#josh wheeler xreader

[twoidiotwriters1]

Starcrossed Losers 2.IV (Josh Wheeler xF!Reader)

A/N: I’m sorry it took me so long omg I’m the worst. Let me know if I forgot to tag you or if you wanna be tagged -Danny

Words: 2,022

Series’ Masterlist

Previous Chapter // Next Chapter

Listen to me!

I guess you're all expecting me to say something about what happened. I should, after all, I hid this piece of information from you, not that I owe it to you, but I guess it's confusing...

'More than just a dream...'

Josh and I are still holding hands while we start the tour, and I wish I could say I was feeling bad about it but to be honest I'm still way too drunk on the bliss to be ashamed. I felt bad though, I did promise Nathan a date before everything went to hell. As a matter of fact, he was going to be my homecoming date.

Where to start? Perhaps you'd like to know who Nathan was in my group of friends? Easy.

*Throwback time*

Nathan was the 'popular' of our group. Do you know how there's always that one friend that seems to know everyone for really strange reasons? The one that 'knows a guy, that knows a guy, that has a cousin'... that's Nathan.

He was also the good looking guy of our group. I know I said Alex was attractive, but man, Nathan was the real deal, he had charisma and a great smile, try to beat that when you're sixteen and have zero social skills.

I didn't have a crush on him though, but it was a very well thought decision like I said before, I wasn't going to let someone close to me break my heart, and both Nathan and Alex were too close, so I buried those thoughts about him before I could even consider it.

I never had a thing for him until... well, until he asked me to homecoming. I never knew why he asked me, I mean sure we were good friends but he never tried to make a move (and this is not me being oblivious this is me saying Nathan never even commented on my looks not even once). While I do remember having said to him something along the lines of "you're so pretty you annoy me" one night while I was completely shitfaced.

He laughed it off then, not bringing it up to tease me the next morning. He knew he was attractive and I certainly used to dream about dashing men like him coming to take me out for a ride or a movie, but I never thought that it'd be him the one who would ask me out.

'All the days I waited for you You know the ones who said I'd never find someone like you'

Then the end of the world happened and we never went to homecoming, yet we remained on the same group until one day he just vanished. No notes, no nothing. He left. He was also the first one to go, followed by Aria, then Phillip, then Lily, until we were just Maya, Alex and I, you know the rest.

We heard about Nathan a few weeks later though, the first loner on Glendale (Josh was very good at keeping a low profile, we didn't know he was by himself) and I thought it was a great idea to do the same, you know, follow the loner's path until I had Katie back... and you know how that turned out.

My point is, how was I supposed to know he was going to come back and still ask me for a date? What kind of person does that?

"Here we have the Cheeramazon division," Josh pointed to the sports section of the mall. "We teach sign language for those who are interested in learning, it's also handy for communicating while we're outside on a Ghoulie area..."

"Why're they here?" Nathan asked in a voice that was completely unlike him. "I mean, I know their old place got trashed but why haven't they looked for a new place?"

"They don't have enough people or resources," I replied. "They'll wait here until enough girls decide to join them or until they get enough food to survive on their own."

"And you guys are okay with that?"

"Good relationships with old tribes are everything," I shrugged. "We want to keep it friendly with everyone, we don't want to start another war."

"Really? Because you seemed ready to go out and set houses on fire five minutes ago," Josh replied sternly.

"That's different!" I scoff. "Those kids need our help and you know it!"

"What kids?" Nathan asked in curiosity.

"Are you familiar with the AV club?" I ask him.

"The kids with the podcast?"

"Exactly! They've been kidnapped and I've been trying to convince my tribe to go out and look for them but they refuse–"

"Because we're barely recovering from Triumph," Josh interrupted. "Listen Y/N, we can't be heroes fighting against some kids in suits..."

"Here we have the gamer's layer," I continue, forcing them to leave the subject. "But you don't have to write that down, they're leaving in a few days to their old cave. Been here to help us with some tech stuff..."

"Those over there are the X-jocks," Josh points over a couple of kids playing and exercising at the other side of the mall, "they followed Turbo after he was kicked out. They're no longer Jocks, but they don't want to be called Daybreakers either."

"They don't wanna mingle with all the weirdos, apparently," I roll my eyes.

"We have a healers division, which is coordinated by Y/N," Josh puts a hand on my shoulder and smiles. "She's great... a training division that Wesley and Turbo handle... Am I missing something?"

"The Daybreakers, which are lead by this loser," I look at Josh with a smirk. "He schedules our vigilance system, the hunts– Oh, and the weekly competitions."

"What are those about?"

"We organize tournaments and the awards are free days from working or having to go outside, stuff like that."

"Okay," Nathan nods, writing everything down. "I think that's all..."

"Cool," Someone calls Josh and he looks back at us. "Can you finish the tour on your own?"

"I– Yeah, okay," I reply anxiously. "See you in a while..."

Josh gives me a quick kiss and leaves to where he's needed, leaving me alone with Mister 'U-owe-me-a-date'.

"So..." I awkwardly start.

"I think I owe you an apology," He replies immediately.

"What?"

"I didn't know you and Josh... what I said was completely out of place anyway, who asks that kind of stuff to someone they haven't seen in months? I–"

"Nathan," I stop him, "It's okay, really, you didn't know, it's alright."

"I'm sorry," He repeats, this time calmer. "I ditch you and the group, I just... I don't know, I felt stuck..."

"I get that, we left too, eventually," I shrug. "Went to look for my sister, but... she died."

"Oh," He frowns. "I'm so sorry... was she–?"

"A Ghoulie, yeah," I sigh. "It's okay, I'm better now, I have this place and I have..."

"Josh..."

"I was going to say I have a sledgehammer, but sure," I joke.

He smiles and suddenly I remember why I used to like his smile so much. It really is quite dreamy.

'And you were out of my league All the things I believed You were just the right kind Yeah, you were more than just a dream'

"Those kids..." He mentions. "The AV club?"

"Yeah?" My heart jumps at the mention. "Do you know anything about them? Anything that could help?"

"No, but Josh mentioned kids in suits? I think I've seen them–"

"Y/N!" Josh runs back to us in a hurry. "They found them!"

"What? Who?"

"The AV Club!" He replies.

I try to walk over to the gamer's layer but Josh stops me.

"Wait," He holds me in place. "It's an X-Pug zone."

"That, or the kids in suits want us to believe it is," I point out, "Josh let me go! I want to know where it is!"

"We're not taking anyone there! You know we can't, Y/N! We don't have enough people, who knows how many of those are out there..."

I want to argue back but I know that Josh is right.

"Fine," I let go of his arms and he does the same with me. "Can I at least take a look? Maybe one day we'll go and... and just take a look..."

Josh doesn't need me to end the sentence though, he understands.

"Okay," He starts walking when Nathan speaks up.

"Can I see?"

We turn to see him, both wearing the same confused expression.

"It's just..." He moves his weight from one foot to the other. "I was telling Y/N that I've seen those kids before and maybe... I could talk to Sam, maybe she'd like to help?"

I look at Josh with my best puppy eyes and he sighs in defeat, nodding along.

"Fine..."

Nathan catches up with us and grins at me. What I shame I lost my chance with this guy, he looks like straight out of a fantasy, who knows, maybe he was the one meant to be with me if all this apocalypse stuff never happened in the first place...

'You were out of my league Got my heartbeat racing If I die, don't wake me 'Cause you are more than just a dream'

When we arrive Aria takes me directly to her laptop and points to the image in it. I hear her talk to Nathan for a moment while I see the streets and the directions and since I know the whole city by heart it takes me a minute to memorize the whole thing. I don't tell this to Josh, of course.

"Are you going to leave us alone now?" She asks irritatedly.

"Sure thing, you can leave during the night and I wouldn't even bat an eye at it," I reply, still looking at the screen. "Let me just..."

I pull out my phone and take a picture of the screen, is not perfect but it's quick and it's just in case. Josh gives me a warning look but I smile.

"Thank you for doing this," I step closer to him and put my arms around his neck. "See? It didn't kill us to find out, right?"

If I've learned anything in my short stupid life, is that flattery can take you places... and it distracts a boy's brain faster than anything else.

Josh smiles at me and I know I have his whole attention, so I quickly put my phone away.

"Anyway!" I break the spell and look at the gamers. "You guys did a good job, I'll leave you now. Nathan, let me walk you to the door..."

Halfway to the entrance, Nathan speaks.

"You're so not going to listen to what Josh told you to do. I know it, I can see it in your face."

"How long till I can hear from you and Sam?" I ask him in a business-like voice.

"A day, maybe two?"

"You think she'll help?"

"That if we can push Maya to a side."

"Don't mention my name and you'll have a bigger chance to succeed."

I stop at the door and turn to look at him decidedly.

"You have no idea how much this means to me."

"If you're risking your stay at the mall and your relationship with Josh, I assume a lot," He raises a brow.

"He won't kick me out for this," I roll my eyes.

"He's your leader, Y/N."

I remember that none of our feelings ever stopped Josh from kicking me out the first time. So he's not entirely wrong.

"Don't sweat it," Nathan shakes his head, "I'll do my best to keep everyone happy, just like you've been doing for the last few weeks. Consider this my thank you gift for all the hard work you've been doing, Vinchi."

"Oh," I cringe. "I don't really go by that nickname anymore..."

"Oh, sorry," He pouts. "Just Y/N, then?"

"Unless you have a new nickname for me," I grin.

Nathan tilts his head like he's considering what I'm saying.

"I'll think about it," He smiles.

"I'll see you in two days," I smile back.

'Yeah, you were more than just a dream...'

Taglist.

@letsbe-queer @slythermyg​ @loving-u-3000​ @one-loud-mind

[twoidiotwriters1]

Starcrossed Losers 2.V (Josh Wheeler xF!Reader)

A/N: Now that I have more time on my hands expect a whole lot more of this baby coming your way :) -Danny

Words: 2,243

Series’ Masterlist

Previous Chapter // Next Chapter

Listen to me :)

Listen.

I'm not trying to defy my boyfriend's authority around here, can you really blame me for what I'm trying to do?

I don't get how the others aren't freaking out about this, like, those kids have eyes everywhere and now there's some freaky cult controlling them, right out of a dystopian story! Though I guess our whole situation may seem dystopian in general, I mean look at us, bunch of kids pretending to know what we're doing.

Either way, I'm just doing a quiet field trip, Nathan will come back with news of whether Sam will help or not, and we'll just look around the place... nothing more.

I don't have a death wish. I promise. Katie's death isn't weighing on me, I don't want to join her anytime soon, I'm actually quite happy, all things considered.

Then why am I here, the first hour in the morning, waiting for Nathan to come back?

Maybe I'm feeling like I have some adrenaline here that wasn't used and after going to one place and another now I can't stay still. And also because those AV kids might really need our help.

I find Nathan halfway to the school, he's not alone, Sam, Mona and Maya are with her. I groan a little at the sight of my former friend, and I can tell by her expression she wasn't expecting to see me either.

"Goodmorning, my queen," I smile at Sam, bowing a little just to make the ambience lighter.

"L/N," She bows back, her mocked solemnity making me grin in return. "Nathan has told us the issue, but only the basics. Care to tell us more?"

I tell them everything I know, I even play for them the last minutes of the newest episode, I see my worry reflected on Sam's eyes and I know I came to the right place.

"I knew Melissa," Sam said grimly. "She had the talent to see the positive things out of everything...  You have the map?"

"I memorized it."

"Cool, then let's go."

"What?" I blink. "Hold on, Sam, we can't just show up."

Sam frowns. "Why not?"

"Didn't you hear the recording? I don't know what the fuck happened there but it sounded like they were heavily armed, or at least that they are very violent."

"Well, you have a sledgehammer, Nathan has his crossbow, Mona has..." She looked over her shoulder. "Mona has herself. Maya has a pocket knife..."

"What about you?"

She shows me a taser and winks. "Think we're good to go."

"I don't know..." I bite my lip.

"Okay, here's a suggestion," Nathan starts. "Let's not fight yet? I know for a fact that Alex would kill me if you die."

"And?"

Nathan looks at me with this truly confused glance.

"I don't want you to die, Y/N."

I beam at his comment, however, Maya makes sure to ruin it right away.

"Yeah well, you haven't been around her enough lately, have you?"

"Neither have you, Maya," Sam gives her a warning look. "Y/N, we won't force you to go with us if you feel it's too risky, just tell us where to go."

"I won't let you go alone! It was my idea!" I exclaim, then pinch the bridge of my nose with a little exasperation. "Fine, we go. But we have to be quiet and we won't attack unless we really have to."

Sam and Nathan agree right away, Mona and Maya grunt and scoff, but I guess that's a yes.

We start moving then, only to stop five minutes later.

"Do you guys hear that?" I lift my hand so everyone stays quiet.

"Hear what?" asks Maya.

I hush her again, and turn to my right, recognizing the bright backpack peering from a trashcan.

"An!" I hiss in annoyance.

I quickly skate to the trashcan and lift the lid, revealing the tiny figure of Angelica looking up to me with a guilty smile.

"Surprise?"

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same," She frowns. "Josh told you to leave it alone."

"Since when do you listen to Josh?" I scoff.

"Since I realized a bunch of nerdy weirdos aren't worth risking my tribe!" She rolled her eyes. "They're probably dead already, Y/N! We should go back to the mall!"

She whines and pulls my arm as if to trying to drag me, I snatch my arm away and glare at her.

"I can't leave more people behind, not again."

Well, maybe this is about Katie a bit.

"You think those kids will thank you?" Angelica insisted. "They're losers! As soon as they find a better place they'll squirm away to the safest cave, there's a reason why rats survive longer than heroes, Y/N."

"I swear to god, sometimes what comes out of your mouth doesn't make any fucking sense," I reply. "Go back to the mall and stay there, if Josh asks, tell him I went to the school to finish my negotiations with Sam."

"I won't lie, he'll kick me out with you!"

"He won't kick me out!"

"Why not? You think he'll stop just because you make out a few times during the week? He could easily do the same with any other girl– No offence, but if he got over Sam Dean he can get over–"

"Stop!" I say, really not looking forward to hearing the end of that sentence. "You're already in trouble by knowing where I am, so you either come with me or you get lost but choose now because we don't have time for your temper tantrums!"

Angelica stares at me with that little frown she does before taking down her backpack and grabbing her taser.

"Fine," She growls. "But you better move your annoying ass faster, you're way easy to follow even while wearing those stupid roller skates."

"I was trying to be quiet," I argue.

"Wait, she's coming too?" Mona frowns. "We can't be babysitting while we search for a cult."

"I don't need a babysitter," Angelica rolls her eyes. "I could kill you in a heartbeat if I wanted to..."

"I'd like to see you try–"

"Okay!" Sam interrupted. "Let's just... keep going..."

As we keep going Nathan and I engage in a comfortable chat, it's weird to see him again, but not as weird as with Alex, I guess that by now I'm just used to find random people from my past. I'm not trying to avoid it, I don't mind being reminded of my past now that I have things to look forward to. I'm not sure exactly what, but I know I have a future, and maybe that future lies here or somewhere else, but as long as I stay alive I have one, and that's enough.

Nathan and I kinda have the much-needed talk about the elephant in the room, how we were an almost something, surprisingly enough, there are no hard feelings coming from either of us.

'Well the wind it brought my sails to you And my course was true We talked about the lovers we had How they never followed through Oh they never follow through'

"I still regret leaving you like that though," He tells me. "It's not that I was sick of you guys, I just... I don't know, felt like I was wasting my chance somehow?"

"Your chance?"

"Yeah, I mean during high school I was just the 'nice guy', you know? After the nuke I thought I would find something else to be but I'm still the nice guy, I let you escape when you stole half of our weapons, and now I keep Maya from doing fucked up things with the tribe when she thinks no one's paying attention..."

"That's a good thing to do," I try to cheer him up.

"I wish I could be more like you," He smiled fondly at me.

"What do you mean? The artsy girl?" I snort.

"You weren't the artsy girl– I don't know, you were just... you. I never felt like you had to belong anywhere to be worth something... I'm not like that."

"Maybe I never tried to belong, but I was lonely," I sigh. "I obsessed with reading of other worlds, imagining alternate lives that my actual real-life just felt... out of place. I always felt something was missing. The only time I had the feeling that my life was going somewhere for the first time was when... when you asked me out."

Nathan smiles at me, and even though I feel a little guilty about it, I can't help but feel glad that I can witness such a breathtaking smile from so close.

'You told me how the life you lead Is a made up thing How you wish you were as interesting As half the things you read Oh as half the things you read'

"Ah, I don't know," He sighs, looking away from me. "I guess I wasn't made to be part of a tribe, I really liked my time as a loner, you know?"

"Then why did you stop?"

He smiled again. "Because I also really liked you."

I blush at his statement, but I try to remain as neutral as possible.

"Well, if I'm allowed to say it, love is a really stupid reason to quit a good life," I admit.

"What?" He laughs. "Didn't you join your tribe because of Josh?"

"Not only because of Josh!" I defend myself. "I also joined because I had a purpose, I take care of them."

"Well, but most of them can take care of themselves now, don't they?" He teased. "C'mon, the only reason why you stayed is that Josh has you wrapped around his finger."

I frown a little at that.

Nathan kinda has a point, right? Alex already has my notebook filled with first-aid treatments and indications, most of the kids now know how to fix a broken bone. Do they really need me?

"Hey, not that it's bad," He adds, nudging my arm. "If I had what you have with Josh I would stay too, you guys seem happy."

Are we happy?

'I'm a wanderer I've always been undone And the shadows cast upon my soul Are clawing from the sun'

How much of this happiness will last once we get used to each other? And how much of that happiness is what it's keeping us together right now?

Are we really done with running away from places and being alone? I said I was, Josh said he wanted to stay with me. We said we'd be together. We are together.

Angelica's words come back to me in full force: 'If he could get over Sam, what makes you think he wouldn't be able to forget about you too?'

'I'm sure it's nice to think I'm something that you need But I promise when the sun ascends you'll see that's just a dream I'll never come around'

Do I really trust in love enough as to let it build the rest of my life? My future depends on whether Josh and I stay as a couple, and out of the two of us, I'm the one who'll lose the most if we break.

I obviously enjoy my time with Josh, and I really like him... but is liking him enough reason for him to stay? Or he'll leave as soon as I push the right button?

Just like with Sam...

'I must admit that the faith I had Is fleeting fast Cause you told me how you never let go And how that keeps you in the past'

No. I won't start this again. Josh already proved himself thousands of times. He chose me, he stayed with me. More yet, he came back for me when I left.

"It's here," I say abruptly, stopping dead in my tracks.

Everyone stops behind me. Ahead of us, there's a huge mansion, not too far from where Josh's old safe place is. It looks empty, but there's a security camera that luckily isn't pointing our way. I signal the group to give a few steps back and we hide around the corner.

"Okay, we need to get closer, we need to make sure they're–"

"Psst!"

I stop and straighten in my place.

"Did someone just 'pst' at us?"

"Psst!"

"Oh shit," Nathan looks up to the window above us and quickly prepares the crossbow. "Don't move!"

"Hey hey hey, it's fine!" The girl's voice says from the second floor. "You guys need to get out of the street right now, they're going to be here soon."

"What?"

"Come in!"

"Yeah, like we're going to listen to a stranger," Maya scoffs. "How do we know you're not with them."

"I know you," She says simply, then she turns to look at me and smiles. "I know your boyfriend. I talked to him once."

"What?" I tilt my head. "You mean after the nuke or..?"

"When you left the mall, he came to see me," She adds calmly. "Come in, I won't hurt you."

Her words make something inside my head click:

"Mavis?"

Taglist.

@letsbe-queer @slythermyg​ @loving-u-3000​ @one-loud-mind

[twoidiotwriters1]

Starcrossed Losers 2.I (Josh Wheeler xF!Reader)

A/N: SURPRISE!! Who’s ready for season 2? Dunno how long this will be but I expect you enjoy it! -Danny

Words: 1,492

Warnings: Swearing

First Season // Next Chapter

[First scene, random Glendale street.]

The place is silent, not a Ghoulie in sight. Some mutant squirrels rummage through the garbage, they're starving. Not much has changed in Glendale since Principal Burr was defeated, not on the exterior at least. But we're about to see the real deal: A sound grows stronger in the distance. The squirrels look up, trying to locate the rumbling noise. Then, almost as if she materialized out of thin air, we see our protagonist skate at full speed out of the nearest alley, living her best life.

"Wooooo!" She gives a sharp turn in order to follow the main street, the squirrels scatter in outrage, abandoning their meal. Y/N doesn't notice.

The camera follows her for most of her trip, we see the empty houses as she passes without a second glance, a small group of stores and a garage that looks battered. She also glances at the abandoned private school, a slight frown appears on her face as she thinks to catch some shadow figure in one of the windows, but she doesn't stop to check.

[Time-skip]

We see her approach a group of kids around her age wearing some kind of armor. They look like trouble, but as she gets closer they receive her as another member of the group, even though she clearly doesn't look like one of them.

Y/N smiles and replies to every single one of their greetings as she skates through, she seems to have done this before.

Once in front of her old highschool her demeanor changes. She clears her throat and one hand blindly looks for the knife she keeps on her hip just in case. She walks inside.

Y/N keeps going, the kids that spot her wave and act as friendly as the ones outside, but now Y/N's nervousness has increased and as she gets closer to the biology classroom, she starts to get more and more serious.

The door is right there, and she's about to face her destiny. She opens the door and walks inside, a quiet 'Hi' makes its way out as the door closes behind her.

On the tempered glass of the door that moments ago was completely blank, now we find the title of our series:

Starcrossed Losers- Season Two.

[Queue voice-over]

Bet you thought you'd seen the last of me.

To be honest, I kind of wish you had. If that were the case, then it would've meant the rest of my untold story was my happy ending, regardless of what Sam had chosen to do with hers. It could've meant that there were no problems on sight and that Josh and I were destined to end together.

But you're here, and my story isn't over.

I'll take a wild guess and assume you want to know exactly how long and how many things have happened since the last time we talked. Well, it's been about what, five days? Yeah, a week tops since we defeated Burr and Sam took her rightful place -it was rightful, not gonna deny that- and us? Well, we hang in there.

Where do I start? Ah, of course, perhaps you'd like to know why I'm at the Highschool instead of the mall, that's easy.

After the small fight we had, the tribes' relationships kind of got ruined. It's hard to explain, but what happened was what always happens when some leader gets dethroned. In this case, this leader being Turbo, got kicked out and many kids thought it would be fun to throw their shot and try and do the same to Sam Dean, however, they weren't counting on how fucking sick her adviser is, this being Maya.

We Daybreakers knew, though. So we kept it to ourselves as we collected food and supplies, and now we're back in business. Everyone has their place, their part to play. Right now, I'm playing mine.

Apparently, people think I'm likable and social as well as creative and good-natured, so naturally, I had to be in a position where I get to convince leaders of other tribes to leave us alone. We trade things, usually clothing or Angelica's bright ideas, or- well, our medical supplies.

But the fucking jocks, dude. It's Maya's fault of course, I've been trying to make a deal for ages and they keep refusing all my offers because they insist is not enough. Because she insists is not enough, and Sam just agrees with her. I don't know what her plan is, but it certainly is my personal fucking hell.

So that's the reason I'm here, a new offer in my hands in hopes that I'll be able to go back to the mall with good news.

"Hi, Y/N," Sam smiles at me as if she hasn't turned down four of my offers already, "what do you have for us today?"

"Well," I rummage through the papers in my backpack, finding the notebook that contains all the deals I've made with all the tribes, "since you're not interested in the food or the medical supplies- without mentioning that your kids aren't interested in wearing something else besides their sports clothing-"

"It's comfortable," Mona replies dryly.

"...Sure," I sigh, "anyway, since none of those things are enough, I thought you might find the new update a bit more appealing."

Sam raises a brow, her smile unwavering.

"Go ahead."

"We finally managed to get the projectors working back in the movie theater," I say proudly, "and -word of the wise- Finders keepers. The cinema belongs to us."

"No way!" Sam says excitedly, straightening up in her chair.

"Yes," I admit, my tone unchanging, "we could allow you to use two rooms twice a week, as long as you stay away from our mall and our kids, obviously."

Sam bites her lip, though this time I'm a bit more certain she'll accept. No kid could ever deny to their tribe two nights at the movies. Bless Angelica and KJ for fixing the projectors and making the place run on solar panels.

Sam turns to look at Maya, who is lazily reading a magazine in the corner of the room. What an asshole. She raises her eyes with a careless stare, shrugging.

"We already have the American thingy going on-"

"But the movies, Maya!" Sam insists, "This could be good for the boys, it'd be a different way to deal with their emotions apart from the killing and the violence!"

Maya frowns, my smile remains the same cause now I know there's no excuse she can find to refuse our offer. I mean, it's the movies, who would say no to the movies?

"I suppose the food would be given by you?" She looks at me, raising an eyebrow.

"Sorry?"

"The food, in the cinema?" She smirks. "We can't watch movies without food, that's what psychos do."

I clench my teeth, of course she was going to say that. She knows I can't just say yes, I can't give away things that are so valuable.

"I... could talk it over with the people in charge of the theater, see what we can do. We don't have that much food to give away, you know? I have to think of my tribe first."

Maya sneers at me but talks to Sam instead.

"You're the Queen," Maya replies, "it's up to you"

She sends a single deathly look in my direction before going back to her magazine. I look back at Sam and Mona, expectant. Sam stands up and holds out her hand for me to shake, I happily oblige, relieved about not having to come back here tomorrow.

"Oh! We do have a small petition, though," Sam adds once I let go of her hand.

I hold my breath, waiting for the worst.

"Yes?"

"It's nothing bad," She assures me. "We're doing a book of tribes here, for the future generations? And to keep things in order as well."

"That sounds... actually kinda cool. What is it about?"

"We send one of our boys to your tribe and you give them a little recap about who the leader is and what is it that you do, or if you have subdivisions and stuff. That way, if outsiders visit our city and want to stay, they can read the book and decide which tribes they want to apply to. You're allowed to say no, though. You're not obliged to appear in it, but we just thought it could be useful, and a nice way to create a legacy."

"That's so sweet," I beam at her, "you know, you really are a good leader"

"I try to be," She smiles.

"I'll talk about it with my tribe and I'll make sure to send our reply by the end of the week, is that cool?"

"Sure," Sam sits back. "Have a nice day, Y/N."

"Bye!"

I'm afraid to say it, but perhaps... things are going well?

God, I hope I'm not wrong.

Taglist.

@letsbe-queer​ @slythermyg​ @loving-u-3000​

A/N: Dunno when will I post the next part, but I figure I’ll give you guys time to tell me whether if you still want to be part of the taglist (or if you want to be added, pls let me know!) 

[twoidiotwriters1]

Starcrossed Losers 2.III (Josh Wheeler xF!Reader)

A/N: I wish I could say I’ll be updating this constantly but we know is not true lmao -Danny

Words: 2,159

Warnings: None!

Series’ Masterlist

Previous Chapter // Next Chapter

Listen to me!

We're sitting in the cafeteria, I'm holding my phone and letting the podcast play for everyone to hear, when it ends, there's a heavy silence surrounding us.

"So..." I say, pausing the recording. "When are we leaving?"

"What?"

"When are we leaving to go search for these kids?" I repeat. No one looks at me in the eye.

"Oh my god," I gape, "you're not going to look for them!"

"Y/N..." Wesley starts, but I interrupt him.

"These kids have no weapons, no army. They've been surviving out of sheer luck and truces with some minor tribes– And they watched after us!"

"They were watching us, there's a difference," Josh points out.

"So? They never tried to attack us, all they wanted was to keep us all updated on everyone's whereabouts, they kept us connected–"

"Even if we wanted to save those kids, Y/N," Angelica said, "we don't know where they are or who's keeping them captive."

"Well, how many kids in suits do you know? They can't be that hard to find..."

"Yeah? How many kids in suits have you seen so far?" Wesley raised a brow.

I'm about to reply when I realize he's right, I haven't seen anyone wearing a suit in months, I mean we wore suits and dresses during our fake prom, but that was totally different.

"It's too dangerous, Y/N," Alex shakes his head, "we just won a fight against Burr, we can't ask the kids to fight with us against someone we don't even know."

"But they know us!" I exclaim. "Didn't you hear the podcast? They're using the AV club to check our blind spots and keep us all in places where we can be seen– Do you really think there's quicksand dowtown?"

"They haven't tried to attack us anyway," KJ interferes, "for all we know, they may be targetting the jocks, and that's out of our jurisdiction."

"Oh, fuck off KJ," I groan, "you're only saying that because you're a sneaky little shit that will hide in the background to see who's the best side to bet your money on."

"First of all, I don't have any money, I do value my life," KJ glares at me, "and what you're trying to do is a dumbass move, these kids could be pretending, they could be faking their kindnapping or something–"

"This was recorded five days ago!" I say loudly. "No one has heard of them since!"

"I won't do it," KJ stands up and walks away.

I look around, everyone look just as disinterested as her and that drives me up the wall, how can they be so stupid?

"Fine," I walk away as well.

"Y/N, where are you going?" Josh is quick to follow me.

"If you won't help me, that's okay. I'll do it."

"What?"

"I'll go look for those kids. They don't deserve to die."

"Y/N, wait– Hold on!" He grabs my wrist and turns me around. "Stop and think this through. They said they were surrounded. You could die!"

"Then come with me!"

'One more day we'll spend together Lay your eyes, look up upon me for the better Oh, I know I'm worse for weather But my love, I won't give up'

"What?" He blinks in confusion, "Y/N, are you serious? Are you hearing yourself? Alex is right, we just won a war, we can't lose more people."

"No one said that," I put my hands on his shoulders to ease him. "Josh, a few months ago I was running from one place to the other, alone, with no army. That could've been me, imagine if I had gotten kidnap before you could find me, then none of this would be true."

Josh looks at me intently and I see in his eyes that he's trying hard to agree with me, but there's something stopping him.

"That's exactly why I can't let you do this," He replies softly. "I don't want to lose you the way I lost..."

I know he was about to say Sam. I know there's no reason why that should upset me, but it does, it makes me feel like he's only using me as a mock-up Sam, have the relationship that he couldn't have with her.

'Spend my days cursing my soul Wishing I could paint my scars and make me whole Oh, I know I could be better But my love, I won't give up'

"I'm not her," I say, pulling away from him, "if we ever get lost I promise I'll come back to you, but right now... I can't stay beside you and do nothing, Josh. You told me I helped you be better, then please, help me get better too. Months ago I would've turn my back on the AV club, but I don't want to do that anymore."

Josh groans and passes a hand over his face tiredly, he hasn't slept since the morning and I can tell he feels like it's been a long day, I feel that too.

"I'm no hero, Y/N. You know that," He sighs, "I can't promise you anything... I'll help."

I take a deep breath. If I can be honest with you, I wasn't going to run out of the mall this time, I was just being dramatic, but good to know that I was convincing enough that Josh genuinely believed I was going to leave again.

'I ain't no superman, I ain't no holy ghost I'm just the one that keeps you up and that you love the most I'll be your strong man, I'll be your West Coast I'll be the sun, I'll be the waves, I'll be the one you love the most'

"Okay," Josh takes my hand and guides me back to the matress store, "so what now?"

"I guess I could ask Angelica if she can track the signal of the last recording, maybe an IP, I have no clue..."

"Maybe the gamers can help..."

"You think they will?"

"They can try, but we must ask while they're still here, otherwise they won't feel in debt with us."

"So we have a week to find these kids, then?"

"Let's say three days, if we're planning on saving their lives and not just finding their bodies."

"It's late, can we go to bed? it's..." He checks his watch and frowns. "Eleven? Shit, I'm an old man..."

I laugh and kiss the back of his hand.

"You had a long day, it's okay, it happens."

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Next morning we ask Aria to help us out and she–

"No fucking way."

Decided to decline.

"Come on, I know you can do it!" I groan.

"Oh we can, we just don't want to get ourselves involve."

"Your names don't have to come up at all, we can take all the blame, right Josh?"

"We don't even know if these kids are alive–" He stops short when he sees my glare. "I mean, we aren't in real danger... yet."

"Y/N you know I respect you," Aria sighs, "But like you said before, my tribe comes first."

"I know, but I'm not asking you to fight my fight, I'm just asking you to help me out with the address, and then I can go kick some fancy ass."

"We can go kick some fancy ass," Josh corrects me.

'I'd change my ways if you would stay And all your tears that you have cried will go away Oh, just grant me one more day Oh, my love, please don't give up'

Aria huffs and looks away from the computer.

"I'll make my team work on this but for a limited time. I give you two days to find them, if we do we'll tell you and you can go out of your way to find them. If not, you won't ask again, understood?"

"Totally," I smile. "Thank you."

"Whatever," Aria turns her chair so now her back is facing us.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

"I can't believe you're doing this," Alex rolls his eyes, "Are you suffering some kind of trauma? You're incapable to remain at peace so you find more wars to fight or something?"

