Who Will Fix Me Now?

<><><>a few days later yay<><><>

I'm in the Dan Howell browsing position as I scroll through Tumblr while blasting Darke Complex as loud as I can. I'm having a pretty good time chilling alone in my room and listening to one of my faves, until I catch something moving out of the corner of my eye. I look towards it and see a big ass spider crawling up my night stand. I scowl as I pause my music and put my laptop aside, sitting up to grab a wad of paper from the nightstand, rolling it up.

"Ya fucking nasty," I spit at the eight-legged monstrosity before smacking it with the roll.

But a thousand more tinier eight-legged monstrosities [scatter and run in all directions.

I screech and drop the paper, only to scream even louder after realizing some of the tiny spiders are running up the paper as well, which landed on my bed as well. I jump up and dash out of the room, screaming out in panic, bursting into fucking tears.

I nearly tripping as I run down the stairs, several at a time. I end up slamming into my mom when I turn the corner at the bottom. I would've fallen back on my ass if she didn't hastilly catch me last minute.

"What's wrong, Oli?! Why are you crying?!"

"WE GOTTA GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE, MOM!!" I cry out to her, forcing myself into her arms.

"WHY?! WHAT'S GOING ON?!" she shouts at me, panicking too now.

"THEY'RE IN MY ROOM!!"

"WHO?! DO I NEED TO CALL THE POLICE?!"

"CALL THE FUCKING SWAT!! THERE'S A THOUSAND TINY SPIDERS-"

"WAIT!!" she shouts, more angrilly this time, cutting me off. "You scared the living fuck out of me over some puny fucking spiders?!"

Well," I start sheepishly, feeling my face flush. "Like, I killed a big spider, and-and it exploded into many tiny ones!!"

"Jesus, Oli!" she laughs. "I'll go get rid of them for you, okay?"

"O-Okay..."

She smiles at me and ruffles my hair before walking into the kitchen to retrieve bug spray, taking it upstairs.

"Fuck my life," I mumble under my breath as my skin and scalp starts to itch, thinking about the encounter I just had with that fucktrocity. I start to ferociously scratch at the itches, just as my phone dings in my pocket, alerting me of a text. I grab my phone out of my pocket, humming out in surprise to find a text message from Josh. I swipe the message to the right and put my passcode in, instantly bringing myself to the message.

Josh: Hey wanna hang out at the mall or something? Kinda upset haha

I frown as I quickly type and send in a reply.

me: Uh yeah sure. Where we hanging out?

Josh: The mall. I'll pick you up, yeah?

me: Sure

Josh: Cool :D See you in a bit

I lock my screen and shove my phone back into my pocket to put my shoes on my feet, which are placed right next to the front door. I'm already wearing gray joggers and my black hoodie, which seems suitable enough to wear in public. At least that's what I convinced myself so I wouldn't have to go join the battlefield with my mom just to look decent for Josh.

Fuck, man, I'm about to hang out with Josh- should I just change anyways and hope the spiders haven't gotten to my closet yet? Maybe I can try to squeeze myself into a pair of Mom's jeans? Maybe I can-

I flinch and let out a little yelp as someone bangs on the door behind me.

I didn't even get a chance to fix my hair or at least put a fucking beanie on... was he already driving over when he texted me or something?? What the fuck??

The best I can do is pat my hair down before opening the front door, revealing Josh Franceschi (an: jfc guys i wrote dun down for a second i am t r a s h) standing there, gazing dejectedly at his feet. He glances up at me when he hears the door open, raising an eyebrow at me.

"You look great," Josh greets sarcastically, smiling teasingly at me.

"You barely gave me any time to get ready!" I whine at him, but he only laughs at me and beckons to me. I call out to my mom, letting her know that I was heading out before following Josh to the car parked by the road.

<>

We didn't speak to each other during the short, awkward car ride to the mall. I was relieved when we finally parked, close to the entrance. We both get out and head into the mall, which was oddly busy and kinda crowded. I subconciously move closer to Josh, anxiously scanning everyone in the building. Josh doesn't seem to notice as we continue walking deeper into the store, and I start to regret agreeing to go with Josh.

Why the fuck am I even here with Josh Franceschi? Why am I still his friend? He fucking used me to get Rachelle back-

"Rachelle cheated on me, man," Josh sighs, cutting my mental rant off mid sentence. "I looked through her phone, she's been seeing that Sushi kid. Sent each other nudes and everything! His dick is way smaller than mine, so I don't even understand why she hopped on his."

