the boy on the bridge ✔️

7. smile boy

Chapter 7 — smile boy

Josh finds himself on the half-built bridge that night. Unlike the previous time, he doesn't have any reservations about crossing over to the bridge. His head is filled to the brim with doubts and questions with no definitive answers, and so he seeks out the only place that can provide him with some sort of peace of mind — the bridge.

He will be lying if he said he doesn't hope he will run into the bridge boy, not that the boy constantly occupies his thoughts or anything.

When the blond arrives at the bridge, it is as unoccupied as it has always been. Josh's heart sinks, although he will never admit it out loud. It isn't as if the two boys have agreed to meet at the bridge every other night and Josh has to remind himself that he is the one to not show up first. He tells himself he shouldn't feel too disappointed if the bridge boy doesn't turn up.

Or maybe, he continues to tell himself, the bridge boy didn't show up the previous night either. Maybe it is the blond who is reading too much into a simple casual meeting of one night Maybe the bridge boy felt responsible to check up on him after his little antic of trying to jump off the bridge and that's what there was to it at all, really.

Josh sighs, rubbing his temple; he came to the bridge to find some serenity, not throw himself into more anxiety and over-thinking.

"Golden boy?" a voice the blond has only heard a handful of times but somehow has become too familiar with calls out.

Josh freezes, his heart slowly but surely picking up its pace, and a coy smile finds its way onto his lips, and all this just from hearing a voice. He hasn't even turned around.

"You're here,"

Josh can hear the blatant surprise in his voice, and only then the blond turns around. He can't get the stupid smile off of his face.

"Hey," Josh somehow manages to say.

The latter beams back at him, oddly electrified with joy.

The curly-haired boy has been at the bridge the previous night for hours, waiting eagerly, patiently for a certain blond to show up. However, as each hour passed, his hope deflated gradually and it was nearing dawn when he finally gave up and went back to his aunts' house. He too, went through the same thoughts Josh just had — that they hadn't made any agreement to meet up, and that he was the one who reading too much into casual things and has gotten his hopes up idiotically.

Even so, that doesn't stop the dark-haired boy from visiting the bridge once again, his hopes renewed for the day. It seems like he isn't deceived this time around and he can't be any gladder. He just can't describe it, the feeling that fills him once he spots the blond at the bridge.

He's here, the bridge boy thinks to himself, and the feeling inside him surges.

"Hi," he isn't even going to bother to hide the grin on his face.

He walks up to the golden boy and crouches down to sit beside him.

A few beats of silence pass between the dark-haired boy says, "Didn't think I'd see you here tonight," he admits out loud, sneaking a small look over at the boy beside before just as quickly averting his eyes away.

Josh, well, Josh is sucked into a new swirl of thoughts. Does that mean he was here last night? If so, should I apologise?

He mulls over his decision for a good minute, before then choosing to shrug in what he hopes to be a nonchalant manner. He doesn't want to reveal the confusion brewing inside him.