Cold Horrid Certainty

by SolemnSilence170

Chris moves to the city for a job opportunity too good to pass up and ends up running into (quite literally) someone that could lead to his complete and utter downfall. His morals will be put into question when he discovers what has really been going on behind the scenes. Until Dawn AU. Rated M for slash, homocide, manipulation, and potentially other categories as well.

1. Hallucination

Greetings everyone! So I've been in love with Until Dawn as soon as it came out, and since the game's so new, it's hard to find decent fanfiction at this time. To feed my growing impatience, I decided I'd contribute to the fandom! This headcanon is from originalandcreativeurl on Tumblr (my Tumblr is sittinginsolemnsilence). Thanks for coming up with such a great idea and giving me the okay to give it a go! Chapter title is from Amarante.

Also, I'll be updating the South Park prison au sometime next week! :D This year I really want to focus on improving my writing, so I'm really going to push myself to update more frequently~ These two chaptered fics are going to be my primary focus until November (I'm participating in NaNoWriMo!).

THIS FIC IS ABOUT CHRIS/JOSH. I DO NOT ENDORSE CHRIS/ASHLEY IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM, BUT SHE WILL BE ESSENTIAL IN THE STORY. So keep that in mind.

And here are the trigger warnings: Homicide, Character Death, Manipulation, Psychopathic Traits, Language, Slash, and if there are more, I'll include them in the future as well.

CHAPTER 1: HALLUCINATION

[Chris' POV]

Moving day came during the beginning of October for me. It was hard saying goodbye to the campus I had called home for all these years, but I was finally a college graduate and going places with my teacher's degree. Manhattan, more specifically.

It had always been my dream to create my own phone apps, but I was a little intimidated by all of those big names out there, so for the time being I decided the next best thing was to learn enough about technology to teach a class on it. And that's exactly what I tried for. I got high grades in all of my college classes and eventually enough professors mentioned my name until finally a prestigious high school out in New York decided to take an interest. I flew all the way over there for an interview and several days later I got the happy news. I'd be teaching a Computers class across the country.

Packing everything up for moving day was a motherfucker, alright. I managed to procrastinate all the way up until the week before the big move (Fallout 4 was coming out soon! I couldn't miss out on all the hype!), so I had to spend quite a few sleepless nights deciding on whether or not I should bring all of my chipped plates and cups or just the essentials. No matter what, the fading Darth Vader cup was coming with.

But finally, after effectively stressing out the moving company's workers and myself, I was on the plane ride from Oregon to the Big Apple. Admittingly, I was a little nervous about how I'd adapt to all the crowds and bustling city life. When you've lived on a small little dot in the forgotten creases on a map, it's hard to adjust to a change like that. But the job and the pay were too promising to pass up, and the street I was on was far enough out of the way for me to feel semi-comfortable.

I fell asleep on the plane easily enough, but when I awoke, I realized I had been slumped onto the shoulder of an elderly woman, passed out and drooling all over her perfumed blouse. It was a very long, awkward plane ride that I'd rather not dwell on for too long.

When the plane landed, I got out, had a sandwich in the airport's deli store, and stepped outside in search of a taxi. All my other stuff was supposed to be delivered in front of my apartment complex, so I took my carry on bag and called for a taxi.

The address was about thirty minutes away from the airport, and by the time we got there I was starting to nod off, thanks to the long flight here. I looked up and surveyed the building I'd be living in from now on. Truth be told, it'd seen better days. The paint job was pretty ratchet and long graying strips peeled and curled ominously. It was only about four floors tall and the rickety double doors seemed really out of place on the exterior. Nonetheless, I walked over to the moving van parked out front, feeling somewhat better about my new life here.

The movers lugged in my stuff after I informed them which apartment number was mine. Apartment number 403. That was my new home from now on.

After all the boxes were brought up to my room, I tipped the movers and they left. I scanned my new place. An old fashioned heater was pressed up underneath my only window. A small scummy refrigerator sat in the kitchen along with a food-stained stove, an out-dated microwave, and a questionable sink. The carpet was stained and smelled like cigarettes. There were no chairs, tables, or couch, but in a small separate side-room there was a futon (assumingly for sleeping) and a night stand. Overall, the place was pretty bleak, and if I had known there would be so little furniture, I would have brought more with me. But it was home, and I was perfectly okay with that. I let out a long tired sigh and began unpacking my boxed belongings.

