3 (jaylor) perpetual darkness and stolen sequin smiles

chapter fifteen.

"So you're telling me that you've never watched La La Land?" Joe asked Patrick as they walked through the door. They were trying to decide on a film to watch when Joe had suggested La La Land. It was one of his favourite films, and at this point, he couldn't believe that Patrick hadn't watched it.
"Nope, I've never even heard of it. Is it good?"
"Is it good?!" Joe exclaimed, shaking his head. "Pat, this is like my favourite film of all time. I think I watch it weekly." He was telling the truth. He didn't know what it was about this film, but it really connected with him.
"What's so good about it? Didn't it get bad reviews or something like that?" Joe rolled his eyes. Patrick knew everything, he was sure of it. "But if you think that it's really good, then, of course, I'll watch it. Usually, when you say that something's good, it actually is."
"What can I say - I have good taste." Joe grinned. "I swear to you - you're going to love it."
Patrick smiled. Joe was going to miss having him around when he left in four days. He was going to miss having someone to smile with, someone to make breakfast for in the mornings. He felt bad that he hadn't invited Patrick to stay with him earlier, because he was really enjoying having him around. It was nice to have someone around him all the time, someone to distract him from the thoughts in his head. He'd always gotten on with Patrick, in fact, throughout most of his life, he would have even called Pat his best friend. They were so similar, and Joe loved being around him. Patrick always seemed to know what to say, always seemed to be able to get him out of his head.
"I'll just go and give Mum a quick call," Patrick smiled. "She asked me to phone her a let her know how we're getting on."
"You'd better not tell her that I let you get drunk last night," Joe smirked. "Because I know that you have a tendency to blame things on me. And then I'll have Mum phoning me and telling me that I shouldn't have let you drink in a city you weren't familiar with, that I'm the older child so I know better and all that stuff." Patrick laughed.
"I'll be back soon, and I won't say too much."
"Oh, please. I know that you can't keep anything to yourself." Joe laughed.
Patrick chuckled, disappearing into the bedroom.
Joe smiled as he walked over to the window to have a look outside. The day was mild, the sun shining. He was feeling happy, but he knew that the moment he was left on his own, that happiness would fade as quickly as it arrived.

Patrick was the sort of person that everyone loved, the sort of person that shined on both the inside and the outside. The sort of person that he wished he was. He'd just taken Patrick shopping, and he hadn't been able to resist and had ended up buying a new journal for writing his poetry in, and hadn't been able to resist a new collection of poetry by all the Lake Poets. He already had a copy of that book, but the one he brought today had a different cover. He was a sucker for nice copies of poetry. This one was hardcover, and the pages were lined with gold. He got it out of the bag it came in, smiling as he held it in his hands. He walked over to his bookshelf, trying to decide where he was going to put it. It was definitely one of the nicest books he owned - and he hadn't read it before, so it wasn't falling to pieces like a lot of his other books.  He read the poetry so much that he'd had to buy new copies of some of them. He like any and all poetry, some of them were old books, poetry from William Wordsworth, poetry from hundreds of years ago. Others were more recent, ones from modern-day poets who wrote words that he'd fallen in love with. He just loved poetry so much - loved the fact that no single person wrote the same, no one wrote about the same thing in the exact same way. He often found that poets had a way of looking at the world, a way of describing it in a way that couldn't be found anywhere else.
Joe eventually decided on a place to put the book and was standing back to look at it from a little further back, when he heard his phone ring. He groaned, thinking that Patrick had already told their Mum about the stuff they'd been getting up to while he was here.
"Hello, this is Joe speaking," He answered the phone. It was a number he didn't know, and he hoped that it wasn't going to be anything bad. He'd be so mad if Patrick had actually told her what they'd been up to because he'd promised Joe that he wouldn't.
"Hi, Joe. I'm just letting you know that your audition for The Favourite was a success." he breathed a sigh of relief when he heard his agent's voice. "You got the part, Joe! That's so great!" Lizzie always sounded so happy to talk to him, and he was relieved that he had actually gotten the part. He'd begun to doubt that he had because he hadn't heard from Lizzie in a while - and the auditions were so odd that he pretty much thought he'd failed at everything. And it wasn't just that he thought that the auditions were unusual, but he also had no self-belief. He genuinely thought that there was going to be no way that he'd get that role.
"Wow - that's amazing," Joe sighed. He was glad that he'd finally have something to occupy his time with, finally, he'd have something to distract him from his head.
"Are you still alright to be in London for filming to begin in March?" Lizzie asked him. "There's going to be a couple of different filming locations, and they've asked that you get there a few days before filming starts to make sure that you're familiar with both the cast and the set."
Joe smiled. Finally, he'd have a purpose. And it was filming in The United Kingdom, meaning that he'd be close to home, too.