Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 15:11:26 -0700 (PDT)
From: John Smith <niftynumberone@yahoo.com>
Subject: The New Kid, Josh

>>Wow, sorry for the delay and all, things came up. But I edited some of
the story and added more to it. So if you were waiting for the next chapter
to come out, then read this through first and depending on the poll for the
group, I'll get the next chapter out within a few days or once every
week. Thanks! - John


				The New Kid

As Bryan walked into yet another day of hell, his eyes immediately drew him
to look towards the other end of the hall. He was almost drooling at how
good this guy looked.  He was crouching at his locker trying to get it to
open but wasn't having very much luck.

"Hey dude, keep your eyes inside your head!" his best friend, Kevin, joked.

Kevin and Bryan have known each other and since second grade and have never
been apart since then. They literally tell each other everything. When
Bryan came out to Kevin he expected more of a reaction then he got. Kevin
just laughed and said, "It's about damn time you fucking told me!"

"I was so not fucking staring at him" Bryan said as he averted his gaze to
his friend.

"Dude, I know you way too well. I know that look. You are into him. Don't
worry; I'll go talk to him for ya!" Kevin laughed as he ran down the hall
towards the new kid.

Bryan stopped dead in the middle of the hall with his mouth open when Kevin
actually started to talk to him. He looked around but found nowhere to
hide. When someone from behind knocked into him, it brought him back to
earth. He wiped the sweat beads forming on his forehead and calmly walked
over to the others.

Kevin looked up and gave Bryan a knowing smile and said, "Bryan, this is
Josh; Josh, Bryan. Well Josh here was just trying to get his locker open
and since you had this one last year I figured you could show him how."

"Sure thing" Bryan said as he kicked the locker in the bottom right
corner. "There. Now try it."

Sure enough when Josh tried his combination again it worked. He looked up
at Bryan who had his mouth open staring at him and thanked him. When he
didn't respond Kevin nudged him and said "Bry, get your ass back from
la-la-land. Stop thinking those perverted thoughts!" Bryan's eyes got wide
and he punched Kevin in the shoulder. Kevin realized his mistake and made
an attempt to cover it up by saying, "Dude, you know Ashleigh's never going
to go out with you! She doesn't date screwups!" Bryan sighed and smiled
back at him.

Josh really didn't seem to think much of it because he just laughed and
said he needed to get to class before he's late.

"Alright, well where ya headed?" Bryan asked.

"Uh, A204, Mrs. Edwins?" Josh replied sounding confused as hell on which
hall that was.

"Dude that's our class!" Kevin said with excitement.

"Come on, we'll show you the ropes. You can be in our lab group." Bryan
added as he started walking off.

When they reached the classroom Kevin and Bryan led the way to the back
table with Josh close behind. For once in the whole history of being in the
same class, Kevin didn't sit next to Bryan. Instead he sat on the other
side to allow Josh to sit next to Bryan.

"Ah, well isn't this an unusual site!" Mrs. Edwins replied as she walked by
them.  "Usually I can't get you two to stop talking and now you're not even
sitting next to each other? When did hell freeze over?" She laughed and was
on her way again as the boys just sat there and looked at each other.

"So I take it that you two are best friends then. Why'd you give you your
seat so I could sit next to Bryan?" Josh asked looking directly at Kevin.

"I dunno. I guess I just thought you two wanted to sit next to each
other. Being that you two had the same locker. It's like a special bond."
Kevin replied looking back and forth between the two

Josh and Bryan looked at each other and started cracking up. "Dude what the
fuck are you smoking!" "Haha! A special bond? Are you going crazy?" "Wow, I
think that takes first place for dumbest comment of the day!" When they
wouldn't stop laughing and commenting on how stupid Kevin sounded,
Mrs. Edwins told them to shut up before she sent them both to the office.

"Josh, I don't think you want to take after those two lunatics. They've
gone to the office how many times this year boys? Was it six or seven?"
Mrs. Edwins yelled at them.

"Actually it was only five. The other time didn't count because the bell
rang before we got down there," Bryan replied sarcastically.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully for all three. They were in a few
of each others classes and were all in the same lunch period. When the
final bell rang they all met up outside.

"Hey Josh you want to come over today? Bryan and I were thinking about
having a small party. It's Friday and my parents are going to be gone all
night." Kevin asked.

"Um, I would but I have to check with my mom and I would need a ride," he
answered.

"Here, use my phone. I can give you a lift too." Bryan said as he hauled
out his cell phone.

Josh called his mom and she agreed that as long as he was back by midnight
or was staying the night he could go. Kevin offered for him to stay over at
his house but Bryan suggested his house because people would most likely be
passed out at Kevin's. So everything was agreed upon and Josh was going to
spend the night at Bryan's after the party.

"So, we got three hours until the party. What do y'all want to do until
then?" Kevin asked as he climbed in Bryan's truck.

"We could go see a movie" Bryan suggested

"Uh, I don't have any money with me" Josh said sitting between the two.

"That's alright. I can get us all in free. I work there. So what should we
see? House of Wax?" Bryan asked hoping to see a movie that Josh might get
scared so he would have a reason to get closer.

"Naw man, I heard that one sucked. How about xXx: State of the Union? I
think that one got a good review" Kevin said as he changed the radio
station.

"Fine, fine. We'll go see the movie you want to see. Just like
always. Unless you want to see another one, Josh?" Bryan replied.

"Doesn't matter to me. xXx is fine. I haven't seen it yet." Josh said as he
stretched his arms above his head.

Bryan glanced over to see Josh's shirt rise up just enough to get a peek at
what kind of underwear he was wearing. Boxer-Briefs. "Hmmm, sexy" Bryan
thought. Just as he was thinking that, he heard Kevin yell and looked up to
see a car stopped in front of him, "Look out!"