After I managed to unpack mostly everything (I had brought far less than I had originally thought), I checked my phone. There was one unread message from my mom that I should probably of answered hours ago. I opened the message and read: "How is your new place, honey? Do you have a good view of the city? Are the people there rude? Your father and I love you. Please stay safe!"

I couldn't help a small grin from spreading across my face. My mom was so concerned about the city life here, not that I could blame her much. New York was a pretty huge change from Bend. I looked out my window and responded: "It's a little empty here, but it has a certain charm that I like. I have a pretty decent view of a couple of bigger buildings off in the distance. I haven't really talked to any of the people here yet, but everyone seems to mostly mind their own business. I love you guys too, Mom."

The cigarette smell was starting to make my eyes water, so I decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood for some fresh air. There was a used electronic store I ended up spending a lot of time in, but aside from that the area was mostly made up of housing units and buildings up for lease. But throughout my entire walk, I couldn't help feeling that there was someone watching me. It was unsettling and made the hairs on my neck stand up, but in the back of my head I knew it was probably a feeling I'd soon get used to. You probably always felt like you were being watched in a city like this. I was just getting used to my new environment.

But despite knowing that, that night I had a hard time falling asleep on my lumpy futon. It was probably just the cigarette smell. I tossed and turned, rolling my new job requirements and the directions to the high school through my head. I had weird, dark dreams that I couldn't recall the following morning, and left with a bagel and a bad feeling.

The school itself was pretty impressive. It was a private establishment that looked like it was built a century ago. It was well kept and beautiful despite the overall lack of green grass and an actual courtyard. I found the main building easily enough and the woman at the front desk directed me to my new classroom. It was small and simple, filled with rows of well-kept computers, and it had a great view of the rest of the school with long windows that let in a lot of light.

I let out a deep sigh and looked across the room at a large wall clock. It was really early, and school would start tomorrow for the students. This was the only day I had to settle in and make the place really my own. I slid down into my desk's rolly chair and waited for the principal to come in and check up on me. A couple minutes later, there was a resounding knock on the door and the man himself stepped in. I had met him before. His name was Michael Munroe. He had dark hair complete with a five o'clock shadow, a strong nose, and a grin that made him look like a typical college jock. He strode across the room in a blue suit and tie that looked odd on someone like him, and I stood to greet him.

"Chris! Good to see you. As punctual as ever, it seems!" He stuck out his hand and I grasped it. I didn't forget his firm grip.

"That's right. Wouldn't want to be late for my first day at work, now would I?" I laughed as we shook hands. Mike and I got on pretty well the first time we had met for my interview. He seemed like a pretty stand-up guy and we shared a mutual level of respect despite our different slots on the job hierarchy.

"Are you settling in well?" Mike asked, his trademark grin painted across his face. "The Big Apple's a lot to get used to, I know."

"I'd say I am. It'll be nice once I get everything in its proper place and out of those god-awful boxes."

"Well, I'll give you the syllabus' for your classes. Your schedule's in the top drawer along with a map of the campus. It's not extremely big here, but it's good to know where everything is beforehand. It'd be nice if you had some more time to adjust, but I understand that you weren't able to move here any sooner. We'll make it work." He clapped my shoulder in reassurance. "If you have any questions, come to my office in the main building later. Oh, and there's a provided lunch in the teacher's lounge if you're interested in that. I have some paperwork to finish before this year's freshmen get over here for orientation." And with that, he left me to my own devices with a parting wave.

I had brought some posters, some personal knick-knacks for my desk, and other stuff with me in advance, so I spent the next couple hours setting everything up for tomorrow's class. I wanted to make a good impression on the kids, so admittingly I put a little too much mind in how far apart my Star Trek snow globe and Fallout bobble heads were. I glanced over my schedule and pocketed it. I worked from 7:00 to 3:30 with a forty-five minute lunch break at 11. Glancing at the clock, I saw that it was already 10:56. I looked at the map and located the teacher's lounge, deciding that lunch was something I couldn't skip today.

