slow // joshua t bassett

TRES

Jack had been holding Jo's hand all night. She wasn't the most confident roller skater, but with Jack's experience in skateboarding, the activity was fairly easy for him. "Do you think you can skate on your own now?" Jack had been waiting for her to let go of her death drip on him. He kept trying to break off from Josephine, but she refused to release her hold on him. He was starting to get impatient, he just wanted to skate with Auggie and Anna for a while.

Her grip on him seemingly tightened, "no! Please don't make me do this by myself." He rolled his eyes, trying to avoid the pain in his left hand. He reached out to another skater who happened to be very close to him. "Hey, this is Josephine. Josephine this is..."

"Josh," the boy looked utterly confused. He didn't know who this guy was or why he had aggressively pulled him away from Matt and Olivia.

Jack continues with a thankful smile, "Josh, here, will help you skate, because I am done with you. You're hopeless." Her grip on Jack's hand loosened when she saw Josh. She wasn't expecting to see him here, let alone at all after she had seen him yesterday morning. He didn't return to the cafe today, nor had he texted Josephine. So, the encounter felt awkward for Jo, but Jack can't understand a social cue.

Jack removed his hand from Josephine's and replaced it with Joshua's. He closed their hands together and sent them a sarcastic smile and skated away.

Josephine's face presented pure shock. She let go of Joshua's hand, but the second she did she fell to the ground. She laughed, "can you help me up?" Joshua started to relax at her goofy nature. He grabbed onto both of her hands and hauled her up. Once she was up he locked his arm with hers.

"So, did you get fired?" Josephine was feeling a little bit of awkwardness in the air, so she wanted to remove it.

Josh chuckled, slightly looking down. "No, I didn't get fired." She smiled at him, "that's good."

"I was in a lot of trouble though. It was one of my first days."

She grimaced, "it's a miracle you still work there."

He shrugged, "guess I'm hard to replace" They were coming up to a curve on the rink. Joey held onto Josh even tighter as she focused on moving to the left.

"You aren't very good at this," Joshua stayed. She laughed, "no, I'm not. Thank you for reminding me."

A brunette came up to them, stopping right in front of them. "Hey, Josh."

"Oh hey, Liv," she sent him a knowing, yet questioning look.

It stayed quiet for a brief moment, "well damn Josh, aren't you going to introduce us?"

Joey laughed, already knowing that she'd like 'Liv' very much. "Oh uh, this is Oliva," he said to Josephine but gestured to Olivia, "Olivia this is Josephine."

"You can call my Jo," she took her hand out for Liv to shake, but it propelled her skates forward, and she collided gently into Olivia. Luckily, Oliva caught her by her shoulders, "Woah there!" She helped Jo gain her balance back.

"Sorry, I'm not very good at this. Like at all."

"That's okay. You can call me Liv, though." Olivia mischievously looked at Josh, "Hey, Jo, do you maybe wanna skate with us and our friends?" Jo looked at her surprised, once again pushing her forward, but Olivia anticipated it this time, catching her quicker.

She laughed at her clumsiness, "I don't think I'd be doing much skating than I would be falling on my ass!" The three laughed, knowing that with only a few minutes of interaction that she isn't the most talented roller skater. "I'm actually here with 3 of my friends. One of which handed me over to Josh, here."  At that moment Jack skated past them and sent them two thumbs up. Olivia instantly knew that he was the one who gave her away to Josh.