It's always been you

Chapter 13 - The morning after

OLIVER POV

The morning after Lucy's birthday party I woke up when I heard a pained yelp followed by a thump. I sat up in bed to see her on the floor holding her ankle. "You right babe?" "Ow ow ow. I forgot I sprained it last night and got up to pee." I snorted and her head shot up to glare at me. "Hang on I'm coming."

I climbed out of bed and walked around to her side squatting down to help her up. She put her arms around my neck, I put one around her back and one under her knees to lift her. "Didn't tell me when we started dating you had cacky ankles." She smacked the back of my head as a chuckled to myself. "ONE cacky ankle thank you very much! And don't be an arsehole!"

I carried her to the bathroom and set her on her one good foot in front of the toilet before saying "yell when you're done and I'll help you downstairs". I walked downstairs in to the kitchen to put on some coffee and start cooking breakfast for the people that had stayed over. I don't know where Joe and Camille disappeared to all of a sudden but if I had to hazard a guess, I'd say they were horny and disappeared in to the guest room. I heard a door open and speak of the devil. Joe walked out looking quite dishevelled and hungover with no shirt on.

I looked up from the coffee pot and smirked at him. "Where did you get to last night?" "Went to sleep." "Bullshit. I can see the hickey on your neck." His hand flew up to cover his neck and I laughed. He grinned at me and said "ok you caught me. Camille pounced on me." We heard a weird thumping noise and an "ow ow ow" coming after every thump near the stairs. When we looked out of the kitchen towards the stairs Lucy was sliding down the stairs on her bum.

"Harris what're you doing?! I told you to call for me when you were ready!" "I thought I'd try a different method of getting down the stairs!" She looked over at Joe and grinned. "That's a lovely shade of purple on your neck there Joseph!" His hand flew up to cover his neck again and he blushed. "Yeah I fell". Lucy snorted as I helped her to her feed and carried her the rest of the way down the stairs. "You're a terrible liar Joe."

JOSEPH POV

I don't know why it bothered me so much that Lucy knew what I'd been up to with Camille the night of her party. I'd moved on. I really really liked Camille. But I couldn't help the blush that crept over my face when Lucy pointed out the hickey on my neck. When I poured myself some coffee and made a second cup to take in to Camille, Lucy and Ollie were snickering to themselves at my discomfort.

When I entered the guest room Camille had just woken up and was sitting up in bed rubbing her eyes. She smiled when she saw me. "Morning Joeboy." "Morning babe." "Is something wrong?" "You gave me a hickey! We're not in high school anymore." She snorted and took the coffee I held out to her. "You didn't object last night Joseph! You'll live!" I threw a pillow at her face and she giggled. I couldn't help myself and grinned back at her. "Come on. We're cooking breakfast."

After we'd all eaten our body weight in bacon and eggs to soak up some of the alcohol from the night before it was almost 12pm. I needed to get to work by 1 so Camille and I started to get ready to leave. Lucy was hopping towards me on her good leg to say good bye and said "you know I can cover that hickey with some concealer if you like?" "Lucy shut up before I push you off balance."

She grinned cheekily at me and then pulled me in for a hug. "Thank you for everything Joe. The gift and helping Ollie set up. And for giving me a new dancing and drinking buddy!" She turned to Camille and they gave each other a hug, each promising the other that they'd catch up together with Nikki during the week.

Camille had her car here having driven Lucy and Nikki here the day before. She dropped me off outside of work. I leant over to kiss her before climbing out of the car. I leant down through the open window and said "thanks for the lift babe. See you tomorrow?" "Mhmm. I'll give you a matching hickey on the other side of your neck." I blushed and said "behave you bad girl!" Before grinning at her and waving her off.