The Best Is Yet to Come

Luckily enough, we were given a distraction. Our end of year exams were soon upon us and we had a few GCSE’s to sit. Obviously, Katie and I took revising much more seriously than the boys. It meant less of a social life and more of weekends in the books.

My parents were expecting things from me; they’d failed with my sister. They wanted me to be the good child, the successful one who was going to make something of her life. It was what I wanted; I wanted to get out of Weybridge, out of Surrey. I was the complete opposite to my sister.

My more rebellious sister had missed an entire month of college and her exams were upon her as well. I blamed my parents, they’d let her go, they never pushed her. I was now the child they’d have to rely on. So I ignored my phone, ignored the emails and buried my nose into my books, doing past papers and making notes. Of course, I got jip for it from Josh who hadn’t even picked up a book.

I found the exams easy, Josh on the other hand moaned the entire week. I smiled smugly as we traipsed home after the final exam on the Friday.

“See? Easy,” I beamed at the thought of finally being free. He just grunted and shoved his hands into his pockets.

“How’d music go by the way?” I asked him.

“Alright actually.” His tone lightened with the sense of hope. “C or B hopefully, more likely to be B actually. I mean, my coursework was good n’all but I suck at listening. It doesn’t matter these are like mocks.”

“So you want to be a musician and you going to get a B in it at GSCE? Thank God you are good practically. You need to shape up Josh for next year.” I glanced sideward’s at my friend who seemed unconcerned by all this. “Josh, I asked Jack,” I was hard saying the name, my voice hardened. “to promise me something a long time ago, don’t throw away your futures on this band nonsense.”

“Band nonsense?” he asked, outraged and he stopped walking. I stopped a few steps in front and turned to look at him. His bad mood from the last exam seemed to be contributing to the furious look on his face.

“Yeah Josh, band nonsense, you didn’t revise at all for your exams because of your music. You’re in that shitty one at the moment!” The concerns that had been building in me all through the revision period finally spilled out. The boys original band had split due to lack of a drummer. Max had gone off to play guitar for one in his college and Josh was now in a really shit bad one with a few other kids in our year. Josh lifted his shoulders into a form of still shrug, and stared at the pavement as he scuffed his shoes against the concrete. “Don’t waste your chance next year! You will regret it.”

“They’re not shitty,” he defended. I rolled my eyes, of course he’d pick up on that point.

“Josh, listen to me please! Don’t throw away anything on this!”

He finally looked at me, something I’d said had finally sunken in and he nodded.

“Thank you,” I said quietly and we carried on home.

The last few weeks of school passed in a blur - I mean it wasn’t like we had much work to do now. The Year 11’s didn’t return home after their exams so we revelled in being top of the school. Everyone was buzzing about summer plans; apparently we were set to have a gorgeous summer. Josh spent most of the lessons talking to me about what he wanted to achieve in the summer – it was mainly music stuff. I’d lightened up on him about the situation after he’d promised me he’d work hard in school, and so I went back to helping motivate him towards his ambitions. Max and Josh were currently looking for more band members – a bassist and, possibly, a guitarist as Josh was considering singing again. Max was circulating bands at the moment testing out people. We had a summer planned out to go see a load of bands local and famous, (I was really into the whole concert thing at the moment) party, fix up the band, get the band promoted and do a load of stuff kids our age should be doing recreationally.

My parent’s on the other hand, had different ideas about staying in Surrey for the six weeks. I was told a week before we broke up that they’d booked five weeks away in Spain to stay with our grandparents. I was appalled. Thankfully, Erin seemed just as outraged as I was. We argued heatedly with our parents, but nothing worked – we were going to Spain.

I vented my frustration loudly in Josh’s room the day before we left, he was oddly quiet. I stormed around the bedroom cursing my parents. Okay, any other kid would be thrilled for such a get away, for such a long period in the sun doing sod all, but I wanted to do things here.

“It’s not like they even asked us!” I cried as I paced past Josh for the millionth time.

