that was then*
chapter 04
The following morning, Dora made a conscious effort to park as far away as she could from Josh's car. Her eyes darted about the parking lot, searching for her new neighbor. She finally saw him, his car parked in the same spot as the day before. ******** Josh walked to his locker after the last period of the day. He was excited that at 6 o'clock that night, he would get to see Dora again. Not that walking down the block to see her was completely out of the question.
He was sitting on the hood, talking with a guy she recognized as Bryce and a few other people she had never seen.
She pulled into an empty space a safe distance away, and studied him. She cocked her head to one side, immediately feeling a smile pull at her lips when she saw how Josh's face lit up as he laughed.
The loud clanging of the bell and the sudden scattering of students in every direction, let Dora know that it was time to head into school.
Josh walked into the immense building, hurrying into homeroom with the thought in his head that maybe Dora would already be there, since he hadn't noticed her car in its space. To his disappointment, he found the seat behind his empty. He quickly shrugged it off, and sat in his usual place, his eyes glued to the door.
Within a few seconds of the bell, Dora strolled into room 303. Her palms began to sweat when she saw Josh's eyes fixated on her. Dear God, she thought to herself.
When she reached her seat, he shifted to face her.
"Hi," he greeted her simply.
"Hey." She set her bag on the desk, and leaned her chin upon it. "I saw your dad yesterday."
"Yeah, he told me."
"He seems nice."
"He's OK as fathers go, I guess," he replied with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Uh, how come you never told me you lived practically in my front yard?" she asked as she smoothed her hair back into a loose ponytail.
"How come YOU never told ME?" he questioned. He fully turned around to her, and rested his back against his desk.
"Because I didn't know, that's why."
"Well, I didn't know either."
He continued to stare at her, amazed by the fact that she was being so upfront with him. Usually when he talked to a girl, they never made eye contact with him, let alone play 20 questions. She was so...different.
"Why are you staring at me?" she asked, sitting straight up in her chair self-consciously.
"No reason."
She smiled softly. "Oh."
"You are coming over tonight, right?" he inquired, somewhat off topic.
She nodded. "Yeah. Just to warn you, my parents are insane. I'm the only halfway normal person in my house."
"Well, if you're the normal one, I'm kind of afraid to meet the rest of your family," he shot back flirtatiously.
"Ha ha, you are so funny," she retorted sarcastically.
"I try."
The bell for first period rang, and Josh and Dora both rose from their seats simultaneously.
"What class are you going to?" Josh asked while gathering up his books.
"Physics. What about you?"
"Gym."
"Ouch, first period gym. That sucks," she exclaimed as they both started to walk out of the room.
"Tell me about it. Uh, I think we're both basically going in the same direction, so do you wanna walk together?" he asked nonchalantly.
Dora watched as his eyes darted adorably back and forth. She made him nervous. "Yeah, that'd be nice."
Tiffany walked out of her homeroom, and her jaw nearly slammed on the ground at the site of her ex walking with Dora. The huge smile on his face made her blood boil. He was actually enjoying her company! She flipped her hair with a huff, and continued in the opposite direction.
He neared his homeroom, and saw Bryce waiting for him.
"Hey, Chasez, are you goin' with me and Amber to Becky's tonight, or what?" Bryce asked when Josh was within earshot.
"Uh, I can't tonight. Family stuff." He began to shove some books into his locker as Bryce leaned heavily against a nearby one.
"What family stuff can't you get out of? Come on, man! Becky's folks are away and there's a jacuzzi in their bedroom!" he begged.
Josh closed his locker and clicked the lock back to its safe position. "You know that girl we saw in the parking lot the other day?"
"Who? The one with all the keys, and stuff?"
"Yeah. Do you know Mrs. Finster's old place down the block from me?"
"Uh," Bryce looked up to the ceiling as he thought.
"You know, that place that's been on the market for about 10 years?"
"Oh, now I remember. What about it?"
"Well, that girl and her family just moved in there, and my parents are having them over tonight. I'm supposed to stay home and play the good son. That's why I can't go."
"Oh," he nodded his head understandingly.
They both started to march down the stairs.
"Hey, speaking of little miss janitor," Bryce said, jumping down a few steps to land on the floor beside Josh, "Tiffany told Amber that you two were walking out of homeroom together."
"Yeah, so?" he asked defensively.
"So? What do you like her, or something?" he pushed the exit open, and held it for his friend.
"I don't know..." Josh lied. He knew that he had some type of 'feeling' for Dora, but he couldn't bring himself to say it.
"It's understandable if you do, ya know. Slummin' it is always good."
He stopped in his tracks, and made eye contact with Bryce. "Excuse me, 'slummin' it'?" he reiterated.
"Yeah. I mean, come on, look at Tiffany, not to mention the array of other nail-able broads you dated, and then look at the janitor--"
"Her name's Dora, in case you're interested," Josh corrected.
"Fine, Dora. Listen, this Dora doesn't even have a decent sized rack. I'm sorry, but compared to Tiffany, she is definitely a slum fuck."
"What makes you think I wanna fuck her anyway?" he scoffed.
"Hypothetically speaking. I can understand if you wanna make Tiff jealous in order to get her back--"
"But I don't want Tiffany back! Why doesn't anybody believe me?!" Josh shouted as he walked briskly across the street.
Bryce jogged after him. "OK, OK, maybe I'm wrong. Don't get so bent out of shape about it." He got back in line with Josh.
Josh didn't answer, and proceeded to take his keys from his pocket.
"Hey, don't get mad at me," Bryce said, watching his friend open the locks.
"I'm not mad at you. I just think you should be giving me a little more credit here. I'm not THAT shallow."
"Chasez, we're in high school...we're all shallow!"
Josh let a small smile form across his face. He did have a point.
"Look, you can like whoever you wanna like. This Dora girl seems like a nice chick. Just don't let Tiffany see you two together, other wise I'm gonna get in trouble for letting you go through with it."
"Bryce," he climbed in his car, "$100 says nothing happens between us anyway."
A car horn honked, and Bryce turned to see Amber.
"Come on, baby, let's go already!" she yelled impatiently. "We're supposed to be at Becky's for 8 and I still have to go buy an outfit!"
"Coming!" he shouted over to her. "Let me know what happens tomorrow!"