Josh rested his head on his hand and stared distastefully at the board. The teacher's voice was like a ringing in his ears, just droning on and on about nothing that mattered to him. School is Russia was definitely more interesting than the absolute hell of Worthington High. He had no idea how so many of his peers had lasted so long.

It was history, though, and that was usually his favourite subject. That was why it was unusual for him to be so miserable. He was tough; how Tyler had been acting surely couldn't have affected him too badly. As much as he hated to admit it, though, he was hurt. He really liked Tyler, but they kept returning back to square one. There were just too many secrets, and it was affecting their relationship -or whatever it was- more and more.

Josh jumped when Ashley sat down next to him, looking distressed. She turned to him and took a moment to take a deep breath and fix her hair.

"Tell me what's going on with Tyler," she demanded. "Now."

Josh sighed and dropped his face into his hands. "He doesn't want to hurt you, Ashley. It's just hard for him."

Ashley raised her eyebrows. "So you know?"

Josh rubbed his eyes tiredly, definitely not wanting to be talking about Tyler. "Yes, I know. But please don't be mad at him, or me. He's having a really bad time, okay?"

Ashley scoffed. "God, I'm so sick of this!" She exclaimed. "You two keep hiding everything from me! Like, none of this makes sense. None of it. Who even are you? Tyler's never even mentioned you before, and now he's living with you two and your sketchy friends? No. I call bullshit, okay?"

Josh groaned and ran his fingers through his hair. "I cannot deal with this right now."

Ashley's tough demeanour softened. "Are you okay?" She asked quietly.

"Not at all," Josh replied honestly. "And neither is Tyler. And he really- Jesus Christ, he wants to tell you so bad. And I know that it's killing him that he's hurting you, and that he's keeping things from you, but he's scared, okay? And I'm really fucking tired so can we stop talking about this? You're not the only one having a hard time with Tyler."

Ashley looked down at the desk. "I'm sorry."

Josh hummed. "Okay, great. Can we change topics?"

"We don't really have anything in common besides Tyler," Ashley chuckled.

Josh didn't laugh. "Yeah."

"What do you like?" Ashley asked.

Josh shrugged. "Music. I've taken a recent liking to Supernatural, too. I also really like soccer."

"Soccer?" Ashley repeated. "You should join the team."

Josh yawned. "I dunno. Too busy."

Ashley raised her eyebrows. "With what?"

Josh shot her a look, but didn't say anything.

Ashley smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. You're going through a lot right now, huh?"

His supposedly dead parents. Josh has almost forgotten. "Oh, yeah," he sighed.

"Do you miss them?" Ashley asked gently.

Josh thought about his real parents. He definitely didn't miss his father, but his mother was a different story. She was kind and gentle; everything that a mother was supposed to be. Josh definitely missed her.

"Yeah," Josh mumbled, thinking about his mother's smile.

Ashley looked at her hands. "Losing them must have been terrible. I can't even begin to imagine how you feel."

Josh wasn't sure what he was supposed to say to that, so he just shrugged and began to fiddle with his hands. He had picked the habit up from Tyler.

Ashley pointed it out. "Tyler does that, too. When he's nervous. Uh... I'm sorry I'm making you nervous."

Josh chuckled dryly. "It's not you. It's...everything. Everything just really sucks right now, y'know?"

Ashley awkwardly twisted a strand of hair between her fingers. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

Josh picked up his pen and began to doodle mindlessly. "No."

Ashley nodded and pursed her lips. She looked down at Josh's books and her eyes widened. She pointed to the Russian writing scribbled in the margin.

"Dude, you can write in Russian?" She gasped.

Josh hummed and began writing in his native language. "I took it as an elective in my old school and took a liking to it," he lied.

Ashley's mouth fell agape. "Do you speak it fluently?"

Josh smiled. "я люблю есть задницу."

"Woah," Ashley breathed. "Holy fuck, that's incredible. You sound like a native!"

Josh chuckled nervously. "Тайлер назы вает меня папой."

Ashley shook her head. "Speaking such an unfamiliar language must be so hard."

Josh sighed. "You have no idea."