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When Josiah showed up at Ayden’s parents’ house for dinner a few days after the blonde had been released from the hospital, he had his mind all made up.

The day Carson had broken up with Josiah, the older man had almost never felt so lost and alone. And when he had returned from a lazy day of watching movies with Ayden in her old bedroom, he had almost never in his life felt more like crying than he did when he walked through that apartment door.

Seeing the place completely empty of all things Carson had hit him hard. It was almost as if the cheery and witty brunet had tried to erase his existence from the place. Because the way it was left, it looked as though Carson had never been there.

Josiah took a deep, steadying breath before he knocked on the Michaels' front door. He knew he was going to drop an atomic bomb on his girlfriend tonight, but he wanted to get through one last dinner before he ruined their perception of him forever.

Keri was the one to open the door, her face instantly forming into a bright smile as her eyes took in the young man on her doorstep. She opened the door wide and ushered him inside the house. Closing the door behind him, she turned to face him.

"Great to see you again, Josiah," Keri said, pulling him in for a brief hug. When they separated she pointed down the hall. "Ayden's still upstairs, she should be down soon. Walt is in the living room if you wanted to join him. Dinner will be ready shortly."

"Sounds great, thanks," Josiah said with a soft smile.

They both walked further into the house, Keri continuing through to the kitchen while Josiah went into the living room. He spotted Walt sitting on the couch watching television and made his way over.

When the older man noticed him, he looked up and said, "Hey kiddo. Sit down." He gestured to the cushion next to him and Josiah took the seat. "How have you been?"

Josiah shrugged and stared blankly at the television in front of him. "I'm alright, I guess."

Walt glanced at the other man curiously. "How are things with Carson?"

"We broke up."

"Really? What happened?"

Josiah sighed and looked at Walt with tired eyes. "I don't really know. He just decided he was done." He ran his hand roughly through his hair a few times before dropping it back down on his leg, shaking his head. "I don't feel like talking about it, if you don't mind."

Walt nodded and turned back to the television across the room to take the pressure off of the younger man. "No worries, but for what it's worth, I'm sorry to hear that."

"Yeah, me too," Josiah mumbled.

They sat in a tense silence for a couple more minutes before they heard Ayden coming down the stairs. Josiah eagerly jumped up from the couch and let his long legs carry him across the room to the doorway in a handful of strides to meet the blonde.

"Hey, Joe," Ayden said with a bright smile as he enveloped her in a hug.

Josiah placed a kiss on her cheek and smiled back. "Hey. How are you?"

"I'm doing well. Not as weak as when I first woke up, but I'm getting better . My doctor said that by the end of the summer I should be pretty much back to normal."

"That's great, Ayd," Josiah said.

Just as the blonde was about to reply, Keri entered the room from the other doorway and called everybody into the kitchen for dinner. Walt turned the television off and stood up. Josiah stepped back from Ayden and they held hands as they followed the older man into the dining room.

Josiah walked Ayden to the table before going back to help Keri and Walt bring all of the food dishes out from the kitchen. Once everything was all set, they took their seats around the square table, Ayden and Josiah across from each other with her parents sitting in the same manner.

As they ate dinner, they participated in mostly standard chatter, about the summer weather, work, and whatever major current events were going on in the world. Towards the end of the meal, Keri took a special interest in questioning Josiah.

“Are you ready for your next year at college?” she asked, looking right at the tall, darker-skinned boy seated to her left.

Not fully expecting the question at that precise moment, he blinked and cleared his throat before shrugging. “I guess so. I think it’s going to be a long year, though.”

“Yeah but time sure does fly. Are you taking all the classes you wanted or needed?”

“Yeah, pretty much. As far as I know, I’m still on track,” he said with a nod.

“Ayden’s going back to school this fall, aren’t you, sweetheart?”

The blonde took a bite of her broccoli and said, “Yep. I talked to my advisor a couple days ago. I’m all registered and everything.” She frowned and looked at her boyfriend. “Sucks I have to retake my classes from last semester, though.”

“At least you’ll already be ahead of the game, though,” Josiah offered. “And you’ll finally get the chance to hand in that paper, right?”

“Oh, yeah! That paper was amazing, too. I’ll just edit it and see if I can enhance it. I better get an A on it when I finally turn it in.”

“You will, don’t worry about it.”

“So, Josiah, are you still living in your same apartment on campus?” Keri said, bringing the conversation back to where she wanted it.

“Yeah, for now.”

“Oh? What do you mean?”

Josiah wiped his mouth with his napkin and looked at the older woman. “Well my lease ends at the end of July, and I’ve been there for a while...I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stay any longer. I’ve kinda been through a lot there, so...”

Keri looked like she was about to reply but Ayden jumped in with, “Mom, don’t pry.”

Surprised at the interruption, Keri explained, “I wasn’t prying, I was just asking a question. I know you were thinking about places on campus so I figured I’d ask.”

“Mom, seriously,” Ayden said, giving her mother a pointed look. “Don’t pressure him like that.” She looked across the table and said, “Joe, don’t worry about it. I’m not trying to move in with you.”

