Chapter 2.

After I let them in, we ate and washed the dishes. Our bellies full and our limbs like rubber, we were sprawled out on both couches in the living room.

"Let's watch Ratatouille." Grace says from the single couch.

I raise my brows at her. "Because we ate spaghetti?"

"Yes, indeed." She nods.

Beside me, Josiah already has the remote in his grasp and is searching through Disney plus.

'Of course you're eager to watch it. You want to see your crush.' I smirk at him and use my left foot to poke his sides.

He twists his body away from me. Wiggly little baby.  'Keep your foot away from me.' He laughs and swats my leg away.

"I don't have a crush on Colette. I just think she's cool.' He justifies.

"I didn't say it was Collette though. Did I?" I tease.

"But I knew that's who you were talking about." He says defensively. I smirk at him.

"I believe you Jojo. Don't mind Bliss." She coos at him.

"Thank you. You're such a good friend unlike somebody." He sniffs mischievously.

"Since I'm such a bad friend, both of you should stay away from me." I suggest.

"Nah. We love you too much boo." Grace sasses.

"And you love us too much." Josiah beams at me.

I scoff. Grace immediately starts belting out the chorus to 'How do I live without you' and Josiah joins in. They sing as off-key as they can manage until Josiah chokes and I rush to get him some water.

He chugs the whole thing and swipes his hand across his mouth. I rub his back soothingly while he catches his breath. "I almost choked to death. Grace, it's your fault." He says with a laugh.

"Me? I didn't force you to sing with me!" Grace defends.

"Oh God. Both of you shut up so we can watch Ratatouille." I interrupt their squabble. A throw pillow is sent hurtling in my direction. It misses and falls to the floor.

"That was so weak. Boo!" I boo Grace, who rolls her eyes at me. Josiah chuckles at us.

"I hate you." She says with narrowed eyes.

I snicker. "I love you too." She scoffs and faces the TV.

I settle back into the couch and put my legs on Jojo's thighs with my back against the armrest. He shifts my legs off him and moves to lay beside me, his head on my shoulder and drapes his left arm across my belly. I rub my hand up and down his back and he hums in what seems to be content.

I make the mistake of looking at Grace, who's wiggling her eyebrows and smirking at me. I widen my eyes at her, so she smiles and looks away from us to the tv. We're silent throughout the movie, except when one of us makes a comment and my chest has this warm feeling the entire time.

They leave my house around 10:00. They both have cars so I don't have to worry about them finding transport home so late. I follow them out of my apartment, wave till they drive off and go back in. As tired as I thought I was, I don't sleep immediately I get in bed. I'm wide awake with the fuzzy feeling in my belly and the faint scent of his perfume on my shirt.

Josiah.

All the way from Bliss' apartment till I get home, I feel warm and tingly. I had fun and I particularly liked when Bliss and I cuddled. I thought she'd push me off when I snuggled up to her. I wasn't even concentrating on the movie we watched because I felt like a content house cat.

Bliss and Grace are fun to be around. Even if the both of them are weird, I wouldn't change them anyway. That's a lot of sappiness but I'm mushy like that. We've known each other for a while now and they've become my favorite people. I met Grace when another friend of mine signed me up for a speed blind date thingy because he didn't want to go alone.

The blind date was in a cafe and every thirty minutes we switched partners. I got paired with Grace and she was hilarious - she still is. She only signed up for the date to come stare at cute guys and check it off her bucket list. We spent time talking about everything and nothing at all. We weren't interested in dating each other so we agreed to be friends.

As for how I became friends with Bliss, She was Grace's friend. I went out to eat with some of my colleagues, well ex-colleagues. Grace and Bliss were in the same restaurant. Grace called my name so loud and dragged me over to her table to meet Bliss. She looked so cute - She still is. She smiled up at me and my heart kind of did a thing.

Like two weeks after, I saw Bliss at the bank and she said hello. I was a little nervous but we talked for a bit about odd things like how the music in the electric tubular-revolving-but-also-not-revolving doors (Imposter revolver for short) sounds like the climax point of an anime or how one of the cashiers' smile reminded me of the Grinch and we couldn't unsee it. Then I found out that Grace worked at that very bank.

We exchanged numbers and became friends over time. I can't even explain in detail how we became such close friends but that's how good friendship begins in my opinion. Time skip and our friendship dynamic became what it is. Grace - the goofball older sister, Bliss - the quiet voice of reasoning and I - the loveable munchkin, that's how Bliss describes it anyway. We try to meet up as often as we can, no matter how busy life gets. I'm grateful for both of them. I fall asleep with only one thought - Bliss smelled lovely, of baby powder and warmth. I want to hug her again. That's not exactly one thought but whatever.