Justin avoided Lance but mainly because of Josh for two days. Brad smirked satisfied while Lance looked suspiciously. He noticed Brad’s smirk and eyed him suspiciously. He wondered why Justin was behaving so strangely, he just didn’t get a chance to ask him. He was always the last to walk in the room and the first to rush out, to avoid talking to Lance and also at lunch Justin was nowhere to be seen. He would ask Tom but he didn’t know, neither did Gary nor Andrew. Lance didn’t know if they were just being hostile towards him because he liked Josh or that they really didn’t know. It didn’t really matter anyway; he was only thinking about why Justin was acting the way he was.

Of course Josh noticed but he didn’t want to see it, he didn’t know what was wrong with Justin but he knew Justin hated him and was probably avoiding him because of it. He felt bad for Lance because it was his fault but he wouldn’t let Justin make him feel bad. He just wouldn’t let him.

“Hello?”

“Um hello this is Lance, is Josh home?” Lance asked politely as he called Josh that night. He wanted to ask Josh if he felt like coming over, he actually wanted to make sure Josh knew that Lance still liked his company, that it hadn’t changed because of Justin’s strange behavior. It was the first time he called Josh but he just couldn’t wait till morning and Josh had left so quickly after their class leaving no room to invite him over.

“Yeah” Henry told the boy simply before pulling the phone away from his ear.

“Josh phone!” he called loudly, he wasn’t going to get out of his chair, he didn’t bother to go search for his step-son. Josh came out of his room timidly.

“Who is it?” Josh asked cautiously as he walked up to Henry. A little shocked and curious as well as who would call him, no one ever called him.

“Some boy named Lance” Henry vaguely responded. Josh’s eyes widened in shock and he took the phone from Henry, trying not to snatch it out of his hands. He turned and walked with it out of the room into the privacy of his own room, the privacy he needed if Lance was calling him.

“Lance why are you calling me here?!” he hissed into the phone as soon as he’d closed the door after him. Lance was a little taken aback.

“Well you live here don’t you?” Lance asked him a little sarcastically. What kind of greeting was that?

“And hello to you too” he told him.

Josh sighed, “I’m sorry, hi”

“You doing anything special?” Lance asked, forgetting about the rough start of the conversation.

“Um…” Josh answered, gazing around his room.

“No, why?”

“I was wondering if you would like to come over. I just, I’m having a bit of trouble with that history thing and was hoping you could help me. Maybe we can just hang out afterwards, watch TV or something” Lance rambled.

“Um…” Josh hesitated, he didn’t know if Henry would allow him to leave. He would have to lie about where he was going at least to whom he was going but even then he didn’t know if Henry would approve.

“Josh?” Lance asked carefully when the silence stretched out too long.

“Uh yeah. Um… I’ll be over in half an hour” Josh decided finally, when Henry disapproved he would just have to call Lance back he guessed.

“Ok, cool” Lance smiled satisfied, he was winning him over.

“Lance?” Josh asked carefully.

“Yeah?” Lance responded, his smile disappearing a little.

“Could you just please not call me here anymore” Josh asked cautiously but there was a definite pleading tone in his voice.

“Why not?” Lance asked confused.

“Just please?” Josh persisted, the pleading tone more evident.

“Ok...” Lance said still confused.

“But then how am I supposed to contact you?” Lance questioned, if Josh was so keen on it, he wouldn’t call him anymore. He didn’t understand what the big deal was but fine.

“At school” Josh told him, he couldn’t have Henry finding out about this. He could not have him finding out about his contact with the rich boy he was supposed to rob a few months ago.

“Alright” Lance agreed, he didn’t know why it was so important to him but maybe he would find out sometime. Not now though, it wasn’t the right time.

“Ok thanks” Josh sighed thankfully.

“I’ll see you later, bye” Josh said then waited for Lance’s bye before he quickly hung up and went back into the living room to hand the phone back to his step father. Henry was always in charge of the phone, actually he was in charge of everything. The phone’s place was next to Henry on his table with the remote control and his beer. That was where it always rested and that was where it would always be. Josh walked around his step father seeing that he was watching TV, he knew better than to step into his line of sight, blocking his step father’s view from the TV. He placed the phone next to him silently. Henry didn’t even look up, he continued to gaze at the TV. Josh hated to bother him, he was better off like this, being ignored at least meant he would go another day without any pain. But he still had to ask him, he pondered to just go but he knew Henry would less than appreciate that and he quickly dismissed that idea.

“Henry?” he addressed him carefully, softly.

“Huh?” he answered absentmindedly.

“Can I… I mean… I would like to… um visit a friend… can I?” he stuttered, his eyes cast downwards and his hands fidgeted in front of him. He hoped Henry would say yes, he wanted to get out of the house, he needed to get out of the house. He needed to get away from Henry for a while. Henry laughed mockingly.

“My boy has friends” he chuckled. Josh jumped at the loud laughter and closed his eyes tightly as the mean words invaded his mind.

“Who is he?”

“He’s just a friend,” Josh winced at the word friend but continued.

“Someone I know from school” he told him, he left out the word friend this time.

“Fine whatever, go” Henry approved with a gesture of his hand and Josh quickly nodded.

“Yes sir, thank you sir” he told him before he scrambled to the hallway, pulled on his jacket as quickly as possible and shuffled through the small crack in the door.

They had a good time that evening, they did a bit of homework and hung out afterwards. They didn’t talk about Justin, they didn’t talk about what happened that day; Lance had carefully avoided the subject since it seemed to anger Josh every time Justin’s name came up. However he did make sure that Josh knew Lance still wanted to hang out with him, that he still enjoyed the company. Josh got the message and he was grateful for it, happy everything was ok. Josh enjoyed the time away from his step father. He was glad he finally had someone he could escape to although Lance did not know about all the things that went on in his life at least he was there for him. Lance made him feel better, he made him feel human again, at least somewhat. Friends, was something everyone needed and Josh was no exception.