Chapter Thirty-Eight: Fourth of July Party Final Part
Josh's POV

"Ginger ale, do you think?" I asked looking at the assortment of drinks.

Callum shook his head, "Absolutely not, Joshy. You only get Ginger ale if you're on an airplane." He pointed out, dismissing it immediately.

"Well than Sprite?" I asked, already knowing he was going to say yes considering Sprite is Callum's absolute favorite kind of drink, mixed with a bit of lemonade.

Callum grinned and I took that as a yes, sliding the drink into the cart, "Should we get one or two?" I asked.

Callum rubbed his chin in thought, "Just get one, we can get more drinks so that way there's plenty for everyone."

"That's the plan. So what else should we get?" I asked and Callum hummed.

He seemed to be in thought about something which I doubted was the soda. Unless he was really distraught on getting the right kind, but I highly doubted that was the reason.

"Well we should probably get punch for the younger kids, right? In case their parents don't want them drinking soda?" He asked and I nodded my head.

"What kinda punch?"

"The blue one, that ones good."

"You mean the Raspberry Blue one?"

Callum stopped and narrowed his eyes. "No I mean the blue one."

"Yeah I know, it's raspberry flavored, called Raspberry Blue." I said, confused at his reaction.

"There's three different kinds of punch Joshy, the red one, the orange one, and the blue one."

Oh now I see what he's saying. "The cherry Berry, the orange pop, and the raspberry blue?"

Callum grabbed my shoulders, "You poor old soul. Only boomers call them by their names."

I huffed, crossing my arms offended, "Your moms a boomer."

"Your dads a boomer."

"My dad is 42 he is not a boomer."

Callum smirked, "My mom is 36, she's not one either."

"Fine than none of our parents are boomers."

"No but you have the same energy of a boomer."

I roll my eyes, "We can bicker all day long but we've got a party to be tending to." I stated, holding up a finger and now it was his turn to roll his eyes.

"Of course Princess."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Making my way downtown, walking fast, faces past and I'm homebound—" Callum belts, throat straining as he yelled, "staring blankly ahead just making my way, making a way through the crowwwdddd." He points to me, "Take it away Joshy!"

"And I need you." I point dramatically to Callum, "and I miss you." I hold my fist to my mouth like a microphone, "And now I wonderrrr."

Then together, "If I could fall, into the sky! Do you think time, would pass me buy."

Then him, "Cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles-"

"If I could just see you-"

"Tonight."

Callum turned down the radio, "Hell yeah, we sounded good." He said, holding his hand out and I popped it as the rest of the song played but much more quietly.

"We should go on America's got talent." I stated nodding my head.

Callum agreed, "For sure. We'd easily win."

"I'd be carrying you the whole time, but if you learn to harmonize than it'll be fine." I said and Callum rolled his eyes.

"Please, in both physical carrying and singing carrying you'd never be able to actually carry me." He said and I shrugged.

"You look ugly in denial." I said.

"You just look ugly."

I laughed, "Youre so mean!" I said, slapping him on the top of his head, "I would never say that about you."

"I can name like twenty instances in our entire life where you said something like that."

"Okay maybe I would say that about you," I admitted with a wince and Callum chuckled.

My phone went off, buzzing in my pocket and I awkwardly reached and grabbed it out of my back pocket.

"My mom said, and I quote, 'you and Callum better hurry up with those drinks before I start putting hotdogs in a blender with some ice and calling them milkshakes'."

Callum cackled and nodded his head, he turned his body, he looked like he was going to reach between the seats into the backseat, probably to grab the only bag we had (we'd gotten a lighter and some chicken nuggets). But before he turned all the way towards the backseat he grabbed my face and pecked my lips before opening the car door and hopping out.

"Come on Joshy!" He said after I sat there in pure shock, "We don't have all day, let's go ask Sylvia to help us lug these in."

It took me a solid few minutes before I actually opened the car door and followed after Callum.

Well that was unexpected. I said humorously to try and calm my pounding heart.

