Double Life: Hide and Seek

A/N: waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh this is over! it´s so weird that despite having four different oportunities to let go of this story (1.when I first saw the ending in my head, 2. when I wrote the ending in my notebook, 3. when I typed the ending into my laptop and 4. right now) everytime it feels like the first time... wow, I guess, I´ll say good bye Nic and Josh you two were great, you feel real to me, I wish there was a way that I could publish this story because I really like it.

There´s a few side-stories, ff, about this one so there´ll b a bit more DL after this and ofc the epilogue that for the looks of it will b a bit long idk

oh!! Josh´s handwriting in this post is literally a Josh handwriting, it´s the handwriting of one of  my fav authors, Josh Sundquist. Btw, I didnt know about Josh Sundquist when I named my other main character Josh, that was a coincidence, a good one

I nervous... 

*****

"Hello, Josh!" A happy voice greeted him, a lady behind her

"Hello, Camille, how are you?" he was sat on a bench under a tree near the entrance of the ballet school the little girl went to

"Good, how....?"

"Mii, you forgot your sweater!" A vice said, he looked up, the woman looked as surprised to see him as he knew he seemed, she walked to them "Mii, you´ll be late" she prompted the girl to go

"Bye, Josh" Camille said, the lady looked at the woman who said "it´s ok" and they both left, leaving Josh and the woman

"Joshua Arlington i had never expected to see you here" the woman spoke with surprise but in a friendly tone

"Same to you, Mrs. Strasberg" he said only barely politely, the woman chuckled

"I highly doubt that this is a coincidence... Were you going to ask Camille about..?"

"I thought of it, yes"

"How do you even know this -Nat started but interrupted herself with a laugh- Nichole brought you here, didn’t she? She showed you this place, right?" she asked, he said nothing

"Geez! You two do know how to keep secrets!" she exclaimed "right under my nose!"

"She didn’t go back to Burgeoys" Josh said

"No" the woman sighed

"Is she...?"

"I don’t know" she said he raised both his eyebrows in a quick motion, she shook her head and sat next him; he slid away

"You two haven’t talked? -She asked, he said nothing- well, I guess you´re here for that... You know I don’t like you as you don’t like me but she showed you this place, it was you who probably brought her here when I failed to do it, for that I thank you and to show my gratitude, I´ll tell you that she won’t come. I don’t know where she is but I do know she´s not in the country. She speaks to Camille every day, I can ask her to give her a message"

"Not in the country" Josh repeated incredulous

"You can ask Camille" Nat offered. He stood up "Do you want me to tell her you´d like to speak to her?" she offered, he turned to see her, brow furrowed

"I want to change" she shrugged “should I, then? The message?"

"I wouldn’t mind" he finally said and walked away

"Wait!" Nat called out, he stopped, and she came to him "you left school without permission didn’t you?"

"None of your business" he said she laughed quietly

"Her phrases got stuck on you, huh? But didn’t she tell you the woods were dangerous? Because there´s no way you came out the front door, with the time it is, you´ll have to walk in the dark ´cause you won’t get a cab to drive you to the entrance. There are snakes there, you know, she has an amazing sight but it´s creepy there at night -she said he shrugged- I´m trying to be good here, cooperate" she rolled her eyes

"I don’t know what you want me to tell you"

"Take my car" she handed him the keys, he took a step back

"No way" he said she rolled her eyes

"I promise her I wouldn’t harm you... she doesn’t know I saw you but I think letting you go like this sis not keeping my promise. Take my car, leave it on the trail where I..." Nat cleared her throat

"Where you kidnapped me" he said, she sighed

"Yea... I´ll send someone to pick it up tomorrow"

After some thought he did take it, he knew she was right, it´d be really dark in the woods when he returned. All the way he felt paranoiac, though, that Nat would do something. He was on edge until he finally jumped the stone wall. He´d left the keys where she´d instructed, he got to his room after dinner

"Where were you?" Aaron asked

"Swimming with sharks" he said opening his desk drawer and taking out a chocolate bar

"Right" Aaron said with chuckle, Josh plopped on his bed chewing hi chocolate "since when do you like chocolate?" Aaron inquired, Josh shrugged "give me some" he asked, Josh threw him the one he was eating

"This one´s eaten!"

"Want it or not?"

***************

I´m sorry about everything

Happy birthday, Nichole

Josh typed as he entered the auditorium where all Burgeoys seniors were being called to get their High school diploma

"Joshua!" he heard and angry whisper from one of the teachers, he looked to her, she angrily pointed to his phone, he sighed and hit the send button just as her name would´ve been called.

Chiming bells sounded as Nichole got closer to her destination, she took the phone out of her pocket, she considered ignoring it like she'd done with those couple of "can I talk to you?" texts that  she’d gotten in that first month after Alexander and Karl´s death. She sighed and opened the text. She closed her eyes and looked back to the woods on the hill at her back. The school on the top was hidden by the tall trees but she knew somewhere there was a boy somewhat linked to her by tragedy, a boy of deep green eyes and honest thoughts that she wished had never crossed her path. She turned again and walked ahead towards the graveyard she´d been walking to, the trees had gotten gibber, the grave; the stone that marked it was pretty much hidden now.

"Hello, Ashley" she said and was startled by the sight of a cupcake on top of it, she lift it, there was a post it on the side of it.

"FOR THE BIRDS. IT´S THEIR BDAY TOO" the note said in Josh´s round capital letters. Nichole shook her head but the smile that she tried to supress had made its way on her face

"Did he tell you he´s graduating today, Ash?" she put the cupcake back and turned again towards the place where Burgeoys was.

"Congratualtions, Joshua" she said above a whipser as swiftly waked away from the graveyard.

The end