《human》- hardzello

five

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one of joe's favourite holidays as a child was a family trip to brighton beach. he'd never been to a british beach before and didn't quite know what to expect, but it exceeded all expectations. the neverending peer with various colourful stalls of candyfloss, arcade games and fairground rides had him captivated; it was all a seven year old could ask for. he had begged him mom for a bright red inflatable football, which she eventually gave into and he was the happiest boy in the world. that was, until a small dog came bounding over & sunk its teeth into it. that part wasn't his favourite.

while he was there, being an only child with parents who wanted to lounge around in the sun all day, he went on adventure by himself. however, this was while he was still actually comfortable talking to new people, and so he had made a friend. james, or something like that. he couldn't quite remember. james wasn't much taller than him, with long dark hair down to his chin and brilliant green eyes. joe thought he was really cool and wished his mom would let him have his hair like that. he soon learned that james was 4 months and 2 days older than him, and lived in scotland, which explained his "funny" accent.

they had spent the best part of two hours together, rioting around the empty parts of the beach and exploring all the little caves, or "pirate coves" as james called them. they found one in particular that they decided to settle in for a while. sitting on a slightly damp rock, they just sat and talked, staring at the waves edging ever closer to them each time.

the older boy had heard his mother calling for him and stood up to run back to her, but not before joe planted a small, innocent kiss on his cheek. james wasn't very fond of that. but, little did he know it, that was joe's first experience of being not-so-straight.

the rest of that week almost seemed a blur to be honest, which was strange because the first week of anything would normally always drag out, so that joe could feel every last little bit of pain and awkwardness. the universe was a bitch sometimes.

but this time, joe strangley found himself at the end of the week a lot quicker than usual. he was smug about the fact he only had two assignments to do over the weekend; he could get them done no problem.

there was just one thing distracting him slightly though.

that was the boy.

joe had kind of accepted now that thinking about him would become part of his daily routine. there was nothing he could do about it, at least not until he saw him again. or maybe that would make it worse.

its not like he even had a plan or anything, he just figured if he saw him again then he saw him. that's all. i mean, what are the possibilities of that even happening, he wondered. there's roughly twenty thousand students studying here, the liklihood of us running into each other again is almost nonexistent. stop it. you can get over him.

joe didn't get over him.

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A/N: fun fact, i actually took that photo when i went to brighton a few weeks ago ig im a photographer now 😌