hi I wrote for 4 hours today to get this done so hopefully it's good
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•••••Joshua's Perspective
I walked through the door to Ben and I's hotel room and shut it behind me. Quickly kicking my shoes off, I climbed on top of the untouched comforter, willing my stomach to settle down.
I wasn't sure if I was feeling sick, exactly. All I knew was that Alex started talking about her sister, and then my stomach twisted itself into a bunch of knots. It wasn't quite the sensation of nausea, but I had no idea what else it could've been.
Whatever it was, I didn't like it.
The door to the hotel room opened, and Ben stepped inside. "Hey, where've you been?"
"IKEA." I mumbled into my pillow.
He tilted his head. "You feeling okay?"
I sat up and sighed. "I don't know."
"Describe your condition." He instructed, sitting down next to me. "I will do my best to diagnose you."
"My stomach feels weird." I said. "And I don't know why."
The corners of his mouth pulled his lips into a frown as he folded his hands, resting his chin atop his knuckles. "When did it start feeling weird?"
"Well, I was with Alex, and then she was talking about how her sister thought that we would be cute together, and then my stomach—"
Before I'd finished my sentence, Ben's bright blue eyes went wide, and he doubled over with laughter, sending him rolling off the edge of the bed.
"Why is that funny?" I asked, watching as he attempted to catch his breath.
"I know exactly what's wrong with you." He declared, picking himself up off the floor.
"Really?"
He nodded. "And it has everything to do with Cricket."
I tilted my head. "How does this have anything to do with Alex?"
"You're crushing on her." He stated. "Clean and simple."
"What?" I narrowed my eyes at him, feeling a strange heat creeping up the back of my neck. "What makes you think that?"
He blinked, a smirk forming in his expression. "It's hilariously obvious, Josh."
"Is not!"
"Is too!" Ben's smirk turned into a beaming smile. "Your ears turned bright red at the exact second that I mentioned it!"
I ran a hand through my hair. "I think I'm very sick."
"You're not sick, you're in love."
"I can't be!" I shot back.
His smile faltered. "Why not?"
"Because we were just talking about how ridiculous that would be." I shrugged. "Also, she hates me."
"You know, there are a lot of romantic comedies that start out this way."
I rolled my eyes. "We're not in a romantic comedy, Ben."
(*cough*)
"Well, even despite that," he smirked, "you clearly have a thing for her."
"That's impossible." Shaking my head, I crossed my arms and laid back down. "Don't be stupid."
•••••
•••••Cricket's Perspective
"Virginia is a lot colder than I thought it'd be." Aiden remarked, rubbing her hands together. "My fingers are freezing."
"Mhm." I crossed my arms. "This is the part of the show where you send your boyfriend to get his own coffee instead of getting it for him."
She shrugged, pressing on the accelerator as the light turned green. "I don't mind—he was really tired this afternoon."
"You've gotta make him pull his own weight."
"I think I know how to keep my boy in line, Cricket." She said with an amused smile. "When you start dating, you can boss yours around."
"If." I corrected her.
She rolled her eyes. "It's always 'if' with you, isn't it? Why can't you start saying 'when'?"
"Alright, fine. When I kill you—"
"Okay, I get the picture." She sighed in disappointment. "It wouldn't hurt to try."
I wrinkled my nose. "What's so special about 'when'?"
"It gives you a positive outlook!" She smacked the steering wheel for emphasis. "You could use a little positivity in your life! Although," a mischievous tone entered her voice, "I guess you have been getting a pretty healthy dose of that recently."
"What are you insinuating?" I asked, glancing at her suspiciously.
She smiled sweetly. "I was just noticing that you and Josh have been spending a lot of time together over the past month or so—"
"Oh, please." I interrupted, disgusted at her assumption. "The kid was convinced that he was my best friend after knowing me for two days. You can imagine how much more attached he got when I accepted it."
"That's not an excuse." She shook her head. "You've been hanging out with him just as much as he's been hanging out with you."
"Would you be so surprised if I was fine with being around him?"
She nodded. "One hundred percent, yes."
"Well, surprise." I said, imitating jazz-hands.
"Seriously?" Her eyes widened. "I thought he was the bane of your existence."
"He is."
"But you two are buds now?"
I shrugged. "Someone's gotta be responsible for him, especially after Ben leaves."
If possible, her eyes got wider. "You feel responsible for him?"
"Do you expect him to take care of himself?"
She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it.
"My point precisely." I crossed my arms.