"It's called doing what's right," I raise a brow. "You know me, I won't abandon anyone else ever again."

"Y/N?" Angelica enters the pharmacy and points over her shoulder. "They sent the jock over, it's for that yearbook-thingy you said Sam was doing."

"Great!" I circle the counter, "Can you tell Josh? He's the leader after all, he needs to be present while... I don't know, while we give this guy a tour?"

"Yeah sure," Angelica turns around and leaves.

"Hey," I yell before she walks around the corner, "where's the jock?"

"Waiting on the main entrance!" She yells back.

I nod and go to where she told me to, my mind wonders while I think of how cool it is to be building a legacy, someone will read that book one day and they'll see what we did, and they'll know we found a way to have a family and be happy, to be at peace and leave our past behind to turn our lives into something better. This is a great idea, I have to admit it.

"Hi," I call to the boy standing a few feet ahead of me, he's wearing armor so I assume that's the jock Sam sent, the jocks that stay with us wear sweatpants and shorts, not armors. "You must be the jock we were waiting for, my name's..."

I stop talking when he turns around to face me.

Holy fucking shit. Not this guy.

"Y/N," His eyes brighten when he calls my name, "You have no idea how much I've missed you..."

"Nathan," I say in a squeaky voice. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here for the yearbook!" He exclaims happily, then he walks closer to me and adds in a whisper. "And to catch up with an old friend– don't think I've forgotten, you owe me a date."

"Oh, Nathan," I cringe at his comment. "Oh... no..."

'See the devil at my door I see the future of the ones that I've ignored I guess I was born to be at war But my love, I won't give up So, my love, please don't give up'

Probably should've told you this before, but to be fair I was running out of time!

You remember Nathan, right? The guy that helped me escape the school that one time I stole half of the jocks' weapons?

Yeah, well... he wasn't just a friend.

Before my kiss with Alex, before everything had blown up in our faces, there was Nathan. And he was a goddamn prince.

"Y/N?"

I turn around and I feel something close to dread when Josh walks up to us with his usual smile, he looks at Nathan and then me, unaware of my inner breakdown.

"You must be one of Sam's?"

"Yeah, you must be just-Josh?" Nathan smiles, shaking his hand. "I'm here to write all you're willing to share about your tribe, I must admit I know nothing about it besides the fact that Y/N and Alex are part of it."

"You knew each other before?"

"Yes!" I practically shout so Nathan doesn't say anything. "We used to hang out at school. He was a friend."

Nathan frows a little, but an amused smile tells me he's just slightly confused.

"Really?" Josh chuckles. "When we met she said she had no friends left here in the city, but turns out most of her former friend group still lives."

"I did leave for a while," Nathan shrugs, "but I came back, I couldn't leave this town, something... something was missing."

His eyes linger on mine and I feel extremely uncomfortable. I should say something before this gets out of control, maybe I should ask him to talk to me in private so I can explain my new situation, but before I can even start, Josh pulls me closer and intertwines our hands.

"Y/N's exactly like that, she doesn't wanna leave at all, but to be honest I don't mind, as long as we're together, right?"

I look up and try to make a genuine smile, it comes out forced but Josh doesn't notice since he inmediately leans down and kisses me shortly. I freeze for half a second and quickly look back at Nathan's reaction. He freezes as well, blinks and gapes at what he just saw, but doesn't comment on it.

"Let's go then, we have a lot to show you!" Josh says excitedly, pulling me along so I turn around and I'm unable to see Nathan.

This is the moment I knew, I fucked up.

Taglist. 

@letsbe-queer @slythermyg​ @loving-u-3000​ @one-loud-mind​

[twoidiotwriters1]

Starcrossed Losers 2.II (Josh Wheeler xF!Reader)

A/N: I should’ve told you this earlier lmao but the first half of this season is heavily inspired on the show’s podcast, meaning that the plot follows the podcast’s occurrences of the last episode, if you haven’t you should listen to it, pls -Danny

Words: 2,646

Warnings: Swearing

Series’ Masterlist

Previous Chapter // Next Chapter

Listen to me!

It takes me about fifteen minutes to go back to the mall, my mood has improved and it only gets better once I see the main entrance. Josh made this graffiti of a sunrise on one of the stores' windows to represent our tribe: Daybreakers. I thought it'd be cool to make a bigger version of it and hang it outside the entrance; so that's where it's proudly hanging.

"Where were you?" Alex walks up to me. "We just got a whole box of medical stuff, we need to store them!"

"Glad I didn't miss it," I grin.

As I make my way through I get a glimpse of the small little groups that have settled on the mall and that you probably wanna know about. We'll get there, don't worry. We have time. Right now I have to hurry.

'I fell in love again All things go, all things go Drove to Chicago All things know, all things know'

Wesley passes by, he sees me and hollers.

"Our Doc is back! Any good news, Y/N?"

"Take a guess," I smile brightly. "I have to go and store some things, but I'll see you in a moment, okay?" Wesley raises a brow.

"I don't see why not," He smirks. "I have my own business to attend right now, anyway..."

"What business?" I ask.

"We had this idea for a race across the mall and it's about to start. I'm supposed to be the one who gives the green light so I gotta get moving."

When he says 'we' I know he means Angelica, Josh and him, they're always doing this fun and exciting competitions, and it's been barely a week! They're supposed to make us grow closer, we're about 80 people here, which is quite a lot. A mix of cheeramazons, gamers, former jocks, and og daybreakers. But I know pretty much everyone personally, I have to, I'm their healer after all.

'We had our mindset All things know, all things know You had to find it All things go, all things go'

"Who brought all of this?" I ask Alex while we put the little boxes on each shelf.

"Leila and Tyler, they were doing their rounds when they found this a few blocks away, they're mostly from abandoned houses..."

"Good job, Leila and Tyler," I say in amazement.

"So how did your meeting go?" Alex raises a brow.

"Oh my god, I feel like the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders," I sigh heavily. "Sam finally accepted our offer, but there's a few things I need to talk with the others. I still think everything's fine, though."

"I'm glad, the jocks were the only tribe that was acting up, it was about time..."

"You know it was all Maya's fault. I hate her."

"Don't we all?" He snorts. "She's still living her best life?"

"Sam still has her there with her in the Queen's office, so of course."

"Y/N!" Angelica runs into the pharmacy and hugs me briefly. "Took you long enough! How did it go?"

"A total success," I grin, hugging her back. "But you know, since you're here I'd like to talk to you about some things the jocks are trying to get. I know you'll say no, but I'm still obliged to say it."

"So tell me."

"They're asking if it's on us to provide food for their movie nights."

"Fuck no! They have a full fuctioning orchard and they want us to give them more food?" Angelica frowns.

"It was Maya's idea," Alex says over his shoulder.

"Yes," I roll my eyes, "but Sam wasn't exactly against it, so I had to ask. I did tell them it wasn't likely to happen, so it's okay, we can say no, they agreed to it anyway."

"Good, because we won't agree to that."

"Done!" Alex turns around with satisfaction. "You can go and take off those skates. God, your poor feet must hate you."

"They're used to it," I laugh. "I won't say no to a well-deserved nap, though..."

"Now that we have all of those deals with the tribes, what's next?"

I'm about to answer when I see Josh approaching with his signature grin. He gets over to where I'm standing and lifts me off the ground in a swift movement. I'm aware we're being sickengly cute, but we're still in our 'honeymoon' phase, we tend to be cheesy. I laugh and put my arms around his neck before he puts me back down.

"How's your day going?" He asks me, clearly expecting to hear about the Jocks.

"Well, dearest leader," I smirk, taking off my backpack and rummaging through the papers. "I'm pleased to announce they finally accepted. They're trying to force us to provide the snacks, though. But all you have to say is no and that'll be it. Sam will understand, she's the one growing food, she can't expect us to give away ours."

"You're serious?" Josh asks. "That's awesome, Y/N! I knew you could do it!"

He leans down to kiss me, but before we even touch Angelica yells at us.

"Hey, if you guys can keep it in your pants for a moment," I hear her beside us. "KJ's looking for you at the gamers station."

"Oh," I frown. "What for?"

"I don't know, I think there's some problem with the signal, the gamers' WIFI is slower than the one in the cave so they're whiny about it."

"That's not something I can fix," I roll my eyes. "I'll go and listen to them."

"I have to go back to the Cheeramazon station," Josh comments. "I just wanted to know how it went with the Jocks."

"And here I was thinking you were glad to see me," I tease, and he chuckles. I put the notebook in my backpack. "Oh! Before I forget..."

I tell them about the Tribes book and how they'll send a jock at some point during the week to ask about the subdivisions and all. Angelica thinks is a bit silly but she agrees to receive the jock anyway, Josh agrees with it a hundred percent, he thinks this is the final step to become a real tribe. I agree, it took us a long time to find a home, we're happy.

'I was in love with the place In my mind, in my mind I made a lot of mistakes In my mind, in my mind'

When I find KJ I see that there's an actual crisis happening. Aria and her are arguing and they only stop when I arrive, both coming up to me at the same time.

"The wifi is-"

"I think someone is trying to hack-"

"–We can barely play tetris on this shit-"

"Hold on," I huff. "Aria, you said someone is trying to hack into your computer?"

"Not my computer, the whole net," Aria continues, pleased to see it was her concern the one I decided to talk about. "It's weird, and we're having comunication problems with the other tribes, the signal falls every half an hour."

"I'm no expert at tech," I frown. "Why were you wanting to see me?"

"She says it's my fault," KJ replies. "I helped Angelica with the set-up for the gamers division and the solar panels on the movie theater, she thinks I fucked up the signal."

"It's because we didn't let you join back into our lines, just admit it," Aria rolls her eyes.

"I don't want to be in your stupid tribe! I'm fine here!"

"Enough!" I interrupt them, "Aria, as much as we want to be good hosts while you're our guests, I must ask you to not start fights with the members of my tribe, the daybreakers will always be my priority. KJ, maybe try not to react so aggressively with our guests? Listen, I'll talk to Angelica so we can find a solution, I bet there's something we're missing here and I doubt it has to do with KJ's abilities. Give me two days, alright?"

Both girls nod, KJ glares at Aria one last time before leaving.

"We appreciate your efforts, Y/N," Aria tells me out of the blue. "I wasn't trying to be rude, it's just... even if Triumph is no longer a thing, there might still be threats out there, it's better to remain informed, and for that we need a strong internet connection."

"Yeah well, I'll see what I can do," I give her an awkward smile. "You think the cave's renovation's will be done anytime soon? Not that I'm kicking you guys out, I just... my kids are getting nervous about the lack of food and..."

"One more week and we'll go, I promise," Aria tells me. "We're working no it."

An hour later during lunch, after I tell the whole story to Wesley and Turbo, both seem happy that my meeting was a success.

'Is everyone alright?' Turbo asks me.

The cheeramazons and Josh have been teaching sign language to all of us, so Turbo's life is improving now that he can speak to more people than before. He's also healing, and if I manage to do things correctly, he might be able to speak again in a few months.

"The jocks are just fine," I reply happily. "Don't worry, Sam is taking good care of your boys and girls."

He nods, though I can see he's a little sad about being thrown away from his former home, I know how that feels like. Sort of.

"You know, Doc, I'm really proud of you," Wesley raises a brow. "You went for it, took a place in the community and slayed your demons, now look at you! You're a higher power in our youth!"

I laugh at his observation.

"I'm doing the bare minimum," I shrug.

"It's more than I ever did during my time with the jocks as second in command," He sighed. "But still, you should be proud, sister."

"I'll be, eventually," I say simply.

Before we can continue our chat Josh sits down next to me and offers me water, which I accept with a soft 'Thank you'.

"So what now?" He asks me.

"What do you mean?" I tilt my head.

"You made deals with every tribe there is, now what's the next thing on your list?"

"Keep them going," I reply matter-of-factly. "Just because they said yes doesn't mean it'll stay like that forever, you know? We gotta mantain our relationships healthy and strong, perhaps we could organize events for all the tribes to join us... like New Year's Eve, or another Prom night..."

"Woah, hold on there, Miss President," Wesley scoffs. "We gotta focus on our tribe first. Our food is lacking, so are our living space and medical supplies."

"Well perhaps is because you won't stop organizing dangerous competitions where half of our kids get injured, our supplies would be fine otherwise," I point out.

"Don't take away their joy, Y/N," Wesley says. "Turbo's with me in this one, right?" He turns to his boyfriend and the boy nods.

'Kids need the distraction' Turbo explains. 'So they don't start fighting each other.'

"I know that," I sigh. "We'll find a solution, okay? I'll think of something..."

"You look exhausted," Josh says worringly, he stands up and then helps me to do the same. "C'mon, let's take you to bed."

"Just don't be too loud, it's the middle of the day," Wesley yells at us from his place once we're halfway gone. Josh and I turn to him in outrage.

"Is not- we're not-" I try to say, but the words tangle in my head.

"I'm just walking her to the mattress store!" Josh replies, blushing. "I wasn't going to put my hands down-"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence," I say.

We share a look but we quickly turn away.

The thing is, Josh and I haven't had sex. We made out a couple times when we were alone, but those times are gone, more so with eighty people walking around the mall at all times. Besides, I've never had sex in my life and I'm terrified of the possibility of getting pregnant during the apocalypse, I mean, that equals to be asking for a painful, slow death.

Josh understands that, and he said he'd wait. He even said that if I never want to have sex that's okay too. But who knows if that's the truth, Josh is an eighteen-year-old. He won't be understanding all the time.

Now that Wesley killed the mood we walk in silence until we reach the mattress store, Josh puts a hand on my shoulder and looks at me, struggling to speak.

"I... uh-" He shakes his head lightly. "I..."

"I know," I say with a reassuring smile. "Wesley's joking. He knows we're not... that I'm not ready."

"I know that too," He frowns. "I... You know I care about you, right?"

"Of course," I grin. "Don't worry about it. I really want to take a nap, so is it okay if I go?"

"Yeah, totally," He removes his hand from my shoulder and gives me a shy smile.

I nod and start my way towards the nearest bed, but an arm grabs me by the waist and turns me around. Before I understand what's going on Josh's lips are on mine and he's kissing me.

It's a good kiss, firm and loving enough to relieve all the tension from my shoulders. When we part I see the softness in his eyes looking for approval. I let out a short laugh.

"What was that for?" I ask in amusement.

"Was it okay?"

"It was great."

"Good," Josh nods, still looking quite insecure. "Just making sure."

"Okay, you freak," I giggle. "See you in a while..."

When I wake up from my nap it's around 7 pm and I still feel a bit groggy. My phone rings and I pull it out to see a notification from Spotify. It's from the podcast the AV club has been doing for a while. I eagerly unlock the phone, it's a reminder that I haven't listened to the last two episodes and that last episode I heard ended in quite a confusing moment. I was afraid they'd been hurt, I'm glad to see that's not the case.

I like those kids, last time they did an episode to honor Eli's death. They also talked a bit about Hoyles but no one really ever liked Hoyles. Eli's part was sweet.

As I start listening to this episode Melissa says they're hiding from some kids in suits? And not many things make sense, why would they be following them? They also talked about their strange poly relationship but that wasn't the point.

The point is that the AV club was about to die, and there was no one listening.

I fearfully click on the next episode, waiting to hear they escape.

'I made a lot of mistakes I made a lot of mistakes I made a lot of mistakes I made a lot of mistakes'

"This isn't about spying like the germans gathering all kinds of intimate information," Melissa aka Harvard continues in a panicked voice, "and we are most definitely not being forced to do this by a tribe that has tak-"

The audio cuts there for a moment, but that's all the confirmation I need.

We have to save the AV Club.

"Josh!" I run out of the mattress store, looking everywhere. "JOSH!"

'You had to find it (I made a lot of mistakes) All things go, all things go (I made a lot of mistakes)'

"Wheeler!"

"Woah! Hey!" Josh's body crashes against me and stops with an amused smirk. "What's going on? Did you have a bad dre-?"

"We need to gather our kids now," I say quickly.

"What? Why?" He replies, stepping back from me.

I gulp, panic raising through my body and cutting my breathe.

"We're being watched."

Taglist.

@letsbe-queer​ @slythermyg​ @loving-u-3000​ @one-loud-mind​

[twoidiotwriters1]

Part One // Part Two // Part Three // Part Four // Part Five // Part Six // Part Seven // Part Eight // Part Nine // Part Ten // Part Eleven // Part Twelve // Part Thirteen // Part Fourteen // Part Fifteen // Part Sixteen // Part Seventeen // Part Eighteen // Part Nineteen // Part Twenty

SEASON 2:

Part One // Part Two // Part Three // Part Four // Part Five

Last update: Dec 13th by admin Danny.

[twoidiotwriters1]

Starcrossed Losers XX (Josh Wheeler xReader)

A/N: There’s something so pleasing about finishing this on chapter #20 // Also, thank you all for reading up to this point! I just hope it reaches your expectations, or at least, doesn’t suck as much. Remember to leave a comment! It’s the last part, after all. Love you, and see you this summer! <3

Words: 8,274

Warnings: Some killings, some blood, some injures, Oh! And major character death, but is it really major? lmao

Previous chapter

“I’m gonna let this world die,” I hear my friend gasp, “I yearn for the sweet release of death” 

“You can die once we reach the school,” I grunt, skating faster.

Alex and I used to be very active people, but with the nuke our physical condition has self-induced into a coma.

It all right though! I’m running on spite and love, it’ll keep me active enough to reach the Highschool on time.

Unfortunately, Alex is only running out of patience.

“You know,” He wheezes, “if it wasn’t for you, starcrossed losers, I would be in the mattress store having my healthy eight hours of sleep!”

“It’d be like that sometimes,” I reply, “stop talking before you pass out.”

You wanna know how I feel? 

You guessed it! I’m McFreaking out.

But Alex’s comment reminds me of something, and it’s that I haven’t added songs to the soundtrack of my life! What a terrible narrator I am.

Allow me to introduce you not only to the next song of our list, but also the one that gave this story its iconic title.

You’re welcome.

Things have changed since the first time we met back in that alley, huh?

I was a loner, you were... uh, living your life, I guess. Being a good member of society.

“It started out as nothing in the strangest sense He was never in his right mind, no defense She prayed for his attention, often on repeat Every time she heard his name and his heartbeat”

Josh was alone and hurting, not knowing how to express his feelings and just hiding all inside. 

Never do that kids look how it ends, with you painting an apology all over the neighborhood. And I mean all of it. The phrase is not the same as the one outside my house, these ones say ‘I’m with you’, ‘Where are you?’ and ‘I’m sorry’ not the same but it gives out the same vibes. 

It seems that ever since I cured Josh’s hand, all we’ve done is to play this game of jumping back and forth in our boundaries, throwing our bones at the wrong times. 

“He was in denial in his own backyard Pleading for the rain just to come down hard She bought him a bracelet and put it on his wrist Like every time before she got close but missed”

“By the time we reach the school it’ll be too late, you know that, right?”

“The School,” I reply, breathing heavily, “has to be saved. We can’t let it rot in hands of someone like Triumph, he’s gross!”

“We’re gross,” Alex grimaces, “I stink, and now we’re sweating like pigs. Imma smell like a Ghoulie.”

“Pigs don’t sweat,” I say simply.

It takes us another half an hour to arrive, we’re on time. I’m just thankful that Alex could hold on for so long, he’s almost fainting.

“Okay, we can take a break,” I say as I watch him lose all color from his face, “you want water...?”

“I need to sit down...”

I hear noises in the distance and I see Triumph arriving at school. 

Only this time he’s with someone. I’m glad to see them, it means we can still help.

It’s my favorite knock-off Triumph and stupid Josh.

“Alex, do you mind if I leave you for a second? Josh and Eli are over there-”

“Go, I hate you I can’t even see you right now,” He groans, poor dude.

They don’t notice me as I get closer, I watch them silently as Josh gets inside the cage and Eli closes the little door, that’s when I decide to walk up to them.

“So by ‘have it under control’ you meant giving yourself to Triumph as a peace offering?” I ask.

Eli and Josh curse and look at me with wide eyes.

“I told you not to follow us!”

“Yes, I wonder why you thought I would actually listen,” I cross my arms, “Sacrificing yourself is not a fair move, I can’t stay mad at you like this, you look ridiculous”

“That’s the plan,” Eli smirks, “We’re gonna pretend I’m Triumph so the kids won’t attack us, and once we’re inside we’ll save those kids and we’re out”

“Uh-huh,” I tilt my head, “How do you know Triumph isn’t inside the school right now? Like, what if the kids just saw him go to the bathroom when a second Triumph walks in through the main entrance?”

“We... improvise?” Josh offers.

“No. Never improvise, that’s awful,” I shake my head, “don’t you remember what happened last time?”

“You walked out unharmed and with half their spare weapons,” Eli says. 

“Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best example-”

“Look, Y/N it’s alright,” Josh shifts on the cage, “we got this okay? Go to the mall, we’ll do fine”

“No, you’re not,” I insist, “you’re not going back to the mall, what are you going to do?”

“I’ll survive,” He shrugs, “you read the note...”

“Romeo, Romeo I'm your Juliet I'm the pot of gold that you haven't found yet I'm here, right here”

Someone runs to us and tackles Eli to the ground, screaming like a maniac.

“Hi, Baron Triumph! Die!” 

Oh my god, Jayden Hoyles it’s still alive?

“Get off of him!” I circle the byke and grab Hoyles’ arm trying to separate him from Eli, but he’s way stronger than me.

“Hoyles, you twat that’s not Burr, that’s Eli Cardashyan!” Josh yells from his cage.

Hoyles stops his movements instantly, sitting back and observing as Eli takes off his mask.

“’Sup turd?” He smirks.

“Fuck! Fuck!” He stands up and looks around in confusion.

“Hey let me outta here!” Josh demands, pushing the cage’s door.

Hoyles starts running away.

“Yeah, you better fucking run!” Eli sits on the ground as I walk over to the cage and unlock it.

“Hoyles you asshole! Hey!” Josh stands up in the cage, still screaming, “Hoyles!”

Then another miracle happens: Hoyles is tackled by a mutant pug.

“Oh, fuck” I cover my mouth in disgust. 

“Holy shit,” I hear Josh whisper, “mutant pug mating season”

I wish I didn’t have that image pierced in my mind forever.

Josh crouches next to Eli and checks on him.

“Hey man, are you okay?”

“I’m the lord of illusion!” Eli chuckles, “I even fooled Hoyles!”

“Hoyles is not exactly a smartass,” I retort, “but yeah, good for you I guess. C’mon”

I try to help him get to his feet but Eli whimpers, falling back.

“What? What?!” I step back, thinking that maybe he’s got a broken rib.

Eli touches his stomach and his hand gets smudged with blood.

“Oh shit,” I mumble, kneeling beside him.

“N-Nah man, it’s fine,” Josh stutters, “we got you, Y/N will heal you, right Y/N?”

“I need to see how deep it went,” My hands are starting to sweat and I feel something cold run down my back, “Eli, I need to take your clothes off”

But Eli is not listening, he’s got a panicky look on his face as he puts pressure on his injury.

“No, Eli!” Josh tries to carry him but Eli whimpers again.

“Alex!” I yell, “Alex, come quick! Eli is hurt!”

“Oh fuck,” Josh is holding onto Eli like his life depends on it, “what do we do?”

“Eli, don’t move,” Stab wounds are off-limits, you’d think I’d read a fic that had stabbing on it, but it turns out the world is lacking some good old-fashioned stabs, “Uh... keep applying pressure to it, we need to stop the bleeding and-and we need bandages... oh god, but I don’t know how deep it went, Josh! if his organs aren’t intact...” 

I look at Eli, who’s now coughing blood. I don’t dare to finish my sentence.

“What?” Josh asks anxiously, “if his organs aren’t intact what?”

“He’s...” This can’t be happening, not after all we’ve done, “we can’t help him, Josh”

“This blood is gonna get the Ghoulies fucking fast,” Eli speaks up, finally gaining a little bit of control.

“No man, don’t die,” Josh pleads, “Eli, don’t fucking die!”

“Josh,” I try to get his attention.

“What the fuck happened?” Alex is paler than before, “Y/N?”

“Hoyles stabbed him,” Only then I realize that I’ve started crying, “I-I don’t know what to do, Alex I can’t see his injury!”

“We’ll drive you back to the mall, okay?” Josh continues, “We’ll get Mavis. We’ll help you”

“Dude,” Eli speaks again, this time weaker than before, “Mavis is a mannequin. I don’t have the luck you got with Y/N, I don’t have anybody”

“Stop fucking around!” Josh exclaims.

“Just... when you get to the Highschool...” He mumbles.

“What? What man?” Josh gets closer, “Anything”

“You touch my ‘Magic: The Gathering’ cards, and I will hunt your ass,” He gives him a pointed look, “You don’t wanna fuck with paranormal Eli. I’m terrifying as shit”

“Jesus Eli,” I sob, “are you being serious right now?”

“More than ever, princess,” His breathing’s uneven now, and I know he’s about to go, “you do me a favor too, don’t go into sick dictator mode? Stay cool”

“Eli-” I cut my sentence as I notice he’s lost conscience, “No!”

“No, wake up, wake back up!” Josh shakes his body, “Get up, man! Get up! GET UP!”

“He’s gone,” Alex kneels beside me and touches my shoulder, “he’s gone...”

“Wake up,” Josh whispers, giving our friend’s body a final push.

Eli’s inert on the ground, he’s not breathing, and blood is still pouring from one of his sides. I feel the same numbness as with Katie. 

“Fuck,” I sit back, whipping the tears from my face and accidentally smudging blood on my cheek, “I fucking hate this town”

“Josh?” Alex asks beside me, “Josh, we need to leave before the Ghoulies...”

I raise my eyes and see Josh still holding Eli’s body, he’s looking at some point in the distance, crying but not making any noise.

“Wheeler,” I move over to his side and I kneel in front of him, cupping his face between my hands, “now is not time to lose it, alright? Deep breaths...”

Josh is facing me but it’s like he’s looking through me, then he closes his eyes and takes deep breaths, three times. He nods slowly and looks at me, now I see he’s back on this plane of existence.

“Let’s fucking end this shit”

We’re arriving at school when Josh starts acting weird again, he stops walking from time to time and I hear him breathing heavily, his eyes fixed on the ground.

At some point, he turns around and sits on the ground next to a car.

Alex and I share a look and I step closer.

“What’s wrong?”

He vaguely shakes his head.

“Okay,” I reply softly, “you need help..?”

“I need closure,” He rasps, “I’m... I’m trying to...” He looks at me with pleading eyes, “Please don’t think I’m crazy”

“I won’t”

“I’m trying to imagine a conversation with my father,” He says to me very slowly, “you know, if I only had answered my phone on time... I need... I need that conversation now more than ever”

I feel a lump in my throat when I hear him, so I just nod.

“Course,” I mumble, “take your time”

I go back with Alex and tell him Josh needs a moment to calm down, so we sit at the main entrance of the school.

“It’s too empty,” Alex tells me, “the school, it’s too quiet.”

“Yeah,” I shrug, “maybe they’re gone, but we should make sure no one got left behind.”

“What is Josh doing, exactly?”

“He’s talking with his dad”

Alex gives me a weird look.

“Not he’s real dad, obviously. Like, the version inside his head,” I shake my head, “Look I know it sounds crazy but I get what he’s doing, don’t worry, he’ll be fine after this. He needs to talk it out.”

A memory flashes before my eyes: 

-------------------------------------------

I’m thirteen and my cat just died, he was pretty old and fat, but I thought he would live forever. When I found out that wasn’t the case I sat next to his grave in the backyard and cried for a whole day until Katie came back from school.

She sat next to me in silence for a while, not even having physical contact.

“You know, dad says it’s better this way,” She says after an hour passes, “he died in his sleep, he wasn’t in pain.”

“But I am,” I cried, “he wasn’t supposed to leave me so soon!”

“You don’t know that,” Katie grabs my shoulder softly, “maybe he left so you could get another cat, maybe that cat is an orphan right now, and it’s waiting for you to save him”

“I wanted Lou, not an orphan cat,” I sniff loudly, “he was my best friend”

“It’s okay,” Katie slides closer and hugs me, “He’s still watching over you, I bet he’ll stay with you forever. That’s what happens when you die, you get to take care of the things you love in subtle ways.”

“You think?”

“Definitely,” She smiles, “if you ever feel scared during the night time he’ll warm your bed, or if you’re ever hungry and forgot your money for lunch, a friend will offer you cookies. Those kinds of things are stuff they sent to us, subtle reminders of their love”

----------------------------------------

God, I miss my sister so much. 

I hadn’t thought of that conversation in a long time. She was clever, always knew what to say. 

She was also right, about the subtle ways someone can send you their love.

I feel my sister on every kid that thank me when I heal them, my mom and dad are there every time Wesley and Angelica give me a speech/lecture about how I’m doing a good job and shouldn’t give up.

And Josh is... 

Josh is every little thing I used to love about my home: the laughter, the secrets told at midnight, the goodnight kisses, the vibrant colors... 

I look at my skates with a warm feeling on my chest, all of them, every person that I can’t see, they’re still with me. Looking after me, sending their love in subtle ways.

Josh walks up to us, looking determined.

“It’s done?” I stand up.

Josh hugs me without saying a thing.

“Oof!” I grunt, taken by surprise, “okay?”

“I don’t want to hurt people anymore,” He says, voice muffled by my hair.

“That’s good,” I pat his back.

“I will keep my promises this time,” He assures me, but I think he’s still talking to himself, “I won’t push you away”

“I believe you,” I respond, stepping back and looking into his eyes, “but Josh, keep in mind that you aren’t perfect, so please don’t push yourself too hard or you’ll break again”

He nods, smiling lightly.

“Ready to finish this?”

Instead of replying I turn around and extend my hand to Alex to help him get up.

“I’m sorry I dragged you into this,” I apologize wholeheartedly, “you could be traveling around the country if it wasn’t for me”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way, Y/N” He smiles.

I look back at Josh, his usual energetic attitude is slowly coming back.

“We’re ready.”

“You’re something else, Y/N,” Josh replies, eyes beaming.

“Well it started out as nothing in the strangest place Beating like a drum in a hard work space He swore that he could feel something tugging on his sleeve He had the strangest sense that he was Adam, she was Eve”

The school is completely abandoned, no one is on the halls, they’re clean like someone made sure to leave everything in their place before escaping.

“We should look in every room, just in case,” I say, Alex and Josh agree silently.

We search in the principal’s office and the classrooms.

“I don’t have a good feeling about this,” Alex whispers.

“Wait,” Josh stops, “you heard that?”

“What?”

We don’t move for a second. Then, a clanging sound echoes through the hall, we share a look of excitement before sprinting forward.

“Over here!” Alex opens the door of the chemistry classroom.

We step inside as the noise gets stronger, Josh moves quietly and points to the closet in one of the corners.

We join him to see Sam Dean, desperately trying to open a heavy metal door with chains around its handle. We get closer and she doesn’t seem to hear us, too focused on breaking the chains.

“She was in chains by her own good hand Keeping all the angels under her command He saw every detail burning like sun Couldn't get it straight that his race was run”

“Sam?” Josh asks loudly.

The girl screams and raises the crowbar, almost hitting Josh on the head.

The three of us step back and shout that we come in peace, raising our hands so she sees we have no weapons.

Well, I do have Katie on my back, but like, I’m injured so I can’t grab it fast enough.

Her eyes widened and urge us with an alarmed voice.

“QUICK! BURR’S GONNA-”

An explosion sends us all against the opposite wall, I hit the side of my face with a chair and when I open my eyes I’m on the ground. Blood is coming from my mouth and I feel my lip has a cut. I’m too disoriented to get up, so I stay still on the floor.

A shadow stands above me and I look up, is that... Sam Dean?

She helps me to get on my feet and it’s then when I realize my ears aren’t working as they should.

“I...” But I can’t hear my own voice, so I assume they can’t hear it either.

Well, fuck.

I search through my bag ignoring the pain in my shoulder and pull out my notebook (the one I always carry around, not the one Josh gave me, I left that one behind, remember?) and a pen, quickly scribbling away.

‘Triumph?’

I show the page to Sam and she nods, she grabs my notebook and writes back.

‘My fault. Need to stop him.’

Josh and Alex walk up to us, Josh is looking good overall, but I can see Alex will have a pretty nasty bruise on his eye in a couple of hours. Josh rushes over to my side and examines my face with a worried expression, I brush him off and grab my notebook from Sam’s hands, pointing to what’s written in it.

Josh reads it and shakes his head, taking the pen and writing messily.

‘We have no weapons’

I snatch the notebook from his hands and write in all caps:

‘MALL’

I show the notebook to Sam and she nods excitedly. Then she mouths ‘LET’S GO’ and guides us outside.

She leaves the classroom with Alex following close behind, Josh and I are left alone.

I scribble quickly.

‘Ur <3 is with me?’

Josh reads and nods, not understanding what I’m trying to say.

‘R U going to tell her?’

He gulps and looks over to where Sam was moments ago, then takes the notebook from my hands and writes five words.

