It's Always Been You [Josie Saltzman]

How To Run From The Mess You Made

"Am I enough for you?" I whispered.

Me and Josie were standing in my room wondering how the hell did we get here? There wasn't much to it really.

"Why would you even ask that? Of course you are." she whispered.

"Because I know I'm not, Jo! I've almost died twice! I've killed people. I'm a hybrid. I can't have you be in the middle of this like that. We can't be together Jo. Not right now at least, but I need you to take care of yourself. Can you do that please?"

"That's not your decision to make. I'm not gonna let you push me away because you decide that it's easier for you." she says, a little annoyed and I swallowed back the tears that were forming in my eyes.

"Do you think this is easy for me? The one girl I've ever wanted, the one my heart always went to I finally had. And I'm the one who let it slip away from my fingers. Trust me, I want more than anything to be with you, but we just can't!"

I was snapped out of the harsh memory by Hope. She was showing me the newest monster because apparently it was something really jaw dropping. But can I just say? I hate the monsters, like we just need one monster and stick with it.

"Here she is!" Hope said, gesturing towards the unicorn that was trapped. I just stared blankly at the creature, kind of unamused, "Really? Nothing. No smile. No shit-eating grin or 'woah Hope that's so cool!' Damn, you try to do one nice thing and they're not amused."

I looked at her with my eyebrows furrowed, she was acting really weird, "I mean it's cool and all, but what's it supposed to do?" I asked, desperately trying to get back to my little hermit hole.

"No idea. Right now we're just leaving it because if we don't kill it no more will come." she mentioned and I nodded.

"Well, I'm gonna head back," but before I could get anywhere, Hope grabbed my wrist softly, pulling me into a soft hug. And then all of a sudden a feeling of euphoria swept through my veins. I hugged Hope back tightly as a new form of energy formed inside me, "Wait! Isn't the talent show today?!"

"Oh yeah, girl! We don't have any factions though, sadly. We're kind of the loners," she frowned.

"What if we convince Dr. S to get us to perform with our band? I wrote this absolute perfect song that I think everyone's gonna love!" I exclaimed and she nodded eagerly.

"Okay, let's go!" she said and the two of us literally skipped back to the school, passing Penelope on the way in.

"Are you kidding me, Quinn?" Penelope came storming into my room. She probably heard all about me and Jo's argument, "One thing...I asked you to do one thing for me, a couple weeks ago and this is what you do?"

I ran my hands through my hair, frustrated at how fast this was spreading like wildfire, "She can't be with me, Park. I didn't mean to hurt her, it just...it has to be done. You want me to protect her, right? I'm doing the exact thing. I'm protecting her from me!"

"Do you know how much of an idiot you sound like right now?! I've told you this before, but obviously you didn't get it stuck in your thick skull. She doesn't care about that! All she cares about is you! She wants you! Right now, I don't understand why! But she's currently sobbing in her mom and Lizzie's arms because of you. She still cares about you, no matter what and I think that's a really idiotic idea," she was waiting for my response, but I just stood there with my head hanging low. Unable to make eye-contact with her whatsoever.

She scoffed bringing her voice to a lower, "I don't know what you're going through right now. None of us do. But you need to get your shit together soon."