I turned down some hallways before I found the lounge. Inside, there were several vending machines, a fridge, a coffee maker, a small sink, and several tables and chairs. Overall a pretty typical staff room. Two women were already sitting at one of the tables. One of the women had long red hair and green eyes. She had a 'cute' look about her and was wearing a mossy green long sleeve shirt. The other woman had darker mid-length hair and was wearing a short professional dress with heels. She had a mole right above her eyebrow and wore a dark charcoal eyeliner with a nasty smirk.

Already feeling like a complete third wheel, I shuffled awkwardly into the room, deciding that I'd make a show of distracting myself by looking through the fridge. Before I could reach it, however, the woman with the eyeliner addressed me.

"You must be the new guy. Chris, was it?"

A flare of panic resounded through my chest and I abandoned the fridge to turn and give them a polite smile-and-nod. Oh God. I'm so bad at talking to new people. I'm going to say something inappropriate and then they'll know how big of a doofus their new co-worker is. I'll be like that ridiculous older brother in iCarly. Not that I've ever watched iCarly on my own free will, but I'll be him and then-

"I'm Emily, by the way. And this is Ashley." Eyeliner Woman interrupted my downward spiral of social anxiety.

"Oh, Chris. Is. Is me. Nice to uh, meet you." I stuttered, hating myself with every word. It wasn't my fault the redhead was kinda cute.

They giggled to themselves before Emily spoke again. "You're the new Computer Tech teacher, right? Ashley here is the Online Journalism teacher. I'm Mike's receptionist. I swear to GOD he is such an infant at his job. That guy would be in some serious hot water if it weren't for me double-checking our finances on every little thing!"

"...I'll probably be seeing you a lot in the future, Chris. Since my students sometimes shoot and upload videos on the school website. So I might send some of them over in the future needing some help with the more technical stuff." Ashley said, looking over at Emily and smirking in a strange, inside-jokey way. I opened the fridge and grabbed the first thing that I saw. Some sort of wrapped sandwich.

"Okay, cool. Is there, uh. Any coffee left in the pot?" I asked, looking over at the coffee pot. Why was it so hard to talk to these two? Girls made me feel uncomfortable.

"I think there's some left." Ashley informed me, her smile sticking to her face. So it'd be like that, huh? Oh well. Might as well accept that I'd be trying to make small talk for an hour and move on.

I grabbed a cup and poured myself some. "Any pro tips for a new teacher?"

"Don't let them intimidate you. At the end of the day, they're just a bunch of snot-nosed kids. Don't try too hard to impress anybody and don't condemn anyone for asking something kind of basic. I wish somebody had told me that when I first started teaching." Ashley grumbled, twirling a spoon in her cup of yogurt. "Just be yourself and be helpful and you'll get on just fine."

"Unless you end up making a big fool of yourself and ruining your reputation before they even know your name. Because that destroy whatever chance you had here alright." Emily cut it with a scoff. "High schoolers may not be as bad as middle schoolers, but they'll still rip you a new one if they find a weak spot."

"Umm… Thanks." I coughed, deciding it would be rude if I didn't head over to sit with them after all. As I joined them I asked, "How long have you two been working here?"

"Oh, not very long." Ashley responded. "Two years now."

"I've been here for four. I know what I'm talking about at this point." Emily laughed, stabbing at her salad with a plastic fork.

I kept up a conversation with them until we were all finished eating. It was a little to polite and awkward for my taste, but Ash was nice and Emily was almost endearingly rude, so it was alright. The rest of the day passed by slower than I expected it to, mostly running around locating stuff for my classes. There was a mini fiasco with not enough syllabuses being printed out, but I managed to resolve that in under an hour. I was just getting ready to head home when suddenly there was another knock on my door.

"Hey man. You ready for school tomorrow?" Mike asked, coming in and leaning up against a counter.

"I guess we'll see." I laughed, throwing my papers on tomorrow's lesson I had typed up a couple hours ago in my briefcase.

