The Trip Ch. 02

Josh closed the door, he stood there in shock, trying to let everything that he had just seen and heard sink in. It wasn't until Jason came out of the bathroom and asked what was going on that he broke his train of thought. Jason asked if he needed to talk about what had happened. Josh agreed but first wanted to check on Justin. When he walked into the bathroom he saw Shane tending to Justin's cut.

"Shane do you think he needs stitches." Josh asked.

Shane shook his head, "No, they aren't that bad. Let me clean them, Justin's going to be fine." Shane's mother was a nurse, and he was the one they turned to when an injury needed tending, he had a knack.

"Love, where are the cigarettes?" Josh called to Justin.

Justin's eyes got wide at Josh's use of the endearment in front of their friends. "Um, i-in my bag b-by the dresser."

Josh walked over and gave Justin a kiss on the forehead.

"I'm going to take a walk with Jason and talk for a minute. I'll be back soon." He strode out of the room as if it was the most natural thing in the world. As far as Josh was concerned it was. He was with Justin, if anyone had a problem with it then too bad for them.

Josh retrieved the cigarettes and took in the sight of the mess, the broken lamp and Justin's blood on the floor. No one was going to hurt Justin again if he could help it. He had already failed to keep him safe from Steve; he had no intention of failing Justin again. He apologized to Jason for the mess and told him he would clean it up. Jason told him that they could get to that later, but right now they needed to talk. Josh followed Jason downstairs to the front porch where the rain wasn't hitting.

"So what's going on, what did Steve say to you?"

"He told me that he's been in love with me ever since we were kids and that's why he snapped. He's jealous that I'm in love with Justin and not him." Josh replied as he lit the cigarette.

"Dude, I'm going to tell you something. I knew a long time ago that he was in love with you; it really wasn't hard to see. He would follow you around all the time; he always wanted to be around you, do what you did, and hang out with whoever hung out with you."

"I never saw that."

"I think you did, but you hid those feelings from yourself cause you weren't ready to admit to yourself that you could be in love with another guy. To tell you the truth, I have always thought you were gay, but it didn't matter to me if you loved a guy or a girl so I never pressed the issue. I could tell how much you love and care about Justin, even before today."

"I do love him and I guess I have ever since the day I saw him walking down the hall in school."

"See go with your feelings. Steve will come around, I'm sure he will."

"I hope so, because I don't want to have to choose between him and Justin. I'd choose Justin, no hesitations."

"I couldn't help but notice that Justin has a strange scar on his back and I was wondering if you knew where it came from? It really is none of my business, but I care a lot about Justin too."

Josh was a little reluctant about letting someone else know about Justin's big secret, but since Jason had already seen it he decided to fill him in on what had happened. Jason was mortified when heard how Justin got those scars, he also told Josh that they couldn't let Justin go back to that bastard. They agreed that Josh needed to tell his parents so they could help Justin. They talked back and forth on how Josh should go about bringing this up to his parents when all of a sudden they heard a tremendous crash and the lights went out in the lake house. The storms fury had arrived.

To be continued...

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Please keep an eye out for Chapter of The Trip: The Storms Fury.