‘Kill Triumph 1st. Talk later’

Right. Priorities.

We get out of the classroom and soon are on our way to the mall, my lip has stopped bleeding but it’s swelling and it hurts. I landed on my shoulder and that’s also hurting, you can add this to the list of injuries that I’ll have to deal with later.

It’s around five o’clock when we arrived, we are battered but we need to gather our stuff and think of what we’ll do next.

The kids spot Sam and most of them run to welcome her and give her a hug, but she tries desperately to let them know what’s going on, I don’t know if they’re able to hear or not, so I hit Josh’s shoulder and give him a sharpie I had in my bag, pointing to the column in front of us.

He grabs it and writes on it ‘TRIUMPH IS GONNA NUKE GLENDALE’.

KJ snatches the sharpie and writes ‘We have to GO!’

Sam glares at her and takes the sharpie back, writing ‘We have to stop him!!’

I drop the notebook and grab the sharpie, quickly adding ‘We need the spare weapons! We need to kill Triumph!’

Sam and KJ keep pointing to their signs and then KJ does it harder, giving Sam a pointed look and walking away.

I walk over to KJ and grab her arm, frowning at her, trying to communicate my thoughts: ‘What THE FUCK are you doing?’

She points with her thumb over her shoulder and then to the things on the ground, like saying ‘I’m done with this shit’

Well, smartass so am I.

Most of the kids start to join KJ, they don’t want to fight or kill, they want safety.

I should know that, I heard them before.

I walk back to where Sam is and I see slight relief in her eyes, she knows she’s not alone.

Josh starts to walk over to KJ’s side and both of us look at him with wide eyes.

I pull the pen out of my pocket and throw it at his head.

He turns around, holding the place where I hit him and asks silently ‘What?’

Sam’s mouths ‘What the fuck?’

Josh shrugs and points to the kids, ‘Let’s go?’

KJ crosses her arms and raises a brow, expectant.

For fucks sake, I like her but sometimes I want to kick her ass.

Sam shakes her head and picks up the notebook and the pen from the ground, she opens it on the page where we were writing before and just when she’s about to start writing, her eyes find my conversation with josh.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Please kill me now, oh fuck, I fucked up. I’m the worst.

Her eyes widened, throwing the notebook she looks up at Josh and then at me. 

I step away from her.

It’s embarrassing really, how long it takes Josh to realize Sam found out about us... ugh, that sounds disgusting, it sounds like we cheated or something.

She gesticulates dramatically and Josh only seems to get even more confused as she keeps going until finally she stops moving and asks, very loudly:

“You FUCKED Her?”

Oh, I can hear now.

Oh no, I can hear now.

“I’m going to get those weapons,” I say, face completely red and unable to look at either of them in the eyes.

Fuck is a stretch, to be honest. We barely kiss like two times, this is not middle school.

“Alex can you..?” He tilts his head and frowns.

Am I... am I the only one who’s able to hear right now?

“You can’t hear me?”

Alright then, they can’t. I lower my head and walk straight towards the pharmacy, thinking what will I do to live with the humiliation of being ‘the other girl’.

________________________________

Well, Josh had a blast being insulted nonstop by a bunch of colorful post-it notes.

Sam was pissed. She had the right to be, Josh had been unfair and had offended her for no reason, so he just let her write everything she wanted, he wasn’t going to defend himself.

When the girl stick the last note on his forehead ‘U R a coward’ Josh pulled the old, raggedy yellow note that said ‘Where are you?’ and handed it to her.

Then he grabbed the post-its and wrote:

‘Fixing my mistakes.’

Sam read it and spoke up.

“Am I a mistake?” She raised a brow.

“What I did to you was,” He replied, “I know saying I’m sorry sounds like I’m not actually sorry. I am, though. I’ve been working on fixing the way I cope with things and it’s taking me a while to get used to it.”

“Good for you,” Sam replied harshly, “that doesn’t mean everything will go back to normal and you know it, right?”

“I wasn’t counting on it,” He admits, and when he said it, the pain in his chest was minimal, “you deserve better Sam, I really liked our time together but I know that what I said to you was just plain awful”

The girl tilted her head.

“I’m right,” She squinted, “You and Y/N are a thing?”

“No,” Josh saw her skeptical expression and sighed, “for a moment we kinda were, but... Let’s say I’m a pro at making girls hate me”

Sam nodded.

“It looks like karma got to you, I have nothing to add,” Sam started to walk away, but stopped to look over her shoulder, “the things you wrote on the notebook... is it true? You love her?”

“I don’t know,” Josh felt his heart flutter at the thought, “it does feel like it sometimes”

“Like it felt with me?” Sam asked ironically.

Josh groaned, passing a hand through his hair.

“I’m sorry I was so pushy”

“Josh,” Sam insisted, “you can’t be falling around for every girl that treats you nicely”

“Y/N doesn’t ‘treat me nicely’,” He replied, “when I cut my finger she almost tied me to a bed and forced me to recover. She insults me a lot, recently threatened to kill me”

“And you like her?” Sam frowned, “Are you sure you’re working on your issues?”

“She’s done all those stuff but she also cured my hand, and she’s cured every kid on this mall, she got us weapons and she watches our back. When I talk to her I just feel that she gets me, you know? She’s... I feel I finally found my place,” He looked over to the pharmacy, where Y/N was hurriedly putting weapon after weapon inside a plastic box, “I feel happy when I’m with Y/N”

Sam gets closer, also watching the girl in the pharmacy.

“Y/N L/N a.k.a Vinchi-”

“She doesn’t like that nickname anymore,” Josh is quick to correct.

“Alright,” Sam gives him a funny look, “just Y/N, then. Artistic type of person, creative, funny, a talent for kind words. Yes, I can see you falling for someone like that. Actually, I don’t understand how it didn’t happen sooner,” Sam eyes him up, “didn’t you do a project together?”

“Yeah,” He smiles, “I did have a thing for her, but you know, I was with you...”

“How considerate,” Sam shakes her head, “time’s up, we need to go and stop Triumph.”

_______________________________

I hand the box to Alex and dry the sweat of my forehead.

“That was the last crossbow,” I sigh, “well, we need to go again”

“Not gonna lie, being a hero is way harder than expected,” Alex grunts.

I put an anti-inflammatory cream on his eye, the bruise is fully formed now and it gives him a shitty look, I wave of appreciation washes over me and I hug my friend by the shoulders.

“I love you, Alex. You’re the only family I have left”

“Hey, that’s not true,” He looks down at me, “things are not over yet, we still can get Wesley and Angelica back, and... I mean, Josh is still pretty much into you, right?”

“Right,” A voice replies behind me, “but she’s not ready to forgive me, so I decided to do the next logical thing and fight against the cannibal to win her back”

I turn around and I see Josh standing at the entrance, a tiny smile on his face.

“Ready to go?”

“Where are we going first?” Alex asks.

“We need people, we should go for Angelica and Wesley,” Josh looks at me, “I shouldn’t have kicked them out in the first place, I know.”

“Wait,” Alex interrupts, “we can’t leave the weapons here alone and we can’t take them with us, it’s a lot to carry. Someone needs to stay and wait”

“I’ll stay,” I reply instantly.

“Are you sure?” Josh asks me.

“Yes, I’ve always been the one to look after the mall, right?”

I’m trying to make it look like I’m being heroic, but actually, I’m just finding an excuse to not confront Sam just yet.

“Okay,” Alex pats my back, “I’ll stay too then”

“No, you have to help them, you don’t know what could happen while you’re out,” I push his hand away, “Go, I’ll be fine”

Josh holds my hand.

“I’ll fix things, I’ll get everyone back... I hope you can give me another chance once this whole thing ends”

Little does he know, I would give him the second chance right now if he’d ask.

If only he had asked.

“Romeo, Romeo tell me where you've been I would be complete if you'd only let me in I'm here, right here He said Juliet I told you I was only passing through If I had a moment I would spend it just with you I'm here, right here”

So I sit on the mattress store with the box of spare weapons next to me for what it feels like hours, but it’s really just like one. Finally Josh, Sam, and Alex arrive with Wesley... and Turbo.

“Well hello,” I raise my eyebrows, “it’s always a pleasure to see the guy that tried to kill us a few nights ago”

“He’ll help,” Josh tells me, “he’s with us now”

“I assumed he was, otherwise he wouldn’t be so chill, right, big guy?”

Turbo smiles awkwardly at me.

“Y/N,” Wesley smiles at me, “can I have a hug?”

“You can have all you want!” I quirk up, hugging him tightly I take the opportunity to whisper, “I missed you, man. You were great on Harvard’s podcast”

“You listen to them?” He steps back, shaking his head, “nevermind, of course you do”

“What’s that supposed to-”

“Hey,” Sam walks up to me, “can we talk?”

If I could pronounce the way I write a key smash, I would. I do not want to talk to Sam Dean.

“Sure!” I say, maybe too excitedly.

She takes me outside the store and sighs, just letting things out.

“I know about you and Josh, I just want you to know that I’m fine with it, you can stop looking at me like I’m about to jump on your throat”

“What?” I laugh nervously, “I’m not- Okay, fine, holy shit I’m so sorry, I’m under a lot of pressure”

“I understand,” She pats my shoulder, “it’s okay, Y/N. We’re good.”

“Thank you,” I let out a heavy sigh, “you’re great”

“I’m just not a bitch,” Sam smirks, “besides, he really cares about you”

“Okay,” Josh speaks up from the store, “Burr has Angelica, an army of jocks, and a big nuke.”

We go back in the moment he turns to look at Turbo.

“What’s your plan?”

Turbo stands up and grunts, pacing up and down. He’s upset.

“Kids need the strongest leader,” Sam mentions, “Turbo isn’t that anymore”

Turbo grunts louder and I reach for his arm to gain his attention.

“If you keep grunting like that your throat will never heal,” I warn him, “and you probably need a humidifier... or something, I don’t know, I’m not a doctor”

Turbo stares at me for a few seconds and then back at Josh. He points to him and then to me. Wesley eyes me up with a sly smile and then at Josh.

I’m: confused.

“No, no, no, no, no!” Josh stands up, “I can’t make a plan, I’m not a leader, I’m just... I’m just Josh!”

“Alone, yes,” Wesley retorts, “with Y/N? That’s a different story.”

“Uhm, what?” I frown.

“He’s right,” Alex says, “Josh is an expert at survival, but you know how to find shortcuts to solutions. Creativity and knowledge, that’s enough to succeed.”

“No one will follow us,” I reply, “Josh and I are nobodies, we have no friends!”

‘I’ll be your friend!’ A voice that triggers my panic speaks up from the hall.

“SHIT!” 

We jump to hide and Sam looks around.

“Aw! What’s your name? Guys look!”

“It’s not exploding?” I peek over the couch, “What a nice way to find out I have PTSD”

“Sorry!” KJ appears at the corner, “Sorry! Thought it was cute... My bad, too soon. I want to apologize for running away. We came back to help you fight. And... we’re not the only ones”

I’m shocked to see that the Cheeramazons are here. I’m even more surprised when I see that Josh knows sign language.

“Besides,” KJ smiles at me apologetically, “must of us feel like we own you big time, Y/N. You’re like a mom”

“I’m not a mom!” I scoff, “But... thank you, I guess.”

“Do you have a plan?” Sam looks at us.

Josh hesitates, looking around like he’s lost.

“Josh?” I hold his hand, “I’m right here with you.”

He looks down at our hands and a smile appears on his face, he drops my hand, but only for just a second so he can sign what he says:

“Let’s save the world.”

“And they all fall down And they all fall down”

“You don’t actually have a plan, don’t you?” I ask.

“I don’t have a plan,” Josh looks at me with pure fear, “I was expecting you would give me one?”

“Hmm,” I nod, “well, you can’t expect me to solve every problem, you know?”

“But you’re great at solving things!”

“Yes, but this is a difficult one!” I reply, “we are so few, and they are so many... shit, we could barely form a...”

My voice dies at the end, an idea making its way to me.

“I know that look,” Josh says, a smile growing slowly on his face, “tell me what you think”

“We need to form a marching band.”

Josh frowns, having no idea of what I’m saying.

“Just- Come...” I grab his hand and rush to the main entrance of the mall.

I know I’m making a lot of time-skips. But those parts are boring and let’s be honest, you’re not here to listen to our crazy plans, you’re here to read some classic romance.

Maybe I should skip to the end of this? Would you like me to?

Sike! you’re gonna sit and wait for me to end narrating cause I want to talk about my goddamn day.

Where was I? Oh right, so we take the truck to the mall and Josh parks right outside, lowering the ramp so everyone can climb up the back.

“Alright!” Josh tells aloud as I circle the truck “Let’s hop in!”

I stand next to the ramp and watch as kids hesitantly climb.

Sam grabs my arm and pulls me towards Josh, whispering:

“Hi, what the shit?”

“I’m relatively confident this is gonna end well,” Josh points at me, “it’s one of Y/N’s plan, those never fail”

He gives me a bright smile but I almost wish he didn’t cause I am not even close to confident.

“Fighting Baron Triumph, with the surviving members of the JV marching band?” Sam asks in disbelief.

“Hey, don’t underestimate the power of music,” I state.

“Besides,” Josh continues, “they don’t have to be any good, just loud!”

A Cheeramazon stands in our way and mouth ‘it’s going to be loud’ she winks, high-fiving Josh. He chuckles (his cute, childish laugh) and guides us to the front seats of the truck.

“Yes, that makes total sense, thank you,” Sam mumbles.

“If it doesn’t work, I guess we can just follow plan b,” I shrug.

“What’s plan b?” She asks.

Josh and I share a goofy look and respond in unison:

“Improvise!”

The kids start playing the instruments as loud as they can and it happens: a Ghoulie walks out of his cave, mindlessly following the noises.

“Fuck, Josh!” Sam gets all defensive, but Josh and I only get excited.

“Keep playing! Keep playing!” Josh runs over to the driver’s seat and I grab the hammer that’s hanging on my back.

“Y/N?” Sam looks back at me, “you’re not coming?”

“Oh, yes” I smile, “just not inside the car.”

“What do you mean?” She frowns.

“I mean I could, but where’s the poetry in that?” I respond.

I can see that she doesn’t get what I’m trying to say, but that’s okay, no one could. Only you guys, you’re the one seeing the whole scene unfold.

So picture this:

The former loner who knows every corner of Glendale like the back of her hand, now skating along with her best friend from childhood ahead of a huge truck that carries her old Highschool classmates playing loudly (and badly) the marching band’s instruments so they can get as many Ghoulies as possible to make the dirty work for them. 

We make our way through the dirt that’s lifting from the ground, the Daybreakers make their dramatic appearance in front of Triumph’s army.

Yeah, you like that name for our tribe? I wish I could say it was my idea, but it seems that my imagination is better at stupid plans rather than naming important things. 

I don’t mind, really, as I smugly arrive at the scene, backed up by a gigantic bee face, I feel more powerful than ever. 

Josh and Sam get out of the driver’s seat and stand on each side of us, I bet we must look pretty badass. Or at least I hope our vibe feels like we know what we’re doing.

“Hey Josh!” Burr yells.

Then his army starts walking towards us, and I keep my grip firm on Katie.

“Is this your plan?” Sam asks loudly.

“We need an army to fight the jocks,” Josh retorts, “so we got an army”

Now, I did feel a bit bad watching as the Ghoulies feasted on those poor athletic souls, but hey, they had it coming! How can they support someone like Burr?

Turbo’s bus stops next to us and we climb up on it, I have a hard time climbing without using my injured hand that much. Jesus, at this point I don’t think my hand will ever properly heal.

He drops us where Angelica is and she receives us with a hug -first time she hugs me, I feel validated- and tells us the wonderful news about how the nuke is ready to blow up in our faces.

KJ and she try to deactivate it but the instructions are in a different language and it’s hard to read, Angelica has a little breakdown and Josh tries to calm her down.

“Hey! Okay then, we’ll just unfuck it,” He says calmly, “Angelica, you’re a Mensa-level genius with flexible morality... and I need you.”

Alright but you agree with me when I say that this is not fair, right? 

That was so sweet! Why is he so sweet when I try to keep my distance? 

WHY?

“I need help,” Angelica replies, “there’s a biological weapon on this nuke, I don’t know what it is, Ms. Crumble does. I need her”

“We’ll get her,” I say.

“Well, where is she?” Sam inquires.

Angelica points to a building behind us.

“In there, with the other kids”

When we walk inside we see a bunch of kids trapped inside two school busses.

“I’m gonna get them out,” Sam says.

But before she can, Triumph attacks Josh and pushes him over the ramp, he falls from a reasonably high distance and Sam ends up fighting Burr, so it’s up to Alex and me now.

“Go get Ms. Crumble!” Sam demands as she runs, “Angelica needs her!”

Josh runs away and Alex and I go towards the busses.

“Get away from the door!” I warn the kids on my bus as Alex does the same with his.

I hit the small window on it and I break the glass, I hear the sound of a gun being fired and some glass falling to the ground, so I assume Alex shot the door to death.

“Get out! Come on!” I urge the kids to run away as they desperately climb out of the bus.

I hear Sam grunting and screaming and I look up to see her on the ground. I don’t get to worry much cause soon enough Josh appears behind Triumph and stabs him in the back, Ms. Crumble is next to him, along with Mona.

I have to make a quick choice, and I decide that the four of them can easily kick Burr’s ass, so I make my way outside to cut some Ghoulie heads.

Or more specifically, smash them.

But when Alex and I get out we see Wesley and Turbo being cornered by some jocks and we stand beside them, Alex points his gun to someone but I see he really doesn’t want to use it against a live person.

“Well, look what the plague brought,” Maya comes out to the front, “Vinchi.”

“Bite me, Maya”

“I rather leave it to the Ghoulies,” She smiles, “go ahead, boys”

The jocks move but Sam appears behind us, trying to calm everyone down.

“Woah, Woah! Hey, guys” She peeks over Wesley’s shoulder.

“Hi Sam!” a boy at the back waves at her, “Nice jacket!”

“Thank you Michael!” She exclaims, “Okay, so if we could all just... relax. Principal Burr is dead, but we need to get Ms. Crumble here, up there to disarm that nuke and save everyone. Good?”

“You got it, Sam!” Michael replies.

“Thank you, cooperative”

We go back to Angelica and Crumble tells us that the bomb made her, I don’t really understand what she means, but right after she says it Angelica tells us she can’t deactivate now.

But, she can fire the missile to a different location. Up to god, apparently.

Unfortunately, it can only be done from here, and being this close to the missile when it shoots up equals dying a really shitty death.

“I’ll do it!” Crumble offers.

Angelica refuses the idea, but deep down... it’s our only way out if we want to stay here. 

It’s hard, I see myself reflected in the way she holds onto Crumble’s waist. She doesn’t want to let go of the only family she has. However, it’s imperative we do this soon, so we have to take her away.

She fights, kicks and yells as hard as she can, but eventually, we drag her out.

“Get to the trucks!” Josh yells and we all obey.

Crumble makes sure we are all safe before she presses the button. 

The explosion is massive, impressive. Angelica turns her back to it and hugs Josh and I close, Wesley joins in.

“We’re here, An” I tell her as I pass a hand through her hair, “we’re with you”

“I never thought I would see anything like this,” Alex mumbles behind us.

“I never thought I would be this close to die so many times in just one year,” I scoff, “apocalypse, am I right?”

The missile explodes but is too far out of our reach to even feel scared. It’s like four of July, and we’re just watching fireworks.

“We did it?” I ask.

“It’s done,” Sam says.

“Holy shit,” Alex pulls me away from my other friends and hugs me tightly, “We did it! We saved the world!”

I hug him back and laugh loudly.

“Fuck yes!” I step away and hug Wesley, then Turbo, then Sam... and Josh and I are standing face to face without knowing what to do.

“Uh, good job,” Josh smiles.

We hear Angelica sob and the bliss disappears.

Josh puts a hand on her shoulder.

“I’m sorry”

“We have so much to thank her,” I hug her again, “it’s okay...”

Wesley joins in, the three of us looking at the flames surrounding the place where the nuke used to be.

“What are we looking at?”

“SHIT!” I jump away from Crumble, “How are you so quiet- No, how the fuck are you here?”

Angelica gasps and hugs Crumble.

“I told you!” Crumble laughs.

“What are you?” An asks her.

Yes, that would be the right question.

“I don’t know,” She shakes her head, “but aren’t we gonna have fun figuring it out together?”

“Yeah!”

I don’t know why, but a need to run away invades me. I feel like this is all too good to be true and something will explode in our face.

Now, that could be my PTSD talking, but either way, I quietly start to skate away from the people, trying to find a place that is lonesome enough to control my nerves.

“Y/N!” I keep skating, not noticing someone’s calling my name, “Y/N! Wait!”

Josh grabs my arm and stands in front of me.

“Where are you going?” He frowns.

“Oh, hah, I’m just-I’m just trying to... I...” I swallow the lump in my throat, “I’m scared, Josh”

“I know,” He nods, letting go of my arm, “but I thought we had agreed that you didn’t have to go to feel better, right?”

“Are you sure this is what you want?” I blurt out, “Cause if you’re not, I just can’t do it, Josh. I can’t be wondering every day if you’re into me or if it’s just you pretending, I need... I need to know that you know”

“I know,” He repeats, “I want to be with you, Y/N. You and your silly socks and these horribly blinding lime-green skates. If that’s what makes you happy then I’ll get you all the lime-green things in the world. I’m okay with whatever you want as long as I can keep listening to your voice calling me stupid Josh and urging me to brush my teeth, I... I like you”

I’m not going to cry over this cliche speech. I refuse.

Fuck, I’m crying.

“Shut up,” I half-laugh, half-cry, “I think... I like you too, stupid Josh”

“Can I have a second chance?”

“You just saved the world, you can have anything you want”

“You saved the world too”

“All I want is you”

I grab him by the collar of his shirt and pull him down to kiss him.

“Ouch! Bad idea, bad idea,” I step back, holding my swollen lip, “I was trying to be romantic”

“Are you okay?” Josh laughs, cupping my face, “Wait, hold on let me see, did I make it bleed again?”

“I don’t know,” I raise my head so he can examine it, “I’m sorry, I ruined the moment”

“You didn’t,” He shakes his head, still chuckling, “let me just...”

He leans slowly, giving me a moment to step back if that’s what I want. 

That’s obviously not what I want.

He kisses me again, softer this time.

Oh, how little matters the end of the world on moments like this.

Suddenly it’s like we’re back at the beginning, the school is celebrating their homecoming and I’m kissing my boyfriend after a long day of cheering for our football team. Alex must be waiting for us to get to the mall so we can watch a movie with him and Stuart. There’s not a ‘What if’ on sight to wonder about, I’m living in it.

“She said Romeo, Romeo I'm your Juliet I'm the pot of gold that you haven't found yet I'm here, right here He said Juliet I believe every word you say Time is running backwards every single day...”

“Hey, lovebirds!” Sam calls out.

We break apart to look at her and Josh smiles.

“Hey! Listen, I think we’ll be a bit uncomfortable at first cause we are too many, but we can make it work, so if you just gather everyone...”

“What are you talking about?” Sam tilts her head.

“Uh, about the jocks joining our tribe?” Josh shrugs, “Now that Turbo is no longer their leader, you’ll need a place to stay. I know I’m not the best leader, but perhaps we can take care of you just fine”

“Says who?”

“Sam, you have no leader, you need protection,” He replies, “that’s why we rescued you”

“Rescued me?” She rolls her eyes, “I’ll always be thankful to you, Josh. And you Y/N, of course,” She walks up to the ramp, “when you posted that video you showed me who I could be. I don’t need to be saved! I just need a little guidance, something Y/N could be very helpful at?”

“You want me to join your tribe?” I frown.

“What? What are you talking about?” Josh asks, “Sam, what are you saying, who are you?”

She walks up to the center and turns around, looking down at us.

“I’m Sam Dean,” Sam replies like it’s obvious, she looks at Mona and nods.

Mona hops into the truck, ready to follow.

“What do you say, Y/N?” She asks me, “We might need your brain to rebuild our home”

“I-I don’t...” I stutter, not knowing what’s going on.

“She won’t leave her little boyfriend behind, she’s too needy,” A voice says.

The Jocks step aside and Maya reveals herself.

“I’ll be more than happy to help, though.”

“No!” I say in outrage, “Don’t listen to her, she’s not-”

I can’t find the words and it’s making me frustrated.

“Sam, you’re not like this,” Josh helps me out, “you don’t want Maya, she doesn’t play nice”

“Things change, Josh” Sam extends her arms, “this is my life now, these are my people and they need a leader. Y/N can understand that, don’t you? You wouldn’t just leave your mall kids abandoned, right?”

“No, I wouldn’t,” I reply dryly.

“No, you would do anything to keep them safe. Well, the jocks... they need me, and I know Maya can be quite resourceful, she spent some time with the Cheeramazons after all, I might need her talent for strategy, you know, just in case,” She smirks, “who cares about stupid morals nowadays?”

Maya walks up to her and stands on her left side, giving me a satisfied look.

“The apocalypse wasn’t the best thing to happen to you, Josh. It was the best thing to happen to me,” She looks at the rest of us and adds, “follow me.”

The jocks kneel and Sam sits on her throne... a queen bee finding its hive.

“Y/N?” 

“What, Josh?”

“Remind me to never doubt you ever again,” He looks at me with a worried expression, “I should’ve listened to you and just leave her alone...”

“you did that because you’re a good person,” I reply, “but I think it’s time we face it, ‘good’ won’t assure our safety, we’ll have to be smarter than that.”

“Now what?” Alex asks next to me.

“We stay together,” Angelica replies, “we won’t get intimidated that easily. We’re a tribe now! We have to make them respect us”

“I’m in,” Wesley says, then looks at Turbo next to him, who nods, “Turbo’s too”

“Me too,” Alex agrees.

“We’ll find our way out, right?” I ask Josh, reaching for his hand.

“Together, or not at all,” He nods intertwining our fingers.

“I'm here, right here...”

Taglist.

@letsbloodmagic @slythermyg @loving-u-3000​

[twoidiotwriters1]

Starcrossed Losers XIX (Josh Wheeler xReader)

A/N: I don’t like angst, yet it’s the only thing I’m able to add at my stories. Also, the vamps are teen-band certified. They had to be in the soundtrack of Josh’ life cause they’re as dramatic and passionate as him. I don’t exactly mean that as a compliment. We’re getting close to the end!

Words: 2,677

Warnings: None!

Previous chapter // Last chapter

I had no way to introduce the song smoothly into the plot so I’ll just attach it here.

It’s four in the morning and the three of us are in my old room. You could say I’m miserable.

This place is even more depressing than I remembered, seriously, why there are so many pictures in my room? What was I trying to prove, that I know how to use a camera? 

Every single picture with Maya in it I took it down, even if this isn’t my room anymore, I don’t want this to remain untouched like it’s worth preserving.

I’m still awake cause I hadn’t finished Wesley’s podcast, and god I wish I hadn’t heard the end.

It got me thinking, everything is out of control right now. One moment we could be sleeping and a second bomb could drop, then none of us would know what happened.

I have been living on wasted opportunities, on ‘what ifs’ and shitty friendships cause I don’t think I’m worth it. Maybe I’m not, but the kids back at the mall are, they are this city’s future, even if that sounds crazy right now. 

I decided I’ll help them, which means I’ll have to help Eli.

I have no choice.

_______________________________

Josh knew he’d fucked up big time.

When he came back after talking to Mavis, he knew that things needed to change, he was pushing people away, it was calculated at first, but now it was out of control and he had lost the only person he wanted to keep around.

It was his fault. There was no way to excuse his behavior, Y/N only wanted to keep him safe, she cared about everyone, something Josh was too self-centered to accomplish.

He regretted every word he’d ever said, to Sam and Y/N. They were good to him, trusted him. Fuck, Sam trusted him enough to sleep with him even if she knew it was his first time. 

Y/N had followed him to a mall where a psychotic killer was threatening to kill them just cause he asked for help... one thing seemed bigger than the other, but priorities shifted dramatically once the world ended, to be fair.

So when he entered the pharmacy only to find the lonely notebook laying on top of the counter, he panicked. Y/N was gone, and now he didn’t have a way to know where she was.

Unless...

Right, it was around 7pm and he had a target painted on his back, but she was worth it, more importantly, she was right.

He was going to fix his own fuck-ups, but first, he had to find Y/N.

So at 9pm, he left the mall.

He went on his skateboard, though it was loud during the night, it was also quieter than cars. He stopped at a store and took several spray cans of bright green paint, ready to start looking.

The question was, where?

Maybe Alex’s house? But he didn’t know where he lived. A house didn’t sound right, she would’ve been more careful than that, Y/N was super smart, so she’d have to be on a safe place that’s also out of any tribe’s territory.

The problem was that most of those areas were difficult to live in, they’re infested with Ghoullies or mutant things. Josh thought carefully, for Y/N, the worst choice wasn’t a Ghoullie-infested area, at least they wouldn’t be smart enough to catch her. She had to make a choice.

Josh started looking in the infested areas.

He wasn’t expecting to just find her and watch as she ran into his arms. Y/N was sick of him, she would be pissed for sure, so he was ready to get extra-roasted. 

He didn’t worry about that, what worried him, was Y/N not wanting to have anything to do with him anymore.

He’d thought things through and he knew (even before Y/N had said it) that Sam would reject him after all those months apart, he was okay with that. Sam had every right to say no.

Did it upset him a bit considering he had lost a finger for her? Yeah, but that was just life being shitty. Like Y/N said, you can always learn from your mistakes.

It’d clearly gone over Josh’s head the first time, but now it was stuck on his mind.

“I'm sorry for the way I behaved And I'm sorry that I let you down again I probably threw it at you I know Yeah I worry you didn't like me anymore”

Actually, it was Y/N L/N who was stuck in his mind in general.

The crazy things she could do, the silly short-overalls that she insisted on wearing were a nightmare, but Josh was now in love with them for the simple reason that they were hers.

He knew he overreacted when Y/N told him Sam was a jock, but it was just that the idea seemed impossible, Sam was too chill for that, she had to be against her will.

So he figured since he couldn’t fix what he had done to her months ago, the least he could do was to save her from Turbo. Afterwards they would be even, and Y/N and Josh would be finally free from any unfinished business.

He would be free to be with her without feeling guilty.

It was around 1am and his hand was starting to hurt from painting the walls on every block. He was also wasting time, what if Y/N had left the city already?

No, he needed to calm down. Y/N didn’t want to leave the city, that’s what she told him before. She was definitely here.

Where the hell was she?

“Alright, ponder,” Josh rested a hand on his knee, closing his eyes for a moment, “fuck, I need sleep...”

She wasn’t around the Ghoulie area, so the next stop was the X-Pug district. There was something about that place that could help him: Y/N’s house was in it and he still remembered how to get there. He hoped he was right.

By 4am his legs were sort of giving up, Josh forced himself to continue, he had about two more streets before he would reach her house and then maybe, if she wasn’t there, he could rest a couple hours and keep searching the next day.

There was obviously no lights on, so he whisper-yelled.

“Y/N?” He looked around to make sure he was threat-free, “Y/N?”

Josh wasn’t religious, but he felt the touch of god on his chest when a pair of shiny eyes peered over the second-floor window.

_____________________________________

Well, look what the bitch-wind brought to my humble home.

“Josh?” I frown, getting up from my desk chair, “What the fuck are you doing outside my house?”

“I had an epiphany”

“You had an- have you slept at all?”

“No, but I’m not crazy!” He tilts his head, “Well I did see my dad for a moment, but I think I imagined that...”

“Leave,” I say simply, “I don’t want to talk to you, I’m done.”

“I know you are”

“I won’t help you save Sam”

“I wasn’t going to ask you that.”

“What do you want?” I hiss.

“Can you... come down for a moment?”

I’m tired, but my heart is also hammering against my chest. 

He came for me, he’s here for me.

I hope I’m not wrong.

“Hold on,” I reply with a neutral expression.

_____________________________

At last, he had found his savior. 

Y/N appeared at her doorstep with her arms crossed, glaring at Josh.

“So?”

“Uh, yes?” His hands were sweating profusely.

“What do you have to say to defend yourself?”

“I'm sorry that I pushed you away And I'm sorry, I couldn't give you everything And I need you just to try to understand I let you take from me it all, it's just I feel like half a man”

“I...” Josh gulped, giving one step forward, “my brain is the size of a bean”

Y/N’s frown deepened.

“Okay?”

“I have tons of issues. We said it was nice to be around each other cause we understood, we knew,” He explained slowly so the words wouldn’t get all mixed in his head, “But after a few days I watched as you evolved into this super cool version of yourself: you had this new outfit and a new identity on which you were comfortable. You got over your problems and everything just seemed to be... going so well for you.”

“So it’s my fault?” Y/N scoffed.

“No!” Josh was quick to respond, “What I’m saying is that we promised to fix our stuff, and we were supposed to find out together. I fucked up. I let you do the whole work while you fixed your own issues and I stood there on big denial, focusing on other things.”

