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Swimming Pools by Kendrick Lamar began blaring out of Josiah’s cellphone, making the twenty-one year old jolt awake. He slapped his hand down on top of the device and snatched it from the bedside table. He didn’t bother checking the caller ID, simply pressed the button to answer it while falling back into the pillows with his eyes closed.

“Hello?” his voice croaked unattractively, but he was too tired to care.

“Hi, baby,” his mother’s cheery morning tone sang through the speaker.

Josiah yawned and put his hand over his face. “Hey, mom. How’s it going?”

“Good, good,” Lanai said. “So what are you doing today?”

The young man pried one of his eyes open and stared across the room to the window. It was bright and sunny out. “I don’t know. I just woke up.”

“It’s nine o’clock,” Lanai stated.

“Yeah,” Josiah drawled, “but I seem to recall that it’s a Friday, so...”

“Don’t give me your sass, young man. Get up and get ready.”

This time both of Josiah’s sage eyes popped open. He stared confusedly up at the ceiling. “What, why?”

“Because you have somewhere to be today. Things to do.”

“Uhm...what might these things be? Where am I going?”

Lanai huffed into the phone. “Get your ass out of bed and put on some clothes, child. You’re driving up to Central Falls.”

“I still don’t understand the why...”

“I saw Carson this morning--”

Josiah’s face scrunched up in annoyance. “Ma, stop it. We’ve talked about this--”

“No we really haven’t, Josiah. You always cut me off before we can,” the woman said, letting her annoyance be heard. Josiah rolled his eyes. “Now listen here, I saw Carson this morning. I stopped in for a coffee on my way to work about an hour ago at Dunkin’ Donuts; he works there.”

Josiah sat up in bed and played his hand through his hair. “That’s great for him.”

“Oh shut up,” Lanai quipped lightly. “Now, I’m sick of listening to you fake your happiness. This is the last weekend before school starts back up and you’re going to come up here and visit Carson. You two really need to talk.”

The twenty-one year old sighed heavily and ruffled his curls. “Ma, I’m not gonna bother him. He doesn’t want to talk to me.”

“I beg to differ on that one,” Lanai said haughtily. “You should have seen that boy. He looked awful, and when he saw me, you’d have thought he’d come face to face with a ghost or somethin’. I bet everything you own that if you went up there right now and tried to talk to him, he would listen.”

Josiah stayed quiet for a moment, thinking. Then he said, “Ma, I just don’t know. He hasn’t returned a single call or text message all summer. I really think he’s done.”

“I’m tellin’ you he’s not, honey. Give it a try.”

The young man shook his head in resignation. “No, I’m just gonna let him be.”

“Boy, I ain’t playing with you,” Lanai abruptly snapped, raising her voice. Josiah’s eyes widened at his mother’s tone; there was nothing in it that left room for argument. “You heard what I said. Now get your ass out of that bed I know you’re still in, and take a shower. You’re going to talk to Carson and you don’t want to be smelling bad or anything.”

“Jesus, Mom,” Josiah muttered, pouting.

“Don’t sass me,” she warned. “Now get to it. You want your father and I to keep paying for your tuition? You will do as I say. Listen to your mother, boy. That’s what I’m here for.”

Josiah grumbled and threw back his covers. “Fine.”

“That’s the problem with you kids these days,” Lanai complained. “You think just because you’re old enough drink and smoke and get into all kinds of trouble, you can’t stop minding your parents. Well guess what?”

“What?” Josiah deadpanned.

“You can’t,” the woman said, emphasizing each word. “Now, I gotta get back to work. Do as you’re told. Lovely talking to you, honey, buh-bye now.”

Josiah sat there with a sour expression on his face as his mother hung up on him. He hated the way she bossed him around, but he really knew it wasn’t worth it to argue with her. And half of him did want to talk to Carson while the other half was terrified of how it would go.

He cursed to himself, knowing that he just had to get it over with. Without dawdling or wasting any more time, he went and fed Milfred before jumping into the shower.

Josiah’s nerves were nearly at an all-time high as he drove back to his hometown. Once he parked on the side of the building where he couldn’t be seen through the window, it had taken him about five minutes to just breathe. He was so nervous that Carson would flat-out say he hated him or that there was no way he would ever let him back into his life. And that scared the crap out of him.

When Josiah finally managed to step out of his car, he rolled his shoulders to get rid of the tenseness in his muscles. He shut his door and locked it before going to walk around the building. He had only gotten down to the sidewalk when he saw the guy he had gone there to see, already walking towards him.

Josiah’s heart stopped at the same time as his feet. He quickly stuck his hands in his pockets so that he wouldn’t be tempted to tug at his curls like he usually did. He wanted to play it cool for as long as he could.