“Mmm,” he murmured faintly in agreement.

“S’up with you?” I asked in my foul mood and plonked myself down on the bed next to him.

“You’re going away,” he said simply.

“No shit Sherlock.” My words were soaked in sarcasm. Josh just rolled his eyes and pressed on.

“I mean, you’re going away.” He actually genuinely sounded quite upset. “We had a load planned.”

“I know, aren’t you listening? That’s what I’m upset about!” I groaned and collapsed backwards to stare up at the ceiling. I folded my arms, a childish action that suited the pout that formed my lips. “You’ve got Max and Katie and Joe. You’ve got your band, the one you’re supposed to be forming and all those skanks in our year if you must.” I spat the last part through my teeth. I actually didn’t like the idea of going away and leaving Josh in the hands of the girls. I snatched up a pillow, pulled it over my face and screamed into it.

I was packed up and snatched away by my parents before I knew it. I barely got a chance to see my four best friends that I wasn’t going to see for basically the whole holiday. What I hated most was that there was little means of communication from Spain and a lot could change in five weeks.

***

Any other normal children in the world would have revelled in the fact there was no school and basked in the glorious sunshine as the waves crashed calmingly against the beach. Erin and I, on the other hand, were apparently not normal. We spent most of the first week moping around the villa, Erin desperately searching for a signal from her dying mobile – our parents had taken away the chargers. We stropped with our parents and refused to participate in any family activities.

It’s weird, the sunshine, the lack of technology, it does crazy things to the brain. After ten days in our grandparents villa we finally caved and relaxed into the calming routine of sunbathe, swim, shower, eat, sleep. It was the perfect anecdote after all the stress and trauma I’d experienced the past few months. I soon came to realise that the holiday wasn’t a curse but a blessing, a gift from my parents. Erin was less appreciative. Being in the rebellious independent age of her teen years she didn’t voice how much she was starting to enjoy the holiday and ignored everyone by sticking headphones in.

I’d forgotten the charger to my iPod and, after Erin had loosened up, she let me borrow her iPod. It was the sort of music Josh and the boys were heavily into. I scrolled through her iPod, it was full of the genre that suited her style – Erin with her skinny jeans, band t shirts, short bright red spiky hair and piercings. It was rather cliché but the bands actually appealed to her. I soon found myself enjoying the music more and more. My summer playlist consisted of New Found Glory, Jimmy Eat World, Weezer, Blink 182, Green Day, The Academy is…, Fall Out Boy, The Rocket Summer, Avenge Sevenfold, My Chemical Romance and other bands that fell under the category of either alternative, rock or punk pop.

My music taste was changing. I found I really liked the band Josh was often on about - Jimmy Eat World. I also really liked some of the Fall Out Boy stuff but I found that My Chemical Romance were my favourite. Their songs seemed full of meaning and the singer conveyed such emotion.

And so I spent my weeks soaking up as much new music as rays from sun in the sky.

***

“Why didn’t you text me back!?” he demanded as soon as the door swung open letting in a deathly cold breeze into the house. I shivered and pulled him inside the house to shut out the cold. Weybridge seemed so horrible after five weeks in the baking sun.

“Woah,” Josh added at the sight of the colour of my skin. He was scarily pale next to me.

“I didn’t have my phone,” I defended with a note of an apology. “I’m sorry.”

Josh couldn’t stop staring at me; his eyes ran up and down my figure several times, his mouth ever so slightly open.

“What?!” I demanded impatiently after a few silent moments.

“You look… different,” he said quietly. “In a good way!” he added quickly in an attempt to save his comment. “You look more grown up.”

I pulled the questioning stare he liked to use on me but I was wearing a massive smile at the sight of his face. He was staring me in a sort of awe shock. As he scanned me over and tried to take in my “change” I tried to understand what he was on about. Of course Josh looked different, I’d been deprived of seeing his face but I could see what he meant about seeming a bit more grown up. His hair was ever so shorter but it was still long enough to fall into his eyes. His face had thinned out, it was less round, he’d grown a few inches too. I scowled at his new height.

