My Brother's Best Friend: a Josh Richards FanFiction -complete-

Part 4: Party, Party, Party

After what felt like hundreds of TikToks later, I excused myself to go back to my room.
I sat in my bed silently for awhile, before turning the television on and settling on a random movie for background noise to silence my screaming thoughts.

There was a knock on the door. "Who is it?" I called out.
"It's Griff. Can I come in?"
"Sure," I replied, sitting up in the bed. He came in and sat down next to me.
"Are you okay? I saw the post on tiktokroom and heard everything with Nessa this morning."
I shook my head. "This was supposed to be a fresh a start for me. I'm right back to where I was when I left Maryland."
Griffin looked at me. "I hope I'm not overstepping, but is there anything going on with you and Josh?"
I chuckled. "Did you really pretend to ask me if I was okay, just so you could ask about Josh?"
"Not like that. I think you're really cute, and from what Bryce has told me about you, you seem like you would be a lot of fun to get to know. I don't want to try to shoot my shot if you're interested in someone else, especially one of my homies," Griffin sighed.

"I don't want to talk about Josh right now. Right now, I want to sit here, pretend to watch whatever this movie is, and cry myself to sleep later," I said, tears filling my eyes.
Griffin hugged me suddenly. "You don't have to cry yourself to sleep. Hey, hey, it's gonna be okay. Shh," he said, stroking my hair as I sobbed into his chest.
Addison stood in the doorway. "What's going on? Why are you crying?" She crossed the room quickly and sat down on the bed next to us.
Griffin explained what I had said as I sniffled.
"Griff, can you give Bailey and me a minute alone, please?" Griffin nodded and left the room, closing the door softly behind him.

"You know that you didn't do anything wrong, right, Bailey?" she said, wiping tears from my face.
I shrugged. "I came here, and I messed up everything. Literally everything. Josh and Nessa did break up because of me. I got us both on tiktokroom. I got into a huge argument in our kitchen with his ex girlfriend. Nothing good has come out of me being here."
Addison stroked my hair as I leaned against her chest, trying to hold in my sobs. "You got Bryce and I back together. That's good," she began. "You made Josh feel better about his breakup, even if you think that you caused it. Bryce is beyond happy that you're here. He won't shut up about it."
I sat back up, smiling at her. "He talked about me coming out here?"
"He did. He's proud of you, you know? Every time you hit a new follower milestone, he would screenshot it and send it to me. Every interview, every time you were featured in someone's YouTube video, he would watch it and send it to me. He would always say 'look at my little sister.'"
"I didn't know that. He never says any of that to me," I said in disbelief.
Addison shrugged. "I don't think he wants you to know about his soft spot. He'd probably kill me if he knew that I told you. Come on, let's go downstairs. You don't have to hole yourself up in here."

I wiped my eyes and followed her down the stairs. Bryce and Blake were sitting at the kitchen table. "Hey, there she is!" Blake said when he spotted me.
Bryce stood up. "Can you come with me for a second, Bailey?"
I nodded and followed him out the front door. He turned to look at me as we stepped out onto the porch. "I know that this move has been tough on you, but remember that I'm always here for you. I talked to Josh. He didn't mean to come off as insensitive. He likes you a lot, okay? Try to talk to him, and maybe apologize to Nessa while you're at it."
I nodded again, hugging him this time. "I never remember to thank you for always being there for me, Bryce. I owe you."

We went back inside and sat at the table with Addison and Blake. "We should have a party tonight. It'll get your mind off of everything. Plus we never had a welcome home party for you!" Addison said.
Bryce was excited. "I thought someone would never suggest it! Everyone calls me an alcoholic when I suggest a party," he said, laughing.
"I'm going to go to talk to Josh," I said. "I should probably apologize for my behavior earlier."