Little Bitch

Chapter 55

Chapter 55

Since I knew Josh had to have gone eat dinner at his parents' house yesterday because it was Thanksgiving, I decided to drop by his place around noon.

            I was sure he would be grateful I let him sleep in.

            But once I got to his house, I realized I really should have dropped by sooner, because it looked like someone had broken and entered in his apartment and thrown everything around.

            It was a complete mess.

            "Josh?" I called out.

            His head popped up from behind a pile of big plastic boxes.

            "Oh, hey, Blake," Josh said, looking off.

            I frowned. "What's going on? Is everything alright?"

            Josh started to pace around, moving stuff, "Yes! I decided I wanted to rearrange the living room, but then when I started to move things, I realized I should probably clean my floors properly, and to do that I need to put good music and I realized I should be reorganizing my vinyl collection, but that means I need to tidy up my book library too, and CHRISTMAS DECORATONS! I need to put them up, but it's in these boxes at the back of one of my wardrobes and I need to—"

            I interrupted him because it felt like he wasn't going to stop. "Josh, are you okay?"

            "Okay? I'm perfect!"

            "How bad was Thanksgiving?" I asked him gently, getting a little worried here.

            Josh snorted. "Now, why would Thanksgiving be bad? It wouldn't be like my father could start belittling me the second I walked into the house, and then it's not like I could eventually snap at him, and it's not like he could literally throw a picture frame at me, and that picture frame would be of me and my actual mom? Right, that shit doesn't happen?"

            "Your father threw a picture frame at you?" I asked.

            Josh's father was often psychologically abusive, but he'd never been physically abusive so far. This was really bad.

            "Barely managed to dodged it too. He was aiming straight to my face."

            "Jesus Christ," I mumbled, running a hand through my hair.

            What was I supposed to do here?

            "So, if we could all never refer to me as a Torres for the rest of my fucking life, I'd be real fucking grateful," Josh said, and then let out and exhausted sigh and sat on the floor while Miss Puss popped from a cardboard box and went to sit on his lap.

            "Stop going to his house for holidays. Just come with us," I told him. It should have been like this sooner, actually.

            Josh just stared at his cat, patting her. "It's fine. Anyway, you guys were going to the Graysons."

            "And you should have come with us," I pressed.

            It would have been fine if he was there. No one would have questioned it. It was part of my family.

            "It's fine."

            "No Josh, it's not fine," I told him.

            "It just fucking sucks," Josh said, finally looking up at me, "because my sister and step mom aren't bad people. I don't want to cut them out of my life. But as long as... as long as my fucking sperm donor is still in the picture, I don't think... I don't think I can do this anymore," he trailed, fighting off the emotions, sounding so vulnerable suddenly.