“Don’t you dare get taller than me!” I snapped and jabbed my finger at his chest.

“Well start wearing high heels cause you’re out of luck.” To add to the childish tone he was using he ruffled my hair.

“Do you mind?!” I turned to the mirror to fix my hair and frowned at the reflection. Did I look different? My hair had grown a bit over the summer and was now a shade lighter. It was hard to compare myself to any version of me five weeks ago when I looked in the mirror almost every day of my life – I grew with my changes. I glanced at the slightly taller Josh to my left and folded my arms childishly.

He laughed and grabbed my arm, he pulled me up the stairs to my own bedroom - he visited too often. Josh more of less ran up the stairs, he was grinning the entire way, excitement and enthusiasm radiating off him. I shook off his arm when he bounded into my bedroom and shut my door behind me. He sat down on the bed and the springs in my mattress caused him to rebound slightly by bobbing up and down adding to the thrilled feeling that emitted from him. I couldn’t help but smile at him. It was so nice to see him.

“Why’re you so eager?” I asked and sat down next to him laughing. Josh kicked off his shoes and sat up on my bed so he could face me better. I just raised my eyebrows at him, waiting.

“We’ve found them.”

I stared at him blankly.

“You’re gonna love them Jase, they’re fucking amazing!”

I didn’t think it possible but my eyebrows shot even higher, disappearing somewhere into my fringe.

“Okay, Josh, sweetie,” I took his hand to calm him down slightly. “You’re going to have to speak English.” I spoke my words as if I was speaking to a five year old and, in his energetic state, he strongly reminded me of one.

He just rolled his eyes and glared at me as if I was stupid.

“The band you douche! We found a guitarist and a bassist.”

“Oh.” That was all I could say. My eyebrows reappeared and dipped into a frown. I’d forgotten all about that whilst being away, I hadn’t realised they’d gone a recruitment mission, but of course that was the aim of the holidays. Josh had just completed it without me.

“Don’t sound too enthusiastic,” he said dully.

“No, sorry.” I shook my head to clear it. “Well done. Where’d you get them?”

“Well we just sort of found them. There’s Matt Barnes,” his tone softened slightly. I knew what was coming and Josh was trying to cushion the blow. “He’s our new bassist.” There was ten seconds of awkward silence where Josh looked at me empathetically but at the same time he seemed saddened at the loss of his previous bassist. I nodded for him to carry on. He did in a calmer tone of voice.

“We went looking for a bassist and we found one. Remember that gig we played back in what was it…? April? May? Anyway, Matt was the bassist. Matt’s next door neighbour is a guitarist, he’s called Chris Miller, he’s so sick!”

I grimaced at the use of the slang word. I never really liked it, it just didn’t fit.

“We jammed and it was ace. Seriously Jase, they’re brill.” His excitement was so cute.

I smiled at him and squeezed his hand.

“So when do I get to meet them?” I pressed on eagerly. Excitement and nerves were slowly building inside me at the prospect of meeting these two new people I’d undoubtedly become new friends with. It was an odd situation. My friends had gone off and found two new permanent fixtures for us, two inevitable new best friends.

“Well, I came over here to see if you wanted to come to the little get together Max is having later tonight?”

I let go of his hand and smacked his arm.

“That’s the only reason you came around?!” I asked outraged. The comment genuinely stung. Josh seemed to have picked up my habit of rolling eyes.

“No stupid. I actually came round to see you cause... well… I missed you.” He looked away from me and smiled sheepishly. A faint trace of red filled his cheeks. I grinned and leapt forwards on my bed to throw my arms around him. It was very awkward from the positions where we were sitting. The movement was too quick for Josh and so I knocked him backwards. I squeezed him tight and buried my face into his neck with a soft giggle.

“I missed you too.”

