Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Fret ❯ Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

 

He woke himself up at nine. Emmett was already up sipping a black coffee with gentle spirals of silvery steam rising from the rim. He set his coffee on the spotless bottle green glass table, then vigorously motioned to Josh not to make any noise, and pointed at his slumbering roommate. Josh grasped the message and lifted his bags gently, then padded through the threshold along with Emmett.

“I hate being quiet! Give me your disconnected number and your address: I'll call you in two months to make sure you're okay,” ordered Emmett.

“Okay,” agreed Josh.

They stood their, waiting for one another to break the silence. Suddenly Josh was walking away, his fist raised in a punch. Emmett smiled at him and tapped Josh's fist with his own knuckles.

Just outside of the dorms, payphones beckoned Josh towards them. He inserted a few coins and dialed a number swiftly.

“You've reached Melanie. I can't get my phone which probably means that you called me during band practice, in a shower, or I forgot to charge my phone. Actually, forget the first two options. I didn't charge my phone. I will charge it as soon as possible, I swear. Leave me a message and I'll call you back ASAP.”

beeeeep

“Hey, meet me by our practice spot near the bus stop Monday at 8:30, okay? Bye.”

Josh breathed in. Now, he was obligated to go on the train back down there and confront his demons. No more busking in squares, no more spontaneous living. He would go back there and become the normal, precise Josh again.

The train came all too quickly. The scenery around him echoed in his mind for the last time, and he climbed onto the musty seats. Once again, he slept through the entire journey.

A force that has no name woke him up as soon as they passed city limits. The solitary rider of the bus, he opened his eyes and saw everything he held familiar and close to his heart through the rain splattered windows. Tears welled up unexpectedly in his eyes as they approached his stop. Despite his suddenly blurry vision and the dotted windows, still barely discernable from the dark bushes behind them, huddled a few people underneath a navy umbrella and a sun-bleached bus stop.

He didn't want to step out of the dry warmth. Even so, the stuffy bus had one passenger left to deposit, and Josh dutifully stepped into the glistening, wet world. The cold air seemed to make his senses work double time, and the wet world around him seemed to sparkle with a magical familiarity.

Mel came barreling towards him and just started crying into his chest. The twins behind her flashed him thumbs up, winked, and nodded knowingly as they explained what happened while he was gone. They had broke into the house and discovered him missing, so they had been checking every single hospital within a fifty-mile radius. They didn't call the police. He and his friends had always been averse to the local law. Small incidents had happened while they were growing up, the twins especially.

Deep in his core, Josh felt another spontaneous burst of action start to happen. Instead of holding back and resisting Mel's closeness as he would have before, he pulled her closer to him and embraced her as if she was the only person in the world. And in a daze, they walked him home.