(𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐓)

"Mr and Mrs Garcia," I say. 

"You guys are home early," she says, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"What are those brownies?" her dad asks, I nod in response.

"If you're making them, they must be good," he adds as he rocks Grace back and forth in his arms. His eyes are fatigued, as seen by the puffiness beneath his eyes.

"Come on, let's get Grace to bed," her mother says, laying her hand on his arm to catch his attention. 

He nods, and they proceed up the steps, disappearing around the corner. I let out a breath that I had been keeping in.

She gazes up at me with her light brown eyes, "You okay?" 

"Yeah," I say, taking a step back from her.

"You can call them by their names you know," 

"They never said I could," I tell her as I  lean against the counter and cross my arms across my chest.

"My parents are not that stuck up, my dad's name is Marcus and my mom's name is Julia," she says.

"Is this alright?" she asks gesturing to the dough.

"I mixed it before you did, I just wanted to see you struggle," I say.

She turns to me to face me with knitted brows, "I struggled to make a premixed batter?" she asks.

"Pretty much," 

She throws a kitchen towel at me and it lands right on my face before dropping onto the floor, "I deserved that laugh," I tell her. 

"Did you?" she asks as I pick it up and toss it onto the counter. 

I take the pan and give it to her. She takes it and slowly pours the batter into the pan. Afterwards, she goes to put it in the oven but I take it. 

"Don't want you to hurt yourself," I tell her as I put it into the oven.

"How long is it going to take?" she asks as she takes a seat on the couch.

"Maybe thirty minutes," I say as I take the apron off. 

I soon join her on the couch, she wraps her arm around mine and rests her head on my shoulder. "What'd he say?" I inquire.

"What'd who say?" 

"Josh," 

She shakes her head, maybe assuming I'd drop the issue, but I need to make sure she's alright, that nothing he said or did would affect her. "What'd he say?" I repeat, this time a bit more stern.

"It's nothing," she responds, but her voice quivers slightly. "I don't really want to talk about it, I just know I lost a friend," 

All of my bones urge me to drop the subject, and I know I should, but I detect the hurt in her voice. The pain in her words, I've only ever seen it a couple of times but now it seems so much more intense.

I notice her fidgeting with her fingers and lay my palm over hers to draw her attention.  "Olivia," I whisper.

"Hm," 

"I don't know what he said, and I won't push you to talk about it, but Josh is not in the right space right now," I tell her.

I don't want to tell her everything that's wrong with him since it's not my place to say. But I want her to be cautious with him since he's not thinking clearly, and it took me much too long to realize this before.

"I know that much," she mutters, her eyes fixed on my hand over hers, she doesn't look up to meet my gaze.

── ·✩· ──

I chose to go see my grandfather before going on campus; I didn't mind being a little late. The doctors said he looked to be better but anything may happen at any time; I tried my best to be there for him but I can't always be with him.

I park my Jeep in the parking lot and take a big breath as I glance around. At this school, I used to feel invisible.  I never talk to anyone and I was even more quiet during class time. Most of my conversations were at  Chase's apartment during parties. Most guys were too drunk to hold a conversation and too many girls wanted a one-night stand.

I never understood the concept of a one-night stand, therefore I never had one; why would you expose someone else to your most intimate parts when you've just met them for three minutes? 

I felt uncomfortable, even enraged, when Chase presented us to Olivia. Believe it or not, I didn't want Chase to end his relationship with Kate. But when he stated she'd cheated, it made no sense to me. He still talked about Katelyn and visited her often; I expected Olivia to last two months at most before he returned to Kate, but that didn't happen.

As time passed, Olivia became a major part of our lives, she was at rehearsals, parties, and then our school. After a while I found myself glancing at her, thinking about her and I developed feelings towards her. I completely shut off those thoughts, I never let my mind wander too far, and I never got too close to her.

It's difficult to describe how I came to have these thoughts, but I despised the fact that Chase would cheat and then put his community-infested hands back on her, I knew she didn't deserve it. 

A tap on the window interrupts my train of thought. I look out the window to see Josh; before he decides to bang again or potentially shatter my glass, I step out of the car and close the door before leaning against it.

"Why can't you just back off?" he barks.

"It's not so simple," 

He stops pacing to gaze up at me, "It's just as simple as leaving her alone,"

"You know she's the one who broke things for you," I tell him, "She thought you seeing us together kept hurting you what she didn't realise was that she can't be happy with anyone else because you don't want to see her happy unless it's with you," 

"I'm not trying to be brutal Josh, but you need to move on and fix your issues instead of blaming everyone else," 

I see a slight change in his eyes but he blinks a few times and it's gone,  he shakes his head and opens his mouth to speak but I don't allow him to speak.

"What you did yesterday was wrong and you know it, you took your chance, you failed and you need to let it go, let go of this crush that you keep convincing yourself you have, you think she's easy and that's not the case," I say.

"If you just give me a little more time and back off," he grumbles.

"You don't own her, and it's time you accept whatever decision she makes, she thinks she's lost you, that you've gone too far to come back, I don't want to believe that, but if you want her to forgive you, you need to stop," 

His hands are clenched and his jaw tightens slightly. It confirms my suspicions; his temper is now on display, and he's not trying to conceal it anymore.

"Think clearly before you do what you're about to," I tell him.

As the words leave my mouth, Chase comes up to us but Josh's gaze doesn't leave mine as Chase starts speaking.

"What's going on over here," he asks, grabbing Josh's shoulder as he draws the cigarette out of his mouth, blowing the smoke into our faces.

I roll my eyes at him before returning my eyes to Josh whose hand is still clenched.

"I was just getting to class," Josh says, tugging his shoulder away from Chase's grip before walking into the building.

He drops the cigarette onto the floor and stomps it with his shoe, rubbing the tip of his sneakers into the ground to out it.

"I'm guessing Tristan two, Josh zero," he says.

"Something's not right, I don't know what it is but I'll find out," I say. "But I can get to him,"

"Well figure it out soon, the tournament is coming up we might actually have a chance with you on the team," he amits. "And if you tell anyone I said that, I'll kill you," 

"I'm just surprised," I tell him.

Chase has always been cocky; he'd never tell somebody they're better than him, even if he knows it's true. Even though he didn't say that exactly, I can't help myself from thinking Chase is changing. I'm not sure why, either; I've hardly been around him.

"Yeah well don't let it get to your head fool," he chuckles, "Come on we have class," 

── ·✩· ──

𝗼𝗼. ⁞ 𝐀𝐒𝐇 𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐒!

Hey guys, that concludes chapter sixty, I certainly do hope that you liked this chapter, we've gotten so damn far in this book.

But I do want you guys to know that I'm working on a new book while updating this one, it's still in progress nothing too but I'm too stoked not too tell you guys. Chapter sixty-one is coming soon.

Don't forget to comment your feedback and vote.