piece by piece~j.d

~84~

"Babe are you ready?" Josh called out and Aubrey ran past him to grab some of her shoes from next to the front door. "You look very cute today."

"Doing my best, I have to intimidate whoever this girl is that Bailey is supposedly dating. "She might be a bitch who will look down at me all because I'm not dressed properly."

"You're overthinking, if we feel uncomfortable we can make up some stupid excuse about leaving." Josh promised as he pulled open the door and motioned for Aubrey to leave first.

"You're funny if you think I'll let her think she intimidates me. You should know as an older sibling that you have to set the tone early that they have to be respected." Aubrey was yapping along as Josh pulled the passenger door open for her as well. "Thanks."

"Normally, I try to just be really nice because I know that they'll all be nervous and being mean will probably make it harder to get to know them." Josh said once he too was sitting in the car and had started to drive.

"Sometimes I really hate how good of a guy you are. Making me feel like a bitch over here." Aubrey sighed, Josh chuckled and placed the hand that wasn't on the steering wheel, on her thigh.

"Sorry Aubs, I think you're a nice person. If I didn't, this wouldn't be a thing at all." Josh assured her and he glanced quickly over at her before moving his eyes back onto the road to make sure he wasn't about to hit anyone. "We're almost there, get yourself together."

"Together I am." Aubrey responded once she had taken a very deep breath and mumbled a few things to herself quietly. It was always going to be hard to accept a new girlfriend when she had gotten along so well with Tara, it was more now about ensuring that Baz was happy and if he was, she would be too. "Let's do this thing."

"Damn right." Josh replied and they both got out of the car, when they came together at the front of the car Aubrey grabbed Josh's hand and squeezed it tightly. "Love you."

"Love you too." The pair made their way into the cafe, Aubrey immediately caught sight of her brothers familiar mullet, to be fair it was pretty hard to miss. She glanced at the brunette who was sat beside him and judged her briefly, people always said that they tried to judge people but it's human to start planting a seed in your mind as to who the person in front of you is. If there's no malice behind the action, it's not necessarily a negative thing. "Hi Baz."

"Hey Aubs." Bailey got up and quickly made his way to hug his sister, once they had embraced and Baz moved on to greet Josh, Aubrey turned back to the girl who had gotten up to greet her.

"Hi I'm Izzy, it's really nice to meet you finally." Izzy said and Aubrey and her shared a hug, with polite kisses on the cheek as was always done when greeting someone you didn't really know yet still wanted to be polite.

"You too," Aubrey said as she took a seat, as Josh walked past to get to his seat he gently pulled her hair out from where it was caught between her back and the chair. "Thanks."

"Course." Josh smiled. "So what's the deal with you two."

"No deal. Just the usual going on which I'm sure you'd both understand." Bailey responded with a casual shrug of the shoulders as he observed the menu to decide what he wanted to get. "What's the deal with you two?"

"The usual." Aubrey said nonchalantly, she wasn't going to give Bailey any answers if he wasn't going to say anything to her. The energy would be returned.

"We're going good, the house is a home and we're planning a little getaway to Noosa as soon as we possibly can." Josh decided that it was his job to elaborate and so he did so willingly.

"Any of the boys cop the invite this year of are you two heading on a very romantic get away by yourselves?" Bailey asked, knowing that in previous years Marcus had joined Josh on most of their trips, as was the nature of their friendship that had ultimately dialled down a bit with the arrival of Adam.

"Adam and Kim might tag along if they want, yet to decide if we want the trip to be ruined by the same group of hooligans that we constantly hang out with."

"Of course, love birds." Baz joked about the very spoken about bromance of Adam and Josh. "I think we might get to Apollo bay first and then head west and do something over there for a bit." He filled in the loose plans that he and Izzy had.

"Yeah, it sounds like it's going to be so beautiful." Izzy chimed in, she was finding it hard to engage fully in conversation but felt comfortable putting her input in on the current topic of conversation.

"You'll have so much fun." Aubrey agreed, there was a slight halt in the conversation as a waitress came and got their orders. "So, how did you guys meet?"

"One of the girls I went to school with was friends with Izzy and because of mutuals we were around each other a fair bit and it just sort of clicked, I guess." Baz explained. "I'm happy though, if that's what you wanted to hear."

"Precisely, if you are, I am. You know that."

"How touching." Josh cooed and it was pretty sarcastic, knowing very well that it would piss them both off majorly.

"I'll slap you." Aubrey threatened.

"Don't do that, something gives me an inkling that he'd like that a lot." Bailey spoke up and slapped his knee as if it was the funniest thing he had ever heard. "Why're you looking at me like that?"

"Because sometimes you don't shut up when a i really think you should." Izzy laughed at her boyfriend admirably. "Thanks for bringing me to meet them, I feel important."

"Good, and if you feel like Aubs hasn't fully warmed up to you, I promise she will soon. It's hard to resist you." Bailey responded, they were speaking in hushed voices to one another, a contrast to Josh and Aubrey who were bickering back and forth.

"I hope so."

~~~

aubsmith

💋

bazlenka ew
-izzyarmitage don't be rude
-aubsmith yeah bailey 🖕

joshdunkley_ i'm so in love with you
-aubsmith aww thx...ik luv ya too

chloegareatz the things you make me feel
-aubsmith same

when jack steele makes the AA team but only on the interchange 😩