Josiah looked at the blonde with wide eyes, not having seen this turn of events. “Oh...I didn’t--”

Keri quickly cut him off by saying, “Well you two have been together for a long time, I figured why not--”

“Mom!” Ayden snapped in complaint. She looked to her father with pleading eyes. “Dad, please.”

After watching the scene unfold in silence while he ate peacefully, Walt finally sighed before stepping in to settle things. “Ayden, calm down. Keri, how about we just let Ayd figure it out on her own? The kids will be fine.”

“Alright.” The woman sighed. She looked at everybody innocently. “I don’t know why it’s such a complicated subject, though. Any other kids I know would be chomping at the bit to move in with each other.”

“You’re so embarrassing,” Ayden grumbled while her parents started having a conversation of their own, no longer listening to the two young adults at the table. To Josiah, she said, “Ignore her, please.”

Josiah quirked an amused smile and said, “It’s fine, Ayd.”

They went back to eating their food in silence, listening to Mr. and Mrs. Michaels banter with each other and throwing secret smiles and smirks to one another across the dinner table. As soon as the meal was over, Ayden volunteered herself and Josiah for cleanup duty--something the sage-eyed boy didn’t mind agreeing to.

As they took to the kitchen with the dirty dishes from dinner, Josiah figured the privacy they had would be the best time to get everything out there. He also thought that doing the dishes while he spoke gave them something to busy themselves with and distract them from the heavy truth of what he was about to say.

Unfortunately, before Josiah could really get up the courage to say anything, Ayden placed a flirty smile on her lips and flicked soap bubbles at his face. He gasped in mock-indignance and shot her a mischievous glare. She chuckled guiltily and smirked at him. Josiah rolled up his towel that he had been using to dry the dishes and playfully snapped her on the backside with it.

Ayden squealed and jumped away, the smack of the towel not really having hurt as much as it had surprised her. The blonde glared without any real malice as she stepped up to her boyfriend and swatted his hands away. They wrestled a little until Ayden managed to get the towel out of Josiah’s grip and throw it across the room.

“Hey,” the young man said, feigning disappointment. “I was using that.”

“You’ll get over it in a moment.”

Ayden settled her hands on his hips and moved closer until the fronts of their bodies were touching.

Josiah instantly felt awkward as the blonde backed him into the edge of the counter. There were a million things familiar about this situation. Although the two of them hadn’t been completely sex-crazed in their year-long relationship, they had a relatively active and healthy sex life. They had always found it easy and comfortable to show their affection for one another and had kissed quite often.

Yet this time, when Ayden leaned up and pressed her lips to his in a real, meaningful kiss for the first time since before the accident, Josiah found it unsettling and unenjoyable. He couldn’t get into the kiss, but he couldn’t help but think that maybe he should try harder. Instead of going through with what his original plan for the night had been, maybe he should just kiss Ayden and try to be as happy as possible with her.

But he counted in his head as the seconds ticked by while their lips were still locked. Ten seconds hit and all he could think about was how her lips felt different from Carson’s. Twenty seconds passed and he was thinking about Carson’s hands on his waist and his chest pressed against his. Thirty seconds, and all he wished for was Carson to be back in his arms, smiling and happy like they were just two weeks ago.

Josiah broke away from the kiss and gently nudged a concerned Ayden out of the way so he could step away from the counter. He had felt trapped there with her arms around him.

“Joe, what’s wrong?” Ayden asked, crinkling her brow as she gazed at the man.

The curly-haired man took in a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, and then slowly let it out. “Ayden, I think there’s a few things we should talk about.”

“Things like what?”

“I think you’re amazing, okay? You’re gorgeous and so intelligent and one of the funniest people I know. You’ve got a personality that can brighten up some of the darkest souls; it’s like nothing else.”

Ayden felt blown away by what she had just heard. She had no idea where it had come from. “What are you talking about?”

“God, I feel like a dick,” Josiah mumbled, staring at the ground before looking back into the blonde’s wide, green eyes. “My point is that you’re great. You are. And I love you, you have to know that--”

“Josiah...”

“I don’t even know how to say this--”

“Just spit it out,” Ayden snapped.

“Okay! I’ve fallen in love with someone else,” Josiah rambled off quickly, bracing for the blow.

Ayden froze and before she knew it tears of disbelief instantly began to well in her eyes. She clenched her jaw while the betrayal behind the words sunk in and she breathed deeply through her nose. Tight-lipped and barely managing to keep the pain and anger out of her voice, she asked, “What?”

Josiah blinked and whispered, “I am so sorry, Ayden.”

The blonde’s hands curled into fists at her sides. “Who the hell is it?” she demanded.

As carefully as he could, Josiah said, “It wasn’t his fault.”

Everything changed for Ayden with this information. She blinked in shock, feeling dumbfounded. “His? It’s a guy? You are not gay!”

Josiah winced. “I’m bi, Ayd...”

With fury running through her veins, Ayden said, “What is his name?”

His answer was immediate. “No.”

