Do it Like a Dude (Josh)

[Calliope Gallo]

Callie's room was very much what someone would assume her room to be. She had a wall dedicated to pictures of her family and friends, a project that was slowly growing. Eric always found it embarrassing that she kept photos from his youth when he thought he would make it as a skate boarder. Of course there were pictures of Josh with Callie too. He had been steadily flooding the wall since she met and fell in (platonic) love with him. She had her desk in the corner with her laptop, stereo and speakers set up on it; the only insight to the expensive things her father bought her. The concept of her family's money was not something she liked to talk about often. Her bed spread was patchwork shades of yellow, because it matched her bright personality perfectly. It was big enough for there to be space for him to climb into bed with her-

Seriously, it was totally platonic. Just people people confused them for a couple didn't mean they were one.

Anyway, she'd told Josh to come over so she could help him out with some problem he was having. Something about a date? Callie was pretty comfortable in her position when it came to dating; boys, girls, it was all good for her. Fun first, seriousness later (if ever?). Callie sat on her bed cross legged, wearing relatively insignificant sleep shorts and a guys shirt which she was steadily realising she stole from Jez's new roommate. At any rate, she had her blonde hair pulled to one side as she braided it idly.

"So wait, what happened?" Callie asked, hoping to get the story straight in her head.

[Joshua Ortega]

Josh was no stranger to Callie’s room. The adolescent didn’t use the door very often but he had been in and out of his best friend’s room numerous times since they’ve known each other. It never was always such a shock to Josh at how organized and out together Callie had her room, considering his always looked like a hurricane had just blown through it. Everything in Callie’s room seemed to be strategically placed to make her room look like a chill yet happening spot, which it was. Josh loved hanging out in there, and was absolutely a great place for the two of them to engage in some pretty important topics. Topics like, Josh’s love life.

Joshua was laid out on the bed staring up at the ceiling as he used Callie’s knee as a pillow.. His hands were being kept busy by the drawstrings of his black pajama pants that were in cartoon style skull and crossbones and matched his black wife beater that tightly hugged his torso. He was in deep thought, a rare occurrence for Josh, and hadn’t made much since when he was giving Callie the details of his... not problem, but situation. It was would be best if he just started over. “Well... I kinda been keeping something from you.” Josh glanced at Callie’s face as he said that and then back at the ceiling. He never kept things from Callie, he wondered how she would respond to what that. “I uh, had a date the other night.” Josh was holding back quite a bit of excitement as he said that, but that was because he wasn't exactly ready to tell Callie who his date had taken place with.

Josh’s first encounter with Callie’s roommate, his date, had remained a secret ever since it had taken place. Not necessarily because it was a bad thing, but simply because Josh wasn’t sure about the whole situation at first. When he met Cam he had a whole slew of new feelings he hadn’t had before. He actually really needed to talk about everything he had been feeling much sooner, and was really out of the ordinary for him not to, but at the time he didn’t want anyone else opinion. This particular situation was one he wanted to figure out on his own, until now. “It was with a guy.” Josh knew very well that the minute detail of whether or not Josh’s date was male or female but he wasn’t sure if Callie knew that Josh liked boys or not. He surely didn’t know until very recently.

[Calliope Gallo]

Callie pulled a tie from her wrist and tied up the end of her hair, despite how untidy the plat she'd created in her hair was. She looked down at him, the deep in thought expression on his face convincing her to put on one of her own. She instinctively reached over and ran her hand through his hair, adding light pressure in the form of a head massage. Why? Because sometimes he said thinking hurt his head. But she was not prepared for him to say that he had kept something from her.

"That's okay." She lied, her teeth sinking into her bottom lip to stop herself from frowning. It was unfortunate that Calliope Gallo was a notoriously bad liar, but there had to be something to the fact that she at least tried. She didn't stop tentatively running her hands through his hair; she knew he was precious about it but he knew she wouldn't make it look bad.

The news that it was with a guy was surprising; her blue eyes lit up with the emotion briefly before it faded away. "That's okay too. I went on two dates last week. One with a guy and one with a girl." She replied. They had kind of developed this rule where they talked about their dates, but those people didn't get real names until they thought it was seriously worth mentioning. "Was it okay? How did you feel about it?"

[Joshua Ortega]

Josh’s eyelids slowly came to a close, Callie's fingers felt miraculous as they weaved through his hair and across his head . Best friends always knew how to take care of each other. Joshua did in fact have quite the headache, and in this instance it had little to do with the side effects of teleportation. It was a true testament showing just how close Callie and Josh’s friendship was, she could look at Josh and know immediately that he needed consoling and knew exactly how to do so,

You would think that Josh could be able to tell when his bestie was lying, and maybe he would have been able to if he wasn’t completely oblivious to almost everything else at the moment. His main focus was Cameron Osiris, his head was swimming with thoughts of the boy.

Callie’s reaction to Josh’s news was just as casual as news like that should be. Josh glanced at his friend for a moment and gave a warm smile, he was very grateful to have her in his life, something he should tell his friend more often even if it was implied.

Josh was aware of Callie’s attraction to both men and women, it was never really a secret, but it was nice to know that she was comforting him still just in case he might have been needing it. “Did you have fun?” Like always, Josh was dying to know exactly who had accompanied her on these dates, but he knew that he would only get names if these dates turned out to be something more serious.

Callie’s question had Josh flash backing to several key moments of his date with Cameron. They brought another smile to his face as he stared blankly at the ceiling. His date was much more than okay, Josh was very much into Cameron so why did he think that maybe he shouldn’t be. Like maybe he was have to strong of feelings to fast. “Callie, my date was.... I loved it.”He said with very little enthusiasm which was more than a little strange for Josh who was enthusiastic about everything he said and did.

[Calliope Gallo]

"Yeah. Weird things happened, and Eric was a little moody about it." Calliope explained, thinking back to the uncomfortable conversation she had with her wonderful brother. "The guy got drugged or something and passed out, so I had to carry him to the dorms. And the girl took me to a club that wasn't underage." She raised her hands for a second to pat him on the shoulder gently, "Those aren't normal dates."

She smiled outwardly when he said he loved his date. Seeing him so happy, it was a shade of elation that she'd never seen on him before. He wasn't his usual enthusiastic and jumpy self; sometimes they both had down moments, especially when things were looking a little more serious.

"Because of the person you went out with? Or the date in general? Or maybe both!" Callie asked, not one to dig for names until he was ready to share it, "It's your first date with a guy, huh." He just looked to happy it was adorable; she wanted to hug him but she resisted the urge. Instead, she worked her way from the front of his head to the back.

Teleporters and their headaches. "You look so happy." Callie smiled warmly, raising her index finger to press it against the tip of his nose once. The movement made her laugh for a moment or two. "Are you going out again soon?"