SHOUT

Understanding

|Chapter 11|Joshie|

I can't believe he got me so pissed off he made me yell! I hate him so much, but at least he stopped me before anyone else heard me, that would have been way worse, especially if they were kids who are in any of my classes...this whole thing so frustrating! I just wish I didn't get so tense whenever I'm around others. For now, Asen is the only person outside of my house who I can occasionally speak to. Even then, I end up lost in my thoughts like this. I feel a delayed anxiety hidden deep down inside my chest.

"Joshie we're here," Asen snapped me out of my thoughts.

I let go of him.

God damn it, see? I get distracted!

|Asen|

"Where the hell were you guys?" Melissa rushed out of the classroom.

"We had something to discuss in private," I explained.

"Was the discussion so important that it took time from our club work? Today was my day to help Joshie and now we don't even have time for that! It's already 4PM!" She fumed.

"Chill out dude! Plus your strategy was way too stressful for Joshie, these things take time and preparation, he can't just magically start talking to strangers!" I was pissed that she was planning to force Joshie to talk to strangers again.

"As if you would know! You stopped him from even trying!" She yelled back.

"He wasn't going to be able to do it anyways! You are rushing the process! He gets anxious talking to people why the hell would you start with him taking to strangers?!" I had to repeat it to her in idiot language because clearly, she had a thick skull.

"How would you know?!" She continued to ignore what I was saying.

"You know what? This is pointless, it's like talking to a brick wall, we're going home and when we come back tomorrow, you better have done some research on what he deals with," I went into the classroom, grabbed Joshie's things, and walked out grabbing Joshie's hand in the process.

•••

After walking in a pissed-off mood still holding on to Joshie's hand for about 10 minutes he suddenly stopped moving.

I stopped and turned to him, "What's the matter?"

He took his stuff from me and then sent me a message.

[Joshiebeans]:

You're walking too fast and I was struggling to catch up without you dragging me along.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't realize it," I apologized.

I think I might've lost my temper back there, he probably doesn't want to be around me, I have been annoying him this whole time, I should probably leave...

"J—" I was about to speak when my phone buzzed.

[Joshiebeans]:

Thanks for saying that back there by the way, she was stressing me out this morning every time her plans would start with "talk to so and so." Not many people understand what I am going through and surprisingly you seem to know a bit about it so thanks.