Variables | Joshaya ✔︎

Truth Serum

𝕞𝕒𝕪𝕒

He nods in understanding and leads me over to the couch, sitting down and patting the seat next to him, which I take.

"What's bothering you?" he asks.

I sigh, "When I was 15, my dad passed away," I start, making his face soften, "I didn't know what to do. We were hopeless. My mom and I were taken over by grief, and then right when I thought that we were getting back on track we found Gabi and a few months after that I get a call from the Police saying that my mom died from suicide; she just jumped off the Manhattan Bridge, leaving me a simple note, telling me to take care of Gabi and myself, and that she was sorry."

I quickly realize that it's getting harder to speak. I'm choking up. Damn it; it's way too late for all this.

"You don't have to tell me," he says, realizing how hard it is for me to do, but I shake my head.

"I want to," I say, for some reason. It's like something I ate had been mixed with some sort of truth serum, making me pour out my deepest secrets to an almost stranger. "So, for the past year, I've been going to school, taking all the classes that I can, tutoring, working at Topanga's as much as possible to get money to pay rent, while taking care of a 4 year old, and now a near newborn," I finish, motioning to where Topanga is in my room with Dillon.

"So Gabi is the four year old?" he clarifies.

"Yeah," I breathe out, a small smile coming to my face, "My adopted sister. She's my light; she makes all I do so worth it to see her bright, smiley face."

I look over to him and then watch as a lightbulb goes off in his head. Uh oh. If he's as much of a Matthews as I can see now, he's about to make a pretty big sacrifice.

"What?" I ask warily.

"Well, I can clearly see how strong you are that you're willing to take care of this newborn that was quite literally dropped on your doorstep. I know that you have the strength to do this alone, but I just remembered that I was recently offered an opportunity to do remote learning; I could do college at home, and maybe help you out here while you're at school or working?" he asks, making my eyes widen in shock.

I did call it, but I am still surprised that I'm right.

"Josh, you don't have to do that; I did not tell you all this just for you to 'do a Matthews' and drop everything, swoop in and save me," I immediately say.

"'Do a Matthews'?" he asks, laughing.

"Yeah — sacrifice what you have to help someone," I explain, and he smiles and nods.

"Okay, but I'm not 'Doing a Matthews'. I'm not trying to 'swoop in and save you.' You obviously are incredibly strong for going through all you have while taking care of Gabi, practically alone. Also, I'll still be getting my degree in photography, which I can easily do remotely anyway, so I'm not sacrificing everything," he explains, "and I'm pretty sure this smiley Gabi you speak of will have a lot of fun in front of the camera."

I smile at that, but then it fades, "But Josh, we like just met; won't it be weird to just have you move in?"

"Okay, that's crazy," he immediately says, "Have you forgotten who my brother is?"

We both laugh and honestly, for a split second, I did forget that he was a Matthews. Even if it's come up in conversation and my thoughts multiple times in the last ten minutes or so.

"True," I say, making him smile, "So, you're just going to move in here, just like that?"

He thinks for a moment, then says, "Tell you what. We'll give each other our numbers, I'll go back to NYU for a little, and see what I can do about switching to remote learning. You deserve to have at least one year in high school you can look back on; one where you have no regrets, and took advantage of merely being in high school. And, if I can do my schoolwork at home, I can take some of your shifts and we can split the rent here, so you only have to do half the work and pay half as much. Deal?"

I sigh. Even if I barely know this guy, I can tell that he's not going to take no for an answer, he is a Matthews after all. Another universal Matthews trait.

So, I just save my energy, "Fine."

He puts out his hand and as I shake it.

"It's a deal then."

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