"I'm sure you'll do just fine! Kick back, go over your lesson again, and drink a couple beers. At the very least, you'll be better than any one of our math teachers." Mike chuckled, tossing a stapler in the air and catching it. I wasn't really sure what to make of him. He seemed like a really good-natured kinda guy, but he was pretty young to be a principal. He acted more like a frat boy than a boss.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." I grinned, slipping on my jacket and heading out the door with him.

"Have you been getting along with the staff so far?" Mike asked, holding open the door for me.

"Yeah, they seem pretty chill. I've only met Ash and Emily, though."

"Oh yeah. Those two are something alright." Mike snickered. A moment passed before he spoke again. "You know, I'm not all anal about coworker relationships. If you see a hot piece of ass, I say to go for it! The worst that could happen is just some awkward 'we-slept-together-and-now-we-have-to-pretend-we-didn't' bullshit. No biggie."

How do I even respond to that? "Um. I'll keep that in mind, then."

"Alright! Good talk, man." Mike clapped me on the shoulder and left. Now I really didn't know what to make of him. I believed Emily when she said she was running this place financially.

I stopped by a Starbucks on the way home. Since I was just carrying a latte and my briefcase, I decided that this time I'd try going up the stairs instead of the elevator. I realized when I climbed up to my floor that the door was meant to be pulled towards you and wasn't able to be pushed outwards. I struggled trying to get around it, and by the time I was nearly home-free, I felt something ram into me and knock me down onto the ground. If it wasn't for the extra space installed before the next set of stairs started, I would have fallen down a flight of stairs with my latte. Feeling the scalding stains of coffee through one of my nicest shirts, I looked up in irritation at my assailant.

He looked like a pretty shifty guy, in all honesty. He was wearing a dark hoodie and there were heavy bags under his eyes. His skin was a darker shade (what nationality was he even? It was on the tip of my tongue, but I just couldn't place it) and had a strong square jawline. But despite his rather sketchy entrance, I couldn't help but think that he looked like a pretty decent guy. I should've known better than to write someone off right away.

"Oh my God. I'm so sorry." He said, kneeling down to grab my papers for me. Apparently my briefcase exploded on impact. Good to know. "I really should've been watching where I was going. This is all my fault."

"No, it's fine! I should've taken the elevator." I laughed. "I'm new here, so I figured I should get the full experience and try taking the stairs for once."

"Well, this definitely counts as the 'full experience'." He snickered. "Welcome to the neighborhood, I guess. Ah, geez. Your shirt is trashed. I'm really sorry about that."

"No big deal. I've got plenty better shirts lying around my place already." Lies. But he didn't need to know that.

"Well, let me at least walk you to your door." He offered.

"If you insist. I'm Chris, by the way." I offered my hand that had been holding the latte.

"Josh." We shook hands. "So, what made you want to move in here, Chris?"

"Ah, well. I just graduated from college and was offered a job over at Green Park High. It seemed like a good change of pace, so I took it up." I explained, leading him back to my door. "This is it."

"Woah. You live right across from me." Josh grinned. There was something really intense about the way he was looking at me, but I couldn't exactly place what it was.

"Oh really? You're room 402?"

"Uh-huh. Guess we'll be seeing a lot of each other, huh?"

That's almost exactly what Ashley had said at lunch. Funny, I didn't realize how often people said that phrase. "I guess so."

"You know, I've always been interested in what these other rooms look like. Are they all identical, or is there something different in each of them? Do you mind if I hang out for a bit?" Josh asked, eyeing my hand as I turned the key in its lock.

I'm not stupid. Something about this didn't sit well with me. He was probably thinking he could steal something valuable off of me and that I wouldn't notice since I was still settling in. But even so, it would be rude to say no, and judging by his physical appearance, I was confident I could take him if he tried to start something. Plus, if I was rude to him, I'd be making an enemy out of my next-door neighbor, which would just make life complete hell.

"Sure, yeah. Make yourself at home. Ignore the overwhelming cigarette smell. It was like that when I got here, I swear." I twisted the lock and let him in, figuring I could analyze what he does and doesn't do while he's visiting.

I wasn't really expecting him to be doing the same to me. He seemed only half interested in the place, and I could feel him watching me in the corner of his eye. Did he think I had brought him in here to hit him over the head and mug him or something? It felt like we were in a wrestling ring sizing each other up, instead of in my apartment room.

