Monday rolls around, and there's talk of a new student around.

"I heard he got kicked out of his old school for beating up another kid and doing drugs!" my friend whispered to me as we walked to our class.

"It's just rumors. Seriously, just leave him alone." I sighed, sitting down in my usual seat.

"Yeah, well, ten bucks there's gonna be a fight going on sometime today."

And guess what? She was right. The end of the day rolls around and a whole crowd has assembled in the front of the school, by the front steps of the school. I see two figures throwing punches and rolling around from my spot as I walk out of the building, but other than that, I'm blocked from most of what's happening.

My friend comes running up to me and grabs my arm, tugging me towards the crowd. "Come on!"

She drags me behind her as she pushes her way through the crowd to the front, her grip on my arm firm and unwavering. We eventually stop near the front row of spectators, and I see two boys wrestling in the middle.

"It's the new kid!" my friend hisses in my ear. "And he's pretty hot, not gonna lie."

One of them is from the football team, and the other's mop of blond hair looks oddly familiar.....

"Shit. Josh." I mutter.

I wrench my arm that's still somehow still in my friend's grasp and hand her my backpack, giving her no explanation as I push my way through the few people in front of me. The football player is about to land a punch on Josh but I somehow manage to reach him in time and grab a hold of his arm and pull him towards me.

Football Guy stumbles forward from the momentum as Josh looks at me in surprise.

"(Y/N)?"

"You don't know any other (Y/N)s that look like me, do you?" I replied with a wry smile.

I forgot about Football Guy for a hot minute, and that costed Josh another punch to the jaw. He stumbled back out of my grasp, glaring at Football Guy.

I heard a teacher shouting at us, and the group dispersed pretty quickly. I ran over to Josh again, gripping his forearms.

"Are you okay? That punch looked pretty painful. Plus I didn't see what had happened before I saw you. Did Football Guy do anything to you? I hope you're okay. It's only your first day and you're already getting into fights. Imagine how that would turn out for you later. I can't believe you're the new kid that goes to my school, now that I think of it. I can't have you kicked out of here, not when I'm here. I have a new friend!" I rambled aimlessly, not seeing Josh's smile.

He waited patiently for me to finish, his hands moving to hold my hands instead of my forearms. I cut myself off mid-ramble, grinning sheepishly.

"Sorry. Habit."

"Hey, don't apologize for that. You didn't do anything wrong."

I felt my face heat up, and my sheepish smile grew bigger. "Are you okay, though?" I gently held the side of his face that was punched.

Josh nodded, leaning into my hand. "I'm good."

"Good. If you get into another fight, I'm gonna be there, okay?"

"Okay."

"Good. 'Cause I'm not giving up on you."

~~~

I was home alone again, when a knock on the door jolted me out of my thoughts. My parents were out doing some late night Christmas shopping, and they let me do my own thing as long as the house wasn't trashed. My brother was out doing who-knows-what, so he wouldn't be back for a few hours, maybe not even until tomorrow.

Christmas break was always a time for me to have too much time on my hands and too much time to think. I always seemed to finish any assignments within the first few days of break, which is totally not what a typical student would do.

I tiredly descended the stairs and opened the front door, my previous blank expression morphing into one of surprise and concern. Josh had turned up at my doorstep bruised and slightly bloody.

"Oh my god, come in! It's like 40 degrees out there!" I exclaimed, practically dragging Josh inside. "What happened?"

"Some guys jumped me while I was walking home. It's not a big deal." he mumbled.

I skeptically raised an eyebrow at him. "But then you wouldn't be here?"

He sighed, a smile still managing to appear on his face despite the pain. "Can you help me? Please?"

I sighed, grabbing his hand and bringing him upstairs to my room. "Of course, Josh. You can always come here for help."

I sat Josh on the edge of the bathtub as I rummaged around in the cabinet under the sink for my bandages and such. I set them on the counter and muttered a quick, "Be right back." to Josh as I left my bathroom and grabbed an extra towel from the linen closet right outside my room.

"Here," I said, handing Josh the towel. "I don't know about you, but I usually feel better after taking a shower."

He took it and hung it on the rack, thanking me.

"Take as long as you need to. I'll get you some clothes and wash these ones while you're showering." I explained, gesturing to the somewhat dirtied clothes he was wearing. "Just shout if you want me to help you with your bandages."

