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Tristan walked over, stopping in front of Mateo "He’s hurting He’ll be okay We have to be okay"

They did have to be okay There wasn’t another option

Mateo repeated that in his head as Josiah was quiet on the way to the PO He didn’t speak when they went to the Wharf, either It drizzled outside, the sky dark gray Not er here and there

Josiah answered questions, held Mateo’s hand when he reached for it, but it wasn’t the same It wasn’t his Jay

Before they left, he stopped Josiah, grabbed a hold of him, and forced Josiah to look at him "Don’t do this, Jay Let oin’ on in that head’a yours?"

Josiah leaned into him, rested his head on Mateo’s shoulder, with his face in Mateo’s neck "I don’t know"

It was those words that sent ice through Mateo’s veins Josiah always knew No s would work out Even when he didn’t have the answers, he soet better, and he told Mateo and Tristan that No matter how much shit fell apart, Josiah led them from the darkness

This time, they lost Josiah to its depths

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Josiah

Most things in the world didn’t make sense People liked to pretend they did; they wanted a reason, an explanation for everything How could Teo’s dad hurt hiood heart despite all he’d seen and done?

Why couldn’t Tristan’s grandparents accept their daughter’s pregnancy? How could they turn her away? Would Tristan be as good a man as he was if he hadn’t lived such a hard life? Would Teo?

Out of all the billions of people in the world, how did they find each other? Why did Teo go to the same home as Josiah, or, out of all the seconds in a day, all the minutes in an hour and days in a year, what made Tristan and Josiah both be down at the water at the exact sas, the same way he didn’t have an answer for why he felt the way he did right now