"No worries, Cochise. My place is like that too, sadly." He smirked. He knew something I didn't, I could feel it. "Love what you've done with the place."

I laughed and kicked a box. "Sure you do. Hopefully it'll be a little less gloomy once I've been here for a little longer."

I watched as he peered into a box. "Is that Nine Dead? Man, it's been ages since I've seen that movie! I didn't figure you for horror movies."

"I'm only into the psychological kind, honestly. I'll take Silence of the Lambs over a slasher any day." I replied.

"We should go over to my place and watch it, then! Unless, you have somehing else you were planning on doing tonight?" He asked, looking me in the eye.

He didn't blink much. Or, at all, really. It was a little unnerving how intense he was all of the time. "Are you sure? I don't want to intrude. Weren't you headed down the stairs when we met just a bit ago…?"

Honestly, I wasn't so sure I wanted to go watch a movie with a stranger I had just met literally minutes ago. He could be anyone, really. A hit-man, a druggie, a florist…

"I was just going out to get some air. It's hard living in an ashtray all the time, you know?" Josh laughed, crossing his arms casually. "Besides. Over at my place, I have an actual couch and popcorn. Are you a beer or whiskey kinda guy?"

There was no arguing with the couch and popcorn, but… "I dunno if I should be drinking tonight. My first day of work is tomorrow, and I gotta make a good first impression."

"On high schoolers?" Josh chuckled. "If anything, drinking the night before will make you just that much more relatable. It'll be fine, I promise. I'll make sure you don't drink too much."

"Are you sure? We just met, after all. You don't need to go out of your way to make me feel better for spilling coffee on me."

"No? Well… Okay, honestly, I've been in a rough patch for the past year. My sisters passed away in a freak skiing accident, and ever since then… It's been really hard for me to branch out and meet new people." Josh sighed. "Look, I'm sorry I pressured you. If you need anything, you know where I'll be."

He turned to leave and before I could stop myself… "Wait, no. I'm sorry. I do want to hang out and watch movies. I'm new here and I just don't want you to be hanging out with me out of obligation or anything. But if you're down for it, then so am I."

It was mostly true at least.

He looked back and faced me, a slow grin spreading across his face. "Okay, yeah! Let's do it then. Oh, but you should probably change your shirt. Wouldn't want the stains to ruin it, after all."

"Right." I snickered, walking over to my bedroom and finding a T-shirt. I was a little surprised when Josh followed me, but was also kind of glad. In the very back of my head, I still thought he might be here to steal something from me. At least now he was within eyesight.

He wasn't looking at me directly when I unbuttoned my shirt and slipped on a new one, but I knew he wasn't as interested as he pretended to be in my bedroom's scarce decor. After I was dressed I announced, "Alright, lead the way!"

As we headed across the hall to his place, I couldn't help but wonder what exactly it was that was wrong with Josh. Was it because of his grief over his sisters? I shook my head slightly. I was going about this all wrong. Even if there was something wrong with him, it didn't immediately make him a bad guy. He was just a little eccentric. Lots of people probably wrote him off like I almost did, and I wasn't about to do the same. He deserved an honest to God shot at my friendship, so I would give him that and see what he did with it.

He unlocked his door and let me in, holding out an arm in a cheesy way. "Welcome to my humble abode."

Oh God. This guy was as bad as I was. Perfect.

I bowed. "Why thank you, Josh."

He chuckled as he shut the door behind me with a loud click. I looked around. He had implied he'd been here for a while, but his place was just as 'lonely bachelor-y' as mine was, excluding the extra furniture. There was nothing on his walls except for the lone family vacation photo with the letters 'Washington Resort 1999' in the corner. Josh was there, 16 years younger, looking completely content and sunny next to two girls who were frozen laughing. They must've been the sisters he had mentioned before.

"Alright, so what'll it be, Cochise? Whiskey or beer or both?" Josh grins, already holding the two bottles in his hands.

Feeling suddenly chummy, I returned the grin and announced, "Surprise me", plopping myself onto his sofa.

Josh left to the kitchen area and yells, "Hey, pop the movie in, would you?"

"Sure thing."