Josh stepped closer to her, Y/N remained still.

“I know I put everything on your shoulders and let you do the work, that was such a huge dick move I can’t even pretend to have a reason for that, I just need you to know that I’m sorry. I regret all the things I said. It’s all a lie, you do know me. You know me and it scared the crap out of me. When you said Sam could be a jock my mind knew you had a good point, but I got scared”

“I’ve been scared too,” She replied harshly, “I was terrified to stay around, I was shitting my pants just thinking of what could go wrong if I decided to give in to what I really wanted.”

She looked up to the sky, maybe trying to find an answer.

“This won’t work, Josh. Not if we keep pushing each other away in our own little ways, you with your words and me... doing it literally.”

“Then... now what?”

“And now I found That I've tried, tried my best just to keep you around But the weight of the world keep on dragging me down”

“Now nothing,” Y/N’s eyes avoided his, “do your thing and I’ll do mine. Fix your issues, then maybe we’ll have a chance. You have to make up your mind, Josh. Where is your heart?”

He knew the answer to that, but it wasn’t much of a difference if Y/N didn’t know. He could live all his life like this and still not be with her because she doesn’t have a way of knowing.

How could he tell her without actually tell her, now that his words lacked truth in her eyes?

He was still thinking about it when Y/N spoke up again.

“Did you know that Triumph dethroned Turbo?”

It took him a moment to understand what she’d said.

“What?”

“We saw it this afternoon,” Y/N shook her head, “we don’t know how did he escape, but now he’s the tribe’s leader. Your wishes became reality, Sam is truly in danger”

He didn’t like the way her voice sounded in the last part, but that wasn’t important at the moment.

“You know what he’s planning to do?”

“We don’t,” Y/N shrugged, “nothing good for sure... Eli found us there, he wanted to convince me to go back and kick you out of the mall, he’ll be pleased to see you’re already out.”

Josh looked over to the window on the second floor.

“Is he in there with you?”

“Yes, so is Alex,” She stayed silent for a second, Josh saw a question forming on face, “How did you find me?”

He smiled for the first time in the day.

“The day we made our group project I took you home in my mom’s car, remember?”

“I didn’t think you’d remember,” Y/N replied honestly, “it’s been a while”

“My bean-brain can hold any information as long as it has to do with you.”

He thought he saw a glimpse of her smile for a second, it didn’t last enough.

“It’s late, you should come in and rest”

“I’m fine”

“You haven’t slept, I know,” Y/N stepped aside so he could get in, “I can see the dark circles under your stupid puppy-eyes.”

“Was that a compliment?” He teased lightly.

“Get your ass in before I feed you to the mutant pug,” She waited until he was fully seated in the living room, “for the record, I’m still upset. This does not mean you’re forgiven, and it definitely doesn’t mean I want to keep our... thing, going on, you got it?”

“I got it”

“Goodnight,” She replied, going upstairs.

“Y/N?” She looked down to where Josh was, he hadn’t moved to lay on the couch, “I promise I’ll make things right”

She raised her eyebrows.

“Let’s see how it turns out.”

_______________________________

It’s morning time!

Well, it’s ‘acceptable-hour-of-the-morning-to-be-up’ time.

I wake up in my own bed, I see Alex sleeping beside me and it’s almost like we went back in time to those good days when we had sleepovers. However, we know that’s not true.

I sit on my bed and realized there’s something missing: Eli.

Thinking that maybe he woke up before us and found Josh sleeping in my living room, I get up quickly, afraid that he might have cut his throat while he was still sleeping.

I accidentally kick Alex on my way out, he wakes up in confusion, asking me if my mom’s making breakfast.

“I sure hope not,” I reply with irony, “cause she’s been dead for half a year”

“What?” He opens his eyes and looks around, suddenly coming back to the present, “Sorry, I was dreaming with-”

“The past?” I ask while I put on my converse, “I figured you were.”

“Where are you going?” He sits.

I explain to him briefly what happened last night while they were sleeping and how I’m about to check if Eli hasn’t killed Josh. Alex decides to join me and while we walk downstairs I see his little smirk.

“Don’t you dare,” I warn him, “I know what you’re thinking”

“And what am I thinking?”

“I told you so,” I huff, “like you’re some kind of wise Dr. Love”

“You know I’m right”

“He came for me, big fucking deal. He also spent six months looking for Sam, he does these things all the time, it doesn’t mean he cares”

“They not here,” Alex stops in the living room, “and there’s no blood, so we can assume they didn’t kill each other.”

I walk into the kitchen and my eyes land on the fridge, they left a note stick to it with a magnet.

“Alex?” I say, “There’s a note...”

I grab it and read it, not waiting for my friend’s reply.

‘Y/N,

Eli found me downstairs and tried to kill me. It’s alright, I told him you let me in. He was upset, he has reasons, I kicked him out of his home.

I told you I’m going to fix things, so I convinced Eli to help me get to the school safely so we can put Triumph back in a cage and the jocks (yes, Sam too) can have a better life, not one as slaves of a cannibal adult. He is also willing to let the kids stay and share the mall with him, along with Wesley, Angelica, and Ms Crumble if they decide to return. In exchange, I promised that I won’t.

Last night you asked me about where my heart is, I hope that once you leave the house, you get the answer. 

I don’t have the best taste in music according to the witch, so I can’t leave you secret messages hidden inside lyrics like you did for me on our Homecoming do-over. Still, I hope the message is readable, cause otherwise, I forced Eli to help me on a useless mission.

DON’T try to find us, we have it under control.

-Josh.’

“Y/N?” Alex calls me from the front door, “come see this...”

I put the note in my pocket and follow his voice.

“What’s...” I walk out of the house and gasp, “fucking bastard.”

In front of us, bright-green letters spell the phrase:

“IT’S WITH YOU”

It’s painted on every entrance, on the asphalt is he wrote the biggest one, his handwriting unmistakable. 

That sure answers my question.

“You know what that means?” Alex stands next to me.

"Yes," I say breathlessly, "it means we have to help Eli and Josh stop Triumph."

“Are we saving the world?” He smirks.

“We’re saving the world.”

Taglist.

@letsbloodmagic @slythermyg @loving-u-3000​

[twoidiotwriters1]

Starcrossed Losers XV (Josh Wheeler xReader)

A/N: My eyes hurt from editing this thing so late at night, please enjoy 

Words: 4,700

Warnings: None!

Previous chapter // Next chapter

What’s up, I’m officially fucked.

I don’t know how to narrate everything as it went down, I don’t have superpowers and I didn’t see it from above, also I was too busy trying to not self combust while Josh was kissing me.

I’m stupid. You knew that don’t pretend this came as a surprise, I’m dumb. I gave up my last braincell for my overalls, I have nothing left. 

That’s not important right now, I’ll go back to tell you the story, just be warned: Things don’t get prettier.

So Josh just kissed me, I’m standing there avoiding physical contact until a voice inside my head (one that sounds a lot like Wesley) screams to me: MAKE YOUR MOVE!

I pull him down by the collar of his shirt and close my eyes tightly, kissing him back. All I can think right now is “Please, don’t regret this after it’s over” and I mean it for both of us. 

The problem is that I suffer a little bit of post-traumatic stress, so when He kissed my mind went: ‘Oh fuck he just did the same thing that Alex did, what if he doesn’t feel good after, what about me? How am I feeling?’ 

The answer is: I’m terrified. I feel so many things, great things, beautiful things, but I’m scared shitless.

After he steps back, eyeing me up like he’s waiting for a reaction.

I’m trying to collect myself. I’m panicking, What the fuck did just happened?

“Shit,” It’s the first thing that Josh says.

I keep my eyes closed, I feel that I will start crying if I look at him. It won’t be a sad cry, it’s more like I’m so scared of what I’m feeling right now I regret every decision I’ve ever taken. I don’t wanna hurt Josh by saying something I don’t mean just cause I’m scared, my whole body is shaking and I’m so cold that I’m not even blushing, I can’t move.

“Y/N?” Josh takes another step back, I hear him a bit further away than before, “Are you... are you okay?”

I take a deep breath, I have to be brave. I slowly open my eyes but keep them fixed on the ground where Josh is standing, all I can see it’s his shoes.

“I’m fine,” I rasp, “... I could use a moment to calm down”

“I blew it,” Josh’s feet move, walking in circles, “Y/N I’m sorry, I’m so sorry please don’t get mad, I did it without thinking. I mean I was thinking but fuck I just wanted to kiss you, I-”

“Josh,” I speak up, closing my eyes again and holding the bridge of my nose, ‘Please don’t say you regret it. Don’t say you don’t have feelings for me’, “you don’t get it”

His footsteps come into a halt.

“Then explain it to me,” He says softly.

“I-”

“Y/N! Josh!” I look up and I meet Angelica’s glare, “Don’t fucking disappear like that!”

“Sorry, An,” I apologize, walking over to her and putting a hand on her shoulder for comfort, “we’re making sure the limits of the mall are safe again, you know, from bombs or something”

“They didn’t put things, they took them,” She says, fuming, “you need to come back inside right now”

“Okay,” I frown.

“We’re right behind you,” Josh is standing next to me. I feel a shiver run down my spine.

Angelica nods and goes back to the mall without even noticing how stiff Josh and I look. I turn to him, still not able to look at him in the eyes.

“I’m not upset... many things happened tonight and I think we should take care of that first. Don’t you?”

“Totally, I agree” Josh replies, I know he’s lying.

“Let’s go back,” I mumble, walking away.

Okay, then Josh likes me and I like him back. Why am I scared? 

I’m scared cause this takes my freedom away, if I take it all in that means I’ll stay with Josh, cause I like him. There are things that I’ll never be able to change, if I start something with Josh I’ll do everything to make him happy. Everything. 

My loyalty scares me.

I have to learn how to control that part of me, to not give myself away so easily. What if he tries and fails to be a better man? I’ll be in love with an asshole, I’ll be blind to his acts. 

Or... maybe I won’t. 

Josh doesn’t try to follow me when we enter the mall, he goes to the mattress store and says something about changing his clothes. I do the same. 

I feel safe with my overalls back on, instead of my lime-green skates I put on the baby-blue sneakers, and since it’s still late and I’m freezing I look around for a jacket, I find a black hoodie. I think it’s a man’s hoodie since it reaches my butt and the sleeves are gigantic. It makes me feel safe though, so I keep it.

My hair feels odd so I tie it and then make my way back to the main hall. Most of the kids are there, picking up some things and sharing sad looks of weariness.

“Y/N?” I look to my left, a girl that I think it’s Leila approaches me, she has a deep cut above her eyebrow, “Can you help me?”

“Sure,” I give her a small smile, “let me find Alex and I’ll meet you back in the pharmacy, okay?”

She nods and walks away, I feel a different kind of fear as I watch her go. These kids are sort of our responsibility now, all of them. They almost died because of some stupid beef Turbo has with Wesley and Josh, that’s not right. 

Did we save these kids, or did we just turn them into Turbo’s next target?

I find Alex already in the pharmacy, he’s curing kids, still wearing his suit. When he notices me I see relief in his eyes, maybe he thought that I had been taken. Either way, I’m here and ready to help.

Leila appears soon after, I ask her to sit on the bench in front of me and I start to clean her cut.

“Are you alright, Al?” I ask while looking for bandaids.

“I could ask you the same thing,” He replies, finishing up with a kid and waiting for the next to sit, “How’s your hand?”

“Not that bad,” I’m honest this time, it’s not hurting as much as the side of my head Maya so kindly stepped on, “I didn’t get to use it much”

“I’m fine,” Ales shrugs, “a few bruises but nothing I can’t handle.”

“You should change, we’ll be here for a while,” I tilt my head, watching as most of the kids form a line, all to get their wounds treated.

“I’m not uncomfortable”

“You’ll be, eventually,” I give him a severe look, “c’mon, I can handle this on my own for a while, the kids won’t go anywhere... I won’t go anywhere”

“...Okay,” He sighs, nodding towards the boy in front of him to let him know he’s done curing his cuts, “I’ll be back soon”

“Sweet,” I respond without paying much attention.

The line moves slowly as I clean and take care of cuts, bruises, and even a few broken fingers. Those were tricky, luckily Alex came back and used his boy scout skills to make several splints. That took us most of the night. Once we were done I saw Alex’s intentions of asking me if I had taken a decision so I escaped with the excuse of counting our supplies things that were lost. I did the same with the people.

I finished the list and handed it to Angelica. 

The final result was this:

They took our food and water, along with Jayden, girl Jaden, Gabriel, Zoey, Carly, other gay Josh, and Jayden. Angelica said she would go tell Josh so I decided to go over to where Eli and Wesley are and have a chat with them before things get uglier.

“I don’t think you understand exactly how much you just fucked our group,” I say as soon as I get to them.

“No no, I don’t think you understand how fucking dumb locking us up is,” Eli retorts, “We were just trying to protect the kids”

“By killing a guy?” I scoff, “That’s not fair to Josh”

“Who cares?” He asks, “Josh never did shit for us, did he? I had the mall first! He didn’t find them a home, he just took it from me”

“You’re still not over that?” I roll my eyes, “You almost kill Josh over the stupid mall? Seriously?”

“No. I almost kill Josh because that was the right thing to do, considering that Turbo has the strong, fully armed tribe”

“You have no morals. Who cares if Turbo had all that? He still lost, you know. We wouldn’t have had to fight if Wesley had spoken earlier,” I look over at Wesley, who is deadly quiet, “Josh would’ve understood. He would’ve helped you find a solution.”

“Josh being nice to you doesn’t mean he’s like that with everybody,” He replies indifferent, “maybe he would’ve tried to help me, but this wasn’t his problem, it was mine”

“When Sam was missing it was only Josh’s problem and you helped him find her”

Wesley shifts uncomfortably in his place, not looking at me.

“Y/N, You don’t get it.”

“You’re right, I don’t,” I say harshly, “I thought you had changed, Wesley. I was wrong, you’re still backing up the wrong people. And Eli,” I look at the boy, sincere hurt spreading on my chest, “I voted for you, you know? I never forgot it was you who got the mall first, I was thankful for that”

Eli avoids my stare, he maintains his attitude of not giving a shit, but I notice that his fists are tightly closed.

Angelica’s voice gets closer and I turn around to see her with Josh beside her. He looks terrible, I just hope is not my fault.

“Don’t blame us,” Eli interrupts their chat, “we tried murdelizing Josh so this wouldn’t happen”

“That’s a confession,” Says the girl that I think it’s Jessica.

“I didn’t say blit,” Eli frowns.

“You said you tried to kill Josh,” Angelica adds.

“Not what I said”

“It is”

“The you misheard me”

“I recorded it”

As they argue I keep my eyes fixed on them until Josh’s stare is impossible to ignore. I turn to him with my voice caught in my throat, unable to say anything, a joke, or a comforting phrase. Josh is frowning but is more a worried frown than an angry one. 

He probably has a lot in his head right now, disappointed that things aren’t going how he wanted. Well Wheeler, that’s another thing we have in common.

“If you’re looking for bad hombres then look around,” Eli’s voice brings me back and makes me look away from Josh, “these kids are here illegally. They didn’t come through an authorized port of entry. They didn’t apply for asylum. This is an invasion”

“You are so not helping yourself right now,” I reply, stepping closer to him as Josh steps away to see Wesley, “these kids could save your ass from being kicked out”

“You can’t kick me out of MY mall!” He defends.

“The mall is not yours only!” I exclaim, “We all deserve to be here!”

“You didn’t put all the safety traps, I did. You didn’t make sure everything was still working when the nuke dropped. I did,” He leans closer, “I have the right to stay”

What upsets me the most is that he has a point, we kind of invade his place. Although it’s big enough for all of us and he should be less whiny about it, he did make all the hard work for us.

“I trusted you,” Josh speaks behind me, “we were friends”

“You know how you’d do anything for Sam Dean or Y/N?” Wesley asks, “I get that”

I try to ignore the fact that he added me into the question like I’m on the same level as Sam, like Josh is that interested in me. Right now it causes me nothing but distress.

“It’s just,” He continues, “you don’t know Turbo the way I do”

“What else have you lied to me about?” Josh asks bitterly.

Something weird happens, it’s brief but I notice. Wesley looks at Angelica and I see her flinch, she steps in to interrupt them.

They’re hiding something.

“We should make sure Triumph is still locked up,” She says, “I’ll go check”

“Alright,” Josh mumbles.

“You can’t go alone,” I interrupt, “I’ll go with you”

“No, we need you here,” She shakes her head, then leaves without waiting for a response.

“Who?” I ask in confusion.

“What are we gonna do about them?” Asks Jessica.

“Why are you asking this dope?” Eli sneers, “Josh is such a wuss, his cock dropped off, hitchhiked to San Diego and is now getting his realtor’s license, all just to get away from Josh”

“Sometimes I wonder how were you so smart to put all those traps when all that comes from your mouth is so disgustingly stupid,” I say tiredly.

Josh gives him one exasperated look before turning back to Jessica.

“Why are you asking me?”

“I was asking to the both of you,” Jessica says, now looking at me as well, “we trust you”

Josh and I share the same startled look, he’s the first one to react.

“I don’t know what to do about these assholes,” He half-laughs, “look I’m not a judge or a lawyer. I’m just a kid, same as Turbo except... Turbo’s a spoiled brat who throws temper tantrums.”

“I still can’t believe he did all of this just cause he had a jealous fit,” I cross my arms, “he hurt innocent kids cause he thought Wesley was cheating, what kind of sick idiot does that?”

“He is never gonna leave me or us alone,” He looks back at me, “I don’t know if you saw her, but Maya was with him too. She’ll do anything to get back at you”

“I know,” I nod, feeling my mouth dry, “she tried to kill me last night, if it wasn’t for Alex...”

“I know,” Now he’s the one avoiding my eyes, “I don’t know how, but we need to take him out for good”

“Tyler told me Turbo got hurt by one of his weapons,” I reply, “that means we are not the only ones trying to get rid of him”

“What are you suggesting?” Jessica asks.

“I... I don’t know,” I’m frustrated with all these roads that take us nowhere, “we could look for a way to reach the right person, talk to them and convinced them to help... I just don’t know how or who”

“What about Wesley and Eli?” 

“I think...” I look over my shoulder to see my former friends.

I know I don’t have the courage to kick them out, not after Wesley got the medicines I needed to cure Josh and Eli’s right about how he arrived at the mall first.

“I think we have enough problems, better to lock them here instead of kicking them out. Keep your enemies close, right?”

I hear a few whispers of agreement and I feel a wave of relief washing over me. One less thing to worry about.

“Jessica, could you stay and keep an eye on them?” I ask, “I’ll send Alex your way in a moment with food for them and more indications”

“Okay,” She nods, sitting in front of the store. 

The rest of the kids scatter and I’m left with Josh, who is back with the intense stare. I feel calm enough to talk now. I’m still afraid, but it’s better if I also fix this once and for all.

“Can we talk?” I turn to him suddenly, making him jump.

“Yes,” He replies, quickly taking my good hand and walking to where the storage elevator is.

Once we’re there he lets go of my hand and stands as far as he can, I get the message that he thinks that I’m mad, or maybe he’s the one who’s mad.

“Listen I-”

“I don’t want-”

We speak at the same time and we stop, waiting for the other to start again, then I nod to him so he can speak first. Josh takes a deep breath.

“I shouldn’t have kissed you without asking first,” He says, “I let my emotions take over me again and before I knew it I was kissing you. I’ll understand if you want to stay away from me for a while, or if you want to go somewhere else with Alex.”

He’s not looking at me and his arms are crossed. He’s defensive because he thinks I’ll reject him. 

I don’t know if I’m going to reject him.

“Things are complicated,” I nod, “not only between us, is complicated outside too. Turbo wants your head and Maya wants mine, they’re working together against us. If you really think about it the kiss is the least of our problems”

I try to make him laugh but I fail miserably. Josh is really upset about this whole incident.

“It’s the only thing that I really care about,” He replies, “Y/N when I met you things were different and we wanted different things, we didn’t mean to stay. Things happened and we started talking and... maybe I changed my mind”

“What do you mean?” I say, though I definitely know the answer.

“I like you,” He looks up, “really like you. I like being around you, I feel like I have someone that gets me and I get you. Things just seem... easy”

I feel weird, I could hug him forever but also I’m about to have a breakdown. 

“How long have you felt this way?” I say with a shaky breath.

“Long enough to know is real,” Josh shrugs, “I was going to ask you to the dance and all... but Alex did it first.”

Before I can reply, Josh starts rambling.

“I don’t know why I’m telling you this when I know you don’t like me, it’s stupid. Alex is here now and all I’m doing is making you uncomfortable. You were being a good friend and I was stupid enough to think that maybe there was something going on between us-”

“You’re right,” I interrupt him, “I mean, you’re wrong about me not liking you. You’re right about the something between us.”

“What?” His arms fall to his sides.

“I have a massive crush on you, Josh.”

Saying it outside my head is weird, this is the first time I’ve ever confessed directly to a boy. It took me a while but I’m doing it... now what?

“You do?” He frowns.

“I was already into you when you recovered from your severed finger,” I chuckle nervously, “and I chose that stupid song for the soundtrack of our lives cause it made me think of us”

“It did?” Josh’s brain has short-circuited, considering he’s only capable of saying two words every time he opens his mouth.

“It’s cheesy” I shrug, “I thought that you’d understand what I was trying to say but I guess I was being too cryptid. Who could’ve guessed that anyway? I was just being dramatic. My head is too full of fanfic crap”

“I...” Josh struggles to find words, I’ve noticed that happens when he’s under a lot of stress, “wait, give me a minute”

“Alright,” I move closer, “don’t pass out right now, we’re in the middle of something here”

“Yeah, I know sorry” He bends over to support his hands on his knees, “I’m just trying to understand how am I such an idiot”

“I was oblivious too,” I add, trying to calm him down.

“I thought you and Alex were dating now”

“But I told you we were just friends,” I giggle. 

I’m obviously so nervous that I’m about to pee my overalls. 

...That’s something I never thought I would say.

“You went to the dance with him and got matching outfits. Who does that?” He inquires, “I thought that maybe after everything that happened you decided to give him a second chance" 

“Holy shit,” I gasp, “Alex and I love being dramatic, the matching outfits is something common between us... this is our second chance, Josh. Alex and I are giving our friendship a second chance”

“So... you’re not dating him?”

“I am not”

“But when I kissed you...”

I know it’s the worst time to think about the soundtrack of my life, but at the back of my head, I keep hearing the chorus of this one, product of our bizarre conversation.

“I kissed you back,” I admit, suddenly our mutual anxiety makes this conversation easier, “you know how I feel about being tied to someplace, or someone, if I’m being honest I got scared, I felt all these things and I don’t know how to deal with them. Worse yet, I didn’t know how you would react after. Alex told me he knew he didn’t like me after he kissed me, you did the same thing so I was afraid because...”

“I know I'll stay, I know I'll stay Right there with you...”

“That I would realize I’m not into you?” I look away, he steps closer and then his fingertips touch my skin, “Y/N, when I kissed you I felt a lot of things. All of them were positive.”

“That’s good to hear,” I reply in a high-pitched voice.

“You’re still scared about what could happen if we... you know, if we start something?” Josh asks me, I feel his hand moving from my wrist to my shoulder.

“If I don't know The wind will carry me So just hold tight”

“I don’t know,” I look down to his lips and then back up at his eyes.

“Okay, here’s a thought,” He says lowly, “What if we just don’t think about it? What if we just... do it”

I have few seconds to respond to that, I use them hurriedly, forcing something out of my mouth.

“It sounds difficult,” I feel my heart thumping against my ribcage, “but I’m kind of tired of boys stealing kisses from me and never coming back”

“It’s your choice,” His breathing is slow, his hand is softly touching my cheek, moving little hairs away from my face “whatever you want, I’ll follow”

We hear rushed steps towards us and I jump back. I was supposed to send Alex to Jessica.

“Fuck, I have to send Alex with Jessica,” I pass a hand over my face, trying to get rid of the fuzzy feeling in my brain. 

Angelica and Crumble appear, they’re on their way to see Triumph.

“Hi losers,” Angelica watches us carefully, “were you making out in here?”

“Get out of here,” Josh huffs, I can see him blushing.

“I was just asking,” Angelica rolls her eyes, “see ya in a bit, Crumble is coming with me”

“Be careful,” I reply.

They walk out and Josh and I share a look. The moment is hella ruined, yet there’s this buzzing feeling around us, one that the experts would call: Sexual Tension.

“We should go back,” I mumble, pointing over my shoulder with my thumb.

“Yeah,” Josh sighs, then he walks past me and smiles briefly.

I smile back.

I don’t know what’s going on inside my body but sure is something big, I don’t even feel like I have organs in there anymore. More like a mush of melted butterflies... that does not sound nice at all. I’m so sorry. I was trying to explain with other words that I’m freaking out.  

Not relevant! The point is... I think Josh and I are almost a... couple?

I won’t put a label on it yet, I’ll just wait and see what happens from here.

And what happens from here will surprise you! Click on the next page to find out.

...

Bad joke? I’m sorry, I do awful jokes when I’m nervous.

I go over to Alex and tell him he needs to stay and watch over Wesley and Eli while we find a way to fix this. My indications come with a list of four kids that will take turns with him so they can take long breaks. It has my signature at the bottom, so they know he’s not making things up. Then he asks me about Josh.

“I talked to him but I don’t actually know if something will happen between us”

“But?” He smiles, “C’mon! I know that face, something happened”

“He kissed me last night,” I cut him off before he starts screaming, “We aren’t together! I think we’re not. It’s complicated.”

“You will be,” He smirks, “it’s just a matter of time, I can see it. There’s no way he won’t fall in love with you”

“Shut up, nerd.”

“Fair enough,” He shrugs, “mark my words though”

“Go with Jessica.”

“Fine. See ya,” Alex looks over my shoulder and his smile grows, “enjoy your date”

“My what?” I frown, turning around I see Josh walking up to me. I roll my eyes, “Alex for fuck’s sake...”

He’s gone now, so he doesn’t hear me. Josh stops in front of me and puts his skateboard on the table on my right.

“Is it broken?” I ask, leaning closer to examine it.

Josh shakes his head.

“I’m just restoring a few parts”

“How long have you had it?”

“Since the nuke, about... Seven months?”

“I see,” I settle with just standing there next to him. It’s enough, I don’t even feel awkward about it. 

I should though, I’m staring at him like a creep. Luckily he doesn’t seem to mind and starts to make small talk. We chat casually and act like nothing’s changed. 

My brain doesn’t agree with us since its screaming “KISS HIM! KISS HIM! I LOVE HIS FACE!”

It’s embarrassing and I’m glad he can’t read minds. 

You can read mine though, so uh, I’m sorry for that.

KJ appears beside us, I see her struggle with something and I’m about to ask what’s wrong when she speaks. In English.

“You’re right. Turbo needs to go.”

I look at her with wide eyes, Josh looks up, slowly realizing who is talking to him.

“And now it’s the perfect time to do it. When he’s injured, hit by an arrow during the battle,” She speaks quickly, like she doesn’t want the rest of the kids to hear her, “Unfortunately, these mall kids are pure priss. They’re not even the kids who got picked last kickball. No, these are the kids who had a doctor’s note to get out of gym because they’re allergic to dander”

Josh takes a second to process what’s happening, then he asks:

“You speak English?”

“We are in America,” KJ replies matter of factly.

“English?” He replies, raising his voice.

“Josh!” I exclaim, looking around.

“You knew this?” He looks over at me, utterly confused.

“Yes?” I say nervously, “She didn’t want anyone to know so I kept it a secret...”

“That was nice of you,” KJ smiles politely, then looks back at Josh, “we all do what we need to survive. Suburban whities ignore anyone who doesn’t look and sound like you. People say anything around me because they think I don’t understand shit and that nets me information”

“That’s better than hiding in giant trash containers,” I agree.

“What?” Josh looks over at me.

“That’s how I used to spy on people.”

“Intel is the only currency that anyone can trade on,” KJ continues, ignoring my comment, “You wanna take out Turbo? You need a tribe with skills”

Josh stares at her for a few seconds.

“English?” He asks again, loudly.

KJ sighs heavily and rolls her eyes. I grab him by the arm and pull him with me, then I put my other hand on KJ’s shoulder and take them to a more private area.

“This will take a while...”

Taglist.

@letsbloodmagic @slythermyg @loving-u-3000​

[twoidiotwriters1]

Starcrossed Losers XVII (Josh Wheeler xReader)

A/N: Hello, and welcome to another chapter of: They can’t catch a break.

Words: 2,580

Warnings: None! Besides the heartbreak, i guess 

Previous chapter // Next chapter

Please do tag this as the most uncomfortable walk home in my life.

I know Josh is trying to talk to me, but I don’t want to talk, I know what he’ll say:

“I need to go get her”

And either if that means in a romantic way or platonic, I do not want to know.

You know, don’t ever, EVER tell your audience that you have the feeling things will go fine, it will make everything burst into flames and you’ll be lucky if you can walk once it ends.

Part of why every heartbreaking love song is so relatable is because humans just never learn from other people’s mistakes.

I guess I had to live through it to learn my lesson.

When we arrive at the mall Josh calls my name but I mumble something about needing medicine for my wrist and I slip away.

“You told me I would never see you walk away Said you'd never break my heart Never leave me in the dark”

Alex is waiting there for me, expecting the news of our little mission.

“For your looks I can tell things weren’t a success,” He smiles awkwardly, “what happened?”

I tell him everything (except the Josh issue) and how we only got to steal half of their spare weapons, for Alex that’s enough to be considered a half-win, just like I had planned.

Then he passes over to the next subject: Josh and I.

“So, did you talk to him?”

“He’s...” I turn my back to him and pretend I’m restocking the shelf, “He’s looking for Angelica and Wesley, he needs to have a serious talk with them...”

“Is he going to leave them in charge while you go on your honeymoon?” He asked in a teasing voice, “I could take care of the pharmacy while you’re gone, you know that”

“Alex, not now.”

“Seriously, I have your notebook and-”

“Sam Dean isn’t dead,” I blurt out, supporting my weight on the counter, “we saw her at school... she’s a jock.”

“Is she?” Alex frowned, “Funny, I never pictured her as one”

“Neither did I but she was there,” I sit back on my usual bench, “and now all is fucked.”

Alex sees my demeanor and steps closer.

“What do you mean?”

I look up at him, and it takes everything in me to not burst into tears.

“I guess there's just some promises you shouldn't make Should've known from the start

Now I'm in the dark”

“Everything was so perfect and easy for a moment, you know? I keep telling myself than one day these things won’t matter but... I’m so fucking sad”

“Y/N, why do I have the feeling you’re not telling me the whole story?”

“Because I’m not,” I huff, “and it’s not even important now. I know how things will end and all I can do is sit and wait for everything to be over soon so I can get over it.”

I tell him about the empty promises we made last night, about how we were naive enough to believe that we could do whatever we wanted. It’s shit, I hate plot twists that aren’t even that good.

Before Alex can give me his opinion, Tyler (you remember Tyler, right? Stupid boy who tried to stick his hand inside a vending machine?) walks in looking rather anxious, my friend and I fall silent and wait for him to talk.

“Hey, I don’t know if you knew but uh... I mean, I’m not snitching but since you were the one who kicked out that other girl I just assumed you were the one who made that kind of decisions but uh-” He looks over his shoulder, “Josh is about to kick out Eli, Wesley, and Angelica. Is that okay?”

No, no is absolutely not okay.

“He’s what?” I rush out of the store and find a group of kids whispering outside of where we used to have Eli and Wesley, they’re both gone.

“What’s going on?” I ask out loud.

Jessica sees me and answers before anyone else.

“Josh kicked out those three kids because they lied about Sam Dean’s death. He’s a the front door with them.”

When I get there he’s standing behind a table, a frown on his face while he reads a post-it note.

“I guess this tells me how things are gonna work now,” I cross my arms, standing a few feet away.

He looks up and his frown changes to a concerned expression.

“Y/N...”

“You kicked them out,” I interrupt him, “you, kicked out the children that were our first friends”

“They were liars,” He scoffs, “Sam’s alive! They manipulated me!”

“Show a little loving Shine a little light on me”

“You were going to look for her with a recently severed finger and an infection on your system! They looked after you even though they didn’t have to-”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know that Angelica did it with her own personal interests at stake. She’s evil, and I shouldn’t have trusted her.”

“It’s funny how yesterday she was the complete opposite when you were trying to convince me of fighting against Turbo”

“I didn’t force you to go, I was trying the opposite! You wanted to go so you could gain respect, and Maya also wanted your head”

“I’m just saying that your fantasy of being the hero is blinding you from the facts.”

“And what are the facts?”

“We don’t get rid of people who did things in order to keep us safe,” I reply, “Maya was a danger to our tribe, not them”

“They weren’t-?” Josh steps closer to me with slight exasperation, “Wesley literally invited the jocks to our mall so they could kill me, Eli helped! Angelica would’ve killed us days ago if it wasn’t because she’s smart enough to know that without us she wouldn’t be able to lead these kids.”

