*Josh's POV*
~*~
Ava's laugh travels throughout the hall and I run after her. "No! Josh! Stop!" She squeals, laughing as I pick her up and throw her over my shoulder. I run down the hall, carrying her as I take her to the theatre room. "There you are, love birds!" Jeffery exclaims and I chuckle as I put Ava down. Riley rolls her eyes but puts a smile on her face anyways. I wink at her and her fake smile melts into a real smile. "Hey, where'd Jay go? And where's What's Her Name?" I ask and they all look down the hallway leading into the empty guest rooms. "Of course." I say as I settle down on a couch and Ava comes and sits on my lap. I bury my face into her neck and her brown hair covers my face. Now this is heaven on earth.
~*~
I wake up and see myself surrounded by three girls around me on my bed. What the hell happened last night? Suddenly, a cascade of pieces of memories comes flooding back to me and I groan. After the kiss with Avery happened, I tried to forget the way her lips felt on mine. The way my heart sped up and I felt like I was going to have a heart attack so I had to pull away. I groan and cover my eyes and one of the girls fall off the bed. Whoops.
"Goddamn." she mumbled and I sighed. "Get out." I say and she gets up from the floor. "What?" She asks. I shake awake the other two girls and repeat myself. "Get out of my room. Now." I say and get out from the bed. I get some jogger sweatpants from my suitcase and start pulling them on. All three girls share a look and they gather their clothes and leave the room. Just as the door closes, I collapse on the bed, pull a pillow to my face and yell. I take the pillow off and sigh.
Suddenly, there's a soft knock on my door and I call out "Come in!" The door opens slowly to reveal Emma, her blonde hair down, wearing joggers and a hoodie. "Hey," she says softly. My mouth quirks up into a smile and Emma limps over to me and sits on the end of the bed. "Can I ask you something? Well, two things?" She asks and she bites her lip. "Yeah, sure. What's up?"
"Did those girls come out of your room?" Emma deadpans. She doesn't hesitate or pause or anything. She's straightforward about it and honestly, it left me speechless. I open my mouth to try to say something but I'm at loss for words. "Yeah, they did." I say softly. Emma avoids looking at me and sighs. "I figured. Nobody else is here, they all left to go out to eat or to the beach or whatever. And I mean," Emma says and this time she looks at me and meets my eyes, and I see that they are filled with tears. "It's not like we were together or anything." She finishes and a stray tear falls out.
She wipes it away just as another comes out. I've never seen her cry, but then again, I don't know her very well. In fact, I hardly know any of them. Even though Avery and I had... whatever we had, I still didn't know her. "Emma, it didn't mean anything to me." I say softly and she scoffs. "Sex never means anything to guys. Ava said so " Emma cuts herself off once she realizes what she said. "What did you just say?" I ask. Emma closes her mouth and shakes her head. "Nothing, I didn't say anything at all." Emma says quickly. "How did you know Ava?" I exclaim and Emma flinches. "I could lie and say something else but I'm gonna say the truth. Ava is, was my cousin." Emma sighs.
I get up from the spot on the bed and start pacing around room. "So, you already knew who I was when we met?" I ask. Emma shakes her head. "Kinda. I knew she was going out with a guy named Josh, back in California. But I didn't knew what he looked like. And since you weren't at the funeral, I don't know. Anyways, when I first met you or well, heard of you, I didn't make a big deal out of it. You were a guy named Josh, from California. There could be hundreds of guys named Josh that live in California." Emma said and I nodded.
"But then, I kinda went stalking through your's and Ava's Instagram and yeah, I found comments and stuff and that's when I realized that you were her's." Emma finished. "When did you find this out?" I ask, struggling to keep my voice even. "The day after the accident." She says softly. "Fuck," I mumble and go over to my suit case. I move everything from the top and go straight to the bottom. And there it is. My secret stash of weed. All of it was already rolled into joints and although I didn't want to, the stress was getting to me. I got the lighter, went to the window and lit it. I took a drag and opened the window, just as I let the puff of smoke out.
My brain started to clear up and I let my head hang as I took another drag. "I didn't want you to think that I was mad or avoiding you because of the accident. And to be honest, I'm not. And I wasn't. I'm actually a little grateful. My parents were on the verge of divorce , again, and now they can't because of the accident. So in a twisted way, thank you." Emma says, limping her way over to me. I take another drag and offer the joint to her.
