CHAPTER FOUR
July 3rd
I was laying down in a boat, giggling. Joseph was sitting up next to me and he seemed to take great amusement in tickling me with a feather. The way we were, though, was kind of intimate. Every time Joseph would tickle my face he'd kiss me right after in the same spot. And each time the feather - and subsequesntly Joseph's lips - got closer and closer to my lips.
"You have a pretty laugh." Joseph whispered, tracing the feather across my cheek, tickling me and making me giggle again. Joseph leaned down and grazed his lips across my cheek in the same path as the feather. "You smell like flowers." I blushed when the feather ghosted the corner of my mouth and Joseph's lips soon followed. Any noise escaped me when the feather traced a delicate trail over my lips. "I love you, Miley." And then Joseph was kissing me full on the lips before I could respond. I reached up and my fingers slid easilly through Joseph's silky black hair, holding him to me as we kissed. When we broke away Joseph squirmed and the boat rocked. "This is kinda uncomfortable here." He observed and I giggled, moving over so he could lay down next to me. It was still cramped and a little uncomfortable, but we were closer and cuddled together and there wasn't a seat digging into Joseph's side anymore.
"I like it out here." I murmured wistfully, out here, in the middle of the lake it was just us. No-one else, and no-one could bother us. It's the like the rest of the world didn't matter when me and Joseph were out on this lake.
"Me too." Joseph smiled, nuzzled into my neck. "When we get maried in four years we should get a house by a lake." I laughed at that, he was still adamant that we would get married when we were eighteen... I think he had the wedding planned in his head for my 18th birthday. "Then we can go out and be like this whenever we want."
"Or we could get a houseboat." I added thoughtfully, the idea of marying Joseph made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. "Then we'd always be like this."
"You wanna have a picnic on the roof tomorrow, like last year?" Joseph asked after a while when we'd been silent.
"I'd love to." The roof was another thing we shared; just us, solitude and the romantic-ness of a picnic on the roof on the 4th of July with a conert and fireworks. "And I love you." I couldn't get enough of saying that since I realised it. I wanted to tell everyone, I wanted to shout it to the world. But, mostly I wanted to whisper it to Joseph when we were together in moments like this.
"I don't like. Like to. Be alone in the night." Joseph sang/whispered in my ear like a preecious secret. "I don't. Like to. Hear I'm wrong when I'm right." I smiled and listend to him as the boat rocked gently with the water. "And I don't. Like to. Have the rain on my shoes. But, I do. Love. You."
"I don't. Like to. See the sky painted grey." I knew this song too and started singing in the same soft whisper as Joseph had. "And I don't. Like when. Nothing's going my way." With Joseph, it felt like everything was going my way. "And I don't. Like to. Be the one with the blues. But I do. Love. You." I stroked his cheek tenderly. "But, I do. Love. You." Joseph grabbed my hand and brought it to his lips, brushing them against my knuckles lightly.
"I could get used to this." Joseph smiled against my neck, his breath warm and heady as it touched my skin.
"Me too." I whispered as he hugged me and we just laid there. Content. "It's hot out here." I realised after a while, feeling moisture gathering from the sun. "We should go swimming."
"I-I-I can't swim, remember?" Joseph mumbled barely audibly, ashamed. He shouldn't be. He went through what I'm sure was a traumatic experience in the water when he was little.
"I'll teach you." I smiled and turned my head to kiss his forehead. "We don't have to go deep, I just wanna be in the water to cool off a little."
"Promise?" Joseph asked doubtfully, sitting up a little.
"Promise." I confirmed with a smile, sitting up as well. We sat up properly and rowed back to the shore. "I have to go get changed, I'll meet you back here." I kissed his cheek before running off to my cabin. When I got back to the lake Joseph was already there, in a pair of a boardshorts and a towel and he looked a little uncomfortable. "Hi." I blushed, I'd only seen him without a shirt twice before; when he was changing his muddy top at the start of camp last year after Nate pushed him and broke his glasses, and during sleepover night last year. I blushed and looked down when I saw him; the faint outline of muscles he'd had was more pronounced, the start of a six-pack forming.
"Hi." Joseph mimicked, sounding breathless and chocked. I finally looked up to his eyes and they were wide and his face was bright re as he stared at me. Joseph gaped for a few seconds, trying to form words. "W-w-wow." He finally choked out. I blushed and looked down again, embarassed; I was in my favourite blue with white polka dots bikini.
"Come on." I decided, biting my lip and walking to the water, dropping my towel on one of the upside down boats on he shore. I reached my hand out to Joseph and he looked hesitant for a second before I smiled reassuringly and he took my hand, following me faithfully.