After he realised the action was a hug and not an attack, he twisted to make it more comfortable but instead we both slipped from the bed and landed on the floor. Josh landed half on top of me. We both erupted into laughter. Josh braced himself up onto his arms so let the weight off me. He looked down at me apologetically but I couldn’t stop laughing. I brushed my hair out of my eyes and slowly my giggling died down. He waited patiently for my outburst to calm before speaking.

“I’m very glad you’re back. It wasn’t the same without you,” he said sincerely. It was one of those intimate friends moments that hardly ever occurred but should more often. I smiled and ran my fingers along his fringe; watching the dangling hair sway to my touch. I traced it down over his nose before tapping the tip lightly.

“You seemed to function well enough with out me. All of you.”

His eyes flickered between the both of mine before he lifted himself backwards onto his knees.

“Hardly,” he muttered, his fingers traced patterns in my cream carpet leaving marks where the material moved to the wrong direction. I sat up on elbows to frown at him.

“What’d you mean?”

He grimaced at me and then got to his feet, using my bed as support before offering a hand to me. I closed my own around his and lifted me easily to my feet – the boy was getting stronger.

“It’s just been… a crap holiday that’s all. Max’s been off playing with bands and finding new people, we used to be so close Jase, he was my best friend.”

“He’s still your best friend,” I told him in a soothing voice as I closed the space between us. I looked up at him, even though he wouldn’t look at me. I rubbed his arm gently to show my support.

“I haven’t seen Katie in ages; I’m not actually sure where she’s been.”

I frown at this news. It seemed I needed to plug my phone into charge.

“Look Josh.” I squeezed his arm softly and pulled his chin to look at me. He reluctantly shifted his gaze to meet mine, his expression miserable. “It’s going to be alright. Max’s has gone off and done his job, he’s found members for your band, not anyone else’s, yours! You’re not going to lose him or me or anyone else again. Everything’s going to be like how it was but better. This is the start of something great.”

***

“Have you met them?” I asked Katie as we followed up the familiar garden path to Max’s house. I exchanged a slightly nervous glance with her at the roars of laughter from inside. The curtains were closed and there was music pumping loudly from the house.

“No,” she admitted, a guilty tone to her confession.

“Where have you actually been?” I asked curiously as we closed the final steps to the house. She knocked on the door three times.

“No where really, it’s been a pretty lame summer, things just don’t function without you Jase,” she laughed. I unconsciously smiled and turned to the door as it opened. We were stunned as a wave of sound hit us, the sounds of many overlapping voices and conversations were only just audio able over the pumping music.

“Get together?” I raised my eyebrows at Max and snapped my mouth shut. He shrugged and stepped back to let us in.

“You announced it online again didn’t you?” Katie asked in a disapproving tone.

“Well look who it is, nice to see you too!”

My heart lifted as I absorbed Max in for the first time in ages. His hair was much shorter, it had been cut and textured. I was pleased to see his face still trademark Max cute and boyish. I flung my arms around him as we passed over the threshold. He sheepishly closed the door behind us, after I’d set him free, and took our jackets; Max was a real sweetie sometimes. The music thumped through the house.

Thanks to my music therapy over the summer I recognised the American drone of Tom De Long blaring over a punk poppy melody.

“This is getting old,” I told Max who stared at me in surprise.

“All the small things is a Blink classic,” he retorted in a condescending tone to which I merely shrugged.

My heart then thudded at the realisation on who we were about to meet. Katie stopped my panic.

“Max, this is a foundation for a party.” Katie glanced around his shoulder to the kitchen and living room. A number of voices flooded out from each room. “How public did you make this thing?”

“It’s like a ‘last week’ get together thing, I thought it’d be less awkward for you two,” he said innocently. We didn’t buy it and, in typical fashion, we folded our arms.

“Whatever,” I muttered.

“Drinks?” Katie asked for me. Max just indicated towards the kitchen, we smiled with false sweetness and pushed past him to go fetch a drink. We felt comfortable in each other’s houses to just wander off unaccompanied. As I walked through the familiar surroundings it was like I’d never been away. It felt good to be home.