“Yes! Tell me right now.”

Josiah shook his head. “No, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“I don’t care,” the blonde snapped. “I deserve to know, goddamnit.”

“Alright, fine!” Josiah said loudly, tired of the arguing. But as the words started to leave his mouth, his confidence quickly fell away and he lamely muttered, “It’s...Carson.”

Josiah felt the freshly washed plate splitting his eyebrow open before his mind even registered that Ayden had picked it up from the counter and thrown it at him. He stumbled backwards, trying to stay on his feet, as blood dripped down into his eye. He was in complete shock as he squinted at the girl fuming less than ten feet away from him.

“You son of a bitch!” the blonde screamed.

“Holy shit, Ayden!” Josiah yelled, touching his fingers to his new wound. He pulled his hand back to see it coated in glistening blood.

Ayden reached for something else to throw. He barely raised his arm in enough time to shield his face from the next flying object. The heavy drinking glass smacked into his forearm with enough force to leave a decent-sized bruise before it went crashing to the floor. Josiah cursed loudly and lowered his arm, peering at his ex-girlfriend with widened eyes. Glass from the dishes crunched under his socked feet and he swore again at how uncomfortable it felt.

“I was in a freaking coma, you selfish bastard!”

Running into the room in the midst of the chaos, Walt waved his hands in front of him and looked at his daughter. “Hey! Hey, now! Stop this right now.”

Hot on her husband’s heels, Keri entered the room and let her eyes survey the scene in front of her. “What is going on in here?”

“He cheated on me,” Ayden growled.

“He’s bleeding,” Keri gasped.

“Christ, Ayden,” Walt said, putting everything together. “You can’t throw shit at him.”

“Yes I can!”

One of the girl’s hands wrapped around another plate and Josiah’s heartbeat stopped for a second. His eyebrow was throbbing from the pain of his new cut and he had to wipe some blood away from his eye so he could see. As he blinked, he watched Walt grab his daughter and shake the plate from her grasp. It clattered to the floor without breaking and the sound rang loudly in the sage-eyed boy’s ears.

“Let me go,” Ayden protested as her father pushed her towards her mother and away from the young man she had loved so much. She was entirely blinded by rage and adrenaline as she struggled with her parents. She glared at Josiah and spat, “He was my best friend!”

“I’m sorry,” the young man said desperately.

“How could you do this? He was just raped, too! You are so sick and selfish,” the blonde hissed.

Josiah’s face paled. He wanted to say something but his throat had gone as dry as a desert. He swayed on his feet from dizziness and watched as Keri managed to drag her daughter out of the messy kitchen. There was stomping as the two women went upstairs and right before a door slammed, Ayden yelled loud enough so that Josiah could hear her, “Get out of my house and don’t ever speak to me again. I fucking hate you!”

Josiah closed his eyes as the gravity of the situation sunk in. That was it. He came clean and told her the truth. Now she hated him and didn’t want anything to do with him. He winced at both the internal, emotional pain from having cost himself the only best friend he had left and from the physical sting of his eyebrow.

The younger man opened his eyes when he heard a sigh. He watched Walt step up to him with a neutral expression on his face. Josiah leaned against the counter as the older man tilted his chin up to inspect the damage to his face.

“She got you pretty good,” Walt said evenly. “It’s still bleeding.”

Josiah huffed out a humorless breath of air. “Yeah, she did. She should play softball with an arm like that.”

Walt chuckled before going to a drawer and taking out a wash cloth. As he ran the water, waiting for it to get warm, he said, “I didn’t know you were going to tell her tonight.”

Josiah nodded miserably. “I figured the sooner the better. I didn’t think she’d try to kill me, though.”

Walt snorted and beckoned the younger man forward. When Josiah stopped next to him, Walt pressed the wet washcloth to his face and started mopping up the dripping blood.

“You should have expected something like this,” Walt tried to tease. “She’s a feisty one.”

Josiah hissed as the older man cleaned his wound. “I guess. I just thought telling her the truth would be the right thing. Now I’ve lost everyone.”

“Here, put pressure against your eyebrow to stop the blood flow,” Walt said, handing over the cloth. “You haven’t lost everyone, Josiah. Things might be looking pretty bad right now, but they’ll get better.”

“Right. When?”

“When they’re meant to. Just give it time to let it all cool down. Carson and Ayden will come around. You guys were inseparable; you can’t give up so easily.” Walt gave a little smile and stepped back. “Stay here, I’m gonna go get the first aid kit to try and patch you up, hopefully you don’t need stitches.”

“Thanks,” the younger man muttered as Walt disappeared.

Josiah bit his lip and looked at the ground. He wanted to believe Walt so badly, but he just wasn’t sure if he could. He didn’t blame Ayden for mauling him with dishes--he sort of deserved it. With the way she had acted, though, he didn’t think she was going to be ready to reconcile anytime soon.

He sighed and felt tears sting at his eyes. It felt like it was going to be a long time before anything got better, and he couldn’t help but wish that he could turn time back by three months so that none of this had ever happened in the first place.

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