Bryan hit the brakes but not in time. He nailed the car in front of him and
the airbags deployed sending the three of them into the not-so-soft
cushion. Bryan and Kevin looked up to see that Josh looked like he missed
part of the airbag and his forehead clipped the dashboard. Kevin gently
shook Josh and started to call his name but it didn't help. Josh didn't
respond to either Bryan or Kevin.

When Bryan got out of the car the driver in the car he hit was out and
screaming his head off at the "little teenage punks that didn't know how to
drive." Trying his best to ignore the yelling in the background, Bryan
dialed 911 and waited for the operator to answer.

"911, what's you're emergency?"

"Um, I was just involved in an accident and my friend that was in the car
isn't moving."  Bryan said with fear in his voice. He couldn't have just
killed him. If Josh was dead Bryan wouldn't be able to live with
himself. He finished talking with the operator and waited for the police to
show up. Hopefully Josh would recover by then and he wouldn't have to go to
the hospital. He's had bad experiences there and wouldn't like to go back
any time soon.

When Bryan started back towards the car, the other driver cut him off and
demanded to know what the hell his problem was. As much as he didn't want
to hit the guy, he would gladly do it if it would shut him up long enough
until the cops came.

"Look asshole, you stopped in front of me and I didn't have time to
stop. My friend is in there and for all I know he could be dead. Now I
suggest you get your fat ass back in your car and wait until the police
show so I don't have to do something that neither of us would like." Bryan
glared down on the man that was standing in front of him.

The short man got back in the front seat of his car and kept looking in his
rearview mirror to see if Bryan would follow him.

Bryan, now very pissed off, jogged back to the car to check on Josh. Kevin
was already there and Josh looked as if he was waking. He started moaning
and he leaned back in his seat.

"What the hell happened?" Josh groaned as he instinctively brought his
hands to his head because of the pain.

Bryan was so relieved that Josh awoke that he hadn't even noticed the
police and ambulance pull up behind him. The cops started blocking off part
of the street and directing traffic while the paramedics rushed over to the
car. Kevin motioned towards something behind Bryan and he turned to see the
medics jogging over.

"Is he the only one injured?" One of the guys asked.

"Yeah we've got some scrapes from the airbags deploying but other then that
we're fine" answered Bryan as he watched as the worked on Josh.

When a cop came over to question Bryan on what happened, he wasn't even
listening. He was staring past the officer and watched as they placed a
brace around Josh's neck. He immediately began to break out in tears as he
saw them move him onto a stretcher.

Of all the years they have been friends, this is the first time Kevin has
seen Bryan cry. He had a high tolerance for pain and rarely looked as if he
was sad. Kevin pulled Bryan close to his chest to comfort him, but Bryan
couldn't stop. He stopped trying to fight them as he watched the paramedics
load Josh into the back of the ambulance.

Kevin started to talk to the police officer while Bryan managed to control
his tears. He walked over to the ambulance and knocked on the door and
asked which hospital he was going to be taken to. Bryan then looked at the
recently dialed numbers on his cell phone and hit send as he came to the
one josh dialed.

"Hello?" asked a female voice on the other end.

/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*

"Hi, is this Mrs. Stevens?" Bryan asked with a quiver in his voice.

"Why yes it is. Who may I ask is calling?"

"This is Bryan Anderson; the one Josh talked with you about earlier."

"Ah yes, I remember. Please, call me Kathy. What can I do for you darling?"

"I have some bad news regarding Josh. We were in an accident on the way to
the movie theater. Josh was knocked unconscious at first, but slowly
started to come around when the paramedics showed up. They put him in a
neck brace and took him to St. John's Hospital." Bryan almost couldn't get
the last words to come out because he was fighting back the tears.

Bryan put the phone back up to his hear in time to hear a 'thump' and then
shoes running and Mrs. Stevens screaming "Rob! Damn it Rob, get off the
computer and get down here!  Josh is in the hospital!"

"Bryan, thank you so much for your call. We'll be there as soon as we
can. If you need to get a hold of me, call my cell phone at 214.336.1126."
With that said there was a click and Bryan closed his phone.

When he walked back over to where Kevin, the officer, and the short pudgy
man was standing, he started to think of how he was going to explain this
to his parents. They warned him repeatedly about being a save driver. His
dad was going to kill him.

"...and that's when the ambulance showed up." Kevin finished explaining his
side of the story to the officer.

"Do you have anything to add?" The officer asked the other driver.

"No, that pretty much covers it. There was a dear crossing the road so I
hit the breaks hard and they rear-ended me. There was no way to avoid it"
he replied while looking over at Bryan. "And I suppose I owe you an apology
for going off on you earlier.  I was a little hot-headed because I just got
the car, but there was nothing you could do. Sorry about that."

"Not a problem, sorry about hitting your car and threatening you earlier. I
just didn't want anything to happen to my friend." Bryan replied while
shaking his hand.

The officer finished the accident report and handed each of the drivers a
copy for their insurance. Just about that time the Tow Truck backed up to
Bryan's truck and started to hook it up.

Bryan's phone rang and he looked at the caller ID on the front. It was his
mom and he was wondering why she would be calling if she knew they were
going to a movie and then straight to Kevin's for the night.

"Oh, yeah; I called your mom while you were on the phone with
Mrs. Stevens. I told her we were in an accident and that we needed a
ride. I didn't know who else to call because my 'rents are out of town."
Kevin said.

>>That's where I leave you for now. Sorry for the long
delay... Comments/Suggestions to niftynumberone@yahoo.com . There is a
yahoo group for this story under the name "Niftynumberone".  Note: You must
be 18 to join the group :\