Disaster [Joe Sugg fanfic]

Chapter Sixteen

C H A P T E R | S I X T E E N

I jolted awake to a voice. I scanned my surrounds to see that I had fallen asleep at the tills at work. I looked down the counter to see Declan standing there, a twirl in one hand and a pound in the other.

"Oh hey, Declan, where's your mummy?" I questioned him, confused as to why he was alone. He handed me the twirl and money. I scanned it for him and gave it back. He smiled a toothy grin and turned around the point in one direction.

I followed his finger to see indeed his mother, Sophia, in a corner of the shop, talking animatedly into her phone. She looked like she was having an argument.

I frowned, slightly, and checked to see if it was busy. It wasn't.

Once getting the all clear, I went around the tills and grabbed Declan's hand. We walked hand in hand to his mother. As we walked, I watched Sophia cuss silently to her phone and shove it into her bag. She looked up and we locked eyes. I sent her a sympathetic smile and she just smiled sadly back at me.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked and she took Declan into her arms. She simply shook her head and I saw her tears well up. "Hey, hey, it's okay. I get off in a minute, we can go somewhere to talk if you like." She nodded and I quickly went to get my things.

****

Turned out, Declan's father wanted to come back into his life. He wanted to know how his son was doing and what boy his son was growing up to be. Sophia was not happy, that's for sure. She wanted absolutely nothing to do with him. He had left her alone in a time she needed him the most.

She did had have her doubts. Like how Declan should know his father and not be fatherless his whole life. However, as someone who's father left when I was very young, I told Sophia that Declan didn't need a father in his life. He can still grow up to be the best man possible. All he needed was her and he'd be fine.

I reassured Sophia before we parted ways that if she ever needed anything, if Declan's father was causing trouble or if she just needed someone to talk to, she could always come to me. Just as we left the coffee house, I hugged Sophia and Declan goodbye and said I would text her soon to plan a day out. She agreed and we parted our different ways.

On the way home, I stopped by Tesco to do some shopping. I realised in the mists of everything that was happening, I didn't even bother to go for the weekly shop. How stupid was I?

As I strolled through the aisles, wheeling the cart, my eyes caught sight of something I didn't really expect to see. Especially after what Conor said.

Hanna was standing there, flirting with a man. I couldn't see the man's face but I could one hundred percent say that it was Joe. Hanna was rubbing her hand up and down his arm as she spoke to him with a look of lust. I saw her eyes glance to me before looking back at Joe. Her lips quirked up into a smirk before quickly going back to the flirty expression it led seconds earlier.

I scoffed, loudly, causing Joe to turn around to see the source of the noise. His eyes widened, slightly, at the sight of me and I ditched my trolley to speed off. I heard Joe call after me, before I heard Hanna call after Joe. My eyes welled up as I started to dodge people left and right.

Joe loves you very much. Conor's words echoed in my head. What fucking bullshit.

To think I was going to listen to Conor. To think I told myself I should probably hear them out. No, no, no. Instead, they're flirting in the middle of Tesco! It's like God wanted me to have my heart ripped out of my chest and shattered to pieces. Maybe that's how I was going to die. Of heartbreak. Cool.

"Arielle." A hand gripped my wrist, halting me in the steps. I had made just a metre from my car. I was so close.

I didn't reply. Nor did I look back at the man.

"Arielle, please," he pleaded

"Fuck off, Joe. I can't deal with you right now," I growled, yanking my arm out of his grip. I stormed the rest of the way to my car.

The last thing I heard before slamming my car door shut was, "Joe, leave her, you have me."

Oh, Hanna, you fucking snake.

****

"Caspar." My brows knitted together in confusion as the tall, blond boy who I hadn't seen in what felt like forever sat beside me on our couch, slowly. "What's wrong?"

"Arielle, we need to talk," he said, quietly. He looked down at his lap, where his hands laid, clasped together.

My heart dropped. Those words were never good.

I licked my lips. "Yeah, sure, what is it?"

He took a deep breath in before blowing out, slowly. "I'm moving out." Were the simple words that came out of his mouth. Those were the simple words that I never in my entire life expected to come out of his mouth. Those were the simple words that caused my heart to ache deeply.

"Wha-what?" I stuttered out. My eyes teared up.

Everyone was going wrong. First, Joe turns up at my flat, then a girl starts to come in between me and Caspar. Joe and Hanna sleep together and suddenly, to make things worse, Caspar was moving out.

Your life is actually going to shit, my mind told me.

Like I don't already know.

"I'm sorry, Arielle, but I think I'm going to move in with Kasey."

"But...but what about our plan? The plan to live together forever? Even if we got significant others, we would make them move in with us, and instead of move out. You can't do this," I choked out, desperately trying not to cry.

"A, we were like 8 when we made that plan. We've grown up. You can't expect to still live together when we're off married to other people," he said, his eyes boring into mine. I couldn't believe it. Caspar Lee, the most childish adult I know, was talking about being grown up. We were the childish best friends. We were so immature together. We didn't care about anything. We were carefree. And now, Caspar was talking about growing up and moving out. "Plus..." he added, "I think I'm in love with Kasey Jones."