Page 138 of Almost Ours

“Hey! I’m trying to tell you my darkest secrets here.”

“Sorry, sorry.” He drags his face into an exaggeratedly sombre expression and waves his free hand. “Continue.”

“Are you going to take it seriously?”

“I am.” He raises a solemn fist between us. “Talk your truth.”

“Josh!”

He laughs. “I mean it!”

I reach across and slap him his arm with the back of my hand, to which he laughs again and pushes my arm away.

“Focus on the road before you kill us and tell me the rest of it.”

The humour has saved me from saying anything else, and I’m taking the escape while I’ve got it. “No.” I frown, all disgruntled and hot. “It’s your turn.”

His eyes narrow. “My turn to what?”

“Tell me some horrifying secret so I don’t feel mortified.”

The laughter drains out of him. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, you know that right?”

“Great. Then you won’t mind opening yourself up, will you?”

“Jesus, string me up by the balls, why don’t you?”

“Come on, Josh. A secret for a secret. It’s only fair.”

He shakes his head muttering something that sounds like, this girl can get me to do anything. “You get one question.”

“I do?” I squeak, clamping down on the excitement sparking.

“Yeah. One.”

“Alright.” There’s so many things I could ask, so many things I want to ask, like why he has such a strong reaction to Bonnie? Is he excited to go home? Does he talk to his parents much? How did James die? But they all feel too risky, and after the day we’ve had I don’t want to cause him to slam those shutters down. I hover over all of them until another question barges its way to the front, one that feels nosy but not catastrophic. “When you think about your future, am I in it? Even as a friend?”

Josh shakes his head, disappointed. “You little chicken.”

“What?”

“You can’t ask me a question you already know the answer to.”

“I don’t know the answer to that.”

He crosses his arms to his chest. “Yes, you do.”

“How?”

“Easy. When you imagine your future do you see me in it?”

“Well, yeah.” I answer quickly. “Obviously.”

“Exactly, there’s your answer.” He unfolds his arm and pokes me in my cheek. “This is your one shot, Rubes. Ask me a good one.”

“Okay,” I mumble, feeling flustered. “Fine. Give me a second.”

“You’ve got ten.”