the boy on the bridge ✔️

30. nervous boy

Chapter 30 — nervous boy

"Oh, man," Zach groans as a welcome to his house, "It's fucking 3 — where the hell have you been?"

"To heaven Z, to heaven," Zach replies in a daze, pushing past him and walking towards the staircase.

He doesn't need any direction from Zach. He is used to his friend's house as much as he is used to his own house. He used to stay over here all the time, that is until Josh started pushing everyone away and becoming basically a recluse.

Zach follows behind him with a newfound alertness, "Dude," he exclaims loudly, and then quickly clamps a hand over his mouth, realising that his mom is still sleeping and not wanting to wake her up, "Dude," he repeats this time in a more hushed tone, but Josh doesn't stop to answer his friend.

He climbs up the stairs and heads straight to Zach's room, plopping down on the mattress, face first. And if Zach didn't nudge him and start talking, he is sure he would have fallen asleep almost instantly.

"Hmm, what?" he mumbles, turning and placing his hands on his stomach, holding back a yawn.

"You went to heaven?"

Since Josh is very much sleepy and seconds away from basically passing out, Josh doesn't recognise the teasing tone of Zach's question and nodded, barely able to keep his eyes open, "Mmhm, yeah,"

"So, you fucked?" Zach continues, liking each and every passing second of this.

That more than jolts Josh out of his sleepy state, like a bucket of cold water has just doused on top of his head, "Wh- What? Where did you even get the from?" he can feel his whole body heating up from embarrassment and he picks up a pillow and throws it at Zach, "What? Why would you ask that?"

"Heaven?"

"So?"

"Do you really want me to explain that to you?"

Josh quickly shakes his head, not wanting to be embarrassed any further. What he wants is for Zach to shut up and go back to sleep so that he can to. And just when he is about to say it aloud as well, Zach interrupts him:

"But do you have someone you can potentially fuck?"

"Oh for fu–" Josh gives him a good shove before going to stand up, "I am going back home. My father can ground me for life. I can take that. Not this,"

Zach cannot stop laughing, but he does go to stop him, "You know I'm just messing with you. Come on, bro,"

"Promise you won't ask me anything stupid anymore,"

"You're starting to sound like Val,"

"You need someone like Val to keep you in line,"

"Eh," he shrugs, returning back to his bed and patting on the side, "Come on. I promise I won't ask you anything anymore. Unless there's something you want to share?"

Josh rolls his eyes but returns to Zach's side, lying beside him. There's no even trying to hide the smile — not that he wants to hide it when he says:

"Actually, yeah. There's something I want to share. But you have to promise to not make fun of me,"

Zach fakes a gasp, placing a hand over his chest, "When have I ever?"

Josh jabs him in the arm, "Shut up. You want to hear it or not?"

"Okay, okay. So...?"

"There is a guy that I've been having a crush on. And I finally told him I liked him today,"