34 16.1: Silly You (2/2)
Joshua takes a small step back. ”What do you mean?”
”It's not lost,” Sierra smiles. ”Because I have it, Joshua. I have it, just like you had my phone all along and never gave it to me!”
Joshua's facial expressions turn furious as he approaches Sierra and grasps her arms to shake her. ”I'll fucking kill you! I'll fucking kill you, Sierra.” His face and neck turn red as Sierra recoils a little.
”No, you won't,” she says, locking his eyes. She smiles. ”You can't.”
Joshua lets her go with a grunt and steps away with his hands in his hair. He closes his eyes, then snaps them open on an anticipating Sierra.
”Give me my phone,” he tells her gently and I wonder how is it that he's not bashing her head to the tarmac and leaving her to bleed to her death.
”And did you expect me to?” Sierra says smugly and Joshua bares his teeth.
”I've had enough of your bullshit! Give me my damn phone!” He thunders and Sierra remains unshaken.
”What's in it for me?” She asks again and Joshua pinches his nose.
”You're not going to be my fucking girlfriend, Sierra. I fucking hate you!” Joshua seethes and Sierra's face falls a little.
”You don't hate me.”
Joshua looks at her and puffs out a breath. ”Just give me my phone.”
”You will have to answer a few of my questions,” she says.
”If her question is, can I be your girlfriend? I'll be pissed,” Tobias says from next to me.
”You will be?” I reply and Tobias smirks.
”I'll be more pissed.”
Joshua paces around in front of her before waving a hand at her. ”Okay, ask me some questions.”
”Why did you start playing in the first place?” She asks and Joshua stops to narrow his eyes on her.
”Why do you care?”
”No answering questions with questions,” she warns.
”Because I needed the money.”
”You? Joshua Michael Peters? You need money? Your dad is a great musician. It makes no sense,” she says slowly as Joshua comes to an abrupt stop.
”I just need it,” he says weakly and Sierra holds her hips.
”Well, until it makes sense to me, you're not getting your phone.”
Joshua shakes his head and clicks his tongue. ”I don't know why I bother. Keep the phone. I don't want it.”
For a moment, Sierra starts panicking, before, ”If you don't answer,” she says. ”-I'll delete your account. It could for a fact be the 'F-rule'. It could, you know,” she drawls. ”-kill you.”
Joshua looks at her shocked. ”You'd fucking kill me?”
”Did it once, why think I won't do it again?”
Joshua looks at her, at a loss of words. ”You're unbelievable.”
”I'll delete it, I swear to you.”
Joshua curls his hands into shaky fists and breathes out heavily. ”Okay, okay,” he says. ”My dad is an alcoholic now.” He closes his eyes. ”A junkie too. Coke.”
”Michael fucking Peters?” Sierra gasps. ”How come?”
Joshua looks up and narrows his eyes at her. ”If it pleasures you to think that you can use all that to defame me, let me burst your bubble and tell you that I don't give a shit.”
”How is it that a very renowned person suddenly turns into a junkie?” Sierra asks, ignoring him. Then, with a head tilt, she says, ”How's your mom, Josh?”
Joshua looks at her like she's just slapped him. ”My mom. She's fine.”
”She's fine with her husband taking up drinking?” She asks with a smile.
Joshua shakes his head. ”Sierra-”
”I was there at her funeral, you know,” she says and I gasp. ”She's dead.”
”I never knew!” I say and Tobias blinks at me in confusion.
”He didn't tell you?” He asks and I shake my head.
”She's not dead,” Joshua says slowly, his voice breaking in halves and his eyes swimming in tears.
”And your youngest sister? Sara?” She continues answering the question for him. ”Odd, isn't it? That they had the very same funeral?”
Joshua looks like he's taken a dagger to his gut. ”Sierra, no-”
”What happened that Monday night?” She asks him quietly, thoroughly enjoying it.
”I didn't mean it-”
”You killed them,” she says. ”You killed them.”
Tobias looks at me like he's too shocked to speak.
”It wasn't like that-”
”It was worse than that,” she says sharply. ”You were driving them home. Drunk. You survived the accident. They died.”
And it suddenly makes sense. His broken leg and wrist in the summer of sophomore year. It wasn't a stair fall. It was a car accident. He lied.
”Sierra-”
”You knew you were going to drive them home that night. Why did you drink?” She pushes it and he looks at her pleadingly.
”It wasn't supposed to end like that.”
”You're just as horrible as I am,” Sierra says. ”Harming Roseline wasn't supposed to end like that either.”
”We're not the same!” Joshua fights back. ”You enjoyed it!”
”I did,” she says. ”But the result is one. You killed your mom and sister. Your father couldn't live with it. He became a drunkard. In my opinion, you killed three people, not two.” She shrugs. ”Though I still don't get it. Why do you need money?”
”In the beginning, Dad had a lot of it. He wasted it all on gambling and drugs.” Joshua looks at her through tears of agony. ”Now I have to pay for the shit he's feeding himself.” He sniffs. ”Because if not, if not-” He shuts his eyes like it's painful to look at the world. ”-he'll forcibly take Selena's hard-earnt money,” he cries. ”And if there's a night that she doesn't have any left, he abuses her. I couldn't let that happen.”
My lips part as Tobias stares at Joshua.
”Why didn't you tell me?” Sierra voices the question that popped up inside my head. ”I was there for you.”
Joshua looks at her in confusion, disgust. ”What do you have to do with anything?”
”Who told you about DevilsPlay?” She asks him and he scoffs.
”If only I could go back in time,” he says. ”-I'd slap myself a thousand times.”
”Who told you about it?” Sierra asks again and Joshua looks at her in defeat.
”You did.”
”Can't you see?” Sierra says. ”I've always been there for you.”
Joshua frowns weakly and shakes his head. ”I don't understand,” he says. ”How do you know all of that? I never told anyone-”
”You didn't need to tell me,” Sierra smiles. ”Can't you figure out why I've started playing DevilsPlay in the first place?”
Joshua stares at her and says nothing.
”Silly, can't you tell how much I love you?”