“Okay, you should have a ticket in your email. Your flight leaves in 3 hours, I could only get you a seat in business class. You’ll need to get an Uber to the airport. So get ready and go ahead and call an uber, you don’t want to risk missing your flight, okay honey?”
“Okay mom, thank you,” replied Josh thickly, his voice a little croaky.
“You’re welcome sweetie, I’ll be there to pick you up from the airport. And Josh?”
“Yeah mom?”
“Just try to breathe, we can fix whatever is wrong but you’ve got to try to stay calm. We’ll talk when you get here, okay? I love you son.”
“I love you too mom, I’ll see you in just a little bit,” replied Josh, feeling somewhat relieved to know he would be gone before Boston got back and would soon be back with his mom.
**********
Boston sat with Cara in the alumni section early in the first quarter. Cara had suggested sneaking over to the alumni section instead of the student section as it was a little quieter and they could talk easier there. Cara was a junior, majoring in psychology and a very pretty girl. She had long wavy blonde hair and was rather tall for a girl, probably only an inch or so shorter than Josh. She was wearing a school jersey and even had face paint and a team bow in her hair.
Normally, Boston would have been quite taken by her but he was distracted by his issues with Josh at the moment and as a result struggled to maintain conversation. They kept suffering from lulls in conversation, which Cara would routinely try to break with a question about Boston.
“So who was your friend that you were with last night?” She eventually asked him, a question that oddly made Boston a little uneasy.
“Uh which one?” He asked, hoping it was another player on the team other than the one he knew it would be.
“The thick one, you know the Bieber beefcake?” She asked with a big grin.
Boston couldn’t help but laugh because he could understand the nickname.
“Oh that’s Josh, he’s my…uh,” he paused before finishing, “dorm mate. We went to high school together.”
Boston knew he was being a little vague and even felt a little bad to describe his best friend like that, but he was feeling incredibly self-conscious about how people might start to perceive how close they were.
“Oh cool, did yall just happen to both get scholarship offers here or did yall choose to come here together?” Cara asked obliviously.
“Oh, we’ve been really good friends since little league and I…uh, he decided to walk on here after I signed my letter of intent,” Boston answered half-truthfully, deciding it’d be weirder to keep pretending they weren’t more than just dorm mates. Cara raised an eyebrow for the briefest moment as if she found something strange about his answer.
“Oh that’s cool, my best friend Ashley followed me here when I signed my LOI too!” Cara said excitedly, adding, “I’m on the volleyball team, I can’t remember if that came up last night or not.”
“Oh nice, she walk-on to the volleyball team too?” asked Boston.
“Oh God no, she’s just a student. She’s not the sporty type. She was there with me last night, she was the short brunette that kept talking about how much she loves Jagerbombs and keg-stands,” said Cara, rolling her eyes but still smiling.
“Oh, she seemed like a lot of fun,” laughed Boston, starting to get more into the conversation. “She actually reminded me of a female Josh, he’s always the life of the party.”
Boston blushed a little bit after saying this, but he wasn’t really sure why.
“Yeah, actually that’s why I asked. She saw him beat Kyle in an arm wrestle and said it was the sexiest thing she’d seen since the Nick Jonas Calvin Klein ad,” replied Cara with a smirk and another eye roll.
Boston felt a weird sensation in his stomach yet still couldn’t help but smile. He quickly shook off the slight discomfort he felt.
“He’s such a showoff, he’s always doing stuff like that at parties. It’d probably be a bit embarrassing if he didn’t win every time,” he said, unable to hide the note of pride in his voice.
“Oh I know what you mean, Ashley is always showing off her gymnast skills at parties. I’m glad we were inside, otherwise she’d have probably been doing back handsprings across the yard all night!”
“Yeah, she’s definitely the female Josh then,” laughed Boston.
“Well maybe next game we can make it a double date, you bring Josh and I’ll bring Ash!” said Cara enthusiastically.
“Oh uh I’ll definitely run that by Josh but he’s actually been celibate for a couple years now,” said Boston quickly.
Boston was silently kicking himself. He knew that wasn’t his business to tell and he normally would have never said anything like that to someone, let alone a girl he just met but it just came out of him before he could stop himself. Cara once again raised an eyebrow, looking a little intrigued.
“I mean, it would just be a date…but what college kid is celibate these days?” she asked with a slight smirk.
Boston hesitated.
“Cats out of the bag now, you may as well tell me. I won’t say anything, pinky promise!” she said a little sardonically, holding out a pinky and giving a cute look of faux-seriousness. Boston rolled his eyes and gave her his pinky.
“You really can’t tell anyone, I don’t even know why I’m telling you…but Josh had a baby when he was a sophomore and he’s not allowed to see the kid. Ever since then, he hasn’t even so much as dated anyone,” explained Boston, feeling a slight pang of guilt as he said it.
“Oh gosh, that must be hard on him. I guess you’re all he’s got then, huh,” she said with a teasing wink. Boston couldn’t suppress a small grin and shrugged his shoulders.
“Yeah I guess…especially now that we are a thousand miles from home,” he responded.
The conversation stayed on the topic of their best friends and life in their hometowns for most of the game, as if that was what felt most natural for them. By the time they were leaving the game, Boston’s mood was significantly better. It was as if talking about Josh with her had helped clear his mind a bit and helped him realize that Josh was still the closest person in his life regardless. He’d decided that he wasn’t going to let whatever was going on with him and Josh change their friendship or how he treated him.
**********
Josh’s plane ride home was a pretty short one and he had listened to music that made him think about Boston the entire way. Despite still feeling incredibly sad, he managed not to cry. He refused to cry in front of pretty much anybody, even strangers. In fact, other than his mother he’d only ever really cried in front of Boston during some of their late night talks after his ex moved away.
Soon, he was in the car with his mom on the way back to their home in silence. She hadn’t asked any questions other than questions about the flight and how college was going. He knew that this avoidance wouldn’t last and that soon she’d be asking more probing questions but she could sense that he needed some time to process whatever was going on.
Once he was back home, he grabbed the two bags with all of his clothes and headed straight for his room. He hadn’t really given much thought while packing and just packed all of his clothes, leaving any other items in the dorm room. Without even turning on a light, he threw himself onto his bed and immediately began to cry softly.