Chapter 37 — where boy
"Josh," the blond feels a light nudge on his shoulder, "Josh, wake up now. Come on,"
He slowly comes to and strains to open his eyes, groaning. But as soon as he does, he is greeted by the most charming thing ever.
"Crystal," he croaks out from the dryness of his throat, but still manages to form a smile, and the dog immediately launches onto him, licking his face and neck, "Oh hi, good morning to you too,"
"Eh-hrm," he hears from beside and sees his boyfriend sitting there his arms crossed, pouting.
Josh's eyes momentarily are drawn to his pouty lips and his mind wanders to last night but thankfully his thoughts are cut short as Crystal pounces on him again. Throwing his arms around the dog, so she won't be able to move much, he sits up and then lies her on his lap, rubbing her tummy — that seemed to do the trick, as she settles comfortably on his lap, tongue lolling out.
Only then does he look up at his boyfriend again, "Good morning, Cinderella,"
"Prince Charming," Elliot replies effortlessly, his lips quirking up and starts to lean forward, but the blond leans back, squealing, quickly covering his mouth with his hand.
Elliot looks at him confused and Josh mumbles, "I have really bad morning breath," then adds quickly before Elliot can say anything, "And don't say you don't care — even if you don't, I do,"
"Well, we'll have to work on changing that then, don't we?" the dark-haired boy shrugs and leans forward anyways, placing a small peck on his hand covering his mouth. "So, my aunts get up at 7, and it's 6.45. Unless you want to meet them..."
"Right," Josh rubs his eyes and then pushes Crystal off his lap, standing up, "Just let me get my–,"
"Or–" Elliot quickly interrupts him, "–you can stay," he suggests, "Meet my aunts. Just spend the day here, with me,"
Josh mulls over the boy's very tempting offer, weighing the pros and cons. Surprisingly the pros won — he can skip school (he will deal the consequences later), he doesn't have to face his father (who knows if he had already come back from his 'medical conference'), and Zach, his best friend (he still hasn't decided if he should tell him or not about last night), he will get to finally meet Elliot's aunts (as nerve-wracking as that sounds), and the best pro of all, he will just get to be with his boyfriend.
However so, he finds himself shaking his head, saying, "No, I have to go," he frowns — wishing for once he would just do what he wants to do instead of worrying of anything else, "Plus, I think I'd rather meet your aunts on a proper visit than just randomly popping up in their house," he offers as an excuse.
Elliot chuckles, "Trust me when I say they absolutely won't mind — they'd just be happy to grill you with more questions which I unfortunately cannot to guarantee to be non-traumatising,"
"Then I definitely look forward to meeting them," Josh grimaces.
The dark-haired boy just laughs, "I'm kidding — they're nice people,"
"I can already tell," the blond says sincerely and he honestly can't wait until he gets to meet them, unfortunately that morning isn't the day, "And I'm sorry I can't stay — school and all," he rolls his eyes to further prove his annoyance with the fact that he has to leave.
"I get it — don't worry. It would have been a shock only if you'd agreed to stay,"
Josh goes to pick up his jeans and slides them up his legs, buttoning them up and then picks up his wallet and phone which he discarded on the table last night, and then looked around the room to see if he has forgotten anything else. Elliot has already worn sweatpants over his boxers and a t-shirt and the both of them get ready to leave.
"Come, I'd buy you coffee and something to eat on the way over to your house," he says as they make their way down the stairs and take careful measure to sneak out, without making much noise.
"Aww, such a gentleman," Josh comments, as Elliot opens the car door of him once they've made their way out.
"Only for you, babe," Elliot winks at him, getting into the driver seat.
"You know what, I think I don't care," Josh says, and then grabs Elliot's neck as he brings their lips together — the latter doesn't have to be further told anything to move his lips against the blond's. And then Josh hums, as they finish their kiss, "Okay I still care a little," he admits, chuckling, having forgo his concern about his morning breath in the heat of the moment.
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"Dude, where the fuck were you yesterday?" Zach stops Josh in the hallways by his locker.
And Josh finds himself wishing he'd taken up on Elliot's offer and just stayed with him the whole day. How is he supposed to face his best friend knowing the secret affair between his father and the latter's mother. He busies himself with the books in his locker.
Zach leans against the locker beside him, continuing to talk, even from the lack of response from the blond beside him, "I mean I don't care covering for you, but as I've told you before, just inform me first, alright, so that I can like actually prepare good excuses why your father cannot talk to his son even if he's in the room with me, doing history project,"
"My father called you?" Josh asks, that particular information catching his attention.
"Yeah,"
"Was your mother at home when he called?"
Zach furrows his eyebrows in askance at the relevance of his mother's presence to his father's call, "Yeah, I guess," he shrugs, "I don't know — she had a late night at work yesterday. Why?"
"Oh, um... just you could've asked your mother to cover for both of us," Josh is quickly able to come up with a lie, although the guilt of lying to his best friend is eating away at him.
"And if my mother asks why she should be lying, then what should I tell her?"
"Right," Josh lets out a nervous chuckle, "Bad idea,"
"Seriously, where were you though?" Zach asks, crossing his arms as realisation slowly settles in his features.
Josh shakes his head, before his friend could say anything, "No, don't even-,"
"Hey my dudes," Valerie pops in between the two of them, "What are we talking about?"
"Nothing," Josh quickly says, but that doesn't stop Zach.
"We are talking about where Josh spent last night, possibly-,"
"Josh only slept last night," the blond cuts in, starting to walk away, but the two of them don't let him go each accompanying by his side.
"I'm confused," Val says, "He wasn't in his house?"
Zach shakes his head, and then Val asks again, "Not in yours either?" which Zach answers by another shake of his head.
"So.... Ohhh," she drawls, finally getting the topic of the conversation.
Josh blushes involuntarily, adding the pace to his steps and cursing inwardly the school bell for not ringing yet.
"So, Josh," Valerie starts, but gets cut off by the blond.
"No Josh," he wishes the topic would end there, but-
"Yes Josh," Zach smirks, nudging him.
"Okay, fine yes — I was at my boyfriend's place," Josh admits at last — and much to his mortification both of his best friends high-five as if it was their personal achievement, he can't help but scoff at their childishness.
"Boyfriend," Val points out, teasing some more, "How fancy,"
Josh ignores her and continues, "But nothing happened,"
"No, no. You don't have to tell us all about that 'nothing happened' business," Val pats his shoulder. "We respect your privacy,"
"But nothing happened," Josh says again.
"No, we get you," Zach says, lightly punching his shoulder, "Nothing happened, don't worry,"
"Noth-," and that's when the bell chooses to ring and both of his friends wear the same-eery smirk on their face and nods him goodbye before walking away.
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