~~~

Josh came out of the shower with a pair of my brother's spare sweatpants, using the shirt I had given him (also my brother's) to dry out his hair. Why he didn't use the towel beats me, but who am I to judge? He made his way over to the bed and sat at the edge, patiently waiting for me to get the bandaging supplies to help him wrap up.

Josh grimaced in pain as I wrapped his knuckles as gently as I could. He had cleaned most of the blood off, all that remained were the cuts and bruises. Every hiss of pain or sharp intake of breath from Josh made me wince and wish I could take away his pain with a wave of my hand.

It seemed to take forever to carefully wrap both of his knuckles (not that I'm complaining), but it was probably only a half hour or so.

"Does everything feel fine? Did I wrap it too tightly? Or too loosely?" I asked once I finished.

A pause. Josh looked at his wrapped knuckles, inspecting the bandages. He finally lowered his hands into his lap and looked down.

"Everything hurts." he mumbled.

Oh, you poor boy. What have you done to deserve all this?

I tentatively hugged him, wrapping my arms around his neck and letting his head rest on me. His arms instantly curled around my waist, pulling me closer to him. My hands went to his hair and started playing with it, running my hands through it and twisting it, feeling him slowly relax and loosen his tense muscles the more I played with it.

We said nothing while we were hugging. We didn't have to. I broke the silence when I eventually quietly asked Josh if he was tired, to which he pulled me onto the bed as he lay down. I laid there next to him, his head rested by my shoulder. I felt his breath tickling my shoulder, and his even breathing eventually helped me fall asleep.

I woke up what seemed to be only a few minutes later (but was probably a few hours later) when the blanket was not-so-gently tugged away from me. My eyes opened a crack, trying to see where it went so I could pull it back on me. I turned to the side and I saw an outline of Josh's back turned to me and his whole body shaking and shivering, even with the blanket covering him. He seemed to be distancing himself from me as far as he could without falling off the bed.

I slowly rubbed the sleep from my eyes and scooted over to him, pressing my chest against his back and draping my arm over his side. My free arm immediately went to his head, my hand tangling itself in his hair again. My presence seemed to work wonders for Josh. He instantly stopped shivering and almost seemed to let out a sigh, leaning into my touch and relaxing his tense muscles again.

"Why are you doing this?" he mumbled almost inaudibly.

"You're my friend. It's what friends do."

"No, I mean, why are you doing this for me? Why are you spending time with me, when you could be spending time with someone who's actually worth your time?"

I pulled Josh up to face me, gently but firmly cupping his face.

"Listen to me, Josh." I said, keeping my voice even. "Spending these past few months with you has been such a refresher for me. It's given me something exciting to look forward to. I look forward to spending time with you. Hell, I even get butterflies in my stomach when you smile, even if it's not directed at me. It's always gonna be a great day when I see you smile. Do you know why?"

Josh shook his head.

"It's gonna be a great day when you smile because you're happy. It's gonna be a great day because you make me happy. It's gonna be a great day because you haven't given up yet."

Josh lowered his head, moving it out of my hands. "That still doesn't give me a reason why you've decided to hang around me all this time."

I sighed, exasperated. "Can't you see, Josh? Can't you see that I haven't given up on you? Even when I easily could have done that whenever I hear you've been in fights or if you've gotten yourself hurt?"

A pause.

"Can't you see that I'm falling for you, each day I spend with you? Can't you see that each day, I find another reason why I'm falling in love with you?" I finished, my voice barely a whisper.

Josh lifted his head, his face holding expressions of surprise, delight, and other emotions I couldn't decipher.

"But.....why me?"

I cupped his face again, pressing our foreheads together. "For one reason, it seems like you like me, too. For another, I'm not giving up on you, Josh Harvest. It's going to take a lot more to get rid of me."

"Thank you. So much. For everything." he whispered.

"We're in this together, or not at all." I replied, closing the distance between us and pressing our lips together. I felt more alive than ever, in his arms, kissing him.

We were both smiling, blushing messes when we pulled apart, but we didn't care. We had each other right where we wanted the other: in our arms, smiling and happy.

"Together, or not at all." Josh repeated, kissing me again.

Whooooooo that was so long and I applaud y'all that read all the way down here. I swear if you skipped this you skipped the awesome ending. I'm happy I was able to publish something after like a month of not updating this book.

Hope you enjoyed this!