Uncharted Territory

It couldn’t have been more than an hour when I heard the door open, and by then, I was sprawled out on Josh’s bed. I popped my head up as light poured into the room and our eyes met almost immediately.

“I didn’t wake you, did I?” Josh asked as he shut the door behind him, moving towards the bed while he took off his shoes.

I shook my head quickly, leaning up in the bed so my back was against the headboard. “I wasn’t sleeping.”

Josh immediately plopped down on the bed next to me, his hands covering his face while he let out a long, deep sigh. I could hear his throat was raw – from crying or yelling I didn’t know.

“What the fuck was I thinking?” Josh yelled out, slamming his hands against the bed sheets. “I was going to marry her, Erin.”

His hands moved back up to cover his face and he groaned.

I let out a small breath as I looked down at him. “You couldn’t have known she was going to do that.”

“But I should have known. I should have seen it coming. I doubt she ever even loved me at all.”

He was rambling, which I knew he always did when he was upset. His hands left his eyes and they just looked so incredibly heavy.

“Josh, you know that’s –”

“It’s okay, Erin,” he interrupted, shaking his head, while he laid his hands down beside him on the bed. “I don’t think I ever really loved her either.”

If I had been drinking something, I would have choked on it, but luckily my mouth was the driest it had ever been. He couldn’t have meant that, though. I saw the way he looked at her on the day I met her for the very first time, and it was like he couldn’t get enough of her. People changed their minds, but I knew what Josh looked like when he was in love.

I was so dumbfounded that there was no way I could bring myself to speak, and the two of us sat in dead silence for several long minutes. It was deafening, and I could hear every beat of my heart pounding in my chest while soft breaths poured from Josh’s lips.

“Let’s run away,” Josh blurted out, shooting up from the bed as he turned to look at me.

My eyebrows were furrowed and I let out a small laugh, thinking he must be joking. “You know we can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“We – we just can’t, Josh. You know that.”

Josh had his hands pressed down into the bed, looking at me with his heavy eyes. “But we always talked about it when we were little. How we’d run off and leave the world behind.”

“But we were little then,” I breathed out, trying to sound sympathetic as I let him down. The last thing I wanted to do was crush him even more than he already was. “We didn’t know what running away really meant.”

“And what does it mean now?” Josh asked, tilting his head as he looked at me.

I paused, taking in a deep breath. I knew why Josh wanted to run away. He wanted nothing more than to escape the fucked up mess his life had so quickly become. He wanted to get as far away from Natalie and their doomed wedding as he possibly could. I understood that, I really did.

“Please, Erin,” Josh continued, his voice getting deeper. “Please, will you entertain my crazy ideas for just a minute?”

I chuckled at him softly, cutting through the silence. “I’ve been entertaining your crazy ideas for over twenty years, don’t you think I’ve had enough?”

Ignoring me, he continued speaking. "The honeymoon’s already paid for. I can’t take it back. It’s two tickets to the Bahamas for just a few days.” He laughed softly. “She was so pissed I couldn’t take off longer.” He sighed, shaking his head. His eyes moved back to mine and his hand reached for my knee in that way he always did. “Now, I can take Daniel, or I can take you, and I’m sure you look much better in a bikini.”

I rolled my eyes at him, chuckling, before I cocked my head. “Josh, I can’t. I have work and –”

“Your best friend since you were two just got dumped the night before his wedding,” Josh interrupted, giving me the same look I was giving him. “Don’t you think that calls for a sick day?” I sighed and he continued. “Please. We don’t have to tell anyone – just my parents and yours and Daniel. We can leave in the morning and then Natalie will have to deal with telling everyone.” He breathed out.” Please, Erin, I don’t think I can stay for that.”

I let out a long breath, my eyes meeting his again. I could see how badly he was hurting – how much he didn’t want me to see – and I knew that he needed this more than anything else. I laughed to myself, thinking of everything that had happened, and nodded. “So we leave tomorrow, then?”

Josh gave me the biggest smile I had ever seen, while he leaned forward and wrapped his arms around my shoulders. He pulled me in for a hug that was so soft and so sweet and so Josh as his grip tightened around me.

“Thank you so much, Erin. You have no idea how much this means to me.”