Chapter
11
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.
