Jealous Minds Think Alike

“Are you bloody hell insane?” Max shouted and Josh’s eyes widened. His head snapped toward the hallway before he shushed Max harshly.

“Keep your voice down, twit! You’ll wake Kalysta.” He whispered and glanced toward the hallway again. There weren’t any noises coming from the room and after a few minutes he sighed with relief and turned his attention back to Max. “I’m not insane.” He stated calmly while Max rolled his eyes.

“Yes, the hell you are. You’ve invited your sister to stay with you.” Max shook his head as he braced himself on the counter in the kitchen. “Elissa knows absolutely nothing about Kalysta, which means she’s going to be surprised as fuck when she arrives and finds the girl sleeping in your bed.”

Josh opened his mouth to protest and proclaim that he would warn Elissa first, but Max kept going.

“Not to mention the fact that she hates any girl that comes around you. I mean, did you honestly think this would go on without a hitch? Were you thinking at all?”

“Elissa’s going to love Kalysta. Everyone does.” Josh shrugged. He hadn’t truly thought about any issues arising between the two girls. He was a bit nervous to have them meet, but it was the same when he’d introduced her to the guys.

Max made a face. “Kalysta does have that weird mood thing where you just fall in love with her.” Josh started to grin. “But it’s not going to work on Elissa, I promise you that.”

“Didn’t you just say her mood was infectious?”

“Yeah, but that kind of shit doesn’t work on your sister. I told you, she hates any girl that even comes round you.” Max shook his head again and grimaced. “You are going to have a lot of drama go on.”

“It’s going to be fine, Max.” Josh was reassuring himself just as much as he was trying to reassure Max.

“How long is she staying?”

Josh hesitated. “Just a few days. She’s really stopping by, not staying.”

Max snorted. “Yeah; tell yourself that a few more times and maybe it’ll start to come true. In the meantime, I am going to steer clear of this place until she’s gone.”

“You make it sound like my sister’s some kind of bitch.” Josh frowned as he ran his hands through his hair. Suddenly, he was way too anxious to have his sister come and hurriedly go.

“Only to other girls.” Max shrugged and then smirked. “I’m just kidding, Josh. Your sisters totally not a bitch. She’s just,” he paused. “different?”

“Who the hell are you calling different?” Kalysta appeared in the kitchen doorway. Her hands were on her hips, her dyed hair in a messy ponytail, and her eyebrows scrunched together. Both boys grinned at her defensive stance.

Max slowly turned his raised eyebrows toward Josh. “Yeah, mate. Who were you calling different?”

“I may be half asleep, but I’m pretty sure I heard those words in your voice, Maxwell.” Her hands fell to her sides as she shuffled her feet closer to them.

“You’re still sleeping now, love.” Max grinned and winked at her. She scrunched her nose up too and leaned into Josh’s side, burying her face into his shirt.

“Tell him to go away.” She whined and he chuckled as he put an arm around her, rubbing her back. “My head hurts.”

“Yeah, I’ve got to get going, anyway.” Max rolled his eyes and snatched his keys up from the counter. “I’ll see you two later.” He waved and then left.

Josh’s insides squirmed a bit. He could tell she was falling asleep again. Her breathing was slowing and more of her weight was being leaned on him. He was unsure if telling her would be better with her awake or mostly asleep. “Sweetheart?” He squeezed her side.

“Hmm?”

He licked his lips, carefully choosing his words. Then he decided against it. “Why don’t you go take a shower to wake yourself up some?” He suggested and then closed his eyes as he cursed in his head.

“Cause I’m too fucking tired. I can’t even imagine trying to wash myself right now.” He laughed, leaning his head on top of hers. All his worries melted away. How could anyone not adore the girl beside him?

“Oh, and I hope you don’t mind,” he winced at how his first words. “But, um, I invited my sister to come visit us. It’s just a few days. I promise she won’t,” Kalysta moved away from him, making his mouth go dry.

“Why are you so nervous? It’s just your sister, right?” Her green eyes locked on him, scanning over his features for a sign of what was wrong.

