Understanding
Disclaimer: I own nothing. This story is completely fictional and is not meant to offend.
Mike walked into the studio, coffee in hand, ready to start recording. Of course, he was a bit early so he didn't expect the rest of the guys to be there yet. As Mike wandered into the recording area he discovered Josh asleep on the couch, not exactly an unusual discovery, but still not something Mike had been expecting. Josh was supposed to be with Amanda, they had all left at the same time the day before so Mike was a bit confused as to why Josh was there. He guessed Josh and Amanda must have gotten into another fight, also not really an unusual occurrence. Mike was just glad he didn't fight with his girlfriend Megan that often.
"Hey Mike" said Josh sounding half asleep still, "what are you doing here so early?"
"Holy shit, you scared the crap outta me" responded Mike turning around to look at Josh. Josh looked exhausted and kind of sad.
"Just thought I'd get an early start" stated Mike in response to Josh's question, "why are you here so early, thought you and Amanda had plans?"
Josh froze at that comment looking at Mike with wide wounded eyes, "we had a fight, a big one."
"Want to talk about it" asked Mike gently, "maybe I can help." Mike kept his fingers crossed that his friend would choose to confide in him for once instead of keeping everything bottled up.
Josh hesitated glancing between Mike and his lap, "Umm, we were doing stuff and it kind of got really heated really quickly. It was moving kind of fast and I may have kind of panicked and ruined everything. God, Mike, this is embarrassing. I feel like a 15 year old virgin having this conversation" Josh trailed off staring at his shoes red-faced.
Mike shrugged, "Don't worry about it man, we're both adults here. So you panicked and then what happened?"
"I panicked and told her to stop which she may not have done immediately. That may have resulted in me pushing her off and causing her to fall on the floor. This kind of resulted in a screaming match where some not so nice words were exchanged. Then after like 30 minutes of yelling she told me to get out so I decided to sleep at the studio and give her some time to calm down." Josh could feel his eyes burning and was trying really hard not to start crying again.
Mike couldn't believe what he was hearing; he had the strong urge to go over to Josh's apartment and beat Amanda, girl or not. "Seriously, dude? She got mad because you didn't want to have sex?"
Josh cringed and stared at his hands, "it wasn't exactly like that" he whispered.
"Then what exactly was it like?" demanded Mike sounding angrier than he intended. "From my perspective it seems like it was exactly like that. She has no right at all to be mad about something like that. She was definitely in the wrong to keep going after you asked her to stop, hey man, don't cry." Mike sat on the couch beside Josh and put his arm around his friend's shoulders. This was really starting to get awkward but Mike was willing to endure it to help his friend.
"It's just, we've been together so long and I thought she got it and now it might be ruined over one misunderstanding." Josh sniffled and wiped his eyes on his sleeve trying his hardest to quit crying. "It's stupid, I shouldn't be bothering you with this, I'll just go apologise and stop being so pathetic from now on" said Josh getting up and putting his jacket on.
"Hey, you are not pathetic. Every relationship needs to have boundaries and Amanda needs to respect yours" stated Mike sternly. "Also, Amanda should be the one apologizing, she's the one that did something wrong here not you. You do realize that if you had done this to her everyone would be ready to condemn you in an instant, right?" asked Mike forcing Josh to look him in the eyes.
"What? What are you talking about Mike? It wasn't like that" exclaimed Josh horrified. Although, the more Josh thought about it, the more he realized it was kind of like that. He just didn't want to admit it. "Amanda and I need to have a serious talk about boundaries and what we're both comfortable with. I guess we probably should have talked about it years ago. Thanks a lot for listening and helping me figure shit out man" smiled Josh gratefully.
"No problem dude, anytime" Mike smiled in return. "You gonna be okay?"
"Yeah, I'm going to go have that talk with Amanda and see what happens" answered Josh, "tell the other guys I might be a bit late today."
"Will do; Good luck man."
End