"H-how deep?" Joseph asked nervously as we walked into the water.
"Not deep." I assured, squeezing his hand. "Relax, Joey."
"'Kay." Joseph smiled back at me weakly. I turned to face him and held both of his hands. We were up to my waist in the water now and I pulled his hands to my hips. "Can I kiss you?" I giggled and looked down shyly. He'd never asked if he could kiss me before. It somehow seemed more romantic.
"Yes." I fluttered my lashes up at him and he quickly leaned down, pressing his lips firmly against mine. I smiled against his lips and my hands went to his neck, pulling him closer.
CR
July 4th
"What a dork." Nate scoffed, rolling his eyes when Joseph ran past him. We were in the water again today, a little deeper this time and we were kissing and hugging and we were quite close; our bodies pressed together. And Joseph got a little... Excited. His boy parts got all hard and poked me a little, just like last year at the sleepover night. Joseph had run off, mortified, and almost hyperventilating before I could stop him. I was left in the water, blushing and all hot inside. I waded out of the lake and shot Nate a look.
"Seriously, do you hate him or what? It's confusing." I sighed, grabbing my towel.
"Shut up." Nate just glared at me.
"What's your problem?" I demanded, glaring right back at him. "Joseph is a sweet, sensitive boy, and you did nothing but torture him for ten years."
"Sweet boy?" Nate snorted, "more like everyone's favourite little attention freak."
"Joseph isn't an attention freak." I denied, seriously he was the sweetest boy on Earth. "He gets shy with more than two people around."
"Be more like Shane, Nate. Why can't you be like Shane? Shane's such a sweet boy." Nate mocked to me, clenching his fists tightly. "You can't have a birthday cake because Shane's allergic. Can't go to the amusement park because Shane'll have a panic attack. Shane's allergic to shellfish, Shane has asthma so we can't have a fog mahine at Nate's party, Shane has epilepsy so we can't go to the planitarium. Be more like Shane. Shane is so perfect." Nate started yelling angrilly and I took a step back from him, slightly scared. "My whole life it's always been; Shane, Shane, Shane. So, I try and be more like Shane and it's not enough. Nothing is ever perfect enough to be like perfect, attention freak Shane." I stood there in shock as Nate stormed away.
A few hours later I was still mulling over what Nate said when I crawled up onto the roof of Joseph's cabin where he'd set up a picnic just like last year. Joseph smiled shyly and blushed and mumbled incoherently as he lead me to the picnic. There was hot dogs and fruit and chocolate dipping sauce and a bunch of other stuff as we settled down to watch the concert.
"Joseph?" I asked, what Nate said was kind of bothering me.
"Yeah?" He hummed, he was playing with the ends of my hair and kept whispering sweet nothing's in my ear.
"Did Nate ever wanna go to the a planitarium?" I asked, furrowing my brow.
"I think when we were kids for his birthday." Joseph shrugged, frowning a little in thought. "I don't know why he didn't."
"Because you're more at risk when there's flashing lights and they had a laser light show?" I guessed, sitting up.
"I don't think so." Joseph cocked his head endearingly. "I mean, I think I had a music class on that day anyway, so it shouldn't have been a factor." He shook his head in confussion.
"What about a fog machine at his birthday party?" I asked, biting my lip.
"The party was in our backyard so they could use the pool, and there was a concert stage and karaoke, but I wasn't even there. I was in my room playing guitar." Joseph replied innocently. It was slightly baffling as to why they had a pool when Joseph couldn't swim, but that was for another day. "Why? How'd you know about them?"
"Nate." I hummed and he frowned. "I-I-" Joseph was completely innocent. "I think Nate's jealous of you, and that's why he was mean." I theorised.
"Sure, Miles, Nate's jealous of me." Joseph scoffed, rolling his eyes. "With my vission problems, allergies, asthma, epilepsy how weak I am... Totally someone to be jealous of."
"It's just he said earlier-he said he wasn't allowed to do stuff because you couldn't and he couldn't have a birthday cake 'cause you were allergic. And he wasn't allowed light shows or fog machines or amusement parks 'cause you couldn't do it." I tried to explain and Joseph's mouth dropped open. "And he kept saying that everyone told him to be like you, but when he tried it wasn't good enough."
"I never knew that." Joseph muttered, his eyes wide and scared. "I just always wanted Nate to stop being mean to me, I never knew he couldn't do anything 'cause of me." He looked down over the cabin to where the other kids were either watching or participating in the concert. I should have just let me and Joseph enjoys the concert and the fireworks, but what Nate said had really been eating at me. And now I could see the guilt eating at Joseph which made me feel guilty for making him feel that way.