“They are our friends!” I insist.

“They’re traitors!”

“I'm in the dark I can't see Can't see it...”

Josh has built up anger and he’s not willing to let it go. I understand to an extent, Sam was important to him and he grieved and cried for her, he even lost a finger for her. I know this was built above a huge, cruel lie.

But Eli gave us a home, Wesley gave us back our youth and always tried to make us feel valid, Angelica assembled our tribe. Is it really wrong when the rest of their actions were well-meant?

“What are you trying to do, Josh?” I finally ask.

“What?” He frowns.

“What are you trying to do?” I repeat, “You have a place and so does Sam, you saw her, she doesn’t need to be saved”

“Feeling my way back to you I can't feel Can't feel it”

“How do you know that?” He tells me in an affected voice, “You saw her too, she was in the classroom with the scared kids, she didn’t seem happy.”

“She’s a jock”

“She’s Turbo’s prisoner!”

“You believe that?” I let a second pass without an answer, “Do you really think that Sam’s been waiting for you this whole time? She’s not an idiot, it’s been half a year, no sane person would sit and wait for their knight in shining armor when the world has literally ended. Especially since she has no fucking idea that you’re alive after all this time.”

“I don’t need to hear this,” He’s almost crying, but I force myself to continue.

“You do, more than anyone,” Josh tries to leave, but I stand on his way, “What Wesley and An did was horrible, and they played with our hearts and you have all the right in the world to be angry... but I think you should also know that Sam clearly has moved on... and so should you.”

“You don’t know her at all,” He hisses, “you don’t even know me that well either, we’ve been talking for what, two weeks? Suddenly you think you’re this wise girl that knows what’s best for me just cause we kissed a couple times. You don’t know shit, Y/N.”

“You told me I would never see you go astray Said we'd never be apart Never leave me in the dark”

My inner voice slips into my train of thoughts whispering ‘Sad stories tend to repeat themselves’ when Josh finishes talking. 

This is exactly what he did to Sam, he felt vulnerable, and when she tried to help him he just pushed her away as much as he could. 

And when Sam left, I walked into the scene. He treated me like he treated Sam, he shared things and it made me feel like he was opening his heart to me. I fell as easy as a leaf.

I don’t have a way of knowing if he ever meant what he said moments before knowing about Sam, I can’t even tell if he still likes me right at this moment.

It makes me feel used. So used that I don’t even feel sad. I’m angry with him and with myself, I believed him and now I’m second best. 

“Cool,” I say as neutral as possible, “you know what, Josh? I don’t give a fuck about you do with your time. Kill yourself trying to save Sam, is not my fucking business. I’ll just ask you one thing: Don’t even try to stand in my way, because I worked hard to get us weapons, and I worked hard to win a place in this mall. If you even think about taking it away from me, I won’t hesitate to get rid of you too.”

“Just feeling my way back to you I can't feel Can't feel it”

Josh glares at me before leaning toward my face, the memory of the previous night flashes before my eyes, however, I don't feel the same tingling at all.

“Have fun trying.”

He walks away and I stay a bit longer, looking around. 

“What now?” I whisper tiredly.

“Show a little loving Shine a little light on me”

__________________________________

I spend the next hour angrily assigning a weapon to each kid, we’re not a lot and we won’t use all the weapons. Still, I think it’s better to give them one in case of an emergency.

“You better don’t use this with each other,” I warn them once I’m done, “the first kid that comes into my pharmacy with an arrow in their ass will be kicked out immediately, you hear me?”

The kids mumble their agreement and scatter, leaving me alone with Alex.

“I take that your chat with Josh had no use?”

“Josh is the one that has no use,” I scoff, “you know who’s spent the majority of her time looking after these people? Me. He’s somewhere around thinking what he’s gonna do next to drag his ex-girlfriend into the mall, he doesn’t care about anyone but himself.”

“Alright, you’re angry,” Alex steps back, grabbing a box with weapons and starting to walk away, “I’ll leave you alone so you can ramble in peace, be right back”

“Sure.”

KJ walks in at the same time Alex leaves.

“Are you and Josh a thing?”

“Fuck no,” I scoff, “that asshole can suck it.”

“Okay, then I can trust you,” She walks up to me, “he asked me to go with him to the Highschool so he could save Sam.”

“I assume you said no.”

“I’m not risking my life to save his crush!” KJ frowns, “I am worried though, about how he looked. He told me he ‘didn’t know who he was anymore’, I think he’s having a crisis. That could seriously be a problem for us.”

“He’s having a crisis because he’s a stubborn little shit,” I say, “I tried to help him realize what he’s doing is complete bonkers. You know what he said? That I don’t know him. If I don’t know him and neither does he, I guess he’ll just have to die.”

“Wow, you’re really upset,” She says, “you liked him a lot, didn’t you?”

“No. I don’t know. Maybe.”

I sigh, defeated.

“You saw it, didn’t you? You saw us kissing.”

“You looked cute,” KJ shrugs, “I mean, it was weird cause you did it in front of me, but you seemed to get along, you’re a good team.”

“It’s all a lie,” I pass a hand through my hair, “or at least I think it was. He was right, you know? I don’t know him. I can’t tell if the way he treated me all this time was cause he was looking for a rebound or if he actually cared and that upsets me. How am I supposed to make up my mind about him if I don’t even know what’s real and what’s not?”

“For what I’ve seen, I can tell that Josh is intense with everything. I mean really intense, he tends to do and say things however he pleases and when he wants. You’re more sentimental but creative, you fix things because it makes you happy, you pay attention to the details. I think Josh does care about you, but he gets overwhelmed with his own emotions and doesn’t know how to act on them. I think you know too much about many things now, so you can’t let yourself care about him.”

I stare at her in awe.

"Have you always been able to read people like that?"

“I’d never had this kind of conversations before, you’re the first person that asks me these sort of stuff,” She smiles, “I like you because of that”

“Thanks,” I smile back, “let’s say you’re right and I still want to fix things with Josh; and let’s say that Josh sees that I’m right and he moves on. What should I do?”

“That’s up to you,” KJ shrugs, “I don’t think that something good can happen if you don’t even try.”

With that, I make up my mind and look for Josh so we can try and have a more civilized conversation. 

Fate doesn’t want us to fix things though, cause when I finally found him, I find out he told Crumble she could go if she wanted to be with Angelica.

“Who’s next on your exile list?” I tell him, “Mavis?”

Josh rolls his eyes and starts to walk away.

“Don’t start this again, Y/N.”

“I’m not here to start anything,” I shake my head, “I came here to fix things. I can see you haven’t changed your mind.”

“You can forget about it already,” He shrugs it off, “I told you I don’t need any of your lectures, I made up my mind.”

“Terribly, by the way. You’re turning into a much more vile version of Eli, did you know that? Soon enough you’ll be trying to convince us to call you ‘master’.”

“S’not funny.”

“I wasn’t joking” 

I read the wall on my right, Josh wrote a pretty useless list on it:

Plan To Save Sam

Make a plan

This pen isn’t working

Get a new pen

“You’re really the charming prince my mom told me about, huh?” I tease.

The fire alarm shoots off and the kids around us stop in fear.

“Everyone calm down!” Josh tells them, “Just Eli!”

“He’s back?”

“He keeps trying to sneak in,” He replies.

“Well let him in, he deserves the mall, he got here first.” 

“I told you to knock it off, I won’t have them back”

“If you won’t have them back,” I say, gathering the courage for my next words, “then I’ll leave.”

For a moment I can see a flash of panic going through his eyes, and I even think he will listen to me. But then his frown returns, much stiffer than before.

"You can do what you want, I don't decide for you," he sighs heavily, "I'll be right back, I have to turn off the alarm."

I can’t even utter a word, when he starts to leave.

I ran out of choices, I can’t do anything for my friends, or me, for that matter.

Or... maybe I can.

I go to the mattress store and throw an empty backpack to Alex.

“What’s this?”

“Your backpack.”

“Why would I need a backpack?”

“Well, I thought it would be nice to give you the option.”

“What are you doing?” Alex frowns, getting up from the bed.

“I’m leaving the mall.”

Taglist.

@letsbloodmagic @slythermyg @loving-u-3000​

[twoidiotwriters1]

Starcrossed Losers V (Josh Wheeler xReader)

A/N: We get some interaction between Y/N and Angelica/Wesley. I hope that’s enough for you guys lmao

Words: 2,271

Warnings: This is basically a tutorial on how to not fix a severed finger. Blood and swearing. 

Previous chapter // Next chapter

“Hey Wheeler, stay with me,” I slap his face lightly to keep him alert, “c’mon dude, Angelica's coming.”

Alex was sort of right about me. I take care of my people. Not that Josh is exactly my people, but he’s the closest thing I’ve had to that in a long time. I’m aware it’s only been a day, but still, I don’t want him to die. He worked so hard to find Sam I think it’d be shitty if he doesn’t get to reunite. I’ll stay and help, so my departure has been delayed.

“I’m an idiot,” He mumbles half-conscious, “I’m an idiot with no index finger on his left hand”

And I try, I try so hard to avoid laughing cause this isn’t a fun situation. Josh is losing a lot of blood. I can see the bone and muscles of his finger. I try and I fail cause it’s so ridiculous. He got bitten and instead of asking he jumped straight into the “guess I’ll cut it” part. Now he has no finger, and he is an idiot, but I have to act like he’s not so he doesn’t feel worse.

“It’s ok, everybody makes mistakes from time to time,” I reassure him, “we’ll figure it out, we have to cauterize the cut and maybe we’ll have to sew it. We can fix it. Now be good and keep your hand high while I cut a piece of this.”

He obeys and I rip the lower part of my shirt. I wash it hurriedly on the sink to get rid of most of the dust and when I’m done I kneel in front of him again and press the tip of his finger tightly. He screams and I shush him.

“Don’t move your hand! I’ll take care of this, just don’t move.”

“I’m back!” Angelica’s carrying duct tape and bandages on her arms, she drops them in front of me, “we should get to work.”

“You must have a lighter on that backpack,” I tell her, “get it along with Josh’s sword. We have to warm it hot enough to help us stop the bleeding.”

“You sure you know how to do this?” She asks skeptically.

“Do I look like a fucking doctor? No, I don’t but we have to do something,” I push her lightly towards the exit, “Get your backpack!”

“Okay! I’m on it!” She huffs, running back out.

“Weren’t you about to leave?” His eyes are tightly shut and his voice comes out harsh from clenching his teeth, I shush him again.

“I can’t leave you like this, can I? That’d be shitty of me, considering you help me get supplies and all”

“I just brought you to the mall, you got all that on your own”

“Still, if it wasn’t for you we’d still believe this is Baron’s territory,” Angelica comes back and kneels beside me, she grabs the sword and puts the end above the flame of her lighter.

“You don’t have any kind of anesthesia on that magical bag of yours, do you?”

“Sorry, no,” The girl replies without looking away from her job, “and the pharmacy is on Eli’s side, those things are the only stuff I could find.”

“Eli’s side?” I ask, “He locked us up again?”

“No. Wesley locked Eli,” She answers, “I need something stronger than my lighter, this won’t cut it.”

“Didn’t you have a blowtorch or something?”

“Sorta,” She stands up again, “I’ll be back!”

“Well, we have to wait like, ten minutes for the bleeding to decrease anyway.”

“How do you know this stuff?” Josh asks, a bit reluctant. 

Because I read it on a fanfic once.

“You know... you don’t get bored during the holidays and google weird shit?”

“I-I don’t know, I guess?” He shrugs, then goes back to whining.

“Hey, crying won’t make it stop, tiger,” I tell him, “and it makes me nervous”

“I just fucking cut my finger, Y/N! I know crying doesn’t help but sure as fuck relieves the tension!” He snaps.

“Swearing is better, I can swear with you,” I offer, then look back at the blood dripping from the fabric, “Shit, I really fucking hate that you did this, are you out of your mind?”

“I just said I’m fucking stupid!”

“Are you swearing cause I told you to, or cause it’s actually helping?” I giggle, I do that a lot when I’m nervous.

“I think a bit of both?” He takes a deep breath, then screams at the top of his lungs, “FUCK!”

I laugh harder this time. This is surreal as fuck, here I am, holding Josh Wheeler’s severed hand, listening to his swearing concert while Angelica runs back to the bathroom with her blowtorch and points it to the sword, setting it off immediately. After the longest ten minutes of my life, Angelica let us know the sword is ready, or at least, she thinks it is. And she’s supposed to be the smart one so I trust her.

“Bite this, lover boy,” I pull the belt from the cutting board and give it to him, “cause this is gonna hurt worse than anything you’ve ever experienced in your life.”

Josh looks at me in panic and puts his belt between his teeth, firmly closing his mouth (and eyes) so it’s my turn now.

“Don’t fuck up what’s left of his finger,” Angelica warns me.

“Noted,” I say, taking the sword with shaky hands, “okay Josh, one...”

And I put the seething metal against his injury. I always heard is better if you do it without notice. There’s no way someone can prepare for the pain, to make a countdown for it is torture. 

Josh screams but his voice is muffled by the belt on his mouth. I wait six, seven, eight seconds to retreat it and I see that his flesh is burnt and ruined, but is not bleeding anymore. He faints right after that.

“At least he waited till the end,” I sigh, when I look back I realize Wesley is also there and is looking at me with terror in his eyes, “oh, hi. Can you give us a hand?”

“What the..?”

“Stupid Josh cut his finger cause a Ghoulie bit him and thought he’d get infected.”

“Is he, like, still alive?”

“Yup, he just needs to sleep for a while, I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

“We should put the bandage now while he’s asleep and can’t complain as much,” Angelica mentions, giving me the stuff.

“Right,” I nod, “uh, Wes, you think you can bring me a bowl and put water in it so I can wash his hand?”

“What?” He looks at me like he just woke up and then blinks rapidly, “oh, yeah. Sure, be back.”

“Good job,” Angelica examines Josh’s hand with interest, “is this the first time you do it?”

“Thankfully, yes. I’m not sure he’ll be fine or if I actually helped, maybe I just fucked it up even more...”

“Nah, he’s a lucky guy, I’m sure he’ll make it out.”

“Hope so.”

“I heard him say you were leaving,” Her voice is softer now, and I know she’s doing it on purpose, “are you leaving us even if Josh’s hand isn’t fully recovered?”

“No,” I grumble, “I’ll stay until I’m sure he’s better. It’s the least I can do.”

“Perfect!” She stands up happily, “so like, a month or so, right? That’s enough time.”

“A month?! Enough time for what-” I look over at her in confusion but she’s already turned her back to me and is walking out of the restroom, “Angelica, that’s enough time for what?!”

Wesley gets back and has a bowl and several small towels on his hands.

“I thought you might need these too...” He signals to the towels on his left hand, then he steps closer and puts the bowl under the sink, “so Y/N... I guess you must hate me too.”

“I don’t, Wesley,” I’m not looking at him since I’m trying to put Josh in a more comfortable and easy position to clean his hand, but I can hear the nervousness on Wesley’s voice, so I figure it’s a good moment to set the record straight, “Do I think you were an idiot back in Highschool? Totally. I hated how you washed your hands from your friends’ shitty actions; all that is over now, though. We’re not in Highschool anymore and holding grudges over something that happened back then would be stupid.”

“You’re the first one to say that to me,” He lets out a nervous laugh, I hear his steps getting closer and his hand appears at my eye level with the bowl and a towel, I take them silently and start to clean Josh’s hand.

“Well, I’m not the one you bothered the most at school, if things were different, maybe I’d still be hating you. I still hate Hoyles, for example. And Turbo is no better. At least you do your weird samurai shit without annoying others.”

“I guess...” He sits beside me, waiting for me to finish my work, “I don’t really remember you from Highschool if I’m honest.”

“But you knew my name,” I give him a quick look, “when I got here with Josh, you said my name.”

“Yeah, cause I knew you from my time with the jocks and Turbo. You were always around School, doing this and that, whatever it was that Mona Lisa asked you to do. And you never spoke much with others. I saw you walk away from some of the Football players that tried to flirt”

“I wasn’t very fond of any of them. I was there for survival only. Then I decided I would be fine on my own and left,” Josh mumbles something and I stop what I’m doing, however, he’s still asleep and I start to put the bandage around his hand, “the real question here is, why did you go? You were Turbo’s right-hand man, you had everything”

“I didn’t have my freedom,” He answers, “Turbo can be... possessive, with his closest friends.”

“That sucks,” I finish the bandage and look over for the tape.

“Here,” He grabs it from behind me and I take it with a soft ‘thanks’, “so what’s your story, then? You had no friends on Highschool or something?”

“What’d you mean?”

“Why are you on your own?”

“Oh. Well, I did have friends,” I’m careful to wrap the tape only around the bandage and not the skin, so it doesn’t hurt him when he has to pull it off, “I had plenty, but you know how it is when a group of friends is not united by some common liking or hobby. When they’re just your friends cause you like them and that’s all. They felt like our group was lacking some kind of essence. So they went to the tribes that felt right for them.”

“And you?”

“There’s no tribe that specializes in doing random teenager stuff,” I chuckle, “I liked art stuff. And I wasn’t a fan of the Kardashians or did sports, or farming, or knew about tech and games... the Cheeramazons asked too much... I had this friend, Alex. He and I were a team. Until he also left.”

“That sucks,” Wesley nods, “but hey, you’re welcome to stay with us as long as you want. Me and Angelica, cause Josh will flee as soon as he feels better.”

“And I will do too,” I reply, finishing my work and cleaning my hands with the towel, “thanks for the offer, Wes, but I don’t feel like joining any group. I just don’t feel that works for me anymore, you know?”

“Hey, I’m no one to tell you how to live your life,” He shrugs, “you’re free to do as you please.”

“Sure,” I smile at him, “you’re kinder than what I had originally thought.”

“Thanks,” He nods, “you’re cooler than I thought. Now let me help you with this obsolete boy”

We get up and together grab Josh by the arms and put each one around our necks to take him somewhere where he can lay and rest. Angelica sees us and tells us that there’s a bed inside the store on our right, so that’s where we take him.

“Now what?” Wesley asks me. 

I have no clue about what the fuck am I doing, and I’m not their leader, Josh kind of was. Isn’t it Wesley the one who should be telling me what to do now that Josh is out?

“I should be asking you that,” I frown, “Aren’t you like the second in command?”

“Fuck no, I’m not doing that again so soon,” He raises his hands, stepping back, “you’re the one who did all the curing, you know better”

“I know shit,” I reply, “I did what I think it could work to save him but if that doesn’t work someone has to take care of this cause Triumph might come back, or Turbo might still be looking for all of you and Angelica is your responsibility now.”

“Hey, I don’t need a fucking babysitter, Doctor House,” Angelica replies from her place next to Crumble who somehow got a hold of Josh’s finger and is practically drooling, “so don’t try to use me.”

“Fine,” I walk out of the store.

“Hey, where are you going?”

“I’m going to get Josh’s stuff from the bathroom and bring them here. Then I’m going to get my backpack and hammer and also bring them here. Let’s wait until Josh wakes up if he wakes up.”

Taglist.

@letsbloodmagic @hollywaterpls​

[twoidiotwriters1]

Starcrossed Losers XVI (Josh Wheeler xReader)

A/N: This is when I tell you to be ready to get a tad sad.

Words: 5,605

Warnings: None!

Previous chapter // Next chapter

KJ is a fucking genius. 

She knows things I didn’t even know were a thing, the info currency? Why would someone need those?

Then I thought about our situation and I went ‘Oh, that’s why’.

We have to cross half of the town to get to where we could find someone who could talk to a member of Turbo’s tribe. You better be sure I brought my skates and Katie with me (I named my hammer after my sister, you know, it helps me cope... sort of). 

That also means we have to cross different tribe’s territories. The shortest road is through the uh, cowboys tribe thing... 4-H? I just realized how I said I know every inch of the city, I do, but the people in it? Not so much.

Tribes have expanded, I know the basic ones: Cheeramazons, Jocks, and the derivatives of the jocks. I know somewhere there are gamers, the cowboys and Kardashian... I know I’m missing lots and lots but is not really a big deal, I’m just a girl, I don’t have to know everything.

Anyway, 4-H accepts the food and allow us to go through their territory, fifteen minutes later we found ourselves on a narrow alley, in front of us there’s a big trailer box with videogames characters drawn all over it.

KJ knocks on it with a rock and a small compartment opens, a crossbow points directly to KJ’s head and we jump back. 

The person inside speaks but I don’t understand what they say, KJ answers back and after a few, scary seconds, the crossbow disappears.

“That wasn’t Chinese,” says Josh.

“It’s Dothraki,” She answers simply, “I also know Na’vi, Elvish and a little Hebrew.”

She looks over her shoulder and shrugs.

“The JCC had a good preschool.”

Josh grins, clearly impressed by the girl’s abilities. I'm... astonished, to say the least. This girl is a box of surprises all around.

So the gate opens and KJ is the first one to enter, then me, then Josh. The room is dark and we can only see the helmet of the person in front of us. They slap KJ across the face and I gasp.

“You’ve got some nerve KJ, after the shit you pulled in Frogtown,” Says the person in a somehow robotic voice.

When they take off the helmet, I recognize the girl.

There’s a silence before KJ and her laugh, high fiving each other.

“Meet Aria Killigan and her elite strikeforce, The Game Overs.”

“I know who she is,” I tilt my head, smirking, “this is what you ended up doing after leaving?”

“Y/N?” Aria gives me a half-smile, “What are you doing with KJ?”

Aria and I weren’t the closest friends, but she used to sit with us during lunch and she’d spend the whole time fighting with Alex about crazy Star Wars theories. She was the one who introduced Stuart to us. 

I remember her as a sharp, fun person. When the apocalypse happened she stayed with us a few days and one morning she was gone without explanation, I never heard from her again. 

Until now, of course.

Inside there are three kids that were usually with her during free hours, playing on their phones. Unfortunately, I never learned any of their names, I don’t think they care, though. They didn’t even turn to look at us as we got in.

“These are assassins?” I hear Josh behind me, asking in what it sounds a skeptical tone, “You play videogames”

“We’re combat-ready unit. Check out our Ghoulie kill-count,” She points to a bunch of pictures of celebrities.

“Jonah Hill’s kind of an easy target,” Josh says.

“Fat Jonah Hill sure, but skinny Jonah Hill is agile AF”

“What were his last words?” Asks KJ.

“I’m friends with Brad Pitt,” Answers Aria.

“Of course,” KJ nods along.

“Can we focus on the plan for a moment?” I ask.

“You can’t be for real,” My friend scoffs, “this is like a ten-year-old’s birthday party playing games on Nerf mode.” 

“We’re online in elite arenas,” Replies Aria, “the bombs didn’t knock out satellites. We’re playing across the globe: Korea, Norway, Brazil...”

“We’re not the only ones left,” KJ adds, “there’s a whole wide world”

“Is it... Is it the same everywhere?” Josh asks, “Like, just kids no adults or do they have adults like Baron Triumph and the Witch? Are there animals mutating? Do they know why this happened? Why the bombs went off of why we survived?”

I was expecting this to be everywhere, not gonna lie. Adults wouldn’t just give up California so easily to kids if that wasn’t the case.

Still, it breaks my heart. I feel like they’ve taken away all the possibilities I had to build my own life how I wanted, now the only thing I can aspire to have is enough food for the month and don’t get my scalp burnt with acid rain. Oh yeah, we have those now more than ever.

Aria rolls her eyes and looks at KJ and me.

“What’s the mission?”

“Liquidate Turbo Bro-Jock,” says KJ.

“Fuck off,” scoffs Aria, going back to her chair.

“Don’t get shook!” KJ exclaims.

“No,” She replies, “Highschool taught us one thing: there are winners and there are losers. The best way to live: don’t pick sides. That’s why gamers are anonymous.”

I used to agree with that philosophy. I was a loner with no strings attached that would stop me from survival. The thing is that I can’t stay away from the problem when the problem is after my head, specifically. 

I can’t afford to step back and hope for forgiveness. I have to act.

“Don’t forget who pulled you out of the shit in Encino,” Huffs KJ, “you owe me. If you do this, you’re off my books”

“Listen, Aria, I know it sounds crazy but you wouldn’t be doing this on your own. I spent time with the jocks, I was their cleaning lady before Owen appeared and I know everything about the traps and secrets entrances but I can’t do it without someone helping us from inside. You think you can find one?”

Aria takes a moment to think, then sighs.

“Fine. We’ll help you,” She scoffs, Aria turns on her screen and we step closer, “we’ve been playing Overwatch with a Jock. His username is 5318008. This dude wants to kill Turbo for real.”

“He’s the one that’s gonna help us?” Asks Josh, looking at the screen.

“That’s the plan,” Aria shrugs, “our inside man should be online soon.”

“Okay,” I nod, “tell him that I’ll help. I mean, don’t tell him my name cause they surely won’t remember me but do tell him that there’s someone who knows their way in and only needs someone to make sure the hall will be empty when we get in”

“Sure,” Aria looks at me for a second, “I’m glad you’re alive, Y/N. Is Alex still with you?”

“He came back like a week ago, he’s fine,” I smile, “as annoying as ever... you know anything about Stuart?”

“I don’t know where he is,” She shrugs, “sorry I bailed on you, I simply didn’t feel like that was my place.”

“I understand, we weren’t perfect,” I sigh.

She leans her back against the seat and turns aggressively towards Josh.

“Hey, quit fogging up my screen, mouth breather!”

“Come,” Grumbles KJ, standing up and pulling Josh with her.

“I’ll leave you to it,” I tell her, “thank you, seriously.”

Aria has her eyes fixed on the screen. 

When I get to where Josh and KJ are, I hear them arguing in hurried whispers.

“I had no idea any of this was here”

“Because you’re an epic noob.”

“I do fine, thank you,” Josh frowns.

“Doing fine is why you’re a noob,” She replies, “that goes for the both of you”

“Not fair,” I reply in a grumble, “I know how to defend myself”

“By hiding inside trash containers?”

“Better to be a liar, like you?” Josh is quick to ask.

“Don’t you get it?” She scoffs, “Moral codes are worth less than stale Cheetos.”

That I don’t agree. We don’t have any rules but it doesn’t mean I’ll be going full savage on people. I’m a good person! Adults fucked up the world because they were too busy ‘trying to survive’ on their cruel society by cheating and stepping on others, can’t they see how this is exactly the same shit?

“If you’re such a ninja then how come you were caught by Triumph?”

“First, that’s racist. And second, you were caught too.”

“It wasn’t our fault! The jocks had cornered us into an alley.”

“And I got us free,” Adds Josh.

“Because of me,” KJ scoffs.

“Why are you even helping us?” He frowns, “You don’t seem like the type who’d do something for nothing”

“I don’t,” She responds coldly.

That sends a shiver up my spine and causes me to stop their arguing.

“I get that you’ve been surviving on some kind of trading favors and collecting debts but can’t you see that’s the kind of issue that ended the world in the first place? I’m not saying we should form a circle and tell our biggest insecurities but maybe cut us some fucking slack, it’s us the ones that have been getting death threats”

“Turbo throws death threats to everyone. If you can’t handle it, maybe you shouldn’t be the leaders”

“You shouldn’t be threatening us with that,” I reply, now upset, “I don’t look like the killing type, but I assure you, I can get rid of nuisances. I have.”

KJ glares at me, for a second I think she’s gonna kick us out, tell us that she’s changed her mind and she’ll tell Aria to stop her search. Luckily for me, Aria speaks up.

“Yes!” She exclaims, “All right. 5318008 is on board. He’ll help us get inside the school. We move at 1700, full battle rattle. Tonight, we squelch Turbo Pokaski.”

“Cool,” I feel my hands getting colder, “nice! I need a moment.”

I get out, the skates don’t make it easier, so I step on a few feet by accident. I manage to leave the room and walk out to the narrow alley. I sit on an old tire and lean my face against my good hand.

Going back to school wasn’t on my plans for the summer, let alone killing Turbo. I know I kinda threatened KJ with killing her is she tries to kick us out of the mall but that was me trying to sound scary. I don’t kill people! I swore off killing after smashing my sister’s head, which sounds horrid enough.

Ghoulies don’t count, they don’t really feel and they’re no longer people. Turbo? That’s a whole different thing.

I need to calm myself down cause either if I want it or not it’s gonna happen, so my mind needs to be clear when the time comes. 

Songs always calm me down. I try to think of one and my brain runs hurriedly through the folders and folders of songs I’ve learned through the years. 

I’m a good person, so I’ll share the song with you.

“I wanna be a great one I wanna make a million dollars Making all my days count Clowning with my day ones...”

I slowly start to sing under my breath, my eyes tightly closed and my hands still cold as ice. 

I don’t want to do this. This is all the adults’ fault. If it wasn’t because of their stupid nuclear war and their thirst for power I would still be going to school, normal as ever, spending time with my friends and planning my future.

I had a plan, you know? I was going to study to become an artist. I wanted to be rich and live in a small house in Europe where everyday the mornings would be soft and the nights cold but cozy. I was going to be the best of... of whatever I was supposed to be. Now I don’t have a plan. 

Well, I do. 

I’m about to kill a kid.

“You have a nice voice”

I jump and cut my singing instantly, looking over my shoulder with wide eyes.

“Josh, could you not do that when I’m on the verge of a breakdown?”

“A breakdown?” He raises a brow, “You know, you don’t have to go if you don’t want to”

“I have to,” I shake my head, “I’m the only one who knows the way in, I can’t let them down. Aria agreed to this only cause I’m taking the risk too.”

“I’m sure she’ll understand”

“They’ll understand shit,” I frown, “didn’t you hear KJ? As soon as we show weakness they’ll eat us. I can’t have that after all I’ve been through.”

“KJ was just bluffing, I’m sure she doesn’t have what it takes to lead the kids”

“And we do?” I huff, “Josh look at us, we’re unknown children. The only reason they respect and ‘trust us’ is because they think that what you did back with Triumph is what we do on the daily”

“You think they’ll turn on us?”

“If what KJ said is true and they have no morals, yes.”

Josh sits beside me, now he looks as affected as me.

“That’s why I have to go,” I continue, “if I take direct part on Turbo’s death, you and I will seem bulletproof. The guy that beat Triumph and the girl that killed Turbo? We’ll be safe for the rest of our lives... that’s something, considering I’ll have to stay here for the rest of my fucking existence.”

I see how he turns to look at me by the corner of my eye.

“I think that going over to kill Turbo is not the real reason why you’re upset.”

“This is not how I was planning to spend my teenage years,” I reply, “I feel like I’m the only person alive with common sense on the area and that means I’ll have to spend the rest of my life hiding from people if I don’t want to get killed for something as stupid as fake power.”

“That’s a bit unfair on the rest of us,” Josh scoffs, “what about Angelica and Alex? They’re good people. Alex came back because he cares about you and Angelica adores you and would do anything for you, even if she’s too stubborn to admit it. That’s the reason why she didn’t light Maya on fire, she has a flexible moral, but she’s loyal. Don’t listen to KJ. You’re not alone.”

“Can’t you see that’s exactly the problem?” I ask in exasperation, “If I were alone I could just disappear and try in a different city, I could move away”

“So you’re saying we’re stopping you from being happy?”

“I’m saying that I would give zero shits to loyalty and morals if I hadn’t met you in the first place. You ruined everything.”

This is the reason why I keep my mouth shut when I’m angry.

Josh looks at me in stunned silence, his face is one of innocent surprise at first, then he looks pissed.

“Let me make things easier for you,” He stands up and leaves.

No song can fix this now.

I stand up again, easing my breathing and checking my phone. It’s a quarter ‘til five, time to leave.

The Game Overs get out of their cave and Aria gives me a small mike.

“What’s this?”

“We have to be connected while we walk around the school looking for Turbo.”

“We’re gonna break the group?”

“We cover more areas like that”

“We’ll die faster like that”

“Just do as she says,” KJ interrupts me, “Aria knows what she’s doing.”

I look at Josh, searching for a sign that he supports me. He ignores me, arms crossed and avoiding my eyes.

I don’t have time for boy’s tantrums. What I said was wrong and it hurt him and I will apologize, but right now I just don’t have the time.

“Alright,” I say, putting the microphone on, “let’s go.”

“Good luck,” Says KJ.

It takes us exactly half an hour to arrive at the limits of the school. Aria stands next to me.

“Very well, Vinchi,” Aria tells me, “lead the way.” 

“Please, don’t call me Vinchi,” I say, “what did the jock tell you?”

“He’s waiting for the lights to drop,” She says, “so you better tell us how to do that”

“Here,” I walk over to where the parking lot is, we have to move quietly, my skates are certainly loud but it looks like they’re on lockdown and no one’s outside.

It takes us a few minutes, but I manage to find the main power source and they’re quick to cut it. We walk over to the cafeteria’s back entrance and we enter quietly through the kitchen. I hear Aria talking through her microphone.