"Is his dick really smaller?"

"...No."

I can't help but laugh at him, earning a look of disapproval from him, which only fuels my laughter.

"You're mean, Oli. I thought you were my friend."

Friend.

My laughter ceases instantly and whatever smile I had dropped. I can't help but brood about how Josh left me for Rachelle, who ended up cheating on him only a few months later.

Yeah, this boosted my sense of self worth significantly, and I'm definitely not looking to Josh with a painfully forced smile.

"Why were you looking through her phone in the first place?"

"We were hanging out and she wasn't paying attention to me because she was too busy texting someone else, so when she went to the bathroom I looked through her messages to see what was so important that she had to completely ignore me. Like shit, if you're gonna cheat on me, at least don't leave your phone unattended without a passcode."

"It's okay. At least I would use a passcode while cheating on you," I tease playfully, but he didn't seem too amused at all.

"Wow. Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"You're an asshole. You didn't use to be an asshole."

"I'm also a grown man and I didn't use to be a grown man."

"Okay, Oli," Josh rolls his eyes, but a smile creeps onto his face. "What store do you wanna go to first?"

"I don't know, Hot Topic?" I shrug like the indecisive fuck I am, but Josh seems happy with that suggestion.

"Last one there pays for food!" Josh rushes out before dashing towards the store, and I'm pretty sure that's against the rules here??

I push that thought to the back of my mind as I run after him- with great difficulty, may I add, but I'm a broke bum. My body screams out in protest and people shoot me hateful looks as they narrowly dodge us, but racing in the store with Josh reminds me of my childhood, and how me and Tom would do the very same as children. We would get beat with switches as soon as we got home, but it was worth the euphoria.

Not really, getting smacked in the ass with a thin stick doesn't feel good at all.

I manage to pass Josh, despite being unfit for such exercise, but before I can get far, a pair of arms wrap around my waist and haul me off my feet.

"Josh, what the fuck?!" I squeal out as Josh spins around a couple times with me in his arms. "This is weird, put me down!"

He complies, gently setting me down again, but not without shooting me a concerned look. I'm about to question him on this, but his gaze averts somewhere past me, smiling excitedly at whatever he sees. I turn to face whatever's distracting him.

"Oli, we should get matching earrings!" Josh chirps, pointing at a piercing shop.

"Uh..." I shake my head. "No."

"Please, Oli? It would be so cool, and I've always wanted one!"

"No one's stopping you from getting your ear pierced, Josh."

"Yeah, but I wanna match with you! You'd look cute with it," Josh begs, him telling me that I'd look cute causing me to blush as I look away, biting down a smile.

Of course it's enough to change my mind, and I let Josh lead me towards the shop triumphantly.

<>

"See, that wasn't so bad," Josh laughs as we exit the piercing shop. We both got helix piercings in our ears with matching earrings.

"Yeah, it wasn't," I lie; my ears are still aching and burning, and I have to fight the urge to rub at it.

"Hmm, we should get food next," Josh says, and my stomach churns, but I smile and agree anyways.

"Where do you wanna eat?"

"I don't know, I'm not really hungry. Stuffed my face at home."

He gives me that same look he's already given me twice today, and I'm pretty sure he's catching on by now.

Well, I haven't eaten anything at all today, I guess we could go to Tropical Smoothie? I'm not too familiar with it, but their smoothies won't have too many calories, if I'm lucky.

I suggest going there, using the fact that the smoothies shouldn't contain animal products as an excuse, but it seems to work for him.

"Yeah, let's go," he agrees, leading me there.

<>

"Thanks for hanging out with me today," Josh thanks me before shoving the rest of his wrap into his mouth like a fucking animal.

"Uh... Yeah," I smile at him as I take another sip from my bomb ass smoothie. "Thanks for buying me this."

"No problem," he tries to say, muffled by the food in his mouth, and Joshua James Alphonse Franceschi is fucking disgusting, and I can't believe I kissed that mouth once upon a time (and I'd do it again, too, but that's never happening again, so that bit of information is not important).

"Take it slow, you heathen," I tease him, causing him to laugh- which causes him to choke on all the food lodged in his mouth.

I take another sip from my smoothie.

When he eventually recovers, he sends a glare my way. "I could've died, and you just sat there."

"Sorry."

"S'alright, you sadist," he rolls his eyes sarcastically. "Wanna come over to my house and hang out for a bit?"

"Alright."

And with that, he throws his trash away, and I carry my smoothie out with him as we head towards the mall's exit.