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22. real life

TWO WEEK LATER

[ Chloe's P.O.V ]

Two weeks went by. Claire is back home and Josh and I are in L.A. with the other members of Now United. We're staying in two, big, beautiful houses. I share a house together with Noah, Joalin, Diarra, Any, Sofya, Josh and Lamar.

Heyoon, Hina, Shivani, Krystian, Bailey, Sabina and Sina share the other house.

We all have our own bedrooms. Except for the people who brought one of their parents.

I'm looking trough my clothes as a picture falls on the ground. When I pick it up I see it's a picture of my dad and I when I was young. What is this doing here?

I try to swallow my feelings away but it doesn't seem to work. Before I know tears appear in my eyes. I decide to go outside since that mostly calms me down.

As fast as I can, I walk past the others, who are in the living room. I avoid eye contact with everyone when I open the door and walk out of the house. Luckily no one is in the garden. I sit down on a rock, my back facing the house. I take the photo out of my pocket. I only realize I'm crying when a tear dropped on the photo. I try to let it stop but it doesn't work. More and more tears roll down my cheeks.

"Hey, we're going to watch a movie. Are you coming inside?" I quickly dry my tears as I stand up and turn around.
It's Josh. When he sees my face a worried look appears on his. "Hey, what's wrong?"

That was the moment that I really snapped. Again tears started rolling down my cheeks. I wasn't able to talk anymore. My knees started to get weak. I almost fell onto the ground as Josh catches me. He wraps one arm around my waist and pulls me closer. His other hand is resting on the back of my head, pushing me even more against his own body. He slowly draws circles with his hand on my back. "Shhhh... breathe with me." He says as he starts to breath heavily. I do what he says.

After a minute or so he slowly takes a step back. His hands are holding my arms to make sure I don't fall again.
I feel him starring at me. On hand let's go of my arm. He softly places his fingers under my chin and pushes my head up so I have to look at him. He still has a worried look on his face. "Are you ready to tell me what's going on?" He kindly asks. I nod. "Go sit down." He says. We both sit down on the same rock as I sat on before.

I give Josh the picture. "That's my dad and I." I start with a vibrating voice. "He...he died. He died two years ago during a gunfight. He was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Since that moment my mom got depressed. She doesn't do anything except laying in bed and sleeping. If Dylan and I don't give her food, she probably wouldn't even eat."

"I'm so sorry for you. I really didn't kew you lost your dad. You always talk about you 'parents.' Like they're both still alive." Josh notices my body is shaking so he wraps his arm over my shoulders and pulls me close. He places a soft kiss in my hair. "Claire says that because I had to take care of my mom right after my dad died, I never really had time to grief. So every time something reminds me of him, I just... I feel like everything is falling apart again. That's also the reason why I never really talk about it." I say. I close my eyes and take a deep breath.

"Is that why Dylan didn't came with you? To stay with you mom." I nod. "He has to take care of her. Dylan was actually the one who gave me up for the auditions of Now United. He says that he wants me to live a normal teenagers life. He wants me to go away from home... okay, enough about my miserable life." I say as I again dry my tears. "Don't say that. I want you to know that you can always come to me. And you can always tell me everything." "I know."

"I have a good idea." Josh says as he stands up. "We're going to take a walk on the beach. Just the two of us. The beach always seems to calm me down. Maybe it'll calm you down too." He takes my hands and helps me stand up. "Wait a second. I'm going to tell the others that they can start the movie without us." He says as he walks towards the house. "Please don't tell them about this." I say. "Don't worry, I won't. You can tell them yourself if you're ready for it." He disappears in the house.

———

We're walking at the beach. The sun is slowly going down. Not a lot of people are at the beach anymore.

"Here, you're cold. I can see your goosebumps." Josh says as he hands me his jacket. "It's okay, you can keep it on." Josh shakes his head and places his jacket over my shoulders. "I'm fine. I'm not even cold." I give him a thankful smile as we walk farther.

"Thank you." I say a few minutes later. "For what?" Josh asks.
"For everything. Thank you letting me trust you. Thank you for being there for me. For letting me feel so comfortable. For always listening to me. Thank you for always saying the right things. Thank you for taking the time for me."

We stopped walking. We're both facing each other. Nobody says anything. We stare each other in the eyes.

Suddenly Josh comes closer and places his lips on mine. The kiss didn't last long, Josh lets go of me.

"I'm so sorry. I'm so stupid. Why the fuck did I do that?" He says. "God! I probably ruined everything between us. I just wanted to kiss you so bad." He says angry at himself.

"Than do it again." I softly say.
Josh looks at me in shock. "What?" He asks softly, thinking he imagined me saying that. "Kiss me again." I say.

Without any doubt Josh grabs my face and crashes his lips on mine. He slowly starts to move his lips against mine. I start doing the same. It's almost like our lips were made for each other. The kiss was full of love and passion.

After a while we let go of each other. I take a deep breath as a smile appears on my face. When I look up I see that Josh is smiling too.

He pulls me in a hug.

"You know, I really like you." He whispers in my ear.

"I really like you too."

[ authors note ]
the moment y'all have been waiting for
i got the feels while writing this hahaha

you're welcome