The Norm Games

Chapter 33: I believe you

Unknown POV

Joshie now knew Kade liked Chloe, so he tried avoiding her as much as possible in the month that followed, but that was extremely hard, especially since she just happened to be everywhere he went.

He wanted to tell her to leave him alone, but he thought that would hurt her feelings, so instead he decided to do what he had done for the past year couple of years: distance himself from her, treat her as he treated everyone else in his class. He hoped she'd get the hint or just get bored of him, because he couldn't stand the beating much longer.

See, his bully, Kade, liked Chloe and Joshie was getting in his way by spending time with her. So every time Kade saw Joshie with Chloe, he punched him for getting in his way.
And since Chloe insisted on being around Joshie, Kade got to beat him up almost every single day.

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Josh's POV

At the beginning of October Chloe suggested what I had thought was laughable. She said we should talk about happened that day I almost drowned, and I was like yeah...no... how about never? And she was like that's not an option. So I said we could talk about it at the end of October, and then she went all crazy-future-teller-person on me, and said I'd regret later if we didn't talk now. So in my mind, I laughed at what I had thought was bull.

But that was at the beginning of October, now it's mid October, a whole two weeks later, and I'm starting to think she was right.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, me re-thinking my decision has nothing to do with the fact that Chloe said we couldn't kiss until we talked about it.

Nope. Not one little bit, I just decided that I wanted to get the whole thing over with.

I mean it's probably wasn't really even Chole's fault, now that I think about it. And everything happened about eight years ago. Something that happened so long ago shouldn't have that big of an impact on my life. And it's not like I've even given the event much thought in the past five years, it was more during the first few years, and that was just shock that I almost died. Oh, and the horrible feelings of betrayal and hurt, but other than that? I have no reason to not be over the incident, and that's why I'm walking over to Chole's room right now: to get over the incident.

Knock. Knock. My fist (gently) bangs against her door.

Chloe and I only have two major rules that are a must follow:

1. Always knock before entering the bathroom, and someone else's room.

The rule was made by Chloe after I accidentally walked in on her in the bathroom one night during the first week of the show. To my defense, before then I'd never, ever shared a bathroom with anyone that wasn't me.

2. Always do your chores.

Chloe also made up this rule. She made it because she claimed that she was doing all the work around the apartment, which I think was a total lie. I helped out around the house...I always put my dishes in the sink when I finished eating.

"It's open." I opened the door and found her laying on her bed, playing on her phone."What's up?"

I don't know what it is about her, but the second she turns to me and smiles, all I want to do is lung on her bed and kiss her until we both are breathless.

"Nothing much." I push my thoughts away and lay down by her. "I want to talk about it." I'm looking at her white ceiling instead of her face.

So maybe I lied a little bit, the dang event still has an effect on my life. I don't want to talk about but at the same time, I want to get it over with.

"Ok. Where do you want to start?" She turns her phone off and turns over so that she's also looking up at her ceiling.

"I don't really know. I know the story through my point of view, tell it me through yours."

"Ok...hmmm....I'll start at the part where you started ignoring me, I guess. We'd been friends for a month or so when you started becoming distant and started avoiding me. I didn't know what to do, so I become closer to Kade, who always happened to be their the moment you left. Kade was always nice to me, and everyone around me, so I had no reason to believe he was a bad guy. During spring break I had a pool arty and invited everyone in our whole class. I remember it being around late afternoon when everything went down. Kade, his friends, and I were all sitted around the pool. Some kids were swimming and some were chasing each other around. You were sitted far away from us in a little corner. I kept looking at you every few minutes. Kade was getting annoyed by that, but I didn't really give it much thought. He told me to push you in the water...."

"You should push Joshie in." Kade told Chloe, nodding at the little boy who was standing over the pool, just pearing into it.

"Why?" Chloe asked not getting up, instead kicking the water with her feet.

Joshie and her hadn't really spoken much in the past few weeks, -he was always distant or he just ignored her
"He looks bored, plus his like the only one not swimming."

"Fine." She agreed and stood up, walking to Joshie. "Boo!" She says before shoving him in. She then walks back to Kade and sits down.

"AHHHHH!" Joshie screamed as be fell in the water. He feels a great amount of fear as he sinks lower and lower benth the water. He holds his breath as he flips his hands, trying to reach the surface. To his horror, he sinks farther down until he starts seeing black spots.

"You do know Joshie can't swim, right?" Kade smirked at Chloe when she got back to him.

"No..." She pauses, thinking. "If he can't swim, and I just pushed him in 12 feet of water...MOMMY!" Horror at what she's done shows on her paler than usually face as she rushes back to where she pushed Joshie in and dives down.

He's fine. He's gonna be fine. She keeps telling herself as she grabs Joshie's hand lifting the lifeless limp of a boy. With the help of her mom, Chloe gets Joshie to the surface.

"Someone call an ambulance." Chloe's mom shouts over the noise, getting everyone's attention on what's happening.

"Everything else happened in a fizzy blur as they took you away. Later that night I told the story to my parents as we went to visit you. You looked helpless on the big hospital bed, all those tubs plugged into your little body. I stayed by your side until you finally woke up a few hours later. When you looked at me, it was as if you saw a killer or a monster." Chloe swallows hard, I reach over and hold her hand, running my thumb over her knacks, I listen as she continues. "Your eyes were wide with fear as you screamed for your parents to get me away from you. They did as you wished. I didn't go back go back to school for the next month, even when I heard you'd transferred to a different school. Soon enough we moved back to France and I tried to go back to my old life. It was really hard for the first year. I had a lot of nightmares of you dying in my arms. Time you went on until the event was just a distant memory."

"Whoa...I knew Kade hated my guts, but to try and kill me? Just whoa."

"Yeah, I wish I'd figured it out sooner. He was just always so nice around me. I honestly thought he was just being thoughtful when he told me to push you." We both turns over, so that we're facing each other.

"I believe you." I whisper softly. Leaning over, I kiss her forehead and then get up." Goodnight."

••T••H••E••E••N••D••
(For now)

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Livia~

DF: Jan.3.17
DP: Jan.22.17
WC: 1,441