Ghost In The Mirror

Ariel came back to school today. After a week of her staying with me most of her bruises have healed. Her lip and eye is better as well. The only thing left to heal is her cut on her cheek. It was pretty deep. Sadly, she told me she was also going home today.

I tried to tell her she could live with me. She declined that offer, sadly. She told me that days like that barely ever happened. She says it was normally just yelling and that she would be ok. I made her promise me that if anything gets bad again that she would come back to my apartment.

Ryan's been constantly worried about her. He hadn't seen her in a week and from what Ariel told me, he believes she just has a bad case of the flu and she wont let him go see her because it's so contagious. He fell for it. He wanted so badly to go see her but he didn't.

Ryan's worried about Ariel's false health conditions, Im worried about Ariel going home, Josh is worried about me being so stressed out all week, and Ariel's worried about her plan of keeping this from Ryan falling through. It's a big train of worry and everyone's climbing aboard.

Right now Josh and I are sitting in math, listening to Mr. Kinard explain some equation that I could care less about. Josh has his hand rested on my thigh, his thumb rubbing shapes on it as his was of comfort without the teacher yelling at us for PDA.

He stopped rubbing my thigh and locked his fingers with mine, giving my hand a small squeeze. "Tarra, calm down. You're stressing out again." Josh informs me. He was right, I was tensing up again. It's hard not to be this way right now though.

"Im sorry. I just have a lot on my mind." I sigh.

"You don't have to apologize. You know Im here for you right? If you ever need to talk Im here for you." He explains and wraps his arm around my shoulders. He glances to the front of the room, probably looking for Mr. Kinard, then turns back to me and places a kiss on my temple. "I'll always be here for you." He whispers.

I nod and look up at him. "You have no idea how much I want to tell you." I murmer.

"You can tell me on your own time." He says.

"Thank you Josh."

"You don't have to thank me." I nodded into his shoulder. Today, I could already tell would be a long day..

The bell rang, signalling we had to go to our second block class, english. In this class the desks are in rows and the stdents are seated in alphabetical order, meaning Josh sits behind me.

That isn't as bad as it sounds. He normally runs his fingers through my hair. It calms me down, sometimes it almost puts me to sleep. If anyone else were to touch my hair I would just get aggrivated. It just seems like most of my pet peeves don't matter when it comes to Josh. Lately it seems to me that everything he does is perfect. He is perfect.

The teacher assigned for us to write and essay. She told us to write about our favorite memory. As much as it pained me to do so, I wrote about the last day I spent with my parents. I wrote about six flags.

I wrote about the jokes my dad told that day. I wrote about the pictures my mom took. I wrote about the times my dad made me laugh so hard that I cried. I wrote about the best memory of my life.

I want so badly to go back to a time when they were here with me. I also don't. I would've never met Josh, or Ariel, or Opal, or anyone else. Im happy here to. I've embraced the tragic ending of my family only to have another one form.

As soon as I finished the bell rang for us to go to lunch. Josh and I went to our usual spot that we had grown acustom to since our friends banned us from the group for another week. Josh sat down and pulled me down in his lap.

"What did you write about?" Josh asks me as he hugs me close to him.

"The last trip that I had with my parents." I replied. "What about you?"

"I wrote about the waterfall with my dad." He explains as he kisses my cheek from behind me.

"That's sweet." I smiled, thinking back to when he took me to the waterfall and told me the stories. That was a side of Josh I had never seen. The way he spoke with such confidence, the way he carried himself, just everything about that night makes my heart flutter.

"Yeah. What are you doing tomorrow after work?" He questions. He makes me give him a copy of my schedule every week so he can take me to and from work. As much as I tell him he doesn't have to, he argues back and says he wants to anyway.

"Nothing. Why?"

"Because Im gonna come over and help you relax. Your really stressed and that's not good."

"Oh. You don't have to."

"But I want to. And you're gonna let me." He says. I look up at him and turn my body a bit so I can see him better.

"Thank you Josh. You have no idea how much I appreciate you doing this for me."

"Doing what?"

"Being here for me like you are. If I didn't have you right now I might be pulling my hair out."

"Im here because I care." He states and kissed me. The kiss got heated pretty quickly as he slipped his tongue through my parted lips. I moved around a bit more so it was more comfortable for the both of us and accadentaly ground my hips into his. He moaned into my mouth and pulled me closer to him.

"Im so sorry! I didn't mean to!" I rushed, refering to me griding my hips against his.

"Baby it's ok." He replies as he pulled me back down to kiss him.

Our small make out session soon turned into rushed sloppy kisses. I could feel Josh's semi pressing into my leg. That was when I decided we should stop... we're in school.

"Josh, not now." I breathed, resting forehead against his.

"Ok." He nodded and pressed another kiss on my lips.

"Tarra!" I heard someone shout. I turned to see Ryan stomping his way over to us. "We need to talk. Now." He demanded.

I stood up from my spot in Josh's lap, Josh following close behind. "What's going on?" Josh asked, wrapping an arm around my waist.

"You knew about Ariel's dad didn't you!" He raged. I just stood there dumbfounded. How did he find out?

"Ryan what are you talking about?" Josh asked.

"Ariel's dad beat the shit out of her! Ariel went to Tarra's and stayed there for a week. Ariel lied to me and told me she had the flu! Why the fuck didn't you tell me what was going on?" Ryan fumed. I still couldn't believe he found out.

"She begged me not to tell you Ryan! What do you want me to say? Im sorry? Ariel needed me and I was there. Don't you dare yell at me for being a good friend." I yelled.

"A good friend? Are you kidding me? A good friend wouldn't let her go back to that!" Ryan screached, causing a few tears to roll from my eyes.

"I begged her to live with me! Every day for the past week I did and she kept saying no! What did you want me to do?"

"Call the cops! Social Services! Something! Don't just sit on your ass and let it happen!"

"Sit on my ass and let it happen." I laughed emotionlessly. "If thats what letting her live with me for a week is then I guess that's all I've done to help her is sit on my ass and let it happen. Fuck you Ryan. Fuck you." I replied to him before turning on my heels and walking away.

"You're an asshole." I heard Josh say before footsteps could be heard following mine. "Where are we going?" Josh asked.

"Im going home. You don't have to come if you don't want to." I explained. "I need to get my stuff out of my locker first."

"Im coming with you. You don't need to be alone right now."

Notes

Well then....them feels....

Tarra lost a friend. Ryan practically hates her as of right now. Josh also lost his best friend. What do you guys think is going to happen?

Comment your thoughts! They would be greatly appreciated. :)

Have you guys heard Puppets 3 yet? Its great!