I Used To Romanticize

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Dedicated indefinitely to Hail-In-April the best writer I know and the one who introduced me to Marianas Trench. 11:11-make a wish.

This story is going to take place in 2014, before Astoria. Josh is 24, Matt 22, Ian 26, Mike 28. All proportional, all fanfiction realistic. Which is to say, not.

//Matt\\

The smell of pizza filled the air, meaty and thick. I opened the grease stained box and peered inside. A giant pepperoni pizza with peppers and onions. I picked up a piece and dropped it onto a paper plate. Some of the cheese oozed off, falling over the side of the table and hitting the floor. Bennie instantly jumped out from under the table, lapping it up eagerly.

The dog trailed on my heels as I crossed through the house, chucking the pizza box at Mike and Ian, who were watching hockey in the living room. It landed perfectly in Mike's lap, he swore, wincing, and took a piece.

When I finally got to where I was going, the door was closed. Of course. I knocked lightly on the frame, "Josh? Can I come in?"

He groaned and something hit the door with a thump. I took that as a yes; it was better than the time he threw a pocket knife at the door. I stepped into the room, pushing the pillow aside with my foot.

Josh was laying in bed, blankets twirled around him as a cocoon and his blue hair sticking up like a punk Einstein. I put the pizza on his nightstand, out of reach of Bennie, and sat down in his spinning desk chair that I had moved in here a day or two ago. "How're you doing?" No answer. "I brought pizza. We're watching the game out in the living room if you want, "we" being Mike, Ian and I, which you probably guessed." Silence. Bennie tried to jump at the pizza, almost grabbing it but just barely missing. He stopped trying and climbed into bed with Josh, nuzzling at his hand.

This was the first movement I'd seen out of him all day, reaching up to pat his dog. It was something. "I have pizza, too. Pepperoni with peppers. From Raymond's." The pizza place down the street.

"I'm not hungry," he said, turning onto his back to face me.

"You haven't eaten in days, Josh. Almost a whole fucking week!" I protested, standing up and setting the piece into his lap. "Please, just a bite."

"No."

"Josh-"

"No!" He threw the plate across the room, where it hit the wall and slid downwards, like the sun disappearing behind mountains. He blinked, seeming surprised with himself. "I-sorry, Matt. I shouldn't be so upset about her anyways." "Her," Josh's ex, as of a week ago. Alice, the mysterious, black haired girl who had cheated on my best friend.

I watched Bennie eagerly slurp up the food, then turn her pleading brown as back towards us, as if to say, "That's it? That's all?"

"Don't be sorry," I grabbed one of his shirts from his closet and chucked it at him. "Just get living."

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