Chapter 13 – Josh’s POV

I was fucking late again and on the first day back at school... thanks to the stupid little junior jock who thought it’d be fun to throw a fucking shot put ball at my head.
He had Frank and Pete to thank that he got nothing more than a black eye.
I trudged towards my English room with a slight anxiety at the back of my mind. I didn’t mind English and Mrs Prescott wasn’t a total bitch like half of the teachers in this place; I didn’t want her to be mad at me.
I entered the room to see everyone was taking down notes from the board. I walked up to the front and thought I might as well sort this out properly. I tried to not feel like a complete idiot as I stood up the front of the class and tapped on Mrs Prescott’s shoulder.
“Hi, sorry I’m late. I sort of got caught in the middle of breaking up a fight,” I said quietly as I could but so she could still hear me. The rest of the class didn’t need to hear this shit, though I could see some were trying to listen.
“Oh dear, well, you’re here now. Please take a seat. Try and not let it happen again,” Mrs Prescott replied in a tone that suggested she was genuinely concerned about my wellbeing. She was so nice in a grandmotherly sort of way. As long as it didn’t become suffocating, I could quite gladly deal with it.
I thanked her and dropped my bag in the empty seat next to Ashley. I waved a hello to Emma, on the other side of her and turned back to Ashley.
“Since when did taking the bait suddenly mean that you were trying to stop the fight,” Ashley whispered casually.
“How-”
“My brother can text really quickly.”
“Uh, yeah....” It was somewhat uncanny how once Ashley found something out, Pete would soon know too, and vice versa. Those two must lump up a massive phone bill at the end of each month.
I took out my notebook and pen and began mindlessly copying down the notes on [i] ‘the lord of the flies’.[/i]
The class chattered quietly as we continued taking notes. It was good five minutes before Ashley even spoke again.
“So, you haven’t seen Mikey?”
I bit my lip. I so wished I could tell her I had. Ashley was a good friend and her brother was one of my best, but I could give them no good news.
“Sorry, not for a while,” I replied, pen slipping on the word [i] ‘monster’[/i] so I had to scrub it out, “I’m assuming you got the same answer from everyone?”
Ashley nodded, her eyes low and never leaving the desk.
“Chin up, we’ve got music third and Mr Campton has just put the new amps in. We can have some experimental fun with them, maybe they’ll distort your voice or something,” I whispered the last part in a robotic high pitched voice and Ashley giggled and smiled. Success!
“Yeah, that’ll be good,” she replied, a small smile seemingly cemented to her lips, “But who’s going to play Bass?”
Crap, forgot about that.
“I can fill in,” Emma piped up, “I know the whole song and I’m sure it won’t sound so bad without the rhythm guitar parts.”
I tried to picture the song the teacher had assigned us to learn... I had to agree with Emma, it wouldn’t sound so bad with just lead guitar. I could play that.
Ashley smile was smaller but still there; Emma had barely saved it. I’d have to thank her later.
The bell rang quite soon, making me actually realise just how late I’d been to class. I headed off to maths fuming heatedly about how Mikey Way had the nerve to just seemingly drop off the face of the planet.

~~

I slumped low in my chair at the cafeteria as I waited for some else to show up. Usually I didn’t mind that Mrs Bilton let us out of science early except when the lesson fell before lunch. I was sitting at our table, looking like a complete loner and trying not to think about the lecture I’d gotten from Mrs Bilton about safety in the lab. If she called me ‘Mr Franceschi’ in that tone one more time I would burnt the damn place down with a Bunsen burner. How’s that fucking safety procedure for you?
At least I’ve never mixed shit together and drunk it.
Frank was a bit weird in sophomore year.
Speaking of weird, the dude in question approached our table now. I sighed in relief and sat up straighter, resting my elbows on the table as Frank took the seat directly opposite me.
“Hey man, where were you in science,” I questioned.
“Oh, just had to run home and do some jobs for Mom. I got back half way in the lesson but Mr Barrows was pissed off so he made me clean up the music room for the rest of the lesson,” Frank replied, pulling out a thermos and lunch box with what looked like salad in it.
“So... you nicked a guitar and sat in the storage room for the rest of the lesson?”
“Pretty much,” Frank replied, crunching on a carrot stick.
I paused, my mind wondering back to Ashley. I hadn’t seen her since the lesson after recess, which had been music. She hadn’t been on her game either, forgetting lyrics several times even when we managed to fix the situation of our absent bassist by allowing Emma to swap from rhythm guitar.
She missed and was worried about Mikey so bad that it made me anxious, and not many things did that.
“So, what’s with Mikey disappearing off the face of the planet? He die or something?”
Frank paled and paused, a piece of lettuce half way up to his mouth.
“He might be really sick. I don’t know. He’s got a bad immune system, remember.”
I nodded, remembering how sometimes Mikey would go for a month really pale and sickly looking before resuming back to his normal colour.
“Well if that was the case it’d be fucking awesome of him to call someone. Ashley is going out of her freaking mind,” I replied, anger bubbling in my stomach.
“I’m sure he will when he can. That’s if nothing bad has happened to him,” Frank replied. He then proceeded to stuff a heap of lettuce into his mouth effectively ending the conversation.
I sighed and leaned back against my chair.
“So, what do you-” Frank paused mid sentence and paled again. This kid would soon look like he’d been dunked in bleach...
I turned to see what had caused this reaction.
Ashley and Pete were making their way over... Emma behind them.
“Fucking ask her out already,” I muttered.
I felt a carrot stick collide with my head.
“Hey guys,” Pete said brightly, he seemed fairly happy and I shot him a questioning look which received no reply. Obviously his happiness was not affecting his sister. Share and care a little Pete.
We all replied our hello’s as we began to eat. Emma had taken a seat next to Frank. I watched Ashley out of the corner of my eye as I openly watched Frank with amusement. Ashley was picking at her food but generously tucking into the chocolate milk she’d bought.
“So, Mom texted me and told me she’d picked up my guitar to move it out of her way or something like that.... and she’d managed to pop a string on it,” Emma grumbled.
“Bring it over and I could restring it for you,” Frank offered.
Emma looked somewhat offended despite the fact she was blushing furiously.
“I am quite capable of restringing a bloody guitar, Frank Iero!”
“Sorry,” Frank replied, blushing himself, “Just a thought.”
The two lapsed into awkward silence and I had to control myself from bursting into tears of laughter as I looked between the two of them. I turned to the side to see Ashley watching the sight as well, smiling slightly.
Ok, so maybe we could benefit from others awkwardness. I wasn’t above taking advantage of the almost painful awkwardness that existed between Emma Everlow and Frank Iero. If Ashley was going to smile then my best friends could suffer in their awkwardness a little longer.
Ashley chatted with everyone a bit before lapsing back into a staring silence. It looked like she was almost memorising the shape of the clouds outside the window.
She suddenly jumped and clapper her hand to her pocket, before yanking out of her phone. Her face lit up like fucking christmas morning as she stared at the screen of her phone. She was silent for a whole three seconds before she let out a screech that got us weird stares from all over the cafeteria.
Fucker’s better look away soon if they knew what was good for them.
“MIKEY TEXTED ME!”
Everyone at the table gathered around to read the text. Who fucking knew that a simple ‘hey’ would cause such a fuss.
Did he really fucking think it would all be fixed cause he sent her a simple ‘hey’ in a text message? She’d been out of her mind all fucking week!
I swear to god I was going to punch Mikey when he actually decided to show up in person.

Notes

[b]Author's Notes:[i] Jay and Ash[/b][/i]

Josh and Ashley sitting in a tree....