As Josh put the guitar in Brad’s arms, he began to feel a bit awkward. He had seen others play it before, but he never tried to pick one up himself. It felt heavy and his hands were uncomfortably placed. Not to mention he had no clue where to begin.
“Alriiight, let’s try this!” he smiled. When unsure, confidence was a safe bet. Even if he failed miserably, at least he could look cool doing it. In his head.
Brad lifted his hand to start, but Josh’s reaction to the text made him stop mid-air. The way he spoke, he seemed genuinely shaken by it. The entire day, Brad hadn’t seen one person care about it as much. He’d heard gossip about Alissa and Mr. Albert, but nobody seemed to take the messages seriously. And although he had the same reaction as Josh that morning, he suppressed it as much as possible because it seemed like the normal response. Wasn’t it weird to be so scared of some murder? His friends would say so. Brad wasn’t any different from them, it’s always been like that. It didn’t concern him, he shouldn’t care.
Brad tried to keep his voice as steady as possible. “You haven’t heard? It’s real, everyone’s talking about it.” He looked away, unable to face Josh. He felt himself getting tense. That wasn’t like him.
He forced a laugh, lifting his hand off the guitar again, “Yeah dude, she’s…” he strummed the strings, “
Dead. ”
As Joshua stood up, Brad immediately paused and turned to him with his eyebrows raised. He didn’t seem to be joking in the slightest. “Oh, damn…” Brad cleared his throat, looking down. “You’re actually worked up over this? It’s just some texts.”
@Tiina - Joshua Fujita