Katie simply grabbed a can of coke but under my nerves I felt like I needed something stronger and so I snatched up the nearest bottle of Stella. Max had seemingly invited his college friends, accidently or purposely I didn’t know, but a few were dotted around his kitchen clutched similar drinks. A number of them eyed me up as I downed half the bottle.

“Woah, calm,” Katie hissed to my right. I ignored her and finished the bottle. I heard mutters of amused appraisal around me as I set the empty bottle on the counter.

One of the boys in the corner looked the two of us up and down. He had very dark brown hair that was styled similar to Josh’s but was less scraggy. The length reached the end of his chin so his hair framed his face perfectly; he had perfectly crafted cheekbones that gave him an alluring look of maturity. His dark eyes moved from Katie to his friend next to him.

What was it with boys and their hair? His friend’s wasn’t too dissimilar to his, or Josh’s, or Max’s or any other boy in the room. It fell the opposite direction to his mate and he gently swept the long fringe, which seemed to be ‘in’, out of his light blue eyes. His face was less defined than his friend’s, but still, he held the same attractive appeal.

They were both dressed in jeans and dark t-shirts. As I glanced around the room, I struggled to find strong differences between them all. Katie and I stuck out like a sore thumb against the sea of black. I glanced at Katie’s light pink vest and my flowery top and cringed. Katie seemed to pick up on the style of the room.

She snatched my arm and spun me around to face away from everyone.

“Oh my god, we’re friends with emo’s.”

“You what?” I responded, taken aback by the word.

“Emo’s,” she repeated quietly as she glanced over the shoulder at boys in the corner.

“They’re not emos!” I giggled. “That’s not the right word at least. They’re not posers,” I sneered. “Yeah well anyways, we could easily be defined as chavs, don’t go stereotyping!” I scolded her in a whisper and poured myself a Pepsi. “Sudden change of scenery too much for you?”

Katie cringed uncomfortably and drank her drink.

“Who cares what social group they all belong to, you have to admit they’re hot,” I whispered with a typical girlish swoon. Katie giggled into her drink – her admittance.

“What like Josh, Max and Joe?” she teased.

“Nahh, but college guys are very hot.” I nodded approvingly as I glanced around the room. Katie agreed with another giggle.

“Max goes to college,” she countered.

“Yeah but he’s still like a brother.”

“Sixth formers are equally fit,” she stated after a moment.

“That’s cause they’re the same age, smart shit!” I laughed at Katie’s blondness. Her brow very quickly dipped into a frown before relinquishing into one of surprise.

“I hate our year, there’s… no one.”

There were no truer words than her statement. Our entire year consisted of immature twats covered in spots and prancing around thinking they’re hard, or it was loaded with boys who were too scared to touch girls with a twenty foot barge poll, the only girl they’d ever loved was their mother. I always felt sorry for them - they were sweet boys, ones who would actually treat a girl right. Then there was Josh and Joe, the only boys in our year that weren’t utter gits – most of the time anyway. The school had divided into it’s social cliques whist we’d separated off into our own corner. I could often tell that Katie wanted to join the ‘popular’ gaggle of girls that I deeply despised due to their whore-ness. She never left me though.

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

We both jumped a mile, my arm jerked as I flew into the air and I sloshed my full cup of Pepsi over the counter. We both spun around to look at who’d been eaves dropping on us.

It was the two boys from the corner, both of which looked rather smug. I struggled for words as I looked up at them, they were just a bit taller than Josh, God I hated tall people.

“Sorry to hear what?” Katie asked, an idiotic move.

“That there’s no boys for you,” the one on the right said, the one with the gorgeous dark eyes. “Is that why you come here to college parties?”

He looked Katie up and down briefly, the flirtatious tone in his voice screaming for attention.

“Hoping to hook up?” the other teased. I openly glared at them for the insult.

“Actually, we’re best friends with Max.”

