the boy on the bridge ✔️

10. song boy

Chapter 10 — song boy

"Why the gloomy face, brother?" Josie playfully ruffles Josh's hair who is sat in the couch in the living room.

His sister is humming some song to herself, messing the blond's hair some more even though he slaps her hand away every time. Shortly after, she gets bored and skips away into the kitchen. Josh sighs in relief as he is left alone once again — he is on his phone, scrolling mindlessly through various apps.

However, Josh's relief doesn't last long enough. Josie appears in the living room once again with a splitting grin on her face and a bowl in her hands.

"Mother doesn't like us eating in living rooms," Josh cannot be any less bothered about where his sister eats really but it has more or less become a habit for him to always look out what his parents will say for every little thing that they do.

"Do I look like I care?" she retorts, "Plus, mum's not even at home — chill, bro,"

Josh scowls back at her: Easy for you to say, he thinks to himself.

His scowl does the opposite of what he thinks will do. Josie moves closer to him, lilting:

"Oh, smile my dearest brother. It's a brand new day. Smile, won't you?"

He looks up at her suspiciously — it's odd seeing her so chirpy and happy especially so early in the day.

"What is wrong with you?"

She places a hand over her chest, feigning being offended. Even then, she can't keep her smile away for long.

"Me? I'm fantastic," she even giggles, "Don't you worry about me,"

"Oh, good god," he groans, standing up, unable to take any more of her cheeriness; it is starting to give him a headache, "I'm going up to my room," he announces, leaving the hall and starting up the stairs.

"No, don't go," Josie complains, but he ignores her and goes to his room, locking the door behind him.

There's no telling with his sister really; she might come up and bother him in his room too, and better safe than sorry, you know. He is actually even regretting not taking up on Zach's offer on going out that day — but the thought dissolves away as soon as it appears.

He is just not in the mood to do anything that day. And he doesn't know why but he feels a little dejected. It is becoming a very often feeling for Josh, he notices, and it just hits him out of nowhere and for no particular reason. And even then, his brain never stops working — it is always consistently running, making up new baseless thoughts and nags at Josh until he can't ignore it unless he does something about it.

It is when he felt like this that when he went to the bridge that day — his thoughts truly overpowered him until he couldn't see reason. Josh doesn't even want to imagine now what would have happened if a certain bridge boy hadn't shown up when he did.

Not wanting to think about that certain blip in his course of actions any longer, he goes to lie on his bed, planning to start sleeping. But just as he closes his eyes, his sister blasts out a rather bothersome peppy song and there's no way he can tune it out.

If it wasn't obvious by now, their parents aren't at home — their father have surprisingly brought their mother out for a 'surprise date' which Josh can never remember him ever doing. Anyways, it is a usual habit for Josh to stay in during the weekends — he uses the time to get all his assignments and homework done and squeeze in a little extra revision, and honestly, he just doesn't really enjoy going out anymore, not when the majority of the townspeople's eyes are on him all the time.

However, Josie has never been one to stay at home before; she always has plans to do something, but not on that particular day which is a curious thing really. There is no way she could have gotten to know beforehand that both of their parents aren't going to be at home. However, Josh can't bring himself to care enough about it for him to actually ask her, and so he doesn't know. She's just there.

She is definitely utilising the fact that neither of their parents are at home to its utmost though, breaking every rule that their parents have enforced — eating in the living room, parading around in her pyjamas, and now blasting songs in the speakers. She doesn't even care that one of their neighbours might report it to their parents later on. Any other day, Josh might have even joined his sister and fooled around, worry about the consequences later, but not onto that day.

He doesn't know why; he feels a bit down — he has ever since he woke up that morning. All he wants to right then is to sleep but of course he can't even do that now because of the loud music. So, he plugs in his earphones and logs onto Spotify, pressing shuffle on a random playlist that pops up on his screen.

Closing his eyes, he wills the cogs and wheels of his brain to stop spinning for at least a moment so that he can be lulled to sleep. And for a while there, he thinks he have succeeded as his eyelids and limbs start to sleep, the first signs of sleepiness slowly creeping in on him.

However, as the third song starts playing, Josh's mind betrays him and begins about its usual duty.

It is a song the blond loves and haven't heard in a while; he actually still feels very much calm and relaxed when the song first starts playing. But as the song slowly progresses, he can feel something slowly building at the back of his mind until he can't ignore it anymore, definitely not when he starts processing the lyrics as well.

All was golden in the sky
All was golden when the day met the night

The lyrics go, and out of nowhere, Josh is suddenly reminded of a particular individual.

Golden boy, that's how the said individual prefers to call the blond.

All was golden when the day met the night
Summer, summer, summer, summer
All was golden when the day met the night

Josh remembers that night on the bridge when the boy has told him how golden his hair has seemed to him, and how absolutely ridiculous it sounded to him. But also at the same time, it incited this funny feeling inside him, and he found himself willingly agreeing to let the bridge boy call him golden boy although he hated being knows as just that. For some reason, it felt okay coming from him — golden boy.

So he said, "Would it be all right
If we just sat and talked for a little while
If in exchange for your time
I give you this smile?"

That reminds him of the nights he spent just pointlessly talking with the bridge boy. Josh has been keeping track of how many nights they have met till this day: it's only been 9 nights, and even so, Josh feels like he has known the boy for far longer than that. Never once has he felt out of place with the curly-haired boy. And the dimpled-smile of his — Josh never quite figured out why, but whenever he sees him smiling, he would get this clenching feeling deep in his gut. He has never felt that way with anyone before, he realises.

Josh has been thinking he has made a new friend, that's all, but really what friends do give each other these funny, odd feelings, he can't help but wonder.

He can clearly see the boy's face in his mind as if he is standing right there before him: the silky curly brown hair that go just a bit past his shoulders, the way they always float around his head as if they have their own intentions, his mystifying green eyes that intimidated but also calmed Josh down at the same time, his accentuated, sharp nose that ends a little too abruptly, and his thin, rose lips that–

Josh jolts back into consciousness abruptly and sits up, his heart beating erratically against his rib cage. He snags his earphones away from his ears, not wanting to listen to the hypnotising song any longer — and yes, the blond is choosing to blame on the song for his disarrayed thoughts although from the countless of times he has heard this song before, not once has he been reminded of anyone.

For someone who was just lying on his bed, Josh is panting as if he had just completed a sprint.

"What the fuck is happening?" he asks to himself out loud, and yes, the golden boy just cursed.

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