I'M NOT HERE | s.stan

012. misunderstandings

"Kay!"

It's the first thing I hear once we get back home. Josh envelops me in a hug, of course the butterflies in my stomach erupt.

"I missed you, dumbass." He says, I try as much as I can to savor this hug.

"You're back!"

Joane rushes to hug Sebastian, who's carrying our suitcases to my doorstep. Sebastian looks at me first, and wiggles his eyebrows at me. 'Today is a good day.'

I nod in agreement with a big smile on my face. He beams at me and pulls away from the hug.

"Hope you're hungry because I ordered pizza!" Josh says, shaking my shoulders excitedly.

-

"So what happened while I was gone?" I ask Josh as I happily munch on a slice of pizza. He sighs, the gears in his brain were probably turning to think of something. Josh lights up, "Two seniors got into a fight on campus and the professor from my english class passed out during his seminar."

I laugh at his response, "No, idiot. What happened to you?"

He looks a little surprised, but answers anyways.

"I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"I guess I just skateboarded or whatever.."
"How about with Joane?"

Josh's eyes widen and puts a hand over my mouth in hesitant panic.

"Shhh!"

I stifle a cackle as his face turns red, although a part of me felt a little jealous. "You mean...like how it's going with me and her?" He asks softly.

I nod, hoping he'd feel my nod through his hand. Josh's palm was so close to touching my lips.

"I don't know...I drove her to the library and that was it. But maybe it's a start to something else, y'know?"

Obviously, I was super happy about what he'd done with her. More like, what he hadn't done. I move his hand away from my mouth and erupt in a burst of giggles.

"So you're telling me, that for a whole week you guys didn't even hangout once?" I ask between giggles. He nods with sad puppy eyes.

I was grateful that, she felt he was nothing more than someone she could ask to drive her to the library.

"You did nothing else." I say.
"We did nothing else." He echoes.

After our conversation, we head downstairs to find Sebastian and Joane, hopefully to harass them into playing a game of monopoly with us. We find them chatting on my living room couch.

At first, Joane didn't agree to the game, but after seeing the majority wanting to play, of course she had to relent.

"I'd rather read a book." She says in disgust. I shrivel my nose at her. "Get over yourself." I tease, rolling my eyes playfully. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Sebastian staring at Joane for a split second, but when she turns to Josh, he looks away.

An hour had passed, and we were all pretty tired of playing monopoly. I won once, Joane won twice, Josh won once, and Sebastian still hadn't won a single game.

"I'm so tired, I want to go to sleep." I say, falling back on a beanbag and shutting my eyes. Josh looks up from the board, "I guess we should watch a movie to end the night?"

I hear Joane agree to what he says, but Sebastian stays silent. "Well, I think it's time I go home. After all, I still haven't had a good nap."

Joane pouts a little at what he says, her pink glossy lips shining against the light.

"Okay, then. I'll follow you to the door?" She stands up, stretching out her hand for Sebastian to take. Sebastian accepts her hand, and they walk out.

"Hm..that's weird." I hear Josh say. I turn to him and he has a perplexed look on his face.

"What's weird?" I ask, he simply shakes his head in response. "He was staring at you the whole game, you know? Thought his eyes would be glued onto Joane."

I scoff in disbelief, "Sure. Why would he be staring at me?" I ask, slapping him lightly on the shoulder. Josh leans back so that his torso was against my stomach, and let my legs stay beside him on either side.

"Beats me," Josh replies, I can feel him shrug because of our close proximity, "Maybe he likes you, too."

I laugh at his answer, what a silly question. "Yeah. Okay." I say, sarcastically and playfully roll my eyes yet again.

Josh and I don't say much after that, we hung out doing nothing for an hour until he decided he should head home too. Even after the conversation was done, even after he had left, I couldn't help but think about what he said.

Maybe I was starting to like Sebastian, too?