Inside Callum was talking to Sylvia as if he hadn't just pecked me on the lips and kissed me for the third time.

~~~~~~~~~

By now pretty much the entire neighborhood was here and I kept my eyes narrowed at Callum who acted as if every was completely normal.

Meanwhile every time someone came up behind me or scared me or whenever Callum even made eye contact with me I got all jumpy and weird as if I'd heard from the waiter that the bridesmaid is a whore at a wedding.

There were toddlers running around chasing Callum along with four to five year old.

There were some thirteen year old but they wanted nothing to do with Callum's childish behavior and instead entertained themselves with the water balloons as the adults sat in a circle and talked as if life was fine any dandy.

We had a whole table full of the fireworks that Callum and I bought, along with a few that the rest of the neighborhood brought over.

The sun was just now going down and Callum was on his back now, pretending to be tired and out of breath as little kids pummeled him.

Sylvia came up to me as I stared at him and nudged me, causing me jump.

"So what's going on between you two?" She asked, a smug look on her face as my face reddened from Callum suddenly kissing me earlier.

"Nothing." I turned my Head away from her, "What makes you think something is going on?" I asked with a frown.

"Josh, you're the most easily flustered brother I have-" I quickly interrupt.

"I'm the only brother you have." I state and she nods.

"Exactly, That makes you the most flustered one. Anyways, all I'm saying is that you're acting all weird and, as the best big sister that I am, I wanna know why."

I debated whether I should tell her or not and then decided against it. Not because I didn't want to, but I kinda just wanted Callum and I to be the only people that knew, ya know? God that sounds cringey.

"Nothing at all 'best big sister' of mine. Nothing happened, I'm just an awkward person."

She went to go say something when suddenly Callum yelled, "Joshy! Come light fireworks with me."

I gave Sylvia a slight wave and hurried over to where Callum was now holding the pig firework in his hand. "Really?" I asked In annoyance and Callum grinned smugly.

"Yes." Then he passed the lighter to me, "Here, you light it." He said and I kneeled down, the fire at the tip of the lighter going away every once in awhile because of the wind before I finally got it.

Callum and I jogged away from it while the firework whistled into the air before exploding in an array of colors.

Then the next one came out of the pig box. Then the next, and six more followed until there were no more fireworks in the box.

Callum went to go get another one and light it when my mom shook her head, "We can do that, Callum, you two go have fun over there." She said, nudging me and Callum back towards the main party and away from the fireworks.

I frowned but didn't disagree.

Suddenly Callum turned towards me, "We should go to your window and pull ourselves into the roof so we can watch from there."

I shook my head frantically, "No. no way. Not gonna happen."

~~~~~~~~~~~

"I'm going to die Callum." I said dramatically, seeing him already on the roof with his hand extended.

How this ended up happening I have no idea. One moment I'm telling Callum no and the next he's running to his truck, climbing ontop before climbing onto the side of the house and pulling himself into the roof like Santa clause on steroids.

"You're not going to die Josh." Callum said rolling his eyes, his hand extended out to me as I could barely see besides the flickering light from the fireworks and the small amount of light coming from the fire.

Callum stuck his bottom lip out, arm extending further and I hesitantly reached for it, jumping and struggling to pull myself up before Callum does the rest of the work and now I'm on my back. On the roof.

I huff and pant from the physical exertion and Callum smiles.

"Hurry up, come over here." He says with a wave I listen, plopping down next to him.

"So why exactly are we on the roof?" I asked, in somewhat annoyance, staring at the fireworks which, I will admit, look dazzling from a high angle.

"I wanted to give you this." He pulled something out of his pocket and I stared at him with narrowed eyes, "Relax Joshy." He said, rolling his eyes. "Just open it."

And I did, and inside with a rubber band that had an intricate design on it. When I flipped the rubber ring inside out, there was a small saying on the inside: 'more than friends, more than family'

Callum held up his middle finger, "I got one too." He said, wiggling it.

"What's it for?"

Callum looked at me with a dumb look upon his face. "its a late birthday gift, since I couldn't get one before." He said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck, his dazzling green eyes sparkling in the twinkle from the fireworks.

"Thank you, it's awesome." I sent him a toothy grin. "I'll wear it like everyday since I'm so lazy I don't have anything that requires me to take it off." I said and Callum smiled, a laugh huffing out of nose.

My mind thought back to the kiss. I didn't want to be that guy but I had to know what it meant. Obviously Callum and I were best friends but I don't think you go around kissing your best friends like that– or maybe I'm just late to the party? I don't know.

Callum Shifted and my eyes, which were once stuck staring at the fireworks in a daze, were staring into his as his lips pecked mine for the second time today.

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I realized I posted this chapter too damn early smh, so here's the finished chapter! Sorry about that!

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