piece by piece~j.d

~72~

Aubrey had fallen asleep though she had tried her hardest not to, the day was long and emotionally exhausting so when Josh walked into the house and she was passed out holding an empty glass close to her chest, she was wrapped in a blanket and the tv was on a low volume, it just seemed she couldn't keep her eyes open.

"Aubs?" Josh whispered quietly, just in case he would accidently wake her up but luckily he didn't. "Come here." He sighed and picked her up not wanting to leave her asleep through the night as he knew that if he left her there, she definitely would.

"Josh?" Aubrey groaned as she wriggled around in his arms and they locked eyes, his looking beyond exhausted and sad. "You look upset." Her voice was still croaky and he knew that it meant that she was still half asleep and wasn't able to process the fact that he was like that because of the events of that day, she just genuinely couldn't think through the sleep fogging up her mind.

"I'm okay babe, just go to sleep." Josh said calmly, smiling down at her because despite his emotions he couldn't help it as his heart melted at the sight of her being so innocent.

"You're not leaving are you?"

"I just got home, I'm just going to have a quick shower and then I'll be in bed, you can wait up for me if you want." Josh said as he made it to the room that they would officially share in 6 days.

"Okay, I'll wait." Aubrey agreed as she was placed gently onto the bed and Josh pulled the covers around her so that she would be comfortable as there was no chance that she'd be awake when he finished with his business in the bathroom.

"Goodnight." He kissed her forehead and chuckled at how almost instantly she seemed to have her eyes shut and have her breathing become heavier as sleep overtook.

~~~

Josh was quiet the next morning, not that Aubrey cared or expected him to be chatty, when every message that he got was about how proud people were regardless or headlines on how good the win from the cats was. She just wanted to be a voice of reason, a voice that wasn't focused on the results.

"Do you remember how I met Sarah and Dan at the brownlow?" Aubrey asked and Josh hummed as he took a sip of his morning coffee. "I thought that we could have a brunch with them." She hoped that some distraction would keep him out of his head for as long as possible.

"I thought we would have lunch with the rest of the boys and all that, thought you girls organised it." Josh said, he was confused about the change of plans.

"Some people said that they wouldn't make it because either they had been up late talking to the boys or that they just weren't up to it so we decided that we'd reschedule." Aubrey explained. "Plus you're all going to meet up at the club tonight aren't you?"

"Yeah we are." Josh confirmed. "I'll get changed and then we go if you're ready to go as well."

"Yeah for sure," Aubrey nodded and sat on the couch turning on the tv as she waited for Josh to be ready, of course the news was talking about the grand final win which made her change the channel until it landed on a channel that was showing clueless and she found herself getting lost in the movie.

"You ready to go?" Josh asked as he jumped over the back of the couch and took a seat next to her. "Busy watching a movie?" He mused.

"Nope, come on lets go eat some delicious food." Aubrey dragged him up and they decided to walk to the cafe that they had agreed to meet at .

"Hey girl." Sarah greeted Aubrey as they walked into the room and took a seat at the table that was already occupied by the couple. "How are you, and him?" Her voice was low as Josh and Dan said hi to one another and therefore would be unable to hear that topic of conversation coming up.