soft tone.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” the older boy said distractedly.
Ayden reached up to touch a hand to the side of her boyfriend’s face. His expression softened from the previous bit of fury, and he tried to quirk a smile at her.
“I’m sorry I told you all that.”
“Well, I’m not,” Josiah said a little indignantly. “I’m just as much Carson’s friend as you are. I just haven’t been there as long.”
Ayden nodded and smiled. “I know that, babe. Look, Carson will be okay. How ‘bout we just try to sleep and stop thinking about this stuff?”
Josiah sighed, but reluctantly gave in. He honestly didn’t think he would be able to sleep all that well now that his mind was racing with less than ideal thoughts.
“Yeah, sure,” the boy said, rolling over away from Ayden so he could turn the lamp off. When he turned back around, he pulled the shorter girl into his arms and let her cuddle up back into him. “Goodnight, Ayd.”
“I love you, Joe,” the blonde said quietly into the darker boy’s chest.
The words put a fond smile on Josiah’s lips, “I love you too.”