Just Rose

Chapter Fourteen

Josh and I seemed to have some sort of silent agreement that we weren't going to talk to each other. Julie and I made the grilled cheese sandwiches that we had for lunch every Sunday and I almost forgot about Josh. I wanted to talk to him but he kept busy catching up with his family for the rest of the day, telling them all about his time in Texas. I spent more than a few minutes just around the corner from them, listening to him tell stories that I already knew. He seemed so much happier than he had in Texas, laughing about the "bags and bags of clothes" that people brought for him when he moved in with Melanie and Andrew and talking about how weird the school was. "Yeah, Kiley's still crazy," he assured Steven.

He spent hours all day, and all day Monday, too, reliving the past six months in detail. I appreciated listening in, as it was reassuring to know that I had been remembering things correctly. However, one thing in Josh's stories was always different: there was no Elisabeth Reid. Sometimes he substituted Kiley for me and other times he removed me altogether, but he made no mention of the Christmas in July that I planned or the time he saved me from getting heatstroke or some other sun-related disease. I was relieved, but still held my breath every time I was listening in to a story and knew I was a part of it.

"Aunt Melanie and Uncle Andrew had me to go this therapy group at the school," Josh told Max, Damian, and Steven on Monday night. "There were... six of us there, plus the people in charge. I was there, obviously, because they thought I was some troubled teenager. There was a girl whose name I think was Ashley who kind of scared me, there were two kids, a boy and a girl, whose puppy died- yes, it was their puppy who died," he said when Steven opened his mouth to protest. "Apparently it was just so tragic that they needed to come to therapy."

"Their puppy died?" Max asked. Josh nodded. "That's sad, but... therapy? Really?"

"Yeah," Josh said. "There was another guy, too. His name was Noah. I thought he was pretty cool, but he was a little obsessed with his phone. And then I realized that the screen he'd been staring at and tapping was black. The phone was off. He was weird. Then there was..." Josh trailed off and we briefly made eye contact, me at the table playing cards with Miguel and Aleck and him sitting on the couch story-telling. "Actually, no, that's everyone," he said. "It was weird. Oh! There was another time that-"

"Wait, you said there were six of you. The puppy kids, the scary girl, the phone guy and you- that's only five. Who was the sixth?" Max asked.

"Kiley," Josh said without missing a beat. Max raised an eyebrow. "I mean, she wasn't technically a member of the group, but Carla was in charge so she was there. And she's definitely insane." Max nodded his agreement. "But dude," Josh said, "I haven't even gotten to the time I was working at the grocery store- that sells eggnog in July, for reasons I don't get- and the manager left me with the cash register on my first day without telling me how to open it! There was this one guy who came in and..."

***

I cornered Josh on Tuesday morning, finally finding a time to talk to him alone, but Max walked up just as I was about to thank him for leaving me out of his stories and try to give him some explanation of why I left. "Rose, we've gotta go or we'll miss the bus," he said.

I glanced at the time on my phone. "You're right," I agreed. "Let's go."

***

On Tuesday afternoon I walked into an empty house and within a few minutes Josh also walked in the door. I gestured for him to follow me into the kitchen.

"We need to talk," he and I said at the same time.

"Okay," Josh began. "I guess I'll go first. I've decided we're going to act like two cousins whodon't know each other very well, as far as everyone here knows, so we don't have to talk a lot- if you'd like that, which I'm assuming you would." I only had a second to puzzle over what he meant by that before he continued. "You and I are supposed to be... what, third cousins? Second cousins? If you're Julie's niece it would imply that you're one of her sisters'- or her brother's- kids, so you'd be my second cousin since I'm her second cousin once removed. Does that sound good to you?"