I turned on the TV and fumbled with the DVD player for a couple minutes. When I got it fired up, I sat back and watched the movie commercials fly across the screen. Josh had been in the kitchen for a while now. Right when I was thinking of going to check on him, he came out with two glasses and sat beside me.

"Cheers, bro."

We clink our glasses together before taking large gulps of whatever Josh had thrown together in the kitchen. It was a concoction of the two by the taste of it. That little freak.

"Man, that's a punch in the face, alright." I laughed, punching the play button on the remote. "Definitely what I needed after today."

"Yeah?" Josh replied as the intense music started. "Glad I could be of some assistance, then."

It'd been a longer time than I thought since I had a couple drinks. I forgot how nice it was. Deciding it was in my best interests to get drunk after all, I drank some more of the beer-and-whiskey concoction.

"Think I could finish this before you?"

"Oh, you're on, Cochise!"

We chugged our drinks a lot quicker after that, and watched while the nine characters were getting abducted and locked into the room together.

"Wait, wait! Josh, this part's important!" I exclaimed as he was nearing the bottom of his mug before me.

"You're just saying that so I won't win!" He gasped.

"No, really! Really really really! This part's where you hear the ground rules of the whole movie!" I cried, grabbing on to his clothes insistently. Huh. It really had been a while since I drank, hadn't it?

He didn't listen and downed his glass before I did. Fuck. "Hah! In your face!"

"At least I know what's going on." I sulked, letting go of his shirt.

"Oh, don't be like that." He laughed.

"Like what, exactly?"

"A sore loooser, that's what!"

"Fuck you, man."

"Finish your cup already! Come on!"

I smirked at him and did what he told me to. We kept drinking after that and when we reached the part of the movie where the priest is killed, I threw my arm across his shoulder and yelled in frustration.

"Fucking damn it, I hate this part!" I drew Josh closer to me. "You know he could've changed the whole thing if he'd of juss. Of just. Told them. You know!"

He sighed loudly. "You're right man. It was for the good of the people. You know, this presents a really good moral issue throughout the story. There'll always be those fuckwads that agree that he shoulda kept his oath… mouth shut, and those sensible people who say. No."

I laughed. "You're so wasted."

"No, not really. No." He shook his head with a thoughtful expression. "I would be doing something waay crazier now if I was."

He had me interested. "What?"

"Nothing you need to know."

"Aww, c'mon! I won't judge you!"

"You say that, but you don't know. You know?"

"No, and that's the point! Tell me!"

"Hey, you know what? It's getting kinda late." Josh changed the subject. We weren't even paying attention to the movie at this point. "You should spend the night here."

"What? But I have work tomorrow!"

"Well, you're not getting anything done after this, that's for damn sure. And I saw your futon. That shit's uncomfortable. You should sleep like a king before your first day."

"A king on a sofa?" I laughed.

"No. You can sleep in my bed. I don't mind, really. It's a big enough bed for two."

Oh.

"Uhh, you sure?" I asked.

"Yeah, bro. Not a problem. It'll be fine. Here, come with me." Josh grabbed my wrist and dragged me across the living room to his bedroom. "See? You could have a whole party in here."

"I guess you're right." The bed looked big enough to me.

"Just so you know, though. I move around a lot in my sleep." Josh smirked, moving behind me and flicking off the lights. He grabbed my wrist again. "Come here."

He led me over to the bed and gently pushed me down. "Much more comfortable than that old futon, right?"

All that alcohol coursing through my veins was making my head spin. "Ye-ah. You're right."

"I know I am." He pulled up the comforter and got in underneath the blankets. "It's so much nicer with you here. I don't like falling asleep alone."

I couldn't blame him. In fact, I was having a hard time recalling why someone like him was alone to begin with. "It's okay, man. I'm here now."

"I know." He whispered. "Hey, look at me."

I did. He seemed. Well. I couldn't really decipher how he seemed anymore. "What?"

He smirked and let out a bizarrely cute little giggle before leaning in and kissing me straight on the lips. I would've been pretty surprised if I was sober, but since I wasn't, it made perfect sense to me to kiss back.