“Power is cut, username 5318008 said that we could find Turbo in Mrs. Fitz old class”

I stop moving.

“That’s not where he is”

“Everyone move into kill positions,” Aria ignores me.

They scatter around me.

“Aria!” I whisper-yell, “Aria, listen to me! Turbo’s room is the principal’s office, not Mrs. Fitz classroom! I cleaned it a thousand times-”

“Y/N, stop talking or they’ll find us!” Aria tells me through the mike, “Move!”

I have a bad feeling about this, but I can’t leave them alone.

“Shit,” I whisper once I’m out of the cafeteria, “Where are you?”

They’re really good, fast. I can’t see where they went.

Everyone tells me their positions, then Styx gets deadly quiet.

“Styx is fragged,” I hear Josh say.

“I knew it!” I respond, “Aria, this was a fucking trap.”

“Everyone hold their position,” She insists, “Y/N, don’t you dare try something outside the plan”

“Sorry, Aria,” I reply.

Of course, the next thing I do is quit the plan.

“Bronyboy is offline,” KJ says.

Okay, what the fuck do I do now? It looks like my fate is to fail forever in every plan I’ve ever made. So new plan: Improvise.

I hated when characters used to do that in movies or tv shows, like ‘Oh sure I’ll improvise and then everything will miraculously turn out better than expected’ cause you know that’s not true. You know as soon as you try to improvise, shit blows up and you end up losing. We are not good at improvising. That’s a recipe for disaster.

So I might as well try it, am I right? My life is a fucking mess already and Josh hates me, let’s go and die.

As I move through the halls my brain is almost melting, desperately trying to find a sort of plan B that could get us out. 

“Something is wrong here, something is really fucking wrong.”

“I told you five minutes ago, this was a trap,” I growl, “User five-six-whatever lied to us. Now we have to get our asses outside!”

“You’re the last ones standing, guys,” Says Josh, referring to me and Killigan.

“Fuck! Turbo isn’t in Mrs. Fitz class, there’s just some scared kids in here...”

I hear hurried steps on my right and I move as fast as I can to the closest door... a janitor’s closet. I open it silently, closing the door behind me.

“Y/N, where are you?” Asks KJ.

Her voice comes out too loud and I rip the microphone away from my face, turning it off. This will surely make them think that I got caught, it doesn’t matter. It’s safer.

I hear Turbo’s grunts and hurried footsteps going to Mrs. Fitz classroom. I wait until I hear total silence again and get out of my hiding spot. I have my hammer with me, but I can’t take Turbo on my own. 

I skate fast through the halls, I run into the room where they keep the unused weapons and an idea pops into my brain. If they don’t have spare weapons, they can’t fight as long.

When I enter everything is dark, but it’s empty. I knew it would be empty, I lived here you know, and they don’t really watch over unused things.

There’s a big bag where they put all the balls when they’re not playing. I empty it by throwing the balls away as fast as I can and I grab every crossbow, machete, and bats that crosses my way. When I feel like I have enough (and that is not too heavy for me to flee the scene) I turn around to leave.

I'm met with the point of a dart gun.

“Stay where you are,” The boy holding it warns me.

Apparently, today is the day I get to reunite with old acquaintances.

I recognize the voice immediately.

“Nathan?”

“Y/N?” He lowers the gun, “Holy shit, I thought you were dead!”

“I’m about to die,” I try to look as innocent as possible, “but if you so kindly let me get out...”

Nathan and I know each other since freshman year. We had a nice relationship while it lasted. He was the first guy to quit our group after the nuke, never actually joined our group. The first loner I met.

Nathan frowns, pointing the gun at me again.

“You know I can’t do that. If Turbo or Mona find out-”

“They don’t have to,” I say calmly, “you got here recently, didn’t you? I never saw you while I was here...”

“Uh, yeah that’s-that’s a fun story-”

“You’ll have to save it for later,” I cut him off, “let me go.”

“Y/N...”

“I can’t explain it right now, but I’m one of the mall kids and I need to put a stop to this stupid fight,” I say, now a bit more stressed, “please Nathan, if you ever actually liked me as a person you will let me go.”

I see him struggle with his own thoughts and for a moment I think, ‘There, that’s a guy that’s loyal to his tribe’ but it also makes me feel terrible cause if that’s true that means I’m dead.

Then he says:

“Follow me. Don’t make any sudden moves or noises, they’re about to turn on the power again so we have to get you out before that”

There, that’s a guy with good morals.

“You’re the best,” I sigh.

Now, I don’t have any reason to trust him, besides the fact that we used to be friends. According to KJ that’s all baby food now, if he’s bad he’ll give me away.

But he doesn’t. Nathan guides me to a back entrance, close to the basketball court and helps me carry the bag so we can move faster.

“If you’re trying to avoid a fight why are you stealing weapons?” He asks me.

“If he doesn’t have enough weapons he can’t send his tribe to war.”

“Yeah but... well, what are you gonna do with them?”

“We don’t have weapons back at the mall, we need to be prepared, to be fair your tribe attacked us first.”

“I wasn’t there during the fight. I stayed to look over the school”

“Well, you avoided an obvious defeat”

“You’re avoiding one now”

“No, I’m about to go back with a half-win. Turbo won’t even know who took the stuff.”

We stop close to the limits of the parking lot, here I can move on my own, it will take me a while since I’m only one tiny person carrying a huge bag with weapons but I’m outside. I made it out and I feel extremely guilty cause I left Aria behind.

“Nathan... Aria was part of the group that came with me, would you..? Could you make sure they don’t hurt her?”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Nathan frowns, “don’t think I’ll make it, though. I’m just a nobody and it will look suspicious if I insist.”

“I understand. Thank you anyway,” I give him a quick hug before turning away.

“Y/N?” He asks once I’m halfway gone.

“Yes?” I look over my shoulder.

He gives me a small smile.

“It was nice seeing you again.”

Should I... no. We don’t need to go there tonight. Maybe one day, but not tonight.

“Yeah, I liked seeing you too,” I nod, turning back and skating away as fast as my legs allow.

Something feels different inside me. After being this close to dying cause I trusted in the words of a person I didn’t really know right away. Why did I trust them so easily? 

More importantly, how can’t I trust Josh after all he’s done and after all we’ve been through? He’s good. He has nothing but good intentions with me, or at least that’s what I think.

Somehow during my way back, I realize it’s not about trust, nor about how many lies has he said during his life. It’s about how much I want to help him and how much that upsets me.

The stupid loyalty.

“What is life? What is love? What are lies? What is trust? What is everything?”

But does it really matter? Is it really worth it to live without a care in the world if that means I can’t be with Josh? If it means I have to stay alone when all I want to do is to hold his stupid hand, then I don’t think I want to keep my morals intact.

“Everything is nothing without you”

I want to worry, I want to build a tribe that I can rely on. I want to feel alive again, almost as if I had a plan for the rest of my life.

I have a plan.

“Running, I'm running I'm running outta patience I wanna be a great one”

Everything I knew about the apocalypse and its rules was wrong.

Sacrifices must be made when facing the end of the world. 

But in my case, it’s not about abandoning relationships.

I have to let go of every fear I’ve ever had, I have to face them and say straight to their faces: I won’t indulge you anymore. 

I'll think about Katie and look up to the sky, screaming that I’m sorry and that there’s no one in this world that I love as much as I loved her. That I was there to save my sister and I saved her the best way I could. 

That everything I’ve done after the apocalypse would’ve made my parents proud because I never stopped being a good person, they raised me well. I’m the best healer in town. 

And I must sacrifice my rough attitude for a second, and find someone to listen to how my day went, I’d like to be the lady in distress, one can admit she’s done all she can. I want to be able to ask for help with the certainty that people won’t stab me in the back for doing so.

When I reach the narrow alley my breathing is uneven and the bag feels heavier than before. I can barely hold it on my shoulder, my wrist is surely not happy about it.

“Who is that?!” KJ’s little head appears on the roof of the trailer, I can barely see. The nights are darker now.

“It’s me,” I gasp, desperately trying to catch my breath, “I made it out!”

“Y/N?!” I hear a second voice. Josh’s voice.

His head appears also in the roof.

“What the fuck are you doing up there?”

“I thought you had been killed!” He exclaims, ignoring my question, “What happened?”

“I cut communication so Turbo wouldn’t find me. I also stole his spare weapons so now we have our own arsenal, I guess...”

I hear someone jumping from the roof. I see Josh standing in front of me, no longer upset he stands there, avoiding any sort of contact. Five feet apart.

“I wanna throw my hands up Ready to be saved, yeah”

“I’ve had a really long day, Josh.” 

“I know.”

“I’m ready to have a break,” I continue.

“You deserve it.”

I’ve never been good with this, I know words aren’t my best weapon, speeches aren’t my thing. Lately, though, actions have worked for me just fine (kicking out people, healing severed fingers, escaping from Highschools). I guess my best choice is to follow Josh’s advice and just... do it.

“What is life? What is love? (tell me, tell me, tell) What is time? What is choice? (I don't know) What is everything? Everything is nothing without you”

I move forward until I’m standing right in front of Josh, we stare at each other for a second and I don’t know what he’s thinking. Nonetheless, I have a plan.

I kiss him. 

And he kisses back.

Even if you’re terrified cause things might go wrong, it’s hard to worry when the person you’re crushing on has his hands on your waist and he’s kissing you.

“I hope I am enough (I hope I am enough, oh) What is everything? Everything is nothing without you”

It feels like ages when we break apart, I’m still tired from the walk but I think I can manage a little weariness if Josh keeps hugging me like that.

“You stole all his spare weapons?” KJ asks suddenly, she’s walked up to where I dropped the bag and is looking at it.

Oh my god, I forgot she was here too, fuck, she’s gonna tell everyone about this now.

“Not all of them, I’m only one person and the bag could carry only like, half of the things in that room. But trust me, after a while it feels like you are carrying the whole room,” I move away from Josh, flushed red and feeling my heart going at a thousand per hour.

“Still, that’s impressive,” KJ nods, “I’m sorry I thought you weren’t good enough, it’s clear that you know what you’re doing.”

“Only half of the time,” I smiled awkwardly, “someone from inside did help me escape... an old friend.”

“I’ll put these inside,” She says. I can’t tell if she’s uncomfortable after what just happened or is genuinely just trying to help, “we’ll have to sleep here and then go back to the mall in the morning”

“Sounds good to me.”

KJ goes into the cave (as I’m now calling the Game Over’s place) and doesn’t come back out.

Josh softly grabs my forearm and pulls me close to him again, a sly smile on his face.

“She’s right, stealing their spare weapons was a smart move.”

“I was just trying to feel like it wasn’t a complete waste of time... the gamers are in danger because of us-”

“I know,” Josh sighs, affected by the results of our quest, “after you disconnected your camera Turbo caught Killigan. He said I had lost”

“We lost,” I shake my head, “we can’t put more people in danger, Josh. What are we going to do?”

“For now, the weapons you brought from the school will be useful,” He assures me, “they won’t give us advantaged but it will give us a chance to defend our place”

“I like the sound of that,” I smile, “not the possibility of a war, but the idea of having a place...”

“I thought you didn’t like having strings attached,” Josh mentions, in the most ‘innocent’ way.

“I changed my mind,” I admit, “I’m sorry for the things I said earlier, I was scared and anxious-”

“I understand, don’t worry,” He puts a strand of hair behind my ear and hugs me, “you don’t have to worry about me judging you for the things you do”

My heart melts at his words, but I have to make sure he knows it wasn’t right.

“Still, it was wrong and I shouldn’t have poured out all my stress onto you. I also lied. I love the fact that you found me cause everything that has happened after it has been amazing.”

“Everything?” He asks with a knowing smile.

“All of it,” I nod, softly touching his cheek, “did I ever tell you that I liked you back?”

“You didn’t. Well, you did mention having a massive crush and that you tried to confess in a song but-”

“I like you,” I interrupt him, smiling like an idiot.

“No shit,” Josh replies, “I never would’ve guessed.”

“Shut up, I know it took me long enough”

“I was willing to wait,” He shrugs, smiling.

I lean in for another kiss (now that I’m allowed to, I should do it as often as I can), he holds my waist a bit more tightly and I put my arms around his neck.

Most people hate when you narrate about ‘tongues battling for dominance’ and hands going up and down. I’ll just say it was a good kiss, it lifted all worries from my shoulders.

Momentarily, though.

KJ runs out of the cave and we jump back.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“Didn’t you say Sam Dean was dead?”

“Yeah?” 

“You should come in,” She replies.

Josh and I follow her back inside and I see Turbo’s face on the screen, but is only half of his face, the image it’s zoomed in so we can see the people behind him. I notice at the same time Josh does, and I bring my hands up to cover my mouth in silent horror. 

As the great, classic meme would say:

This is the moment I knew, we fucked up.

“Sam?”

Taglist.

@letsbloodmagic @slythermyg @loving-u-3000​

[twoidiotwriters1]

Starcrossed Losers II (Josh Wheeler xReader)

A/N: Loving this thing already, seriously hoping to keep the constant of posting two chapters every week lmao

Words: 2,766

Warnings: Swearing ig

Previous Chapter // Next chapter

Of course. Of course, it was this guy.

Eli fucking Cardashyan, or as I liked to call him, the goblin under the bridge that always copied my answers on every test since we were thirteen. Just like Josh, Angelica and Wesley, I knew Eli from a while back. He wasn’t exactly popular but everyone knew him as the school’s “wanna-be”, I thought he would be dead by now, I’m glad to see I was wrong.

But I can’t believe he’s got the mall for himself. Even worse, I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. The mall was neutral territory, everyone could go and hang out with their friends, so the most logical thing is to say everyone had the same right over it. And is Eli Cardashyan the one who gets to have it all for himself? I call bullshit. This kind of situation is what leads me to believe that there is really no god.

“This is who we’ve been scared of?” Angelica complains, “A light breeze could kick his ass!”

“I thought it was gonna be Hoyles,” Wesley adds in a mix of disbelief and disappointment, “this is... Who is this again?”

“It’s Eli,” sighs Josh, he walks towards the bike and examines it, then lets out a childish laugh, “it’s fine, He’s a knock-off Baron Triumph”

And yes, obviously he was. Eli could be an idiot sometimes but he wasn’t a murderer. He went off on his (honestly weird as hell) speech until Josh cut him off.

“Who else is with you? Where is Sam Dean?” Eli scoffs.

“Do I look like her publicist?”

“Sam’s not here?” 

“I’m sorry, it’s just me and my girlf, Mavis” He answers with a smirk.

Josh and I share a look, I shrug and mouth a ‘sorry’, Josh shakes his head, telling me not to worry about it.

“You have the entire mall? You?” asks Angelica.

“Right?! How did that even happen?” I ask in frustration. Wesley mumbles a ‘chill, girl’ that I decide to ignore.

Eli went on and on, and to be honest I think I only understood like fifty percent of what he was saying, part because I wasn’t listening, and part ‘cause the boy has a wild vocabulary. Josh and I looked at each other in annoyance and I knew he was feeling as done as me with the conversation. When I was starting to think this day couldn’t get any crazier, the real Baron Triumph made his entrance.

We all hurl up at the doors and Eli pulls out a set of keys from his pocket, desperately trying to open them.

“Faster, he’s almost here!” says Josh.

“Get your own mall, this one’s mine” Eli grumbles.

“Are you twelve?” I reply, “We’re on the same side here!”

“We’re finna get eaten out here...”

“Not helping, Wesley.” 

“Got it!” Says Eli. The other boys pull him aside and practically rip the chains from the handles, “Hey!”

Josh pushes me inside hurriedly before entering himself. The others soon following after. I hear the door slamming shut and I look over my shoulder to see Eli running behind us; we’re all safe.

We reach one of the halls and Josh stops in awe, it takes me an extra second to stop completely cause I’m still wearing my skates, but when I do I’m just as amazed as him. Behind me, I hear Angelica talk.

“There’s power and air conditioning...”

“Everything is so... clean”

“Still smells like cinnabon”

“Am I still alive?” I look over at Josh, “You sure I didn’t die when you hit me this afternoon?”

“I didn’t hit you that hard,” He replies, still looking around like it was the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen.

“Solar panels on the roof!” Eli sings, “This is an island of paradise in an ocean of poop.”

“What a fancy allegory,” I snicker.

I’ll allow myself to remember, I don’t do it as often as I’d like...

-Flashback time-

What? You thought I wasn’t going to do this? C’mon, I’m a lonely child. All I have are my memories of the good ol’ times, so you’ll be forced to relive them with me. Sorry, I don’t make the rules. (I do, but I don’t wanna brag about it).

“We should go to my place, there’s nothing to do here...”

“Maya, for the last time,” I look at the girl standing next to me, “we told Alex we would meet here.”

“I know,” She whines, “but Hoyles is here and that guy gives me the creeps. I heard he tried to have sex with Ashley Miller while she was completely wasted”

“Sounds like Hoyles,” I nod in agreement, “but we can’t scatter everytime we run into them. We’re not little kids anymore, he can’t hurt us”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” She points to the opposite corner, Hoyles and his gang are terrorizing a freshman and the people around does nothing but move away.

“Can you belive that?” I start to walk towards them but Maya grabs my arm tightly, “What?”

“Don’t be stupid,” She rolls her eyes, “don’t even try to stop them, seriously, they won’t stop and you’ll get harassed.”

“It’s a freshman!” I insist, “Hoyles is like three times his size! You can’t expect me to do nothing”

“Listen,” my friend raises an eyebrow, “Y/N, those guys are crazy, please...”

I look back at the boys and realize they’re no longer there, I turn to her in defeat.

“I just really hate bullies, okay?”

“Let’s face it, we don’t have the ability to stop them all.”

“To stop what?” 

I quickly turn around and see the person I’ve been waiting for: Alex, my best friend since childhood. My mood switches instantly and I shrugg it off, already starting to forget.

“Just the usual dumbassery,” I reply with a chuckle.

“Hey loser,” Maya adds, “you’re late.”

“Yeah, I know” Alex nods awkwardly, “lost track of time again, sorry.”

“What was it this time?” I ask, “youtube or the comic?”

“Youtube,” He smirks, “vine is honestly a national treasure.”

“Sure,” I snort, “too bad is dead now.”

“Those who are great live the shortest lives,” He replies with his ‘wise old man’ voice.

“So,” Maya hops between us and puts her arms around our shoulders, “you want to look around?”

“I wanna go see the skates,” Alex adds, basically vibrating, “they have a new model and I wanna try them on.”

“The skates place, then,” My friend nods and pulls us with her.

------------------------------------------

A loud bang brings me back to the present and I remember why were we hiding here in the first place.

“This way, quick!” Eli tells us before he starts running. I move fast since I’m the only one with wheels on her feet. And soon most of them are behind me. Eli presses a button on the keychain he has, and the metal curtain lifts up enough for us to get in. “Go under, we’ll be safe in here...”

As soon as Josh, Angelica and I get in, the curtain comes back down.

“What the hell?” asks Josh.

“I’m not sharing my kingdom with you, sheep. No one busts into Eli’s mall. And don’t even try to escape.”

“We weren’t trying to escape, you brainless leprechaun!” This is unbelievable, I swear, I just want out of this day, “We’re running away from the monster that's on your side! You won’t make it on your own against Triumph, he’ll find a way to get in and eat you”

“Every door is locked or booby-trapped.” A laugh distracts us from the discussion and I see Wesley next to Eli... on the other side.

“Booby,” He chuckles. He’s been smoking, so you can’t expect him to behave.

Eli groans. Josh steps closer and smirks.

“Wesley Fists lead the state in sacks last season. Take him out, Samurai.”

“To fight someone so obviously inferior would be dishonorable.” He raises a brow. Eli shows us both of his middle fingers.

“Great,” I throw my backpack on the floor and walk away from the curtain, “this is only getting better and better...” 

“One punch, Wesley, come on,” Josh insists, “one punch.”

I let out a sharp breath and sit on the bench a few feet away from them to take off my skates. As useful as they are, I’m starting to feel sore and they’re not the most comfortable thing to wear after a few hours of running. While I’m doing so, another memory comes to mind and I’m unable to stop it.

Where was I? Oh, right...

------------------------------------------

“I think these are more you’re style,” I grab the bright, lime-green pair from the right shelf and hand them to Alex, he laughs and examines them for a moment like he’s actually considering the idea.

“I mean, they wouldn’t match any of my outfits but they’d totally be catching everyone’s eye.”

“Isn’t that the point, though?”

“Obviously,” He shakes his head pretending to be offended by the question, “though I think I’ll have to pass this time. I already made my choice.”

He shows me a pair of white-colored ones.

“Dude, are you serious?” I grab the skates and raise them to his eye level, “These are the most boring pair of skates ever”

“Now they are,” Alex moves my hand slightly so he can see my face, “but I bet that you can turn them into a masterpiece”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Please, Y/N don’t play dumb, you know I love your drawings”

I blush at his reply. Sure, I like drawing but I’m no Van Gogh at it. The best thing I ever drew was probably a worm.

“You’re telling me you’d spend your money on the newest model of skates just to ruin them with your best friend’s nonexistent skills?”

“To me, their value would go up by a thousand if they had your drawings in them.”

“Jesus, get a room!” Maya exclaims beside us, she’s sitting on a small chair, trying random pairs of skates out of pure boredom.

“Shut up!” We both respond quickly. 

He looks at me and I’m pretty sure he’s blushin but I can’t really look at his face cause I’m too embarrassed to do so.

Oh, right. I forgot to mention that I had a crush on my best friend, didn’t I? No, I wasn’t avoiding this topic. I thought it wasn’t important anymore. And it isn’t! I promise it isn’t. Alex is gone, and with him so are my feelings.

Yes, you can laugh all you want cause I was one of those basic idiots who fell in love with their best friend just cause he treats me like any decent human being should. Can you blame me, though? Compared to Hoyles and his team of dickheads, Alex was a fucking teddy bear. 

And the worst part? I’m pretty sure he liked me back. 

We never made a move.

------------------------------------------

A loud scream makes me drop my broken skates and I run back to were Angelica and Josh are.

“What the fuck...” I whisper, clinging to the curtain.

“What the fuck is here with us?” Angelica is the first to ask what Josh and I were wondering as well.

“Ooh, a ghoulie witch,” Eli steps closer, lowering his voice, “once upon a time, she was a normal girl who liked hanging out at the mall. But now she’s got mad powers, and she will fuck your shit up. She is unkillable and she is hangry.”

“There is no such thing as witches.”

“Well, a few months ago there weren’t mutant squirrels or ghoulies either.” Adds Angelica.

“That’s right. And when the witch eats your intestines like spaghetti, you’ll think: I never should’ve dissed king Eli...” He walks backwards and leaves us here with fuck knows what.

“I swear every time he opens his mouth I feel like I’m having a stroke,” Now that I don’t have my skates on, I realize Josh’s taller than me. I barely reach the tip of his nose.

“Don’t worry, I’ll convince him to let you out.” Wesley says, “I’mma go full Gandhi on his ass. Hunger strike.”

“Easy there, we don’t want to traumatize him for life” I reply dryly.

Angelica and Josh step back from the curtain and I follow them. We sit on the bench and I look at my skates, cursing under my breath. Josh notices and gently nudges my side with his arm.

“Sorry about that. We can find a new pair somewhere around here if you want.”

“I hope so,” I kick them and they slide miserably on the floor, the wheels almost fully worn out, “I really liked them.”

“You used to skate a lot? Before the nuke,” He asks in curiosity.

“Not at all. I didn’t even know how to use them,” I laugh lightly, “my best friend used to, though. He promised he would teach me one day but... things didn’t go as planned.”

“Is he..?” He leaves the question open but I understand perfectly what he’s trying to say.

“Fuck, no,” I feel a shiver going down my spine just by thinking about it, “we wanted different things, that’s all. He had a plan and I had another. Alex wanted to leave town and travel around the country now that we’re free to do whatever we please. I just wanted to find my sister.”

“And where is she?”

“She turned into a ghoulie, so I... I took care of it.”

“Shit,” He whispers, passing a hand through his hair and looking a little pale, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Again, I’m not gonna talk about this stuff with someone I just met.

“Did I ever meet your friend?” Maybe Josh can tell I don’t want to keep going with the hard topics, and I appreciate his effort to respect that.

“Dunno,” I shrug, softly massaging my feet, “He’s Alex Murphy. Bit taller than me, cool guy...”

“Oh, him,” He nods, then adds, “I have no clue of who that is.”

I laugh louder this time, giving him a gentle push.

“Dumbass,” I shake my head, “anyway, after Alex and I went our separate ways I decided to learn on my own and I think I did pretty well, they’re quieter than cars and definitely easier to control than skateboards.”

“Oh, so you’re still not over that?” He raises a brow, a smirk growing on his face.

“Well, I’m not the one running over innocent people on the street.”

“It was an accident! I wasn’t watching where I was going. I was too busy trying not to get killed by the jocks”

“You sure? Cause so far all I’ve seen you do is nothing but the opposite. If I may give my humble opinion, it's not something very smart considering you’re alone.”

“I was doing well until today,” He sighs.

“I believe you, Wheeler,” I eye him up, “you're not like I'd pictured.”

“Really?” He smiles, “What did you imagine?”

“Kinda like those boys who pretend to be all grown up,” I reply, scrunching up my nose, “the ones that can’t be caught having fun or they’d lose their cool, like some sort of bitter old man in the body of a seventeen-year-old boy...”

“Okay, okay! I get it,” Josh laughs, raising his hands in defeat, “jeez, thanks for the compliments”

“I am complimenting you!” I exclaim, “I’m saying I was wrong and you’re not what I thought you were”

“You did think I was, though”

“Well, at least I had an opinion on you,” I scoff, “I’m sure you didn’t even think of that after we did our school project, I probably just stopped existing in your world or something...”

“Of course not,” It was his time to act offended, “every time I saw you on the hall after our project I made sure to wave at you, remember?”

“How kind of you”

“What can I say? I’m a real-life gentleman.”

I laugh again and pull my shoes out of my bag to put them on.

“Is that the reason why Sam Dean fell head over heels for you?”

The effect was immediate. Josh’s shoulders tense and his smile disappears, he clears his throat and looks anywhere but me.

“Uhm, I don’t really know if she...”

“It’s alright,” I add promptly, “sorry, I didn’t mean to make you sad”

“I’m not sad,” He shakes his head, “it’s just that I keep thinking... maybe things could’ve been different if I had said something sooner, you know?”

Trust me, Josh. I know.

Taglist.

@letsbloodmagic 

[twoidiotwriters1]

Starcrossed Losers (Josh Wheeler xReader)

A/N: Cause no one was doing it so I might as well go do it. If you like it and want part two don’t forget to leave feedback! 

Words: 1,892

Warnings: Blood, this is an apocalyptic world so, plenty of gross. Swearing and bad writing cause I did this in a hurry to get it out of my system, this is a series so the end of this chapter isn’t the end of the story uwu

Next chapter

Oh. Hi. How’s life?

Well, I guess that if you’re reading this, life isn’t exactly going fine. You looked for this, you know what’s up, with the apocalypse, I mean. Not with me, so I guess I’ll start with that.

My name is Y/N L/N and my life is great. Kinda. 

Okay, my life is good enough. The problem is that before this whole thing I wasn’t popular. No, I wasn’t a loser either; or an outcast that only played by her own rules. I was just a kid. 

I was the right amount of friendly, I was an “ok” student at school, I was free to go to parties and I did, but I also spent plenty of Friday nights binge-watching Netflix at home until I couldn’t feel my butt. No one ever watched me up-close, and now I don’t even have parents that look after me or to talk about how my day was. And I really wish I had someone that I can tell how my fucking day was. If I’m honest, these last few weeks have been nothing but a lonely existence.

“But Y/N!” you say, “Didn’t you mention you had friends?”

Well, yeah. Emphasis on “had”. See, even if I had plenty not all of them wanted to form a new group: two of them left with the cheeramazons, others found their home with the gamers, some even were brave enough to leave the city and go look for relatives their age that might still be alive. I was one of them. I went looking for my sister with my ex-best friend to her college hoping that I would find her; which I did. Turns out being twenty years old is enough for you to turn into a ghoulie. So I parted ways with my best friend and I went back to Glendale, the only place where I know my way around because I’ve lived here since I was a baby, and I’ll probably die here in about a month or so, let’s face it.

Since most of the tribes intimidate me, I quietly made my way into the far lines of the jocks. I wasn’t noticed, kind of like the backstage crew, I did things here and there whenever they asked me to do them and got no recognition from that. I was fine with it, honestly. That until Turbo finally lost it and started to kill kids for fun. Like we didn’t have enough with Baron Triumph!

So I left the place and nobody stopped me, of course, no one really cared. My normal life was quiet; my post-apocalyptic one is just that, but with a bit more of freedom. I’ve been living on my own for like three months now, and I think I’m doing pretty good so far. Adapt and survive, right? Just like in Highschool.

And I was doing just that until Josh wheeler decided to crash into me.

“Hey!” I growled from where I was laying on the floor, my knee and elbow scraped and burning, “What the fuck are you doing?”

“No time! The jocks are chasing me, c’mon!” 

Now, I could’ve said ‘No thanks! I’ll leave you to it!’ but the guy was scared shitless and he didn’t wait for a reply, He stood up and pulled me with him. He got on his skateboard without letting go of my hand and I had no choice but to move along, my roller-skates were going so fast against the asphalt, that I was sure they’d be ruined once we reached… wherever it is Josh is taking me. 

At some point, he let go of my hand and I simply decided to stick around for a moment. If he was actually in trouble, he could need a hand.

“Wait, here…” 

Josh gave a sharp turn to the right and into an alley, I followed. Once he made sure no one was there he leaned against the wall and sighed deeply, eyes closed. I stood there with my arms crossed, waiting for the explanation he owed me. When he opened his eyes and realized I was still there, he tilted his head.

“Y/N, right?”

We knew each other, barely though. We got paired up for a school project and that was it. Josh was the typical new kid that no one really pays attention to. He didn’t have any specific traits or amazing talent. He did manage to date Sam Dean I think, I don’t know how did he manage to do it, but I guess the thing is that he’s nice. A good guy overall. He was just Josh.

“Josh,” I frowned, “care to tell me what the hell did you do to piss off Turbo?”

“Nothing!” He scoffed, “It’s all fault of the golf team, I thought they had Sam and I went after them… turns out it was Angelica.”

“Bummer,” I said, though I didn’t really care, “so it was your fault.”

“I just said-”

“You went out of your way to annoy the golf team cause you thought they had Sam Dean kidnapped or whatever, and now you’re saying it’s their fault that you’re being chased down?”

“Yeah?” He stopped for a second, then continued, “okay so it was kinda my fault…”

“Yeah,” I scoffed, “you probably messed up a bit.”

He let out a dry laugh, then stared at me for a moment.

“So what are you doing? are you part of any tribe?”

“Me?” I raised my eyebrows, “I used to, now it’s just me.”

“Yeah, same,” He nodded, “well, I never belonged to a tribe but, I mean, it’s easier, isn’t it? On your own”

“I don’t know… I guess” I looked down at my shoes and whimper at the sight of them. They were most definitely ruined.

“Roller-skates?” He asked with a smirk, “seriously, Y/N?”

“Who are you to judge?” I replied with a frown, “a shitty skateboard against the monster trucks that Turbo drives around? Yes, that’ll definitely gonna leave them biting the dust”

“Hey, my skate is great! And I have a car,” He defended himself, “but… fuck, I guess I left it on jock territory”

“We should keep going,” I replied, deciding not to comment on what he had said, “they might be getting close.”

“You could leave if you want,” Josh shrugged, “after all this whole thing is not your fault”

“I could, but I just left my place cause it got destroyed, my skates are fucked and if the jocks don’t find you they’ll be on the hunt for something else to play with so to be honest, I think that staying with you for a couple of hours won’t hurt.”

“Cool,” He sighed, moving away from the wall.

“Good,” I moved beside him, “ so, where are we going, exactly?”

“Uh,” Josh rubbed the back of his neck, chuckling nervously, “the mall?”

I stopped dead in my tracks, looking at him in disbelief.

“Are you trying to make all the wrong choices today?” I huffed, “Do you have a death wish?”

“No,” He rolled his eyes, stopping in front of me, “Someone told me Sam might be there, so I’m going”

“Do you realize that is Baron Triumph’s territory?”

“Yes, I do. Thank you for reminding me.”

“What is up with you and Sam Dean anyway?” I asked in annoyance, “Were you two together during this mess and then one day you fought, she left the house and now she’s missing?”

I was trying to be sarcastic, I wasn’t expecting him to reply with:

“Yes, that’s exactly what happened.”

“Oh,” I blushed in embarrassment, “sorry, I didn’t… I didn’t think…”

“It wasn’t exactly like that,” He lowered his eyes to the ground, kicking the dirt, “we weren’t together when it happened, but we did fight before. I haven’t seen her since the whole apocalypse stuff.”

