Understanding Joseph

By Arjun Tandon

This is the perplexing and dramatic story of Joseph, a sixteen-year-old boy,
full of dreams and a keen desire for exploration of life.

Joseph is full of potential but also riddled with insecurities.

How will his life change when he has to move halfway across the world,
leaving all his friends behind? Will he learn to overcome the things that have
been holding him back and live freely?

Will Joseph ever find abiding happiness in his life?

Covering topics like platonic love, body image, mental health and coming-of-
age sexuality - this book is a whirlwind ride!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blue Rose Publishers
• Release date: Nov 12, 2022

Book preview

Chapter 1

I wake up, as the faintest ray of sunlight wades through the silky white curtains of my room, warming my face. A Robin is chirping cheerily right outside my bedroom window. I see the time on the wall clock facing my bed. It is 11 A.M already.

I am late. Today is an important day, after all.

My name is Joseph and this is the story of my life. I am sixteen years old and study at the local High School in the town of Watford in South England. Watford sure can be the poster child for a claustrophobic, sleepy town, where nothing much happens on any given day. It may well be the most boring city in the whole of England.

I have had a fairly conventional life till now, nothing too special.

Every day always feels the same, starting and ending doing similar things. Not surprising then, I crave change, for what is life without the thrill of new things?

I have always dreamt of leaving this city and figuring out the meaning of my life and my role in it. I feel like I won’t reach my complete potential living here. I have an urge to travel, to find out the answers to the many questions I have. I don’t believe it when people say, Accept your fate. I rather like to believe that one can change fate and live a life one wishes to.

Don’t get me wrong though. My existence to date may have been a bit unamusing and boring but I also love my life here. I have a great group of friends and I've been able to keep my grades good enough.

I am part of a family of three. It's just me, my mom, and my dad. My mom is Irish and my dad is half British and half Indian. Well, recently my dad is offered a new job in a small city called Seaside in coastal Florida in the USA and he has been travelling on and off since. Sometimes, he is here and sometimes he is far away, living alone. My mom finds it hard to be living in different countries, so to make things easy, my parents decide to move to that city in Florida in the fall.

So, suddenly, my dull life took an interesting turn.

Today is my last day in this claustrophobic little town. The weather is always windy and cold here, so you barely get to see the sun in our little town. Sometimes, I feel the weather is so depressing that even the happiest people on Earth will likely lose their cheerfulness if they stay here for long.

The only reason I’ve survived so long here is because of my friends.

As I mentioned before, I have a great group of friends. It’s not a big bunch, just six of us - Georgie, Jordan, Annie, Amy, and Cam. I love all of them but sometimes I can feel a bit left out like I don’t belong here. Jordan has been my oldest friend and I’ve known him almost all my life. He also is my closest friend out of them all. I got close with Georgie almost a few weeks after I and Jordan became friends. She has always been there for me and I consider them two the closest to me.

Something tells me that distance won’t affect my bond with Jordan and Georgie. For others, I mean I am close to them but I have this gut feeling that our friendship is rather platonic. They are not very different from some high school friendships which last a while and then ‘poof’, they are over and the next thing you realise that whom you considered as friends are bitching or spreading rumours about you, which I’ve been a victim of in the past. Well, enough about me. It's my last day and I have to meet my friends before I leave to fly halfway across the world and start a new chapter of my life.

My house has been a wreck. My mom has literally turned the house upside down looking for a necklace that her grandmother gave to her on her wedding day. Apparently, it's a priceless family heirloom, so my mom says we can’t leave the country without it. Well, finding it is not what worries me today, I have other things to take care of.

For me, the day starts quite conventionally, more normal than usual if that's possible. I have these butterflies in my stomach but I’m not sure if I am feeling excited to leave the country or nervous. I am pretty much done with packing because I really like to be a bit planned. I can never leave things to the last minute- I am always scared I will forget something or the other. Suddenly, I have this really strong headache and I start to feel a bit dizzy then I realise I haven’t had a single glass of water since I woke up, so I am probably dehydrated. I go down the stairs to therefore fetch myself a glass of water.

Walking down the stairs, I see my friend Jordan sitting in my house watching television. That’s strange because I don’t remember inviting him. He sees me and his perfect smile turns into a disappointing frown and he says,

Oh come on Jose, It’s your last day. At least wear something stylish he says with a little smirk on his face.

Then, I hear Amy speak,

We gotta burn those hoodies man. as she pops out of her hiding space behind the kitchen shelf. I realise suddenly that all my friends have come to my place to surprise me. They never really were the best hiders though. I spot Georgie behind the fridge. As soon as she realises that I have seen her she gets out and shouts,

You’ll probably get bullied for wearing these oversized hoodies there, huh? Annie and Cam suddenly jump out of their hiding spots and scream, SURPRISE!

Honestly, I did not really expect this. We all start to talk and time flies quickly. Cam, Annie, and Amy have to go somewhere so after a while they get ready to leave. We are all standing near the main door when Cam says,

Don’t forget us, jerk.

I laugh and say, I would never.

I mean, this isn’t true. I like them but I likely will forget some of them pretty quickly, as my life picks up in the new place. Isn’t that to be expected?

Well Jose, aren’t you hungry? Should we order some Pizza? says Jordan.

For some reason, Jordan always calls me ‘Jose’ and I too am comfortable with this. I would never allow anyone else to call me ‘Jose’ – it is kind of like my and Jordan’s personal little thing.

Jordan is everything one would want to be. He is tall, handsome, sporty, and intelligent. He always wanted to become a doctor- some kind of surgeon, I don’t remember. He is also the captain of the school's football team. He trusts me a lot and he always shared with me his secrets, one of them being that he is bisexual. He came out to me when we were like twelve and a lot of people know it now, but to be honest, they don’t really care and neither does he

Enough about Jordan though - Georgie is my favourite girl in the whole school. She is definitely on every boy’s top hot list, which is not surprising seeing how popular she is, being in the school's swimming team. People find her intimidating - which to be fair, she can be a bit, but when you get to know her she is so much more than that. She is one of my closest friends and we’ve come a long way. That's why I love her so much.

I suddenly remember that Jordan had asked me a question, to which I reply, Yeah, I will quickly go order some pizza. You start to play the movie.

Jordan, Georgie and I plan to see another episode of Harry Potter together. We first watched the Harry Potter Series six years ago on a school trip. That is when we all got close as a group and since then, it has kind of been the highlight of all our sleepovers and movie nights. Jordan and I love the series and we dream of visiting one of the Harry Potter fairs in New York. To be honest, we don’t really fancy