He let out a small sigh as I kissed him back, running my hand through his hair. He sort of stumbled on top of me and straddled my waist. 'What was I even doing?!' the back of my mind cried, but right now I was completely absorbed in what was happening. I grinned into the kiss and moved my other hand to Josh's waist. He gasped as I reached up for the hem of his shirt and started pulling it over his chest. He moved back a little to let me slip it over and off of his head. Perfect. I sat up to take off my shirt too.

"You know. You have a lot more muscle than I originally thought you did." Josh whispered. Even in my drunken state, I wasn't so sure I was going to take my pants off yet. I was leaning towards a no, but a large part of me really did want to.

"Thanks." I snickered. It seemed like Josh was planning on taking off his pants regardless of whether or not I was going to. He tore them off but decided to leave on his boxers after a moment's thought.

"Do you mind if I…?" He was inching towards my jeans. That was all I really needed to make a decision, so I gave him a firm nod. What the hell. I'm an adult, after all. Why not experiment in the fullest?

He smiled and reached a hand down to unzip my pants. As he was unzipping them, he pressed his mouth against mine and I could feel him slip me some tongue. We both got pretty distracted in that and soon forgot that my pants were half unzipped. I snaked my hands through his hair again- he really did have fucking fantastic hair- and he curled his hands up my back, his nails digging into my flesh. I bit his lip and he let out a wordless groan; we fell back down onto the bed and kind of mutually decided to lay back and relax.

Every so often, Josh would kiss me again, but for the most part we were just tangled into each other's arms in a drunken haze. But finally, at one point when Josh was on top of me while our tongues were colliding, he pulled away and just curled up on my chest. A moment later, I heard him breathing deeply. I sighed, shifting his weight until I was comfortable. I looked over at the clock. 3:24 AM. That fucker left me with an erection at three in the morning the night before school starts. This was not what I was signing up for when he said "Movies and a few drinks".

It took a while before I felt myself drifting off into sleep too. When I finally did, I dreamt that I was walking down the streets of Manhattan and that someone- or something was following me. Watching me. But every time I turned to face whatever it was, it would disappear. A moving shadow I could never quite pinpoint. It was always there; just far enough out of my vision for me to not quite make it out. But it was there, alright.

A loud noise jarred me awake. I looked over at the noise in irritation. I was so close to finding whatever it was that had been following me since I got here! The ruckus was being caused by Josh's alarm clock, which loudly proclaimed that it was 6:00. OH SHIT!

I smacked the top of the clock, shook a sleeping Josh awake and cried, "I'M GOING TO BE LATE!"

Disoriented from being thrown off my chest, he groaned, "No you're not. I'll take you in my car. Go change your clothes and get ready, mmkay?"

"Thanks man!" I didn't have time to think how awkward or not awkward things were between us or what last night even meant. I tossed myself out of bed and ran for the door, shoving my hand down my pockets to find my keys. Thank God I didn't usually have headaches included with my hangovers. Nope. Only mild nausea and a vague sense of what was happening. Today would be damn near impossible if I had to take an Advil every four hours.

When I reached my room, I ripped off my shirt and put on the first thing I could find. It seemed like my pants were already half off, thanks to Josh's little stunt last night. I tore them off all the way and located a pair of jeans that didn't make me look like total trash. I freshened up as quickly as I could and leaped out just before Josh got the chance to pound down my door.

"You ready, Cochise?" He tiredly grinned at me, his hands shoved in his pockets.

"Yes, God. Let's go already!" I cried, running to the elevator.

This was going to be a really long day.

So that's it for the first chapter! Shit will start to hit the fan in the next one. As in, the main point of this story to begin with. It'll be in Josh's POV to boot~ I hope you've enjoyed the story so far! And this'll be updated sometime within the next couple of days, depending on what things I have to do during the day. Since this is the kickstart of a new story, please let me know what you liked, didn't like, have theories on, whatever. I really love hearing back from the people reading this! (But please don't feel pressured to leave a response. I never base the upload schedule off of how many reviews I do or don't get; frankly, I feel that's a little inconsiderate. However, it is fantastic to know how how the story is being received, so do what you want!) Again, a thousand thank yous to originalandcreativeurl for coming up with this wonderful headcanon! Things will really start to get dark in the next chapter, I promise~