We stayed silent for a moment, I didn’t know what to say, not because I didn’t understand the situation, I did. I also had someone important that I wanted to find desperately, and when I finally did, it was too late. I think that I was surprised, I never saw Josh Wheeler as the type of guy who would stand alone in front of Turbo and his crew just to find a girl. If he could be that stubborn about love, he certainly had to be it for surviving. 

“Alright,” I said in a defeated voice.

Josh looked at me in confusion.

“Alright what?”

“Let’s go then, to the mall.”

“You coming?” He smiled, “seriously?”

“I know you don’t need me,” I moved until I was standing face to face, “but I think that we can make a good team, for a few hours though. I hate group projects.”

Josh laughed, giving me a simple nod.

“Don’t worry, we’ll finish this in no time.”

And boy, was he wrong about that.

We hurry our asses off to get to the mall fast and unnoticed, once there I saw two kids cornered by a woman against the doors and I pointed towards them, Josh hurriedly pulled out his sword and stabbed the ghoulie, the woman turned around and ran away, revealing two familiar faces that I was definitely not expecting to see.

“Ah, shit! My sword!” Exclaimed Josh, losing grip of his weapon.

“Y/N?” Asked the boy.

I looked at Josh with a stern face.

“Wesley Fists?” I said, “you ally with Wesley Fists and our school’s drug dealer?”

“I didn’t get much of a choice,” He grumbled.

“You suck at heroing,” Said the blonde girl.

Josh turned around to look at her.

“I saved your stupid lives. Twice.” Then he leaned to grab his skateboard from the ground and added, “now hurry, Turbo’s on our ass.”

I moved to a side and waited for him to open the door when Wesley spoke up again.

“Uhm, no. He’s not,” We all looked back, facing the empty street, “Why aren’t they chasing you?”

Almost as if to answer the question the sound of an engine coming closer made us quiet down, and a black figure appeared in front of us.

“Baron Triumph,” mumbled Josh, probably about to shit his pants like the rest of us, “oh, shit…”

He stepped back and pulled me with him by the hem of my shirt, my skates moving easily against the dusty road.

“Anyone know who the hell this idiot really is?” Angelica, the little blonde girl on my left asks in an upset tone.

“I heard is Marco Lions, that gearhead that lived in Hollywood?” Offered Wesley.

“Didn’t your bestie, Jayden Hoyles ride a motorcycle like that?” Asked Josh in a bitter voice.

“Well,” Wesley nodded without looking back, “Hoyles is a real prick.”

“And you just figured that out?” I asked.

“Whoever he is,” Interrupted Angelica, “here he comes…”

Everyone prepared their weapons for the fight, and it was then when I realized…

“Fuck!” I whispered, “I don’t have anything to defend myself!”

“Don’t worry, we got you” Josh whispered back.

“You literally just lost your sword on a ghoulie’s back.”

Josh was about to reply when Baron got off the motorcycle and we all froze once more. He swiftly took off his helmet, and…

“What the…”

So what’s my life like during the apocalypse?

It’s never what I want it to be.

[twoidiotwriters1]

Starcrossed Losers XII (Josh Wheeler xReader)

A/N: We get some growth over here, we also get awkward interaction between crushes but overall I really like this chapter :’)

Words: 4,661

Warnings: Cursing and tons of stupid. 

Previous chapter // Next chapter

To say I was busy the next day was an understatement. Apparently, the word had spread that I was the one who knew how to treat injuries and kids would bring me their friends so I could cure them.

What.

Yeah, I know. Do I look like a fucking doctor? Exactly. Yet, if I was fair with them we didn’t have plenty of choices, so I decided to do my best.

I was not alone in my duties, Alex had joined (probably to compensate all of our awkward moments and maybe cause he’d seen the deathly stare Maya sent my way) and whenever I needed something I could just ask him to bring me things and he would. To be honest, it was sort of fun.

I just had to treat a few scratches and infections (nothing as wild as Josh’s though) and made sure to give everyone a toothbrush (I had my own and always made sure to brush my teeth after every meal. What? I won’t lose my teeth before I turn twenty!)  I had also listened to Josh’s advice and started writing easy D-I-Y treatments on the notebook he got for me in case I was gone... you know, just in case.

My hand was still unable to move but for most things, I only had to say “Rub this on the cut” or, “Here, take this cough syrup” so it wasn’t like I actually needed my hands.

Then at some point in the afternoon, the weird shit started to show up. You know how kids get bored and do stupid things? Well, in the apocalypse it’s the same, only by a thousand.

“You tried to do, WHAT?”

“He’d always wanted to try to stick his hand up the vending machine to see if he could reach the snack for free,” Says his friend, blushing in embarrassment, “I tried to warn him...”

“For free?” I ask in exasperation, “Everything is free now, idiot! You could’ve, I don’t know, break the glass and take the food”

His friend is sitting on the chair in front of me, holding his hand up, He has a huge cut that goes from his pinky to his wrist, it could need stitches.

“Alex,” I turn to look at the boy, who seems to be struggling to not laugh, “could you get me antiseptic and bandaids?”

“Uh, sure,” He nods, starting to walk away, “I’m on it”

“And you... sorry, what was your name?”

“Tyler”

“Tyler. Be a sweetheart and put your hand here,” I point to the sink on my left and Tyler does as I ask, I push the button with my left hand and he winces, “I know it burns but we have to clean it before we cure it. Maybe you’ll think twice before doing something stupid again. C’mon, wash it well”

Alex comes back moments after and I take the stuff, he watches me carefully as I work together with Tyler’s friend to disinfect the cut and put one of those squared bandaids on it.

“There it is,” I smile politely, “good as new. If the cut has troubles to heal you’re gonna need stitches, so pray for this thing to work. You, Tyler’s friend, keep an eye on him and if it doesn’t heal you tell me okay? Tyler, If I see you even remotely close to a vending machine again, I’ll kick your ass”

The boy yelps but nods, his friend gets him out of the restroom.

We wait a minute or two to see if anyone else appears, it seems like the accidents and wounds have stopped for the day.

“Let’s go get something to eat,” I grab the spare material we didn’t use and put it all inside the backpack I have with me at all times, “if I stay here for the rest of the day I’ll be dreaming about toilets tonight”

Alex chuckles, following me out.

“You know, you really look different,” He walks beside me, “in a good way, like you’re comfortable on your own skin. The last time I saw you this way was probably that time when you did the presentation on Da Vinci”

“I was fourteen back then,” I grimace, “that doesn’t sound good”

“What thing?”

“That it’s been so long since I looked happy”

“I never said ‘happy’ I said comfortable in your own skin,” He states, “you always looked happy. Not always looked so careless, though. I don’t know if you get it.”

“I don’t know. Maybe,” I shrug, “I’m just okay with how my life is going right now, I could’ve died back with Triumph but Josh saved us. I’m just enjoying that I didn’t.”

“Josh seems to be a good guy,” He says, looking intently at me, “and he seems to be good friends with you”

“Well, he’s a friendly guy,” I agree, not understanding what he’s trying to say, “and he always tries his best, it’s hard to not like him”

“So, you like him a lot?”

I look at him from the corner of my eye. So that’s where this is heading.

“Yes, I like him.”

I don’t try to be more specific or care about calming his suspicions. If he wants to know, he’ll have to ask directly.

Unfortunately (luckily for me) he doesn’t get the chance cause Wesley intercepts us.

“Hey sis, heard you’ve been working all morning,” He extends one long package of cookies, “I think you deserve some recognition”

“Yes!” I grab the package and give a quick hug to Wesley, “Are you a guardian angel?”

“You’re welcome,” He crosses his arms. Wesley notices Alex standing awkwardly beside me and speaks up, “I know you, from where do I know you?”

“He used to go to our school,” I reply, stuffing my mouth with two cookies, “he’s an old friend... Alex”

“Murphy,” Alex shakes Wesley’s hand, “I think you know me from history class?”

“Murphy!” He claps, “you’re the bi dude that dated my girl Amy back in junior high, right?”

“That’s also me.”

“Sweet, she used to talk wonders about you,” Wes nods, “I think she got eaten by Ghoulies like a week after all of this started, though”

“Oh, sorry dude...”

“No worries, we stopped being friends when we started Highschool”

I watch their interaction as I keep eating, it’s weird how my two worlds, the old and the new could collapse and mix people together, not caring whether or not I want it. Yet, the world never actually collapsed, just mutated, and I was still standing in the middle of this chaos in one piece.

One absolute, badass piece.

“Y/N?”

“Yeah?”

“I asked if you didn’t mind if I go and take a nap,” Says Alex, pointing towards the mattress store, “I think I’m still not fully recovered from my time with Triumph”

“Oh, yeah go ahead”

I smile politely as I watch him go, not noticing Wesley until he speaks again.

“So, that’s your guy”

I jump, cursing under my breath.

“Jesus, Wesley. Don’t do that...” I scowl, “What do you mean with ‘my guy’?”

“The one you told me about?” He continues, “you said you had a friend named Alex and that you two were a team but then he left?”

“Right,” I had totally forgotten about our conversation, “this Alex is the same Alex from that story”

“You must be happy right now,” He raises a brow, “you got your buddy back”

“Not so much,” I squint, “he’s back but... I kind of wish he wasn’t”

“Why?” He grins, “What, you like someone else now?”

“I never said I liked him,” I reply a little too fast.

“You don’t have to.”

“Whatever,” I roll my eyes.

“I’m right, aren’t I?” He grabs my shoulders, “Who is it? Is it one of the new kids? Is it one of us?”

“Wes...”

“If it’s me I have to warn you I’m gay,” He gives me a pointed look, “you’re cute and all, but I just don’t play for that team. Sorry.”

“Is not you cause I don’t like anybody, Wesley!” I hiss, pushing his hands away, “Let it go!”

“Y/N,” He pleads, following me as I walk fast to the main hall, “I swear I will keep it a secret!”

“No, you won’t,” I groan, "it would only be a matter of time before Angelica finds out as well and then I wouldn’t hear the end of it”

“Is it Eli?” He continues without bugging, “it’s that why you think Angelia and I would tease you? I mean, kid’s kinda weird but I’d rather see you dating him than him kissing that ‘Mavis’ doll.”

“Please, stop,” I sit on a bench, the same place where few hours before, Wesley and Josh had trained, “I don’t like Eli”

“Then it’s Josh,” He states, sitting beside me.

When I give him one exasperated look but don’t speak against him, Wesley covers his mouth in shock and starts kicking the air in excitement.

“Yes, girl! Go get it!” He laughs, “Shit, you have to make a move. You and Josh desperately need to get laid”

“Wesley!” I exclaim, putting the cookies away since my appetite has been brutally murdered, “I don’t want to sleep with Josh!”

“Why not?” Wesley shrugs, “you two are good together, always hyping each other up and being the dorky duo that led us to success”

“You’re hallucinating,” I shake my head, “and forgetting an important issue”

“Which is?”

“Sam’s been dead for like, four days tops?” I cross my arms, “Now that’s some insensitive shit”

“Oh,” His smile disappears abruptly, “That. Right.”

“Right”

“Okay, but what if...” Before he ends the phrase, he shakes his head, “no nevermind”

“What?” I frown.

“Nothing,” He shrugs, “is not important.”

“What are you thinking?” The boy stays silent for a second, then his eyes light up and smiles like something just came up to him.

“I was thinking, what if this whole apocalypse shit hadn’t happened,” He leans against the bench, “and we were still normal kids, you know homecoming dance was close?”

“Yes,” I tilt my head, “what about it?”

“If he and Sam would’ve broken up before the dance... I mean, you already knew him, right? If that would’ve been the case, you would have tried?”

“To what?” I grin, “Ask him out?”

“Yeah”

“Don’t think so,” I reply with honesty, “I think I would’ve asked Alex, but only as friends you know? Cause it was better. Or I would’ve gone to the dance alone.”

“Really?”

“Yes, Josh wasn’t on my radar during those days. I knew him and all, he just was in a whole different world. Out of reach and far from being on my list”

“I see,” He squints his eyes, “You know what? I think we should have that dance”

“What?” I laugh louder this time, looking around for my cookies, “there’s no way we can do that here...”

“Why not?”

“It’s a mall”

“So what? We have enough kids, we have plenty of drinks and food, a wide space where we can show our best moves?” He stretches his arms as to prove his point, “I think I can make it work”

“I think it’ll be a total failure,” I reply, finally finding the package and eating a whole cookie.

“Bet?”

“Sure,” I mumble, “what do you wanna bet?”

“If I win, you’ll ask Josh for a date, or you know, you’ll give it a try,” He comments, “if it turns out you don’t like him then I’ll stop”

“And If I win you won’t force me to try shit,” I reach out to hold his hand and he takes it.

“Deal.”

To be honest, I think maybe Katie was right. I can be a little overdramatic sometimes, people can get tired of that. When I first came to this mall I was desperate to live, afraid that my calm and easy routine would be affected by the wishes of these losers. Which it did, but it was for the best, I think.

I also thought that if I ever saw Alex again my heart would stop instantly and I would die cause it was too much to handle, or that we would have this huge fight where both of us ended killing the other or something. It isn’t like that at all.  Sure it is awkward and a bit weird, but we’re making it work. I think.

That noon we’re in the pharmacy, making the inventory in a small notebook that I carry around (the one that I had before I met Josh, not the one that he gave me) and we’re not talking much, only saying the names of the medicines we have and where we should put them. I don’t know what exactly do most of these medicines do, but I trust that Angelica might know, so I’ll ask her before we go to bed.

“Y/N?”

“What?” I look over my shoulder to see Alex holding a box of pills, we move to the next shelf and we start putting them in line.

“So,” He starts, “we haven’t seen each other in three months, I’m sure something must have happened while I was gone”

“Meh, not really. The majority of those three months I spent it alone, in my old house,” I shrug, “collecting food and things, then this pug attacked my place (I’m sure you’ve seen it, it’s huge) so I had to move again. In the middle of that Josh crashed into me and sort of dragged me to this mall.”

Alex smiles lightly.

“You’re still taking care of your people?”

“I think that’s clear,” I shake one of the bottles and smile tiredly, “I didn’t choose to do this, though. I was just the one with weird knowledge about severed fingers and they just assumed my knowledge is enough to cure all kinds of sufferings”

“I think it kind of is,” He shrugs, “who’s the heroic one now, huh?”

“Shut up,” I whine, though I’m smiling, “I’m just being helpful, that’s all”

“You always are”

Alex and I stop to look at each other. I can feel a sensation in my stomach but is not butterflies, it’s comfort. I’m glad to have him and I’m happy that he exists, but that’s all. The euphoria of the ‘What if’ is long gone since I discovered that the ‘what if’ wasn’t for us. 

Holy shit. Did I stop crushing on him because of all that happened?

Or did it stop because I met Josh?

“We need to talk about it,” He says, catching me off guard.

I accidentally kick a box behind me trying to step back. I knew this was coming, and I knew he was waiting for us to be mostly alone so we could talk about it in peace, I just wasn’t expecting it to be so soon.

“Do we?” I squint.

“Last time we didn’t talk about it and it ended on us fighting and going our separate ways,” He replies, “and I missed you, Y/N. I won’t let it happen again.”

“Listen,” I sigh, taking the box and setting it on the floor, signaling towards the counter so we go sit, “ I know I said awful things to you I shouldn’t have, you were the only person I had left and I pushed you away. I was scared, I thought you were going to leave me. So I figured that if I was the one leaving first then you’d forget me and things would be okay.”

“I asked you to come with me so we could start again,” He frowns, “how did that make you think I was leaving you? How could you even think you’d be that easy to forget?”

It’s funny that he says that, cause Josh kinda told me the same thing. How I’m not easy to forget.

I don’t want that, I want to be easy. I want to be able to have my freedom and know I can go at any time as soon as I feel like it, without feeling guilty about leaving people behind. If I’m wrong and people will still miss me no matter how fast I leave... well, let’s just say it doesn’t help my goal.

“I thought that if I decided to go with you, there was fifty percent of chances that we would stop being friends, and I’m a dumbass so there’s no way I would’ve survived on my own outside Glendale”

I thought he would get upset, instead, Alex laughs.

“That makes me feel so optimistic about our future, then. We’ll never leave Glendale but hey, at least we’ll grow old.”

“That’s the dream,” I nudge his arm playfully.

We stay silent for a couple of seconds, then he speaks up again.

“I shouldn’t have kissed you that one time,” His voice is full of regret.

I stop my movements altogether and look at him.

“I’m sorry about that too. I was hurt for a while, but then I kinda realized... it was for the best. I mean, maybe you kind of had a crush on me but it was better this way, right?”

He gives me an apologetic look. I’ve seen that expression thousands of times before, I know that he’s about to get deadly honest.

“No,” Alex grimaces, “I didn’t have a crush on you.”

“Oh,” I reply, genuinely speechless, “I-uh... I”

“Listen,” He jumps off from the counter and stands in front of me, “here’s the thing... Maya told me one day when we started Highschool that you, uh, had a crush on me. And at first, I didn’t believe her cause well, you’re my best friend”

“Then why did you kiss me?” I ask, maybe a little too loud.

“Cause then she started to implant all these ideas in my head, and she kept saying to ‘watch how you acted around me’ and how ‘you were super nice to me and dull with every other boy’”

“Rude,” I frown.

“...The point is that I believed her. I was all paranoid cause I thought I was giving the wrong vibes, and I didn’t want to hurt you-”

“Then why, did you KISS ME?” I ask again.

“Shhhh!” His eyes widen, stepping closer and putting a hand on my mouth, “I’m getting there!”

“Hmph-” I slap his hand away from my mouth, “then get there already!”

“That day at the mall,” Alex continues anxiously, “you were all sweet and kind to me, and gave me compliments and bought me Icecream... like, shit Y/N you were being so cute and I thought ‘Hey, what if I’m in love with her too but I’m in denial?”

“Dude,” I frown, “that’s... I mean, I was just being a good friend that one time, honest.”

“So you never had a crush on me?”

“I mean... I did? Sort of...I had one but then you kissed me and...”

“And nothing, right?” He asks with hope, “you’re with me on this, there wasn’t, like, that kind of feelings involved?”

“I-yeah,” I nod, “after we kissed I just feel tainted and guilty cause you were dating Stuart”

“Ugh, don’t even get me started on Stuart,” He covers his face with one hand, “when I told him about what had happened I broke his heart, we broke up soon after”

“You told him?!”

“Of course I did, I loved him!” He exclaims, “I cared about him, so I had to be honest. I told him I got all confused and mixed things up, that I kissed you but you seemed not into it and of course neither was I and that I was sorry... He was just too upset and felt like I didn’t respect him, so he dumped me.”

“I am so, so sorry, Al,” I stand up, we have always been the same height, so we’re now face to face, “I mean, it was you who kissed me but... I should’ve talked to you sooner.”

“For what?” He huffs, “is not like we both knew what was going on”

“But we’re best friends, we’re supposed to trust each other, right? Then why we didn’t?”

“I guess... we just lost control.”

“We listened to the wrong person,” I correct, “I’m sure Maya got all entertained with our misunderstanding. Jesus, I bet she must have figured it out before us but she never said anything to stop us.”

“Be honest, would you have listened to her?”

“No?” I scoff, “but this just proves that she’s evil.”

“I saw the way she was looking at you today,” He crosses his arms, “I’m guessing you finally snapped.”

“Not entirely,” I defend, “I just rejected her offer. The one about starting a tribe.”

“You still want to be on your own?”

“No, I don’t want to be with Maya,” I reply, “we’re good here, don’t you think?”

“Yeah...” He looks around, “I wanted to see the world and all but... is not the same thing, and is not the same thing alone either”

“Sorry that your dream got busted” I pat his shoulder.

“It’s alright,” He shrugs, “sorry your loner life got ruined.”

“It wasn’t that cool”

“So...” He grabs the hand that’s on his shoulder without moving it from the place, “we’re cool now? Can we go back to being friends?”

“Yes, please,” My hold gets a bit tighter, “if I’m gonna keep treating the wounds that kids cause on themselves stupidly, I’m gonna need my best friend beside me...”

We shake hands and grin, it feels like all the weight just disappeared from our shoulders.

“Hey, Y/N do you-” Josh stops at the entrance and stays really quiet, watching the scene in front of him.

I’m still holding onto Alex’s hand, Alex casually smiles at him.

“Oh, hey Josh what’s up?”

“Hi,” I try to look just as casual as my friend when I let go of him, “uh-Josh.”

“Sorry, you’re busy”

Josh mumbles and tries to walk away from the store. I quickly walk around the counter and call his name.

“Wait!” He stops and looks at me, “we were just finishing up here, tell us what you need”

“I, uh... my bandages,” When he speaks his voice is lower, it reminds me of the drowsy way he talked when he woke up from cutting his finger. Disoriented, drained out of energy, “I need a new set. This one’s got ruined from going outside and fighting with Triumph.”

“Okay,” I look over at Alex, “first shelf on your right”

The boy looks over and soon enough he throws me a package, I catch it mid-air and then I ask Josh:

“You need help?”

“I... uhm,” His eyes go from me to Alex and for some reason, I can tell he feels uncomfortable with us. Maybe he thinks Alex and I are still fighting, I should tell him I’m not upset anymore, otherwise he’ll keep acting like this, “is not a big deal, I can do it on my own...”

I look over at my best friend with an expression that I hope it reads like ‘can you leave us alone for a moment?’

“Alex..?”

“I think I’ll look around for food,” He picks up the message immediately, giving me a pointed look, “I’ll leave you to it”

“Thanks,” I smile politely. When he’s gone I make Josh sit on the counter and unwrap his old bandages.

He’s deadly quiet. Again, a bad sign that something is going on inside his head. I try to make some light conversation so he feels better.

“Have you heard Wesley’s new bright idea-?”

“Did you talk to Alex?”

Okay then, pretty straightforward.

“Yes,” I smile, trying to look as happy and relaxed as possible, “it’s all good between us now, like the old times”

“Good,” For some reason, my answer only seems to make things worse, I try to add more.

“I know you think I’m upset. But I think this was exactly what I was waiting for, I’m finally okay with Alex, I owe it all to you so you can add that to the list of things you’ve done for me.”

“...Great!” He tries to smile for a moment, but it dies as soon as it appears.

My mind tries to figure it out, What’s happening? What’s upsetting him? We succeded! Even better, he reunited old friends, gave them a...

That’s it, the reunion. He’s upset that I got Alex back and he doesn’t have Sam.

“I’m sorry, Josh,” I say as soon as I realize, “oh my god, I thought...”

“It’s fine,” He replies, avoiding to look at me, “I mean, I knew you had feelings for someone-”

“Sam,” I say, not really listening to what he was saying, “Jeez I’m so stupid...”

“What?” He stops.

“You’re upset because I got to see Alex again and apologize, but you and Sam...”

I’m too embarrassed to continue, so I just give him an apologetic look that he doesn’t seem to fully understand. I watch as he stares at me startled, mouth open and a deep frown. Only then I consider that I might have fucked it up again.

“Or if that wasn’t what had you upset then I’m sorry I didn’t-”

“No! Uh, yes. Sure, I-uh...” He scratches the back of his head, “yeah I guess all this had me a bit sensitive. What was that about you and Alex?”

“I...” I’m a bit surprised by his sudden change of subject, but I don’t take it personal since I guess he feels like he gave too much information about him and Sam the last time we talked about it, “I talked to him and said I was sorry. Then he said he was sorry and now we’re friends again.”

“Friends?” He’s got his full attention on me, now seemingly interested in my story.

“Friends,” I smile.

“Didn’t you liked him?”

“I told you it was a long story,” I shake my head, finishing his bandages “tp make it short, he used to be my crush, then after he left things just got different and...”

Then I met you.

“Well I don’t feel that way anymore, so we’re cool now”

“Really?” He asks, “That’s great!”

He gets up and hugs me tightly, even lifting me up a few inches in the air. I let out a short squeal, caught off guard.

“You’re the type of friend that gets excited with their friends’ success, right?” I laugh once he puts me down.

“Totally,” Josh smirks, “this is a win for all, right? He gets a safe place to stay, you get your friend back and I...” He clears his throat, “I can get that notebook filled with medical tips”

“You sure need them,” I chuckle, “you klutz”

“Don’t be rude,” He kicks my foot lightly, “by the way, what was that thing you were saying about Wesley at first?”

“Wes,” I say excitedly, “he said he’ll plan a homecoming dance for us”

“What?”Josh laughs, “No way!”

“I know, right?” I grin, “that’s cra-”

“That’s so cool!” He interrupts me, “How long has he been planning this? Do you think he needs help?”

“I-I don’t know,” I stutter taken by surprise, “he just thought of that today, so I guess he does? but-”

“Let’s go see if he needs help!” Josh takes my healthy hand and drags us out from the pharmacy, looking for Wesley.

I know that if I help Wesley there’s a big chance I will lose the bet but what did you expect me to do? I can’t tell Josh I’m not going to help cause I made a bet about asking him out. That’s embarrassing.

Instead, I follow him to where Wesley is and while Josh tells him he thinks his idea of making a dance is great, I have to stand there and watch the shit-eating grin on Wesley’s face while he nods along to Josh’s ideas.

Taglist.

@letsbloodmagic @slythermyg​

[twoidiotwriters1]

Starcrossed Losers XIV (Josh Wheeler xReader)

A/N: This is officially the largest thing I’ve ever written on tumblr and I’m proud of it. Pardon my use of PUBLIC, the playlist demanded it (not really but I make the rules) I hope you like this chapter!

Words: 8,639

Warnings: Fights, cursing and blood.

Previous chapter // Next chapter

So now that I embrace my new title, things seem easier. Fuck it, I save lives (not really but you know what I mean), I’m creative, people come to me when they have problems normal solutions can’t fix. I’m awesome.

After I help to clean the store, I look for KJ since I’m already running late. I find her... talking with Josh. I analyze the scene, my friend is holding a book and he goes frantically through the pages as he talks to her. Next to me, I hear some ruffling and I see a small figure peaking through the garbage.

“Hello,” I lean over the pile of trash, I hear a yelp, “what are you doing dressed like a piñata?”

“Watching their interaction,” Replies Angelica, “since you’re going with Alex at least Josh seems to finally make up his mind”

“And that’s a victory cause..?”

“He needs the rebound sex!” I can picture her rolling her eyes, “I get it if you’re virgin and don’t want to lose it with Josh-”

“Hey, my thing has nothing to do-”

“He needs a distraction, if KJ can do that for him then I have to kindly ask you to not get involved!”

“What is he holding?” I cross my arms, now just as invested as my friend on the scene unfolding before us.

“A Chinese-English dictionary, he’s trying to speak in her language”

“That’s so dedicated,” I'm touched by his actions, “he doesn’t need to...”

“Let him be a gentleman!”

“That’s not why I said it!” I poke her head, “Anyway, I think you’re wrong. He’s not asking her out.”

“Why do you think that?”

“A hunch,” I shrug.

“Or jealousy?” She says in a suggestive tone.

“You’ll see I’m right,” I start to walk over to where they are, ignoring Angelica’s hurried whispers.

“Hey!” I put one arm around his shoulders, it’s hard since I can barely reach them, “What’s up?”

I see KJ’s eyes widened for a moment, maybe thinking that I’m about to uncover her secret. I wink at her in complicity.

“Hey,” Josh smiles at me, lifting the book so I can see it, “I was asking KJ about her headphones, I think we could use something like that for the noise problem”

“You don’t say,” I pretend to be surprised, KJ snorts but she manages to change it into a sneeze, “Bless you! So uh, tell you what then, you bring as many headphones as you find and I’ll tell KJ about what we’re trying to do. Give me...”

I gently take the book from him and start rummaging through the pages, pretending to look for some words.

“You sure?” He asks, starting to walk away, “You’re the best Y/N! See you in a minute!”

He runs off excitedly, KJ and I start laughing.

“I have to admit, his effort is kind of endearing,” She smiles.

“Just when I think he can’t get cuter, he does this,” I point to the book and leave it on top of the beauty stand.

Ah, fuck. Why I never think before I talk?

“Cuter?” She smirks, “Are you crushing on Josh Wheeler?”

“Are you?” I ask out of pure panic.

“Hmmm, not really,” KJ shrugs, “but... I can’t say that I haven’t thought about it”

“Hah,” Her words sting in my chest, I try to play it off as casual as possible, “the headphones, then. Let’s go over to the stage and see if we can make it work”

“Cool”

Josh comes back with a bag full of headphones and wireless earphones, looking different than the first time we were standing here today.

“You told her?” He asks, carefully leaving the bag on the DJ’s table.

“She’s in,” I smile innocently, “should we start?”

“Yeah,” He nods excitedly, grabbing three sets and handing us one to KJ and me.

“What’s your plan for this super-amazing-legendary Homecoming do-over?” I ask while breaking the package of my earphones.

“Well, now that you mention it...”

Alex passes by and calls out my name, I look up to see what he wants.

“Should I wear a tie or a bow-tie?” He inquires.

“Whatever you prefer Al,” I grin.

“Alright, don’t say I didn’t ask!” He walks away, raising his hands in defeat.

“He’s taking the dance too seriously”

“I think he’s just making sure everything goes according to plan, maybe he’s worried about our matching outfits not really matching or something...”

“Match?” He frowns, “Why would he... oh”

“Oh?” I frown, “What?”

“You’re going with Alex?”

I really wish this question didn’t make me feel so awkward.

“Uh, yes. He asked me today after I went to the pharmacy... it’s his way of fixing things”

“No, I understand,” He scratches the back of his neck, “you... you wanted that, right?”

“I don’t know if I wanted... it feels nice, getting my best friend back like old times”

“Old times...” He nods, now somehow quieter, “I’m happy for you, Y/N”

“Thanks?” I abandon my earphones on the table, “Is everything okay?”

“Huh?” He looks back at me, “I... I was thinking about the last dance I ever assisted to back in Canada”

“Was it fun?”

“Fuck no,” He chuckles, “I never asked any girl so I always went alone. I had this coach that made us dance with a mop to get the extra credits”

“You went with a mop to your last normal dance?” I ask in disbelief.

“Don’t laugh.”

“I wasn’t going to,” I reply, laughing.

“Stop!” He whines, focusing on his headphones, “I’m aware of how shitty that sounds, no need to rub it on my face. I bet you have this really cutesy story of your last dance”

“I went with my group of friends. We refused to ask someone so we all just went together. It was fun.”

“You always did that?”

“I never thought it was a big deal”

“I did,” He shrugs, “I had a plan for this Homecoming... I asked Sam”

“She said yes?”

“She did,” Josh puts the headphones away, “can we not talk about that right now?”

“Totally,” I reply, picking up my earphones.

KJ speaks up (in Chinese) and points to the DJ’s dashboard, then to our headphones.

“I think she’s saying it’s ready for testing,” Josh says.

“Put them on...” I put on mine and Josh follows my lead.

KJ gets closer to me and whispers.

“Connect your phone to the dashboard and pick a song, it should work.”

“Thanks,” I do what she says.

Since I’m still in the mood for PUBLIC, I grab the phone from my back pocket and open the music app, searching.

“Ready?” I ask, both give me a nod of approval.

“Sweet,” I mumble, pressing play.

And the music starts playing, but this time, only for us to hear.

I’m thinking about what Josh said to me. He asked Sam to the Homecoming dance, How tragic could things get before they stop? I’m starting to rethink my decisions, maybe getting too close is too dangerous. Staying is going to get me killed in more than one way. 

Although how could I leave, when that means abandoning a newfound family.

“I’m a playin' it safe? I've been here for too long Haven't made a mistake There's a reason to stay - 'Cause I feel so alone”

Josh’s face lights up when he starts hearing the music, nudging KJ’s arm and nodding. The girl smiles and waves, her way of saying “Welp, my work here is done!” As she takes off the headphones and gets off the stage.

However, Josh and I stay to listen to the music, I see him mouth a “Well done!” and I answer with a “Same to you!”

“Make up reasons to wait Run so nothing goes wrong But everything that she said, I'm overthinkin' while I'm drivin' back home”

I start to follow the rhythm with my foot, sort of awkwardly dancing to it. 

I won’t overthink what Josh said, there’s no point. Like I said to Angelica, he’s here and he’s staying and so am I. 

Why would I be afraid? He’s told me before he’s not leaving me behind. I’ve said the same thing, I got his back.

“'Cause she said, 

"Call me up when you're all alone 'cause I'm down for hangin' out

We'll stay up all night and I'll just crash on your couch.”

Josh starts dancing as well, we’re goofing around and not really showing our best moves, kinda like the hand-holding thing a few hours ago.

I’ve noticed how I do silly things with him often just for the sake of it, ever since he told me about his fight with Sam we have that sort of dynamic, we can act stupid and the other won’t judge.

“...Maybe that's her, that's the girl I'm just terrified And maybe that's her...”

Does this count as the soundtrack of my life? I mean we attached this song to a memory permanently. Who cares if it’s another PUBLIC song? Their songs are good, don’t underestimate them!

“How will I know if I never try? Maybe that's her, that's the girl, that's the girl I've been waitin' for”

He extends his hand and I take it, dancing in unison. I gotta say, we look pretty stupid. But it’s that spark in his eyes that makes me throw all the embarrassment out the window so I can get an extra minute with this side of him. 