"I'm sorry." I whispered, looking down. Joseph came back and he looked at me with big, sad brown eyes. I new he wanted to go to Nate; appologise - even though he didn't know - explain to him, talk to him. It was fourteen years overdue, clearly, if Nate was going to just blow up like he did at me today. He needed to talk about it too. I sighed and pecked Joseph's lips softly. "Go find Nate." I told him, smiling sadly.
"N-n-no, I-" Joseph started shaking his head.
"I know you want to, and you both need it." I told him, sitting back.
"I love you, Baby." Joseph said, kissing my cheek before he started to scramble down the ladder, desperately searching for his cousin. It was amazing how one conversation could change someones perspective on a person. I sighed and sat back on the roof, watching the concert; this wasn't exactly how I imagined our 4th of July date going.
CR
July 5th
"Oh, my God!" I gasped when I walked into breakfast and I saw Joseph. "What happned?" I hurried over to him, cradling his face tenderly; he had a big black eye that was an angry purple-ish/black-ish/yellow-ish color and his eye was swelled half shut, and he had a split lip as well. Since he couldn't wear contacts with his eye like that he was back to his old glasses too. "What happened, Joseph? Who did this to you?" The last I'd seen of him was when he left our date last night to find Nate.
"Nothing." Joseph mumbled, looking away and squirming out of grasp.
"Nothing?" I sounded slightly hysterical. "Joseph, someone beat you up. You need to go to the nurse. And tell Brown."
"It's nothing, just drop it." Joseph grumbled, looking away.
"Joseph-"
"I said drop it." He snapped at me, glaring as he got up and stalked away. I sat there shocked. He'd never talked to me or looked at me like that before. I felt hurt. I thought we had a good relationship.
After that I felt sick and I couldn't eat breakfast. Why would he reat like that? Did I say something wrong? Was Joseph mad at me? I pushed my plteaway and got up, walking out. I didn't want to be alone right now, but I didn't want to be with people. I only wanted to be with Joseph. But, he was mad at me. I dragged my feet to class, maybe Joseph would be there and I could talk to him. Except Joseph didn't turn up to class, or the second one. I didn't bother going to the third class of the day. My stomach was in knotts, I was sad, I just wanted to know who hurt Joseph and why he was mad at me.
I found myself outside Joseph's cabin, staring at the wooden structure sadly I heaard a frustrated sound then a smash. Panicked, I ran over and threw the door open. Joseph was standing in the middle of the room, holding the neck of a guitar with strings and part of the bas still connected, but the rest was scattered across the floor and through the room. I gasped at the sight and Joseph looked over. That's when I saw the tears on his face. I hurried over, but he jerked away from me.
"Joseph-" I started, I was concerned, worried.
"Leave me alone." Joseph choked out, cutting me off.
"Joseph, please? I want to help you." I begged desperately. "Please don't be mad? I just want to help you."
"Yeah, well, your help made Nate beat me up." Joseph snapped and I gasped again. He sank to the floor, leaning back against one of the beds. "I-I-I went to t-talk to him last n-n-night, he got pissed and he beat me up." It was the first time I'd ever heard him swear and it was a bit of a shock to his system. "He said he hated me." His voice cracked. I hesitantly knelt next to him. "He never said he hated me before."
"I'm sorry." I cooed, reaching for him. I shouldn't have told Joseph what Nate said yesterday.
"You shouldn't have told me what he said, at least he didn't hate me completely then. And he didn't beat me up" He sniffed and scrubbed his eyes.
"I'm sorry, Joseph, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to make it happen." I felt so guilty. Joseph leaned into me and I wrapped my arms around his as he cried.
"Sorry I yelled at you, I didn't mean it." I hummed as I ran my fingers through his hair soothingly. "P-plea-please don-please don't l-l-leave me?" He was such a sensitive boy; always so scared of people leaving or hating him. And he was a boy who wasn't afraid to cry. That was so rare, and it proved he had emotions. It was nice to know that there was aboy who was so in touch with his emotions. It was actually kind of hot.
"I'm sorry, Joey." I murmured, kissing his temple. "I'm so sorry. I love you."
1) Favourite part of the chapter?
2) Least favourite part of the chapter?
3) Did you expect Nate to feel that way?
4) How do you feel about Joseph reacting like that to Miley?
5) I'm starting to get seriously upset. When a chapter gets 105 hits in 6 hours from 77 different people, why 3 days later does that chapter only have 2 reviews? The last chapter of QD only got 2 reviews and I will not update Crash World until I get 5 reviews on QD and at least 3 on this.
Smiler For Joe!