"Fine." She relented as she slowed the car to a stop in the hotel parking lot. "It'd be super cute, though. If you two were a thing."
I groaned, unbuckling my seatbelt. "I see you've been talking to my sister."
"She's not wrong." Aiden raised her hands in surrender, before removing the keys from the ignition. "And she's a lot more observant than I am, so I believe her."
"What did she tell you?" I asked as we stepped through the sliding doors and into the hotel lobby.
She shrugged, pulling her hat off and shaking her head, letting her kinky-curls bounce up and down. "Not much, something about CSS and html?"
I made a mental note to send my sister a threat message later. "Of course she did."
"Don't worry about it." Aiden tugged on my ear. "If you don't end up dating him by the end of tour, then you can have the bragging rights."
"What's the catch?"
She stopped outside the boys' door, planting her feet confidently. "The odds are in my favor."
"Oh, shut up." I opened the door and stepped inside, only to be stopped dead in my tracks by the sheer absurdity of what I was greeted with.
There truly is nothing that could prepare anyone for seeing five or six sleeping boys piled on top of one another in the middle of a hotel room floor.
I pointed at the spectacle, looked back at Aiden, and asked, "Why?"
"Don't ask me. They're boys." She set her coat down on the room's only chair and walked over to the stack of newsies, swiftly kicking one of them in the leg and announcing, "Up and at 'em, fellas."
A chorus of drowsy, protesting groans rose in response to her command, but they slowly picked themselves up off of the floor and dispersed.
"What time is that cast activity again?" Ben asked, rubbing his eyes.
I shot Aiden a glance. "Another activity?"
"To commemorate our last few nights here in Richmond." She replied, before addressing Ben. "It's at six."
"Oh." He blinked. "So, we should leave, like, now?"
"Yeah. It's not that far from the hotel." She shook her head. "I was just going to find Sky, and then head on over."
"Do you want me to get him for you?" He asked. "He's sleeping upstairs."
"Sure. Take this to him, too." She handed Ben the coffee cup.
"What exactly is this activity?" I asked, following Aiden out of the room and back through the hotel lobby.
"A bonfire." She responded.
I rolled my eyes. "Ooo, sounds fun. So fun, in fact, that I'm betting you're going to beg me to go."
She smiled. "Nope."
"Really?" I raised my eyebrows in surprise.
"Mhm. That's not my job anymore."
"Oh, for the love of Lucy Barker." I muttered, realizing what she was implying.
As if on cue, a familiar, chirpy voice called to me from the hotel's entrance. "Alex!"
I sighed. "Speak of the devil and he shall appear."
"That boy is about the farthest thing from the devil." Aiden laughed and quickened her pace, leaving Josh and I alone.
"Speak for yourself." I murmured under my breath. "What do you need, Joshua?"
He bounced on his heels. "Are you going to the bonfire tonight?"
"Unfortunately."
"Yay!" He took both of my hands in his and pulled me through the doors. "Will you sit with me?"
I rolled my eyes. "No."
"Oh. Okay." His smile fell, and he let go of my hands, remaining silent for the rest of the walk.
But as we approached the designated spot, I saw that I might not have an alternative; somehow, Sky had gotten there before us, and he and Aiden were already curled up next to each other.
With the side of her head resting against his chest and his arm around her shoulders, it truly was a nauseating sight.
I glanced over at Josh. "Maybe I will sit by you."
"Really?" The smile began to creep back across his face.
"Unless you'd rather have me gag and throw up all over the happy couple over there." I shrugged. "The choice is yours."
He held out his arm. "I would be honored to sit by you."
Reluctantly, I slipped my arm through the crook of his elbow and allowed him to lead me to a seat by the fire.
Most of the night passed by before I could blink twice. It was a pretty typical cast event: loud, lots of people, one thousand different side conversations going on at the same time.
I listened mindlessly to the voices that resounded around me, carelessly picking up bits of tea here and there as I stared into the fire.
The flames were a lot bigger than the ones from the candle in Nat and I's kitchen, but they maintained the same motive.
They pulled and struggled against whatever was binding them to the wood, desperately trying to get away. It was the same story as every other time.
But then the wood popped, and sparks shot up into the dark, smoky air. They glowed bright orange for a minute, and then they faded, blown away by the wind.
So that's how they escape.
"The fire is so pretty." Josh commented, smiling at the burning embers. "It's like the flames are dancing."
I shook my head, scoffing.
