Chapter 31
A week later Henry was there, he was ready, ready with the preparations for the break in that would occur the next week, or so he’d informed his step-son. Josh felt his heart drop, this was it.
The moment he’d been
dreading since he first got that awful assignment. The moment he would actually
have to go in and rob his best friend, his only friend. Lance and he were back
to normal, after his outburst Lance had opened up again, he’d forgiven him
completely and it was all good between them but now it would all get ruined
again. It would all disappear, his only friendship, his only connection to a
normal life, to feeling somewhat normal would disappear now, it would get
ruined and this was the end.
The end of his friendship
with Lance, the end of it all.
***
Josh felt like crap but he couldn’t let anything
show. He was hurting again, Henry had been in a bad mood the night before and
Josh had really felt that. His stomach was so sore, bruises stung and it ached
all over. On his way to class he had not seen Justin standing in his way, he
was tired. He’d been having trouble falling asleep for a few weeks now and he
saw Justin turning too late. His reflexes not working properly from his lack of
sleep and he walked right into Justin’s elbow.
Josh felt the stabbing pain go through his stomach as Justin’s elbow
accidentally connected with the fresh bruises. He doubled over and moaned.
Justin looked at him, the doubled over figure he’d obviously hit by mistake.
“Oh, Josh. I’m sorry I didn’t see you” Justin
apologized immediately but he frowned as Josh waved him off, Justin had knocked
the wind out of him by simply connecting with his stomach?
“Are you ok?” Justin asked concerned as he grasped
Josh by his elbow, helping him up. He once again felt a flinch and his
suspicion grew.
As Josh painfully pulled himself back up to his
full height Justin saw the unshed tears in his eyes. And before Josh could do
anything about it Justin was pulling his shirt up slightly, thinking Josh was
in far too much pain than he could have caused with his elbow. Justin gasped as
he was met with an all black and blue abdomen. No wonder he was in pain Justin
thought.
“Josh what happened?” Justin asked as he traced his
fingers over Josh’s bruised skin. Josh hissed at the touch and Justin pulled
back at once.
“Nothing” Josh once again mumbled as he angrily
tore his shirt out of Justin’s grasp and pulled it back down.
“I’m sorry if I hurt you but you were hurt before
we bumped into each other weren’t you?” Justin asked, looking him right in the
eye. Josh avoided eye contact.
“Weren’t you Josh?”
“Yes! Ok, yes I was. Someone thought it was fun to
beat me up” he blurted suddenly. His eyes grew wide when he realized what he’d
said.
“Who did this Josh?” Justin asked straightforward.
Josh squirmed.
“Some guys in my street. They… hate me and well
they show it” Josh lied, he knew Justin wouldn’t have laid off this time when
he would have said it was nothing. It had worked once but he knew it wouldn’t
have worked a second time so now he chose to lie.
Justin seemed to let the information sink in, he
seemed to ponder the answer, wondering if he should believe him. He’d seen
Josh’s bruised back the last time and he’d forgotten about it. He’d
unconsciously pushed it away but now it was back. Guys from the street? Could
they have done this? Justin wasn’t sure if he should believe it. It could be
but the marks from last time had seemed too severe to be caused by simple
fists.
“They did it ok? They hate me. Sounds familiar?!”
Josh added, the snarl in his voice, hoping that this would totally convince him
or would anger him enough so Justin would leave him alone.
Justin was still gazing at him, he just couldn’t
rap his mind around it. Josh sighed, shaking his head and walking away quickly
leaving Justin alone with his thoughts.
Justin watched him go, this was too weird. Maybe
Lance knew something about this. But hadn’t Josh asked if he could keep it to
himself last time? Why would he have asked that? What was the point? Justin
didn’t know but maybe Lance had an idea what this could mean, what could have
caused these bruises. Maybe Lance knew…
***
“Lance!” Justin called the next day, he hadn’t seen
him the day before and after pondering the answer he’d gotten from Josh he just
couldn’t believe it really were guys from the neighborhood doing that to Josh.
Or maybe it could be… Justin didn’t know.
“Can I talk to you for a second?” he asked as he
caught up with him.
“Oh um… can we do this another time. I really have
to go now”
“Oh” Justin breathed.
“Ok” he agreed although he really wanted to talk to
him.
“K, later”
“Later…” Justin said lamely.
Fuck.
***
“Lance can we talk now?” Justin once again asked, a
day later.
“Sure, what’s up?” Lance asked, turning to face his
friend.
“I wanted to ask you… something” Justin started.
“What?” Lance asked curious.
“I just wanted to know if… you’ve ever seen
something…”
“Lance!” someone called cutting Justin off
mid-sentenced.
Justin groaned inwardly as Lance turned to the
sound of the voice.
“Hey Tom what’s up?” Lance said friendly but he was
met with a scowl.
“I was wondering when we’re going to work on that
Geography project. We really need to work on that” Tom informed him, irritation
in his voice.
“Oh yeah, I totally forgot. When is the
presentation?”
“Tomorrow” Tom stated a little angry.
“Oh for real?!” Lance’s eyes widened, how could he
have forgotten about this?
“Yes” Tom said bored, he’d been pushing Lance into
working on this for weeks but he always had something more important to do.
Most of the time with that… thief.
“Oh sorry!”
“Whatever” Tom dismissed.
“Can we do it now?” he added. Lance looked back at
Justin who stared blankly.
“Uh, yeah sure. Come on” Lance urged Tom to walk
ahead, turning towards Justin himself.
“Justin, I’m sorry can we talk later?”
“Sure” Justin sighed, shoulders slumping.
“K, thanks” Lance told him gratefully before
catching up with Tom. Justin smiled, once Lance was out of sight he dropped his
head in his hands. Maybe this was a sign, a sign not to tell Lance. What the
hell was going on? Defeatedly he started walking the other way, maybe he would
get a chance to ask him tomorrow….
***
“Justin what did you want to tell me yesterday?”
Lance brought up the subject. Justin looked up suddenly.
“Oh yeah!” Justin said as if he’d forgotten about
it.
“I um… I wanted to ask you something” Justin
started, pausing to take a breath.
“Did you notice anything…” he started but Josh
dropping in the seat next to Lance cut him off once again. Lance focused his
attention to Josh for a second before he turned back towards Justin.
“Did I notice what?” he repeated, inviting him to
continue. Justin locked eyes with Josh for a second before dropping his eyes to
the tabletop.
“Did you notice…” he started, pausing once again.
“Mr. Harrymond’s toupee?” Justin finished, he
couldn’t finish the sentence with Josh sitting next to them. It would have to
wait again. Lance laughed.
“I thought it was common knowledge he had one?”
“Well it is but I just saw it today” Justin lied as
he stared directly at Josh who immediately dropped his gaze.
“With my own eyes I mean” he added then, looking
back at Lance with a smile. Lance then went on about the toupee but Justin
wasn’t really listening he was staring at Josh, thinking about what he’d seen.
Why was it so difficult to tell Lance what he’d
seen?
Why did they get interrupted time after time? Maybe
it was sign…. Or he was just getting too superstitious now. Another one of
Lance’s influences, he didn’t know if he was happy with all of them…
