Catfish (Minizerk)

Chapter 27

Josh's POV:

I ran to Simon's house, knocking loudly on the door. His mum opened it, frowning when she saw me.

"Josh, the look on your face tells me that you and Simon aren't on good terms again yet. And given what you did, I'd like you to leave." She said.

"No, no. You don't understand. Simon had an episode and got taken out of our maths exam. He's on his way up to the hospital." I told her, breathing heavily still from running there.

"What?! Shit, okay. Stay there, I'm gonna get my car keys." She said, panicking. She came back a moment later with her keys. "Get in. We'll talk on the way."

I got into the passenger seat, quickly putting on my seat belt before she began driving us there, faster than she probably should've.

"What happened with Simon?" She asked.

"He was talking about demons scratching in the walls, trying to kill us. The teacher pulled him out. I heard him screaming, and I left too. He was hitting his head against the wall and scratching his arms. I tried to calm him down and managed to get him into the ambulance." I told her.

"You calmed him down?" She asked in surprise.

"I just told him I knew how to deal with demons and that they promised to leave if he stopped trying to hurt them. And that they said he was sick and should go to the hospital." I explained.

"You looked up his condition, didn't you?" She nodded.

"Yeah, I knew he'd had issues last year in exams, I was worried the stress might trigger him. It said not to feed the hallucinations but not to argue with them." I told her.

"You did a good job, thank you. But I haven't forgiven you for what you did to him. He's been a mess, Josh. He leaves his room maybe once a day." She said firmly.

"I know, I know. And I'm not gonna defend myself, I'm not making excuses, but I was an awful person when I was with my old friends. Simon made me a better person. I dropped them because he made me see that." I told her.

"Josh, apparently you chose him because he's weird. You know his biggest insecurity is people thinking he's crazy, right? He admitted he was schizophrenic to you, and you threw that trust right back at him, and he was told he's crazy." She said.

"I'm in love with him. And if I could go back and change everything I would. Hell, I'd have even just never spoken to him for any reason ever. Even though I love him, I'd trade every nice memory we have for having never hurt him because he means that much to me."