We’re laughing, loud. I know it even if I can’t hear us. I know it for the way his shoulders move and how it gets harder to breathe.

We have our own party going on, I accidentally trip on some wires so of course, I fall forward and Josh catches me.

Am I clumsy or is my body just sabotaging my plan to not flirt with Josh until I think the time is right? 

Or is this just happening for the reader’s entertainment? We will never know.

The thing is that it happened and now Josh’s arms are on my waist and he’s chuckling and saying something that I can’t hear, he lifts me up so I’m standing on my own again. The music has gotten to the part where it’s a bit slower, and suddenly the choir seems to be ten times clearer than before.

“Am I playin' it safe? I don't know anymore Do I keep pushin' away 'Cause I'm just too afraid that someone's gonna get hurt”

Oh, fuck off, PUBLIC. I don’t need you spreading my thoughts out there like I’m desperate to send a message. 

Though I did pick the song myself, maybe I did do it expecting Josh would understand that I’m scared of what I’m feeling. Maybe I’m hoping he’ll understand without me having to say anything and then he can kindly reject me and I can move on with my life.

Please, please just listen to the song, Josh.

For a moment I think he does, his stare suddenly gets all serious and he opens his mouth like he’s about to say something. He steps back so he’s no longer holding my waist and takes off his headphones, I take off one of my earphones and look at him, my hands are shaking.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, trying to sound calm and mildly confused.

“I...” He looks down at his headphones and lets out a short laugh, “I didn’t know you like this band”

“They’re not bad!” I complain.

“Yeah, I know. I like them,” He smiles, “I mean I’m not a huge fan or anything but... you know how I said I had this song in mind apart from Mastermind?”

“I do,” I give him a small smile, “you refused to tell me which song was...”

“It was a PUBLIC song” He grins, “a recent one. I can’t remember the name, that’s the reason why I didn’t choose it but the music video had this cool story where they’re in like a movie set? The singer has a crush on the actress..?”

“I know which song it is! It’s-”

“You guys fixed the problem?” Angelica climbs over to the stage, “wireless headphones? Nice!”

“Thanks,” I reply, “it was Josh’s idea. He asked KJ how did she set up hers so we could do the same with these”

I give her a pointed look and she just scoffs, then she looks to a side and nudges my ribs.

“Look at that...”

I look at the main entrance of the mall and I see Maya heading out.

“Where is she going?” Josh asks.

“Y/N kicked her out”

“You- What?” He says with wide eyes.

“It’s a long story,” I shrug it off.

“It was really badass,” Angelica adds.

“Later,” I insist, “we have a decoration to finish”

“C'mon Y/N, I wanna hear!” Josh insists.

“Basically Maya was throwing a tantrum cause she couldn’t find her knife-”

“Actually it was because I discovered the real reason why she isn’t with the Cheeramazons. It’s cause they kicked her out, but go on...”

“No way!” The boy exclaims, mouth agape.

“Let me finish!” Replies Angelica, “So anyway, she was running around Y/N’s pharmacy and when she walked in I hear Maya screaming at her and I was ready to set her on fire when I heard she was looking for her stupid knife. I took it cause I was helping with some decorations and we needed to cut papers and stuff”

“Maya lost her shit when she saw An holding it and then started to scream louder, then took the knife and cut her”

“My finger,” Angelica proudly shows her bandaid, “and then Y/N lost it.”

“What do you mean?” 

“She told Maya that she needed to leave, cause her job as Healer was to make sure everyone was alright and since she hurt me she couldn’t stay”

“We need to surround ourselves with people that have some limits,” I try to explain so I sound less like an asshole, “Maya had none, she always expects to be the leader or the star of the group, this is how she reacts when she can’t have it. Besides, no one gets to touch Angelica on my watch. No one.”

“I’m not judging you,” He raises his hands, “if anything, I’m proud.”

“You... What? Why?”

“You found your thing,” He adds in a teasing voice, “Healer.”

“Ah,” I roll my eyes, smiling, “I figured that since you keep calling me that against my will might as well own it, right? I got an assistant and all! Alex is great on his job and calls me boss,” I grin.

“You do a pretty decent job,” Angelica shrugs, “just don’t fuck up”

“It’s getting late,” I see Angelica’s watch and realize the night is getting closer, “we get ready for the dance”

“Right!” Angelica perks up, “Eli is looking for you. He said he wanted to talk and that you could meet him back in the salon”

“Okay?” I frown, “I better go then...”

“Have fun!” She smiles, walking off the stage.

“I should go get dressed too,” Josh mumbles, leaving the headphones on the table next to him.

“I should do that after I talk to Eli as well”

“See you... Y/N?”

“Hmmm?”

“Bow-tie or tie?” He asks with a smile.

I let out a laugh, thinking about it for a second.

“Bow-tie. I think it suits you.”

“Bow-tie it is,” He gets off the stage as well.

The store is crowded, I’m starting to think maybe Eli is no longer here when I hear him calling my name from the back.

“Your campaign failed? Are you going to kill me with scissors?”

“What? Nah. I decided to not run for the crown.”

“Why?” I frown, getting closer to where he is, “Wasn’t that your goal?”

“I have a bigger goal now, which is not die,” I’m about to ask what the hell is he talking about when he speaks up again, “I’m giving you a makeover”

“How about no?” I backtrack, trying to be as far as possible from his grasp.

“Don’t be shitty, you know I used to work with my aunt!”

“I don’t need or want a makeover”

“You don’t wanna feel pretty for one night? Do a Cinderella entrance when they see you come down the stairs and all that shit? Do you even know what you’re gonna wear?”

“I was thinking black jeans..?”

“Good fucking- Sit on the chair, Y/N.”

“But-”

“You need a break. You’ve been curing all the kids since you came back and you have a sprained wrist. When was the last time you slept properly like, on a bed?”

“Not that much,” I huff, “like... a week?”

“It shows,” He gets closer and pushes me towards one of the chairs, “sit and relax, princess. I got this shit. When I’m done with you, you’ll look like real-life Barbie”

“How exciting,” I snort, “including the outfit?”

“That’s all on you. I trust you’ll pick something better than jeans. Ask Wesley, he’ll know how to capture your vibe”

“I think I can do it alone”

“Uh...”

“I used to dress up on my own before this whole thing happened,” I say, “the reason why I didn’t want to be all fancy this time it’s cause I just don’t see the point, it’s a made-up dance.”

“So were the ones back at school,” He retorts, already putting some sort of oil in my hair “the difference is that you didn’t plan those. This thing is to help us forget the bullshit, just play along”

I never thought I’d say this but maybe I should follow Eli’s advice. We’ve been through a lot of shit and this thing helps us cope, mend our inner wounds as a true healer would say.

He doesn’t let me look at my reflection until it’s done. He turns around my chair and sets me in front of the mirror. I don’t know how to react to what I’m seeing.

“So?” He inquires, raising a brow, “Will you let me handle those curls without doubting my abilities next time?”

“I...” How did he do that? My hair looks so soft and... clean. Hydrated as well, I have no split ends and it’s just so... in place, I look amazing. 

And my makeup? Yes, he did that too. And I don’t know how did he manage but I don’t regret it at all.

“Eli,” I gasp, “you’re my favorite boy right now”

“I tend to have that effect on the ladies,” He smirks.

“I love you,” I say mesmerized, softly passing a hand through my hair, “don’t take it the wrong way, I don’t wanna date you”

“You don’t need to specify,” Eli scoffs, “I know that you only have puppy eyes for dumbass Josh”

“Oh, come on,” I groan, “you too?”

“Princess if you wanna keep it casual then don’t drool all over the floor,” He replies, “even Crumble can notice”

“Shut up,” I complain, standing up and brushing little hairs from my overall, “I’m gonna go get changed. You better start to get ready as well.”

“Bold of you to assume I don’t have my suit ready. I might have quitted the throne, but I’m still ruling hearts”

“Sure,” I stifle a laugh, “get them all, tiger”

I spend the next two hours searching for something my size and not claimed by the other kids. One hour trying to find them in a color that could match in a killer outfit. In the end, my look is not devastatingly perfect but it’s enough and it makes me feel good, I can’t complain.

Alex finds me when I’m walking out of the store, fully dressed and ready to dance.

“Holy shit, I feel like a proud father right now!” Alex takes my hands and makes do a quick twirl so he can see the result, “I wish I had a camera with me”

“Wait! I have a phone”

“Didn’t you lose your phone when... you know”

“I got one after I left the jocks,” I pull the phone out of my pocket and open the camera app, “you take it, I’m terrible taking selfies”

“Happy Homecoming do-over!” Alex presses the icon on the screen until he feels satisfied, we check to see if we like the pictures and then he gives me the phone back so I put it back in my pocket, “Ready to dance all night?”

“As long as my wrist allows” I lift my hand, still covered in bandages, “I’m ready to have fun”

We walk in and I freeze, amazed by the final result of all our efforts these past days. It looks great, I even start to consider that maybe this wasn’t a waste of time.

“Neat, right?” Wesley walks up to me, giving Alex and I two sets of earphones so we can listen to the music, “I made it work, which means you lost.”

“Not now,” I whisper once that Alex puts on the earphones, “let’s wait until tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? Na-ah,” He frowns, not even in a playful way, he looks genuinely upset “tonight’s the perfect romantic setting and you’re thinking about wasting it? You’re thinking about wasting your shot when you’re looking like that? Not on my watch, sister.”

“Wesley...” Alex looks at us slightly confused and I shake my head, “listen, I’m here to have a fun night with Alex and it’d be rude to leave him only to go and flirt with some other dude”

“I’ll only say this once, but you’re losing precious time Y/N,” Wesley warns me, I get the feeling that he’s hidding something from me but I can’t think of anything in particular, “just like you lost your chance to add a song to the soundtrack of our lives. You never told me your choice!”

Shit, after what happened with Maya I totally forgot I was supposed to tell Wesley which song I wanted. Still, I don’t worry too much about it, my mind lands immediately on a song.

“Am I still allowed to tell you?”

“Depends. Which one is it?” I lean closer and whisper the title to him, along with the name of the artist, “I don’t know who that is.”

“Just type it like that, it should appear right away,” I insist.

“Is it good?”

“Hey! You told me I could pick any song, so just add it to the list!” I push him towards the stage, all the way Wesley curses under his breath.

“You need to calm down!” He backs up, “Don’t ruin the suit!”

“You gonna play the song?”

“Yes, now leave the DJ alone.”

“Fine,” I go to find Alex again, he’s waiting for me next to the food and quickly takes off one of the earphones so he can talk to me.

“You want a drink?”

“Does the punch have alcohol?” I say as I put on only one of the earphones, keeping the other in my pocket.

“I don’t know?” He frowns, leaning closer to the bowl.

“I don’t wanna get wasted,” I shake my head, “can’t risk another injury so soon”

“I’ll get you coke”

“I’ll go with you”

We move around the mass of bodies until we reach the other table. There, we see Josh dancing with... a mop?

“Josh?” He’s wearing earpods, so I have to poke his arms to get his attention, when he turns and sees me, he immediately takes one off, “What are you doing with that mop?”

“Hi-woah! You look... so...” Josh looks at me and then at Alex, maybe hoping to get some help from my friend but Al stays silent, waiting for him to end the sentence himself, “you... Hi.”

“Hello,” I chuckle, “I see you’re wearing a bow-tie”

“I see you kept the aesthetic and just changed the overall for a... more fancy overall”

“It’s called a romper,” I clarify, “yes, it’s a fancier version but just as comfortable as the original. I’m also wearing heeled boots so you can’t say I’m not trying.”

“No, I wasn’t going to,” He corrects, “I think you look great. Both of you. Hi, Alex.”

Crap, I forgot I was with Alex. I’m a terrible friend.

“Hi Josh, your date seems pretty shy... Are you going to introduce us?”

“Yeah,” Josh smiles, “Y/N, Alex. Meet Mop-Sam. She’s here to represent real Sam now that she can’t be here”

“Hi Mop-Sam,” I tilt my head, “is this some kind of regression? Are you going back to when you were thirteen and your coach made you dance with a mop as a coping mechanism?”

“No. I just want Sam to have one last good night”

“Fair, but you could’ve used a mannequin,” I agree, “Why a mop?”

I stay quiet as I see the realization hit Josh, he stares at the mop with a new found resentment for his lack of brain.

“I didn’t think of that,” He whispers.

I pat his back.

“You should’ve asked me first, buddy,” I shake my head, “enjoy your night with mop-Sam though, she looks nice.”

He glares at me as I giggle, walking away with Alex beside me, casually holding me by the waist.

“Josh is really weird,” He says while handing me a soda, “yet, he’s got good intentions. I get why you like him.”

I choke with my drink. I don’t even try to deny it, apparently there’s no use to it since everyone has a radar to identify my crush from miles away.

“I just think he’s really fun to be around,” I shrug, “it’s thanks to him that I found you so I’m thankful that he found me”

“I can tell he’s glad that you found him,” Alex raises a brow, “why didn’t you come to the dance with him?”

“Because you asked me first.”

“You could’ve said no. If you wanted to come with Josh I would’ve understood. Don’t use me as an excuse you had all the time in the world to ask him and you didn’t, you don’t want to admit that you chickened out on the last second.”

“What if I did?” I reply sternly, “Is not like he wants to be with me, I’ll get hurt if I try”

“Dude, didn’t you see the way his brain short-circuited when he saw you? I could practically see the hearts floating around his head”

“But Sam-”

“Sam’s gone. If he can accept that, Why can’t you?”

That’s a good question. Why can’t I? 

Josh and I could be everything I always wanted, why am I so against it? It isn’t Alex. Josh wasn’t dating one of my friends, he’d broken up with Sam way before I had even returned to his life and we’re both so fitting for each other, why can’t I let myself enjoy life in the apocalypse? Why do I always have to feel sorry for myself?

“I think I’m still not over it,” I say, voice hoarse, “part of me doesn’t think I deserve something good happening to me after what I did to Katie.”

“That’s bullshit,” He frowns, “you spent most of your life looking after me whenever my parents weren’t home, made sure I always had food and slept well. You make sure all these kids are safe and clean their wounds when they need it, even with a sprained wrist. Shit, Y/N you’ve grown to be strong and you’ll be bigger than what you expect but please cut you some slack, let yourself be happy.”

“I think...” 

The music is loud on my left ear, barely leaving me room to think. What Alex wants me to do is to follow my heart, that I can hear loud and clear even with all the noise surrounding us tonight.

“I want a break. I wanna have all the little, ridiculous nice things that used to make me go all giggly inside”

“That means?”

“How about we dance until I can’t feel my feet?”

“And after that?”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Seems appropiate”

Time flies when you’re having fun, specially when it’s during the night. I only realize it’s been three hours when Eli walks up to us and asks if we voted for a homecoming gender-neutral royalty since it’s about to close so they can start to count the votes and tell us who won before midnight.

Alex and I step to the voting box and when we’re done he lets me know that he has to go to the restroom so I’m left alone. 

I decide to use my free time wisely. I walk towards the stage and after a mute conversation Wesley agrees to put the song I asked for, I make my way towards Josh, who’s still cheerfully dancing around the mop.

I poke his back again and he turns around, smiling brightly when he sees me. He’s about to take off the earpods but I stop him, signaling him to listen to the next song.

I promise, dear reader, that this is the last time I’ll use PUBLIC as the soundtrack of my life. You can agree with me when I say this one demanded a place on the list. After all, it was Josh’s song but it also means something to me, the lyrics now more than ever, say everything I can’t dare to say directly at his face.

So now I’m asking you and Josh, to dance along to the beat of my love declaration.

“Oh, here we go again, on this ride Incapable of just being friends Always on my mind...”

He lifts his head up as soon as he hears the first few seconds of the song, smiling. I can read his lips saying “You found it!” and I nod, just as happy as him. I extend my hand and ask him quietly if he wants to dance this one with me and he takes my hand with no hesitation.

I know I’ve only known Josh for like, eight days. Without counting the time in highschool cause we didn’t know each other that well. 

I know that’s not enough time to say I love him, or that he’s the love of my life. Yet, is enough to know I like him and that I would love to know him better. I want to be with Josh as close as possible, all the time. Maybe the feeling will fade away, maybe he’s not the love of my life. 

I rather be with him until it fades away than letting the feeling die without trying.

“Waiting for something A message late at night Are you gonna say what you wanna say? Are we gonna do this right?”

At first, we dance awkwardly, slowly from one side to the other cause we don’t know how to dance like this: So officially. This is not a random day when we’re fooling around and dancing like stupid people. This is the homecoming do-over and we’re supposed to do it right.

Then we share one look of panic where both of us are like “oh my god, what the hell are we supposed to do with our arms?” and instantly relax cause we remember: “Hey, this is us, why are we trying so hard?”

“But I'm hesitating when I'm around you I can't escape that look in your eyes It's getting late and we're just talkin' My feels locked inside”

He takes my hands and makes me twirl and slide, we get stuck in some movements but none of us gets stressed about it. Meh, whatever, we’re having fun.

We aren’t talking, yet I feel like I’m having a whole conversation with just our eyes, he laughs when I accidentally step on his foot and I do it when he trips on his own feet. I’m not capable to look away, it’s just us here.

You know, maybe I’m imagining this, maybe I’m exaggerating what’s going on between us during this song. Does it matter? Life would be so dull if we saw our reality only in one way. Isn’t it better to think you’re the only person left in the world and witness as time stops for you to remember every single little, ridiculous detail that makes your life worth it?

This right here, is what makes my new life worth it: The people in it, the feelings I have whenever I’m around them.

Josh.

How everything is possible when I’m with him.

“'Cause you're the one that I want 'Cause you're the one that I need I just wanna fall in your arms So I'm begging down here on my knees”

He pulls me closer and I put my arms around his neck. I’m nervous at first, I’ve never been this close to him, besides the times when I crashed into him or that time back at the factory where I lost my cool and hugged him in front of everyone... okay fair, I’ve fallen into his arms plenty of times before.

This hits different because of the pretty lightning, the music that we both like, we’re wearing fancy clothing which is always a nice plus, the ambient feels so... normal. Finally, I got to have a little piece of my old life back.

I imagine that this is the actual Homecoming, Alex is somewhere with Stuart and somehow Josh and I kept talking after our school project, one thing led to another, then we came to the school dance together.

Think of all that could’ve been, if only I had decided to let go of my feelings for Alex sooner, to give this a chance. I could tell Josh was something special even if I didn’t like him that way, he always caught my eye one way or another.

Maybe if I’d talked to him one day back in Highschool to say more than just ‘Hi’, if I had invited him over to the movies with the rest of my friends, things would be different. I don’t know exactly how different, but perhaps, better.

The solo comes in and Josh uses the opportunity to take off one of his earpods and asks me to do the same. 

“This is the song you chose for the soundtrack?”

“You like it?” I grin.

“I can’t believe you used your only chance on a song that I wanted, that’s not cool!”

“Hey, who said I did it for you?” I tease, “I love that song, it’s a banger”

“You don’t think it was too much?”

“Why would it be too much?” I frown, “it’s good, not as corny as you make it sound”

“It wasn’t the song what I thought it was too corny,” He rolls his eyes, “I was planning on dedicating the song to someone”

“Oh,” I feel my blood run cold, and burn my chest at the same time, “to who?”

“Not important,” He shrugs it off, “she’s not available”

That’s it. That’s how the spell wears off. Josh has a crush on someone else.

Wait.

How can Josh be crushing on one of the other girls? For all I know, he barely knows like five people out of everyone here. The only girls he talks to are Angelica, KJ, Crumble and I. Angelica is a child, KJ has no dance partner, Crumble is like ten years older...

Is he talking about me?

“I wanna know, wanna go to the deep end Tired of all this actin' shy I wanna know, wanna go to the deep end”

He puts his earpod back on and I do the same. My mind is running wild to search for the next step after the song ends.

Should I tell him everything? How crazy will I sound if I tell him, ‘Hey, guess what? This was supposed to be my love declaration and it’s my way of saying I’m crushing on you, my friend.’

No, this is nuts. I can’t do it.

Oh my god, I can’t tell Josh.

I’m a coward. I’m such a gigantic coward but fuck, I can’t.

I feel his hand pressing lightly on my waist and I look up, his eyes are blue but they’re so clear that they reflect all the lights in the room, two little kaleidoscopes. I can’t stop looking, I’ve never been able to look away.

He asks me if I’m okay and I silently reply that he has nothing to worry about.

It’s true, he doesn’t have to worry, I will keep my mouth shut forever.

‘Y/N, what if he does have feelings for you?’ You're back with the nosy questions. Well, if he does, it’ll pass. Love isn’t constant.

It’s better this way, right? No strings attached means no one gets hurt and we stay together as a whole tribe.

Right?

“'Cause you're the one that I need That I need”

The song ends and we stay close to each other. Josh has this cute, tiny smile while he stares at me, I probably look like I’m worried sick. 

Shit, I need some time to think.

I take off both my earphones and step back.

“Thank you for allowing me one song with you,” I mumble, too nervous to speak like a normal human being.

“That’s cool, Mop-Sam was getting tired of me kicking her bucket anyway” I laugh, it’s a tense grin, barely cheerful. Josh notices right away, “It’s something wrong?”

“Alex must be looking for me,” I change the subject, playing with the straps of my romper, “I should go find him” 

“Alex,” Josh’s demeanor changes, now acting distant, “he’s probably worried.”

“It was nice,” I add, slowly backing up, “we should make this more often”

“Sure...”

I find Alex in no time and I decide to tell him everything, he’s completely understanding and I’m so relieved to have him back.

It’s like I’m so much lighter ever since... Ever since Josh found me.

“You need space to think,” Alex agrees, walking me towards a set of stairs, “go to the second floor, no one’s there right now. Clear your head, make a decisión, come back when you know what you’ll do and then we’ll enjoy the rest of the night without you overthinking every little detail” 

“Okay...”

“Promise?”

“Don’t get so pushy, Alex,” I complain, “I’ll try, okay? I can’t promise I’ll fix it tonight.”

“Fair,” He huffs, “now get your shit together, I’ll dance with Angelica in the meantime, I like her”

“Have fun...”

I do as Alex told me to, leaning over the rail so I can watch my former classmates dancing to a song I only hear on one ear, keeping the other earpod inside my pocket so I can listen if someone looks for me.

Should I accept my stupid fate? Give in and be like, ‘welp whatever God wants for me I’ll have it’ cause I’m honestly getting tired.

I’m an orphan with a bunch of kids I have to look after and a crush that is not over his dead girlfriend. I’m dumb. I need a good night of sleep and something besides pre-packaged food or I’ll die before I turn twenty of heart disease.

“There you are,” I turn around to see Josh, he already fucked his bow-tie, “I was starting to worry”

“Why?”

“I saw Alex dancing with Angelica, don’t take me wrong, that’s cute and all but... did you guys fight?”

“No?” I frown, “I needed a moment to clear my head. I’ve been stressed lately.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Josh stands beside me, “do you remember Sam’s video here?”

“The compliments video?” I smile, “It was sweet”

“You’re in it,” He grins.

“No, I’m not?”

“You are,” He pulls out his phone out of his pocket and unlocks it, “I was watching it this afternoon while I was getting Mop-Sam ready and I saw you... There!”

He gives me his phone, the video is paused where Sam is holding the camera and Josh is the one facing it. Behind him, a bit far but still able to recognize our faces I see Alex and me, walking out of a shop.

“That’s me!” I exclaim, “I’d never noticed before...”

“Sam and I never saw you there,” He adds, “where were you?”

“Oh, we left early that day,” I reply, nervously avoiding any further explanation, “We had an argument, sort of, so I left”

“That’s too bad,” Josh frowns, “I’m sure Sam would’ve chosen you guys for the compliments”

“Maybe,” I sigh, “I wasn’t hunting for compliments that day”

“Or ever,” He jokes, “always running from compliments...”

“Hey! I can take a compliment,” I lightly slap his shoulder.

“Really?” My friend smirks, “okay then, let’s see...”

He takes the phone and steps back, pointing the camera to my face.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m about to make a compliment video”

“Please don’t.”

“You said you can take a compliment, I’m only checking if that’s true”

“Josh...” I whine, turning away from the phone.

“Y/N,” He speaks up, grinning, “Y/N! I wanna let you know that I think you’re cool and that your weapon is actually more badass than my katana. You looked really scary the first time I saw you hit a Ghoulie with that thing. Also, you have a terrible taste in colors but you’re clothes are always fun and you’re not afraid to wear them. You are fucking impressive, I’m impressed. All the time.”

“What?” I look over at him, still a bit camera-shy, “Josh, stop!”

“And your healer abilities rule. I think you should learn to use a skateboard, just cause it would look badass on your resume,” He laughs, “you make the best instant chicken noodle soup I’ve ever eaten and that’s important, I usually hate fast food.”

“I think that’s enough,” I chuckle, walking over to him and trying to put down the phone. Josh is taller so he easily avoids my hand, “c’mon!”

“You’re hilarious most of the time, the best sense of humor I’ve seen in years,” He continues, holding his phone above me and smiling like an idiot, “By the way, I was too blown away a few hours ago when I first saw you to say it, but you look beautiful tonight. You look good all the time. I like how you look all the time but I mean-”

“You’re rambling!”

“I... yeah I am,” Josh grins, “sorry. What I’m trying to say is... you’re so, so nice.”

I laugh loud enough to feel like I need to cover my mouth since everyone is silent downstairs, Josh and laughs with me, finally putting the phone away.

“You’re better now?”

“After that whole pro speech?” I joke, “Obviously, I’m ready to keep on dancing”

“Great,” He throws a fist in the air, guiding me towards the stairs, “It’s almost time to know the gender-neutral royalty”

“Where’s Mop-Sam?” I ask while we go downstairs.

“She got a bit jealous after we danced, I’m giving her space,” He whispers like is serious business.

“Oh, damn,” I put a hand in my mouth, faking surprise, “should I go over to apologize?”

“Nah, she’ll be fine,” Josh shrugs, “how about we get drinks instead?”

“I’d like that,” I nod, “before I go back and steal Alex from Angelica”

“Ha, yeah,” Josh passes a hand through his hair, “Oh! Do you mind if I put back both airpods? This is the song I asked for the soundtrack of our lives!”

“Not at all,” I smile, “How about you enjoy the song and I bring the drinks?”

“Thanks,” He says, putting the airpods back on.

I walk towards the table and see Wesley making his way over to Josh, I glance at them for a second and I notice how nervous Wesley looks. I stay still, listening. 

“I need to tell you... everything”

I put the cups downs and I listen as Wesley rambles about him and Turbo, I want to stop him cause I know Josh isn’t listening but I’m not sure Josh needs to listen to all this tonight. Why is he telling him this tonight?

“...You’re going to die because my ex-boyfriend can’t stand that you and I are friends”

Oh. Okay, that’s why.

Josh takes off one of the airpods.

“You put my song on the soundtrack of our lives,” He says, deeply touched, “Deltron 3030? Thanks for making me feel so cool, man”

“Did you hear what I said?” Wesley asks in disbelief.

“I thought you were just singing along,” Josh shrugs.

“I heard,” I get to Josh’s side, “all of it”

Now I understand why he insisted so much on me making a move tonight. he didn’t want to kill Josh before I could confess.

Wesley’s eyes widened and he starts to speak, the buzzer sets off and cuts his speech. It’s time for the gender-neutral royalty. Everyone applauds and cheers, I step closer to him and I whisper.

“What the fuck did you do?”

He gives me one desperate look before his name is mentioned and he has to go over to the stage, along with Mop-Sam. I look around and I lock eyes with Eli, who has a panicky expression, I immediately know he’s also in this. I walk over to him and I give him a pointed look.

“You’re planning on killing Josh?!”

“How the fuck did you find out?” 

“How the-? Oh my god, you were going to do it. I can’t believe it,” I hiss, “Was... was the whole makeover a distraction? It was, wasn’t it? Eli I... I trusted you”

“That’s exactly why I’m doing this,” He shakes his head, “I’m trying to protect all these kids, that’s what you want, right?”

“I want us to be a good tribe, a loyal one! Not a fucking Game of Thrones rip-off!” I exclaim.

“Is not important anyway!” Eli exclaims, “He was supposed to die with the crown but Wesley won, he’s gonna die instead!”

“He what?” I turn to see Wesley walking up the stairs, deadly silent, “Oh, you fucking stupid martyr”

I run over to the stage, the kids don’t let me get any closer. I scream his name, but so are the rest of the children. 

I’m not gonna make it, Wesley will die. 

They get closer to put the crown on top of his head and...

“STOP!” He slaps the hand away, the crown flying to the floor, “No one touch that crown!”

“Thank god,” I clean my forehead from the sweat and whisper: “man, you are stressful!”

“Turbo told me that he’s gonna come and kill you all. But I have a plan.”

“Oh, so you did have a better plan?” I frown, speaking loudly this time.

“I know how we can fight back,” He replies, then looks back a Josh, “you have to trust me”

Josh shakes his head clearly pissed, then looks down at where I’m standing.

“We don’t have time,” I cross my arms, “let him talk”

Wesley talks and we set up the mannequins, we wait.

Turbo gets here in no time, breaks the door’s chains and throws punches in the dark like a madman, he stops until every mannequin is on the ground, realizing his mistake. We walk out of our hiding spots, I had to go over to the pharmacy to get my hammer, I feel more than ready to break some bones if I have to.

“You’re not supposed to fight,” Josh whispers beside me, “your wrist is not okay”

“I’ll manage,” I reply dryly.

The fight begins. I don’t break any skulls or knees but I do manage to break bows and swords, I feel like I’m kicking serious ass when someone throws me on the ground, I fall on my face.

“Are you protecting all your children, Y/N?” Maya sneers above me, putting a foot on top of my head, “I bet you’re having fun-”

I hear her grunt and suddenly her body falls next to mine, someone grabs me by the arms and lifts me up. 

It’s Alex.

“You can eat shit, Maya,” Alex replies, handing me my hammer, “your wrist is swelling again, you have to stop”

“I’ll stop with the hammer,” I kick a Jock in the crotch, “I’ll start with my legs”

“Good enough,” Alex nods.

Suddenly a loud scream echoes in the room.

“Turbo’s hurt! Retreat!”

It’s almost like the room is on fire, the Jocks run away picking up their weapons and lifting up their friends from the ground. I don’t see Maya, yet I know she’s with them. I don’t see Turbo either.

We’re left a mess, all our things are on the ground and the floor is slippery, mixed with blood and soda. Alex was right, my wrist feels awful as well.

Josh waits until everything is deadly quiet and looks over to Wesley.

“I have to lock you up”

As soon as he says it, a bunch of kids surround Wes and drag him to the nearest store, I see Eli quietly chuckling and I speak up.

“Eli helped him,” I point over to him, “he has to go too”

“I was only trying to help!”

“You hid important information to the group, we can’t trust you as long as you keep playing to your convenience,” I reply.

Another group of kids take him, pulling the heavy metal curtain so they stay in their place.

“Y/N?” Angelica speaks next to me, “you need something for your wrist”

“I’ll ask you this one time,” I say, ignoring her comment, “Did you know what they were doing?”

“No!” She responds in honest outrage, I believe her.

“Then you’ll keep an eye on them while I go and take something for my wrist”

“I already have it here,” Alex throws a small container with pills that I catch with my good hand.

“Thanks,” I look over to Angelica, “you think you can do it?”

“I’ll be more than happy,” She replies, already sitting on the ground, facing the store.

“I’ll stay with her,” Alex says, “I think you should check on Josh... he just got a death threat and immediately after had to fight for his life. He might need to talk to someone”

“I’ll be right back,” My mind is a bit too fuzzy after the fight, but I think I can have a small conversation with Josh, “I’ll do that...”

I walk around asking if anyone has seen Josh, one tells me they saw him walk out to lock the mall’s doors again.

I find Josh in the middle of the parking lot, he’s standing there quietly.

“Josh?” I inch closer.

I get no answer, I can only see his back.

“How are you feeling?” I’m merely five feet away from him.

“Did you know?” He inquires coldly.

“What?”

“What Wesley and Eli were planning,” Josh explains, “Did you know?” 

“No,” I say, “I had no idea. I heard though, when Wesley was talking to you moments before the crowning”

Josh turns around, tearing up.

“You didn’t help them?” He steps closer to me, his breathing faltering, “You swear you’re not lying?”

“No!” I repeat, this time exasperated, “Josh, I would never hurt you. I promised, remember? I’m with you.”

He looks at me with the same odd expression he makes every time I say something he’s not expecting to hear. 

My wrist is hurting but there’s also a warmth that spreads through it thanks to the ointment and the pills. I stand there, with nothing else to say. 

I don’t know what to ask. Josh doesn’t want to talk, I can see it on the way he keeps his mouth tightly shut.

Instead, he kisses me.

“And they all fall down...”

Taglist.

@letsbloodmagic @slythermyg