Josh's POV:
I sat there, surprisingly still, and annoyingly bored. As it was, I didn't like the winter, but with the air conditioner turned on sixty-five and my toes threatening to frost, I was beginning to hate the cold. I had a soft brown blanket draped over my legs and I was sitting in my favorite chair, which happened to be closest to the fireplace. It had been four days since we were let out of school for winter break. It was only two days until Christmas Eve. Then… you get the picture.
If it weren't for the food, the annoying screams coming from my cousins and my family in general, it would have been a perfect holiday. But they came. I, for one, was as happy as a person could get when you have old people pinching your cheeks and little short people yelling who couldn't even reach your shoulders.
A whole different story entirely, I was bored as hell. My headache hurt like hell. My cheeks burnt like the turkey from hell. Basically, I felt like I was in hell. There was nowhere in the world that I'd rather be than in my room at that point.
"Josh! Want to come help with the turkey?" I heard a small voice coming from the kitchen archway. Now, I knew that saying no to this would mean yet another disgusting turkey, but I told myself a burnt hand wouldn't be nice either. Just expectations of my cooking.
"No thanks, grandma," I smiled as politely as I could and turned my attention back towards… oh yeah, the wall. As fun as that was, I couldn't hide the itching to bring out my phone and text someone. Anyone. I would have died if it weren't for my phone being right there in my pocket. I pulled it out secretively and hid it under my blanket. I scrolled through my list of contacts, landing on one in particular, and started clicking away with my fingers skillfully hidden under the fabric of the blanket.
"Hey moose. Ur holiday sucking like mine?" My fingers quickly typed across the small phone.
I set it down on my legs and hid the blanket over it. Not a minute later, I felt a vibration and hurriedly lifted the blanket to read the message.
"You know it dude" I read. I loved how he would agree with me no matter what.
I didn't text him back. Mainly because my cousins wanted me to go play outside with them in the forty-something degree weather and there stood my mom, her glare telling me to go or else. I figured I wouldn't stand around to see what the 'or else' meant.
I kind of rejoiced in going outside, just to get away from my parents and anyone else who could catch me texting. Although, I wasn't beneath believing that one of those little munchkins would tell on me. I assume you think I hate my family, right? Well, it's just like Rachel. When you're around them for that long, it gets to be grueling. I love them, but come on, give a guy some space.
I pulled out my phone again, not returning to texting Moose, but moving on to someone who I dislike to admit I missed during these past four days. I could feel the familiar sense of dread and depression sink back over me. Lizzy was the only one who seemed to be able to make that melt away.
"what up?" I sent her. No doubt it was lame, but really, what else could I put?
The phone vibrated in my hands sending a tingle that reached to my shoulders.
"finally got bored out of ur mind and texted me?" I chuckled at how she could seem to read my mind. It was those little things that made me wonder if she really could.
"how'd you know?"
"I know you Josh" I read the words with a smile. Suddenly a sharp pain ran through my cheek and a leather-bound object collided with my face. I staggered backwards and dropped my phone, sending it tumbling beside me.
"What was that!" I bellowed, clutching the side of my face in agony. It throbbed like a hammer was pounding on my skin with unnecessary force. I heard high pitched laughter from across my yard and whipped my head around to see Charlie, one of my oldest little cousins, doubled over laughing.
"You should have seen your face when it hit you!" he breathed between fits of laughter. I looked over to see the offending item, a football, lying in the grass. I smirked and picked the football up, striding over to Charlie, shoving it into his stomach and grabbing his shirt, making a fist with my hand and lifting it up slightly. Charlie stuttered.
"If you want to ever be able to throw a football again, get your butt back in the house right now. We'll forget this ever happened, and you will shut up and stop being an annoying little brat," I whispered angrily in his face. The throbbing in my cheek grew worse by the second and I released the frightened boy as he called my other cousins into the house. I walked to retrieve my phone to see I had one new message.
"you there Josh?" I quickly sent a response explaining the football and Charlie. What I got back was what I wasn't expecting.
"are you hurt? sounds bad" Now, I was expecting her to send 'ha-ha you probably cried' or something that made fun of me. No, I get the sympathetic side of Lizzy. I kind of like it.
I walked back inside, smiling a little bit too wide for my own good. I heard gasps and saw eyes widening, and at first I actually thought it was about the cold air coming through the door.
"Joshua! What happened?" My mother's voice sounded scary concerned. Like I had broken an arm or something.
"What are you talking abo-" I glanced sideways and noticed a huge red and slightly purple mark on the top of my cheek bone just below my eye. I looked like a hammer smashed my face in. I was going to kill Charlie.
"Char-lie" I growled through gritted teeth. The eight year-old cringed on the sofa. He looked terrified.
"Oh Charlie, what did you do this time?" My aunt Susan (yeah, the horribly unattractive one) glanced worriedly at me, then Charlie.
"He threw a football at me while I wasn't looking!" I roared, taking a step towards the cowering child. His face was white as a sheet.
"Now, Josh. There's no need to yell. It's not that bad. Put some ice on it and go lay down in your room," My mom said, always the sympathizer.
I did as instructed and brought the ice and my aching head up to my bedroom, plopping down on the bed. I reached for my phone again in my pocket and clicked a rapid response to Elizabeth.
"didn't know you cared so much ;)" I smiled knowing she would blush. I found myself thinking about it, the way the rosy color would fill her cheeks. The way she would look down when she was embarrassed. The way she would smile shyly and look up afterwards. My phone vibrated again and I peered at the small illuminating screen.
"didn't know you got hurt so easily :P" Ah, there was my normal Lizzy. I clicked on my TV and, very randomly, it was on a show for, like, chicks. Like a soap opera. I watched with boredom until an interesting part came on that had me sitting upright. The girl was beautiful. She had blonde flowing hair and a red satin dress on. She looked sad, and I made me want to find the source of her gloominess and fix it. Nothing that beautiful should be sad. Then a guy came onto the screen. He was one of those beach guys, with the long blonde hair and blue eyes. The dude made me want to puke. He was begging with the girl, pleading that she would love him. The girl looked uneasy. She told him she didn't know if she should love him. She was his friend, not meant to be in love or something like that. It was weird. I had a small sense of understanding to the guy. I shook my head a clicked the remote to another channel.
A Victoria Secrets commercial came on and it was showing ads for some really short shorts. I didn't even think they qualified as shorts. They showed the different colors and my eyes were glued. I sub-consciously typed in a message on my phone to God knows where and kept my eyes glued to the television. I found myself thinking about Christmas presents, and a certain emerald-eyed girl.
My phone vibrated, much to my annoyance, and I quickly pulled my eyes away from the T.V.
"What?! Josh you're scaring me" I felt confused. Why was I scaring her? I suddenly recalled the message I sent her and looked back at it. I was scared by me too. How did I send that? How did I not know what I was typing? This was down-right weird.
I stared down at the small letters that read "What kind of shorts are you wearing?"
The message was personal, no doubt. I quickly put together a reply explaining the commercial and apologizing over and over again. I jumped when my phone vibrated not a minute later.
"It's weird, but fine"
Phew! I thought. So she didn't think I was a psycho stalker! My phone vibrated again. I didn't even reply, so why was there another message?
"and fyi, I'm wearing hollister distressed jean shorts :)" Holy… Why did she actually just tell me what kind of shorts she's wearing? And why is she conveniently wearing shorts? All these questions I wanted to know and more. I decided I needed to see her. Out of the balcony again, here we go.
(A/N: ok, I know the shorts thing is weird, but you'll get it in the next chapter. I'll explain I promise!)
