quickly the water gets cold in the shower.

The sun had long gone down and the pasta that Ayoluwa had made a few hours ago was still heavily lodged in his stomach.

When he stepped out of the shower, Joshua looked around the bathroom for his towel then groaned.

He had forgotten it.

Opening the door just the tiniest of cracks, Joshua could spot Ayoluwa sitting against the headboard of the bed as she strummed a despondent melody, a heavily decorated notebook and pen in front of her.

She was ready for bed, in a pair of gingham red and black shorts, fuzzy socks with bananas on them and a plain blue tank top.

"Nights like this, I reminisce, all that I've known, and the patience that I've lost," Ayoluwa sung as her fingers plucked at the strings.

Once again, Joshua couldn't help but to pause completely in order to listen to her siren like voice.

"So don't you lose all that makes you you, you will be scared, unprepared sometimes, and don't you choose to lose your faith, you are loved, you are enough, don't say... Don't say... Fuck." Ayoluwa sucked her teeth then wrote something in the notebook.

Joshua blinked, "Palmer. Yo, Palmer!"

Ayoluwa looked at the door, "Josh?"

"I forgot a towel." Joshua muttered.

Ayoluwa smirked, "Now doesn't this look familiar?"

"Come on, Palmer."

"I should make you sleep in there for revenge."

Joshua scowled, "I'm not you. I'll walk downstairs butt ass naked before I sleep on this hard ass floor."

"You're bluffing. I'll give you a towel if you say sorry for making me sleep in the bathroom." Ayoluwa replied.

"Not a chance in hell!"

"Oh, okay. Bet." Ayoluwa nodded then returned to writing in her notebook.

Joshua waited a few seconds to see if was bluffing but when it came clear that she was going to leave him stranded, Joshua groaned.

"Fine! I'm sorry." Joshua spoke through the cracked door.

"For?"

Joshua grit his teeth, "For not getting you a towel which led to you sleeping in the bathroom."

"Was that so hard?" Ayoluwa tucked back a few locs into her ponytail.

"Yes, now hurry up." Joshua snapped.

Ayoluwa rolled her eyes but stood up to throw an army green towel from the linen closet in his direction.

The towel hit the cracked door with a thump and Joshua slid the material through the door and then wrapped it tight around his waist.

Ayoluwa had returned to strumming the same low spirited tune.

"What song is that? I've never heard it before." He asked.

"Yeah, because it's mine."

Joshua raised his eyebrows at her words, "You write your own songs? Since when?"

Ayoluwa snickered, "Since forever," She held up the tattered notebook.

"We don't know much about each other, do we?" Joshua blurted.

Ayoluwa passed Joshua an expression that he couldn't read exactly, "Well, yeah. I mean, we only stopped being mean to each other yesterday so..."

A pinch like feeling erupted in his abdomen at her words.

Joshua pursed his lips a little at how uncomfortable he felt all of a sudden, "Right."

Then Joshua left the room to head downstairs and fix a makeshift bed on the couch.

Asking something like that was him being stupid.

Joshua sat on the leather couch, his phone pressed to his ear.

Outside, it was raining again, keeping the duo inside and thus unable to make themselves busy.

The past couple of days, Joshua and Ayoluwa would spend most of the day jet skiing or swimming in the clear lake respectively.

Just enough to avoid any major arguments.

Joshua hadn't really had more than a two minute conversation with anyone except for Ayoluwa and that was growing to become tiring.

It was time to try going back to Los Angeles again.

The ringing from the phone call that Joshua was making was starting to make him a little anxious.

What he was doing was a long shot but he figured it was worth it if he could go home.

"Josh... Did you mean to call me? Is this a butt dial?" Noelani picked up.

"What? No, it's not. I need your help. You're the only person who could help me right now."

Noelani paused, "You're being really vague right now."

"Okay, so. Long story short, do you remember that girl a few weeks ago that me, you and Jalen were talking about?"

"Yeah..." Noelani trailed off, "What about it?"

"I'm locked in this lake house with her in Lake Tahoe. Neither of us have cars to leave. Your dad still lives in Napa, right?"

"Josh, my dad isn't gonna drop everything he's doing for two people he doesn't know. Plus do you know how long the drive is from Lake Tahoe to L.A?" Noelani asks.

"I'll pay your dad gas money."

"That's not even close to the point. I heard Lake Tahoe is supposed to be beautiful, maybe just enjoy it?" Noelani suggested.

"You have no idea what you're saying. I'm going crazy. I'm-."

In the background on Noelani's line, Joshua could hear Jalen faintly ask, "Baby, who is that?"

"Josh." Noelani answered, a couple seconds later, "Do you wanna talk to him?"

"No, Noel. No-." Joshua started to say.

But it was too late, "What are you doing calling my girl, bruh?" Jalen asked in a blank tone.

"I was trying to see if she could get her dad to drive me back to L.A."

"Just you, huh?"

"Yeah, duh." Joshua replied.

Jalen let out an audible sigh, "When you gonna learn, Josh? And you wild for asking Lani some shit in the first place."

Then he hung up the phone for Noelani.

Joshua's grip on his phone grew tight with annoyance, his knuckles now white in contrast to his brown skin.

"Hey, I found this closet in the basement that had a bunch of board games and a deck of cards. I know we're stuck inside so maybe-." Ayoluwa had strolled up to the couch.

Without looking at her, Joshua let out a dry chuckle, "I know you ain't about to ask me to play some boring ass board game with you."

"Well, I mean... Yeah. Who else would I ask?"

"Why the fuck would I play any games with you?" Joshua snapped at her.

"Fine. Forget that I even asked your Shrek looking ass." Ayoluwa snapped back then the sound of her stomping back down to the basement filled the first floor of the house.

The final sound was the sound of her slamming the basement door completely closed.

vote & comment, porfa!