Carson’s heart was thudding in his chest as he looked at Josiah. He looked as gorgeous as he ever had. Somehow his dreams hadn’t done the light-skinned man justice, and he barely had enough control to not run straight into his ex’s arms.

The brunet bit at his lip and tried to act casual instead of as crazy as he was feeling. He slowly walked up to where Josiah was standing in the middle of the sidewalk and stopped about four feet away.

“Hey,” he said quietly, shyly glancing up into sparkling sage eyes.

“Hi,” Josiah muttered nervously. His eyes couldn’t stop roaming the other man’s face and body. He couldn’t believe how long it had been since he had actually seen Carson.

“I thought I’d see you today.”

“Really?”

Carson nodded and crossed his arms over her chest just to have something to do. He felt awkward and he hated it. “Yeah, after I talked to your mom this morning, I figured she’d tell you I was here.”

Josiah quirked a little smile at one corner of his lips. “Oh, she did. She threatened to quit paying for my schooling if I didn’t come up here.”

Carson’s smile that has started to appear on his face instantly fell. He had let himself think that the older guy was there because he wanted to make up--that he wanted to get back together. To think that he was only there by force made him feel awful and even more regretful for never answering his phone calls.

Biting the inside of his cheek, Carson said, “Oh, I see.”

Josiah’s own small instantly faltered. He repeated what he had said in his mind and almost slapped himself in the face.

“No, no,” he quickly said, trying to backtrack. “I didn’t mean it like I didn’t want to be here, because honestly I do. It’s just--I was just scared and I didn’t think you would even want to talk to me. I thought for sure you hated me or something because, I mean, you ignored me all summer and I...I’m gonna stop rambling now.”

Josiah’s cheeks went pink from self-inflicted embarrassment and he anxiously shuffled his feet. In his head he was wishing the ground underneath him would crumble so that he could fall through and get lost forever.

Carson chuckled--he couldn’t help it--because a nervous Josiah was rare and one of the cutest things ever.

“It’s okay,” the brunet said. “I don’t hate you. Yeah, I was mad for a while because you pulled a dick move, but I was acting like a little bitch. I shouldn’t have just cut you off like that. I’m sorry.” Josiah’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, but Carson kept talking. “And I know that breaking up with you in the first place was really cruel of me. I was such an asshole to you.”

“I’m sorry I told Ayden,” the older man said. “I should have talked to you first. She was your best friend and I shouldn’t have come between you guys like that. I was an asshole.”

Carson smirked a little. “To be fair, I think what I did was worse, but...if we both want to take the blame here, that’s fine with me.”

Josiah smiled genuinely and took a hand out of his pocket so he could rub the back of his neck. He searched through the brunet’s blue oceans for eyes, and quietly asked, “Carson, what are we?”

The brunet had to bite his lip. His heart began to beat wildly again. He shrugged and said, “Friends?”

“I hope you’re only saying that because you’re too scared to ask for more.”

Carson’s stomach fluttered as if hundreds of butterflies were going to burst out of it at any second. “I might be.”

“Do you forgive me?”

“Only if you can forgive me.”

Josiah smiled. “I forgave you ages ago. I just wanna get back together with you. I still love you, Car.”

Carson took in a deep breath. He looked into Josiah’s eyes and said, “I still love you, too.”

They stood there, staring at each other for a few seconds with stupid grins on their faces before Carson couldn’t take it any longer. He quickly stepped forward to close the distance between the two of them and drew the taller guy into a tight hug.

Josiah instantly let his body relax and form to Carson’s. While the brunet’s arms wrapped around his waist, Josiah let his arms circle the younger man’s shoulders. Standing there and breathing in his friend’s familiar scent made him feel a hundred times better. It felt so right to be back together like that; it was like Carson was the super glue that was putting all the broken pieces back together.

Carson buried his face in the older man’s neck. “Can we get back together?”

Josiah chuckled. “Obviously. Just don’t ever dump me like that again.”

“I don’t want to dump you at all. Sorry, Joe, you’re stuck with me forever.”

Josiah pulled back and stole a small kiss from the brunet. He fought back a face-eating grin and said, “I think I can deal with that. You, know, you smell like sugar and sweat.”

Carson laughed and shook his head, before leaning back in to rest his head on Josiah’s chest. “Yeah, perks of being a donut boy. You smell like my body wash.”

Josiah smiled. “Guilty.”

“You’re lucky you’re so hot.”

“It helps that you’re in love with me,” the older man teased.

The brunet nodded his head and breathed deeply, feeling happy and calm. “It really does.”

“Move back in with me. Today, tomorrow, I don’t care,” Josiah said. “Just please come back, I hate living there without you.”

“You don’t even have to ask,” Carson said, meaning every word. “I just finished my last day at work; I had a short shift. Let’s go get my stuff from my parents’ house.”

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