Slow deterioration

Josies POV: I sat in my room thinking about what was going on with my family. Something felt off, horribly off. I quickly shook the thought out of my head before I started having a panic attack. My name is Josie Lynn Richards, a seventeen year old girl who lives in South Carolina. I go to Treasure High School just a few minutes away and live with my mom, Claire and my dad, Kingsley who have been married for about what...7 years now? You might be wondering about what my sudden outburst was about. Well, its just that I used to come back home from school to smiles, happy laughter and just family being family. But now, all i come back to is cold stares, fake smiles and social distancing when all they ever did was touch eachother endlessly. You know, maybe I am just over exaggerating things but i always get these intrusive thoughts that maybe all they ever did after a few years of marriage was tolerate eachother... for me. But i always try to tell myself to stop the crap and be positive. ... I wake up, its Monday 12 January, which is the opening day of school after the holidays. I get ready then go down the stairs to see my mom staring at a bunch of nothingness. I trace her stare to ensure that im not missing anything and look back at her. Her eyes are swollen and red, and have dark circles around them with a decoration of fully loaded bags underneath them, clearly implying that she had not slept at all for a long time. I wave a hand in front of her face to bring her back to earth. "Mom?" She jumps at that and quickly comes to her senses. "Oh, hi sweetheart. How'd you sleep?" She says with a reassuring half smile. I looked at her in the eyes and took her hand into mine. "Mom, are you okay" "Wh-why would you ask that, of course I'm okay," she said with a nervous laugh "would you like some pancakes before school?" "No thank you im okay. Why don't you have some. Have you even eaten?" She looks shocked by the question and stays silent for a bit. "Yes- yes of course i have...oh look at the time its time for you to go to school" she starts packing my things quickly in a dismissive manner. "Wait, where's dad?" I ask innocently She stops in her tracks for a while and looks away from me and blinks rapidly then finally takes a deep breath. "I don't know" she says with a fake smile and continues to wipe the counters that were already clean. "Go to school or you will be late honey" I nod slowly and start walking outside dumbfounded to what i had just witnessed. As i walked to school i get a tap on my shoulder, when i look back i see no one and carry on with my thoughtful walk. As i continue to walk i feel another tap on my shoulder then finally let out with a sigh, "I know its you Daniel." "You got me!" He says with a big smile and then jumps infront of me with jazz hands. His smile quickly drops seeing my face. "Hey, whats wrong?...Babe?... Talk to me" he then stops, making me stop too. He reaches to rap his arms around me and kisses my forehead. I keep quiet. "Do you want to talk about it?" I continue to keep quiet. He sighs, "I guess this is now mine then," he takes something out of his pocket. I catch a glimpse of it and follow it in his hand which was now positioned at the front of face. My face turned bright pink at the sight. I tried to hold back a smile. "Is that mine?" I say softly "Oh so the princess does talk" he says with a goofy surprised face. He then looks at me with a smile. "We dont have to talk about it, if you don't want to,okay?" I nod as he reaches out to gently squeeze my cheeks. He takes out a beautiful gold and diamond necklace that has my name on it and diamond earings from the small box covered with a matte royal blue sweat fabric. Its beauty makes me gasp and clasp my mouth with my hands. "Turn around," I turn around as he gets ready to put it around my neck. "Hair please." "Oh sorry." I say quickly holding my hair up. He chuckles at my antics and carefully guides the necklace onto and around my neck. I can feel his soft but rough hands brush the back of my neck ever so gently. "There we go," he turns me around smoothly "it was made for you... No pun intended" he says quickly with a smirk. I lash into his arms and start weeping. "Thank you so much Daniel" "Hey! Who's Daniel?!" He says jokingly while wiping my tears. I chuckle at that and sniffle "I mean my honey boo boo" I say with a big smile "Yeahh... That's more like it." He says with a smirk. We both giggle for a while before he takes my hand into his and starts walking while looking at me lovingly. I take a deep breath and look at him in the eyes, "its my parents," i look down "I woke up to my mom lifelessly staring outsidr the window with puffy eyes, and my dad... honestly? I don't know where he is. Its really sad... Im-Im scared... What if they don't want eachother, what if they never did, or way worse they are fighting about me what if they never-" "Ay ay ay now ay," he cuts in, "enough about that... That's enough. Its not like that. If I know anything about Mr. and Mrs. R. its that they love you more than anything in the world and there is no doubt about that. And I'm not just saying that because i want to make you feel better, no. Its because i have seen them and almost went to heaven the day we went to tell them about us..." We both chuckle at that, "I cant promise anything about your parents because i dont know them as much as you do and i don't want to make empty clitched promises, all i will do and want to do is stick beside you yeah? I want to be the shoulder you cry on always... And if you don't want to talk about it at that time i fully understand, i will always be here to listen when you are ready because... I love you Josie, Lynn, cupcake, ferrero, Lindt, honey boo boo Richards-Andrews" he says with a shy smile. This guy, right here is my boyfriend. Daniel Jay Andrews. He is a year older than me (18 years old) but in my same grade as he started school late. We started getting to know eachother when we were 15 after our families decided to have dinner as they started working together. He is tall, has brunnette hair that is cut nicely to a curly taper fade. He has baby blue eyes that glitzen in the sunlight and bright naturally clean and beautiful straight teeth that cooperate with them. He has a lean muscular build with a razor sharp jawline that could slice an apple. He has perfectly manly lips that arent too big but perfect that goes along well with his very deep voice that beats even a base guitar. Dont get me started on his hygiene and his outfits. I might have given off that he is a goofy guy. Yes true,but with me only. With everyone else he is known as the hot quarterback of Treasure who is a man of a few words, confident and has quite an aura if you ask me. And honestly, i don't know how i got him either because if you were to compare him to me, you would definitely say he was a paid actor. You might think that he might be cheating on me, which also crossed my mind a few times but no he is as loyal as a labrador, a pure softy if you asked me. And yes we have told our parents about it. He shows his love to me in many ways but never has said it out loud or told me that he loved me before. Today was the first time he did which made my heart skip a thousand beats. "Thank you babe... And ... I love... You too" i said shyly. He started blushing and walked away a bit and did what seemed like grunting with joy and came back. "Wait seriously? You not joking? Are you sure? Please tell me you are not joking." I smile and took a step forward, tippy toed and leaned in for a kiss. He was shocked but quickly embraced it. I could feel and hear both of our hearts beating fast with excitement. I pulled back slowly and looked him in the eyes while wrapping my arms around his neck as he grabbed my waist gently. "Do you believe me now?" I said with a smile. He smiled and nodded "y-yeah i do, I love you so much" "I love you too" "Huh! I cant believe this is happening! Woo!" He tried to say calmly but a bit too loudly holding his head in excitement. I giggled, "now, now lover boy, let's go to school." He held out his hand for me to take it, "you staying here with me" he said smiling. I rolled my eyes playfully and took his hand. As we carried on walking i could feel my face getting red, helping me forget about how worried I was about my mom.