The both took a step back in what seemed to be surprise. Their eyebrows shot up, just like mine did, and vanished into their hair. Before either of them could speak, Josh entered the room, finally. He crossed the kitchen grinning and stood between the two pairs.

“Where’ve you been?” I asked him angrily.

“Living room,” he responded dully, he looked to the two boys opposite us.

“Are you two Jasey and Katie?” the blue eyed one asked curiously, a grin starting to spread over his face.

“Already met?” Josh asked his tone rich with disappointment. I frowned at Josh and looked at the two boys.

“Oh my God,” Katie and I said at exactly the same time. The realisation hit me like a tone of bricks. My mouth actually dropped open at the comprehension. They were the two new band members!

“Or not,” Josh said with a laugh and clapped the one on the right on the back.

“Katie, Jasey this is Matt Barnes,” he indicated to the tall dark eyed mysterious one who winked at us. “Our new bassist.” Even I could hear the uncomfortable twist that still hung on the statement. He cleared his throat and carried on. “And this is Chris Miller, our guitarist.”

I smiled meekly when he used the word ‘new’ only on the bassist introduction. Josh was still clinging to his best friend.

We both responded with our versions of hello and introductions. The guys offered their hands and we shook them. Max returned at that point, after visiting the front door again, he saw the introduction and broke the ice that was slowly starting to freeze over between the five of us. As usual, he cracked a joke and for once, he grabbed a glass and raised it to us all. We all drank and burst into laughter. The kitchen soon became too full for a normal conversation.

It wasn’t until after the next morning did I get a chance to speak to the boys properly. Together, when Joe arrived, they explained what they’d been up to over the holidays.

I got retold the stories several times over. I heard about how Matt entered the scene, then Chris. I heard about their meeting. I heard about their playing sessions. I heard about Josh’s new material. I heard about the bands new songs. I heard about their first set of local gigs. I heard about their ambitions and their plans and their dreams.

By the afternoon I struggled to keep up my enthusiasm. I was genuinely interested in hearing things from the two new boys but Josh’s excitement was wearing thin. He was bouncing around the living room and kept following me around the house, keen to fill me in on the summer that I’d been left out on.

Matt and Chris seemed nice enough. In fact they were down right decent and funny guys. I knew Josh couldn’t have wished for two more perfect members. The only struggle left was to push the band places.

***

Months passed. Months and months and months, where they achieved nothing more than a few songs and a few local shows. Things were moving very slow for the boys. They still lacked a name. It became very frustrating when we went back to school and were soon laden with homework and coursework.

Monday to Friday passed by in a blink, the weeks repeated themselves in the same routines and all our futures looked bleaker and bleaker. I found myself taking my frustration out mainly on Josh who responded equally as nastily. As school rounded off towards December he finally snapped.

“Oh just shut the fuck up!” he screamed at me one Thursday evening. I ground my teeth together and simply glared. He was pumped up and edgy, our shared irritation had become too much. I watched his anger spill out, a rarity around me; he didn’t like to lose it.

I remained quiet and looked down at my feet. The harshness of his tone echoed through me – it stung badly. My emotions must have been written all over my face because he collapsed onto the sofa with a frustrated groan of defeat.

“I’m sorry,” he said after a moment.

“It’s okay,” I responded flatly. “I deserve it right?”

“Stress.” It wasn’t a question but I answered anyway.

“Yes.” Stress, frustration, anger, the emotions I knew that mirrored Josh’s. He took another deep breath.

“We’re too alike,” he commented with a frown.

“You wish,” I scoffed and glanced up at him. He chuckled lightly; the smile the laugh had etched their remained. The smile was an infectious thing; I couldn’t stop my emotions tugging the corners of my mouth. He scratched the side of his nose and then sat up to talk to me properly.

“I need your help Jasey,” he said in barely a whisper. He looked at me with such conviction I felt myself drawn to him, I leant in.

“With what…?”

“No one’s pushing this band. It’s going nowhere.”