Emma stares at it and hesitantly takes it. "Do you know how?" I ask and Emma nods. "I know how. I just haven't done it in a while." She says and takes a drag.
For the rest of the day, we hang out in my room. Smoking, talking, and even kissing. We snuck out of the room for food and we found a cleaning crew, tidying up the house. "Fucking spoiled rich kid." Emma had mumbled as we made our way back to the bedroom, arms full of food. I found a whole different side to Emma and finally got to know her.
She was the middle child, the "forgotten" child. The accidental child. Her older sister was perfect. A prodigy, she said. Was studying pre-med at some over the top school. "Jess, she was the person I used to look up to. But she never gave me the time of day. Always studying. Once I got to the 8th grade, I promised myself that I wouldn't turn into her. I wanted to have a life outside of school. Sure, maybe my freshman year wasn't my hottest year. But it was a wake up call." Emma told me as she took a drag of the joint.
Jeff's the athletic one. Another perfect child. Plays every sport, and still gets better grades. "Everyone in my family is perfect, just not me." Emma said. "You are to me." I said as I took a drag of the joint. She laughed, and took it out from my mouth and put it in hers.
I look at Emma. Bloodshot eyes, tangled messy blonde hair, no make up. She looks more like an angel, if you ask me.
I take the joint from her mouth and lean in and give her a kiss. It's soft at first but it escalates quickly. I take her by the hand and we go over to my bed and she lays on top of me. Our breathes become harsh and our kisses forceful. I grab a fist full of her blonde hair and tilt her head back, giving her kisses on her neck. I suck on the skin and she moans. Her hands travel along my stomach and she reaches over and takes off her hoodie, revealing a thin black cami under. She leans in again and she starts kissing my neck, and I moan. "Oh, Avery." I say softly and she stops. "What did you just say?" and I see Emma's face staring back at me.
Oh fuck. "I didn't say anything." I say. Emma laughs or sobs and she gets up. "You just said my best friends name. God, I can't believe I was so fucking stupid." Emma says and she puts her hoodie back on. "Emma," I begin and she shakes her head. "No. Thank you for that. Nothing ever works out for me. Of course you like Avery. Everyone does. Even my own fucking parents prefer Avery to me. It's always been like that." Emma says and she stands up from the bed.
"Emma, please." I plead. "Josh, why don't you go and get together with Avery already? Oh, that's right. You can't. Because she's with Dylan. And her mom wouldn't approve of you. That's the harsh reality. People like me and you aren't worthy of Avery's time, from her mom's point of view. I may be "rich" but I wasn't from the trust fund kind of family. My parents got rich over time. Avery's mom has her wrapped around her little finger. Avery looks up to her mom even if she won't admit it." Emma snaps and I sigh, defeated. "This, whatever this was, it was fun while it lasted but whatever. I seriously hope your happy." Emma adds and with that last thought, she slams the door behind her.
"You think you know me, but you don't. And you have no idea what I'm hiding." I say to the closed door. My phone buzzes and I take it out of my pocket. Riley.
"Hello?" I answer.
"Oh god, thank god you picked up." Riley says, a little hysterical if you ask me.
"Why?" I ask, playing with loose strands of yarn from the blanket on the bed.
"It's Jeffery. He's in the hospital. He overdosed and we're on our way to the hospital right now." Riley says and she sobs.
My stomach drops and I finally find my voice. "What hospital?" I ask.
"No, Josh. I was just calling to let you know." Riley says, and she sniffs.
"Well, now that I know, I'm going to get on the next plane to California. What hospital?" I demand and I start shoving my stuff into the duffel bag.
"Cedara- Sinai Medical Center." she says quietly and I nod. "I'll be there soon." I say as I hang up.
I was about to go back to where all my ghosts lie.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+
A/N: Hi guys, here's another update. Hope you guys liked it and well, I just wanted to say, thank you so much for every comment, and vote and read. it means so much to me and I just wanted to say one more thing before I go.
I want to start a Youtube channel but I don't know if I should. it'll mostly be about Wattpad but still. Should I?