He looked down at me. "What?"
"They're not dancing." I said. "They're trying to run away."
Puzzled, he glanced back at the fire, and his eyes softened. "Oh, wow." He whispered. "I've never seen it like that before."
"And I've never thought of them as dancing." I replied, wrinkling my nose.
"Hey, Josh," Sky called from a couple chairs away, "can you take that pan off the fire and set it on the table?"
I looked over at the pan that he was referring to. Someone had put corn kernels inside of it and covered it with a lid in hopes of making popcorn for the cast. Based on how the pan was quivering and how small puffs of steam were escaping the lid, it was easy to assume that it was ready to eat.
"Don't touch the handle with your bare skin." I lazily advised Joshua as he stood up.
But he ignored me, and promptly walked over to where the pan sat, grabbing ahold of the handle and attempting to remove it from the fire.
"Ow!" Josh jerked his hand away in surprise and rushed back to where I sat.
"I told you not to touch that." I sighed in frustration, gripping his wrist and inspecting the damage.
The skin that had come into contact with the pan had turned a light shade of pink, and it was beginning to swell up a bit.
Josh grimaced when I touched the burn, but he wasn't on the ground writhing in pain, so I claimed victory over the situation.
I let go of his wrist and fixed him with a stern glare. "Why didn't you listen to me?"
He shrugged, hugging his wounded hand to his chest. "Sometimes my actions are sad."
"Well, don't expect any pity from me." I snapped, crossing my arms. "Consider this a learning experience."
"Sorry." He lowered his eyes. "I'll listen better next time."
I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes—both at the childish regret in his voice and the way that it tugged on my heart.
'No.' I scolded myself. 'You are not allowed to have emotions right now. Do not cave.'
But his expression was just too much to withstand; he looked like an ashamed five-year-old.
And, in all actuality, that's basically what he was.
Huffing, I shoved my hand into my bag and fished out a small, purple bottle. "Here."
Josh glanced up and tilted his head. "What's that?"
"My sister burns her hands all the time, and she swears that this helps take the edge off of it." I handed it to him. "Put a couple drops of it on a paper towel, or something, and hold it on there for a while. It'll make your hand smell like trashy citrus, but it should stop the stinging."
He nodded, pocketing the bottle. "Thanks."
I shrugged. "Sure. And if that doesn't work, let me know and we can figure something else out. Make sure to ice it, too.
"Okay." He gave me a small smile, but I could've sworn I caught a light hue of pink on his cheeks, not unlike the color that dusted his burnt hand.
Deciding that he was probably just flushed from standing so close to the fire, I gave him a slight nod and turned around, walking away.
•••••Joshua's Perspective
Ben and I walked back to the hotel, intending to ask for some ice to put on my hand.
But I had practically forgotten all about that; there were more pressing matters to dwell on.
My stomach was again swirling and churning like a stormy sea, my ears were painted a burning red, and my skin was hot and flushed.
All in all, I was a confused and flustered mess, and I had no idea why.
Apparently, Ben did.
"Why don't you just admit it?" He asked as we neared the hotel.
"Admit what?"
He smirked yet again. "That you are seriously smitten with this girl."
I groaned. "I am not!"
"Yes, you are!" He insisted, crossing his arms. "I thought you'd never lie to me."
"I'm not lying." I snapped. "Or, at least, I don't think I am."
He cracked a grin. "Oh, I see. You just don't know that you're lying yet."
"Ben, please."
"I've known you too long, Josh. I know you too well." He said, raising his hands in surrender.
"Not well enough, apparently." I mumbled, glaring at him.
He sighed loudly and stopped walking, turning to face me. "Let me prove it to you."
My glare deepened into a scowl. "Fine. Go ahead and try."
"Tell me why you like Cricket so much. What exactly do you like about her?"
"Well," I looked down at my feet, "she's just...she's amazing. I mean, yes, she's rude to everyone and she says mean things all the time, but I like her anyway. She doesn't think that she's an interesting person, but I can tell that she is. I love talking to her, even though half of our conversations are made up of her insulting me."
I felt a shy smile making its way across my lips as another small detail surfaced. "And she has very pretty eyes. They're so dark and they don't sparkle when they're under the light, but I think they're the prettiest eyes I've ever—"
"Josh."
I looked up. "What?"
Ben's eyes were opened almost as wide as his mouth. "Are you kidding me?"
Tilting my head, I started to ask what he meant, before it hit me. "Oh, no."