“I know,” I said dryly before I could stop myself. I shot him an apologetic look but it was not needed, he was nodding along with me. I pursed my lips and creased my forehead as I thought of the possibilities to help him. They had their gigs, they had their songs, they just needed… more publicity? Ah ha!

I jumped up from the sofa and darted from the living room in the hype of my little brainwave, leaving Josh looking utterly bewildered on my sofa.

“Come here a minute!” I called over my shoulder and obediently he followed. I lifted up the lid of my shiny new laptop and waited for it to load.

“What are we doing?” Josh asked when he entered the room.

“Promoting.” The screen sparked into life and I clicked open the internet browser.

“What?”

I typed in the address I was looking for. I’d seen loads of good local and small time bands on here. ‘www.myspace.com’

Josh comprehended immediately and his face lit up.

“Of course,” he breathed and jumped up onto the stool next to me. I hit the sign up button and together we filled in the details. When we came to the ‘Musician Name’ we struggled.

“You really need to get a band name,” I remarked as I stared at the empty box awkwardly.

“Mmm,” he murmured in agreement as he frowned at the small box.

“And we’re gonna need you to record some tracks,” I said as I backed up to look at other myspaces. “And a few photo’s wouldn’t be too bad either.”

He just nodded whilst scratching the side of his head and up to his hairline; he ran his fingers through a tuft of hair and sighed.

“I really can’t think of anything,” he whispered after a moment.

“And you’re the creative one,” I murmured with a teasing smile. I saw the corner of his mouth tug up.

“What ever you say.” He jumped off his stool and headed towards the door.

“Where’re you going?” I demanded, outraged. Josh spun on the heel of his trainer to raise an eyebrow at me.

“Band practice, right,” I groaned and slunk off my own stool, closing the lid of my laptop.

“Aww missing me already?” His bottom lip jutted out in mock sympathy, the corners of his mouth lifted into a smile.

I didn’t want to admit to it so I just narrowed my eyes at him. He winked and his smile turned into one of smugness.

“Thought so,” he called over his shoulder as he left the kitchen, swinging on the doorframe. I followed him out into the hall.

“What are we doing tomorrow?” I asked and leant against the wall he pulled on his hoody.

“Well, we were going to-”

“Don’t you dare say band practice!” I jabbed my finger at him to stop the words from escaping his lips. “No. I want to do something fun.”

“But you-” He began looking bewildered.

“I don’t care. I want one evening with just us lot. I’m too stressed at the moment,” I comprehended with a sigh. He nodded after a moment and smiled softly.

“Alright, we’ll… haaaang.” The word stretched in his mouth and he grinned at the playfulness. . I rolled my eyes but his smile was infectious. He laughed at my response and pointed a finger at me with a wink.

“You me at six.” The most important words in his life just fell off his lips with such ease. I laughed letting the simple grammatically incorrect phrase pass right over me. Josh on the other hand; saw them in a completely different light. He turned to leave when the impact of his words struck him. He whirled around full circle to face me, his mouth hanging open and his eyes not focusing on me. Josh’s mouth moved to shape the words over and over again - he was testing them in his mouth.

“You me at six,” he whispered.

“Huh? Josh you alright?” I asked and snapped my fingers in front of his eyes – it had no effect. I could see his chest starting to heave and his eyes flickered back and for as if he was seeing something I couldn’t. I was actually concerned. Finally her broke into a grin and his eyes snapped to mine.

“That’s it!” he beamed at me with such happiness I couldn’t help but to return it, but it was a smile of uncertainty.

“What’s it?” I looked him up and down carefully, my head tilting to the side as I cringed to keep my distance as if he was an insane metal patient. He darted forward, closing the space between us to press his lips against my forehead.

“Thank you,” he whispered and actually ran from my house. It took me a moment to move from the wall to close the door that was letting all the gorgeous heat escape. I just frowned where Josh had been stood, completely missing what he was going on about. I shook my head; just accepting the boy was insane and shut the door on the cold winter night.