He carefully avoided her gaze. “Yeah, it’s just my sister. And it’s really just a few days. She’ll be gone before you even notice she’s here, probably.” He gave a forced chuckle and darted his eyes to hers to make things seem at least slightly normal.

“You’re acting weird.” She pouted but then her head fell against his shoulder again. “Have you borrowed that mattress thing from Dan, then?”

He exhaled a whoosh of air as his arm returned around her. He had been expecting more of a fight. “Uh, no, not yet. I wanted to run it past you first.”

“It’s your flat and your sister, Josh.”

“This is part your flat too. If you feel uncomfortable just say the word and,” he stopped.

“And what? You’ll kick her out?” Kalysta lifted her head enough to arch her eyebrows at him again. “Really Josh?”

“And I don’t know.” He finished and she started to grin.

“Exactly. Sides, I don’t think it’ll be too uncomfortable.” She shrugged and pulled away from him to walk toward the fridge. “I mean, we have guests over all the time.” She continued nonchalantly, pulling a can of soda from the cold fridge. “It’s really not a big deal.”

Josh watched her carefully, listening intently to the way she was saying every short sentence. He crossed his arms and gave her a hard look. “What are you going on about?”

Her green orbs widened. “What do you mean?”

“You’re not talking about Elissa anymore, I can tell. So what are you going on about?”

“Who’s Elissa?”

He rolled his eyes. “My sister. Now what the hell are you avoiding, Kalysta?”

She rolled her eyes in return. “I was just saying that visitors are nice. It’s not a bad thing to invite someone to stay with us.” She shrugged and he examined her a bit more before he finally got it.

“Right.” He nodded and smirked as he stepped closer to her. “So who is it that you invited to come stay with us?” She sputtered on the soda she had been drinking as her eyes widened even more.

“Who said I invited anyone?” Her voice even squeaked a bit. He got a real laugh out of that.

“You did, you nutter. Now who is it?”

She waited a few seconds before caving. “It’s an old friend of mine, from the states. I started talking to her the other day and she mentioned coming to see me.” Her eyes fell to the can in her hands as her mouth turned down into a slight frown. “And I miss her, and a lot of the things I used to have back in Boston, so I was thinking maybe she could come and stay with us for just a week or so.”

He grinned as he pulled her to his chest, giving her a tight hug. “Course she can, sweetheart. As I said, half this place is yours. Invite her over. I’d love to meet some of your American girlfriends.” Kalysta giggled as she gently pushed him away.

“You sound like your suggesting she’s my bird, Joshua.” Both grinned like crazy at her use of the British slang term.

“How do I know she isn’t?”

“You’re weird.”

“I’m pretty sure you’ve already said that.”

“Well, it needs to be said again.”

“So you’ll invite her, yeah?”

Kalysta bit her bottom lip and nodded. “Yeah. I’ll call her in the morning, when I get off. When is Elissa coming?”

“This Thursday.” He chuckled as she lightly punched his arm.

“That’s a nice heads up, you twat! Thursday’s like three days away.”

“When is,” he paused, frowned, and then started again. “What’s her name?”

“Elissa?” Kalysta’s eyebrows rose as she tried to catch up with Josh’s quick thinking. Josh snorted.

“Your friend from America.” He smirked slightly as her cheeks turned pink.

“Harlow.”

“And she’s coming when?” He pretended to ignore her blushing so as not to embarrass her more.

“I don’t know. She’ll have to work something into her schedule. She’s busy back home.” Kalysta bit her bottom lip again, her green eyes going a little numb. Josh frowned as he noticed. She rarely talked about America, or her friends there, or even her family.

As far as Josh knew, her family was gone and her friends were scarce. He just didn’t know why. “I’m sure anytime she can come will be fine.” He shrugged, trying to change the subject.

She appreciated his attempt, and grinned widely up at him to show it. “Thanks Josh.” She went up on tip toes for the brief few seconds as she pressed her lips to the side of his face.

It surprised him. He watched her skip out of the kitchen in her innocently happy mood in a daze. He wasn’t sure why, but out of the handful of times she’d done the same simple motion, it had never felt quite like it did right then.