abyss ↣ joe sugg au

eight

[Trigger Warning: mentions of depression/suicide]

Charlotte was awoken by the vibrating of her phone beneath her, and she grumbled before reaching to get it.

Andrea: im coming over with news

She groaned.

Charlotte: who tf is news

With a crack of her back, Charlotte pulled the sheets off her and made for the bathroom. Grumbling at her appearance, she made a quick job of showering and brushing her teeth. With toothbrush in mouth, she came out of the bathroom and clicked the home button on her phone to illuminate the new message from Andrea.

Andrea: shut it i'll be at urs by 10

It was 9.45, which gave Charlotte enough chance to resume with her normal morning routine, which meant kicking over the bucket in frustration and spending the remaining twelve minutes cleaning up the mess. She just had enough time to put Joe's MTV top into the washing machine before there was a knock at the door.

When she opened it, Andrea and Kian stood there, smiling brightly with some shopping bags in hand.

"You must be News, I'm Charlotte. Nice to meet you." Charlotte extended a hand out for Kian to shake but he just scrunched his face up and Andrea flipped her off.

"She think she's funny because I said I was coming with news." Andrea rolled her eyes and Kian shook his head and they both followed Charlotte into the apartment.

Andrea and Kian were the only people who spoke to Charlotte, other than one man at work who called her Charnderella and Joe, but they didn't have to know that. They both put their Tesco's bags down on the counter whilst Charlotte put the kettle on.

"So," Charlotte pulled herself onto one of the stools around the island in the kitchen, opposite to where both Andrea and Kian were already seated.

"We don't know how to tell you, so we're just going to say it." Andrea said after a solid minute of biting her lip. Charlotte could tell they were holding each other's hand under the counter.

"..." Charlotte just stared blankly at the pair, making a silent guess at who would say it.

"We're having a baby. Together." It was Kian. Charlotte honestly didn't know whether to stand up and applaud or curse because it was now going to become Charlotte and the domesticated family.

"Wow." Was all that came out of her mouth. It's not like she didn't expect it to happen ever, because although Charlotte hadn't been aware the two were even together, she had known Andrea had wanted them to be since they were little kids, Kian possibly before that.

"Are you two like, together together?" Charlotte made a show of leaning over the counter and smiling wide at their joint hands. Andrea looked at Kian with fondness in her eyes and Kian smiled at his shoes and that's all she needed to know.

#

"If you carry on like that for nine months, no-one will know which one of you is pregnant." Charlotte joked as the three of them pigged out on the sofa whilst watching a marathon of Breaking Bad. Kian tried to swat Charlotte away but she just smirked. She was having fun. She really was but she couldn't help keep checking the time on her phone because she definitely wasn't sort of hoping Andrea and Kian would leave soon so she could escape to Joe's.

When the two of them finally brushed all the crumbs off of each other and headed for the door, Charlotte tried not to throw her hands together in a thank you to the Lord but immediately regretted it afterwards. They hugged each other goodbye and Charlotte closed the door with her back and lent against it, breathing out a puff of air upwards.

'Wow," She said to herself, thinking about how much has changed since she last saw her two best friends. She was glad they didn't resent her for disconnecting herself from everything that wasn't a keyboard or a suicidal, blue-eyed boy for so long.

When Charlotte started to clear up the kitchen, she saw the blue and grey material of Joe's MTV top lying moodily at the bottom of the washing machine and there was her motivation to tidy fast.

#

When it was dark enough outside, Charlotte folded up the washed and ironed top and put it in her bag, pulling on her coat and Timberlands and stepped out into the biting winter air. She hurried down the road, for once actually feeling the cold. However, all stiff bones were diminished when she saw Joe leaning against the tree on Charlotte's side of the bridge, cigarette between lips. Charlotte licked her lips, she could taste the smoke already.

"Joseph." Charlotte curtsied as she ducked under the branches of the tree.

"Charlotte." Joe nodded his head and stubbed out his cigarette, much to Charlotte's disappointment.

"Race me?" Joe offered and Charlotte rolled her eyes.

"GO!" She shouted, the word echoing over the Thames and she set off at a quick pace, leaving a cursing Joe behind. This is what she loved, this is what felt like normality. She could feel the wind whipping her cheeks, she could feel her throat turn dry as the air hit it with such force, she could feel her thighs burn and she could feel the adrenaline filter through her body like an electric shock. She collapsed on the ground as she reached Joe's side first, screaming thank you's to not only God, but to Jesus.

Joe clutched at his chest, before using what was left of his strength to hoist Charlotte off the ground. Joe was smug though, they both knew what was coming, although Charlotte begged for a moment to regain a little strength.

"How was your day?" Joe asked, chin moving on Charlotte's temple as she carried him.

"It was okay. My two best friend's are having a baby, but that's about it." Charlotte said and Joe nearly fell off her back.

"You mean, you actually have friends? Here I was, thinking we were oh-so-similar" Joe shrugged, slinging a lazy arm over Charlotte's shoulder as he regained his balance with two feet safely on the ground.

"Yeah, okay, fair enough, not even going to argue with you, whatever." Charlotte rolled her eyes and Joe just nudged into her side.

"How do you feel about it?" Joe asked when they were walking up the stairs of Joe's flat complex.

"It's cool it's just, if I call Kian a twat or something, Andrea's like 'that's the Father of my child you're talking too' and I'm like, yes, I could be all like 'that's my best friend who impregnated you', but I don't because Kian is a lot of different things to a lot of different people. And it works both ways, if I call Andrea a dick, Kian's like, 'no, no Andrea's not a dick, Andrea's amazing. Andrea is carrying my child. Andrea is strong. Andrea is brave.' The worst of all though, is when I call them both assholes, they're both like 'mind your language, the baby could hear' and it takes every fragment of my being to not be like, 'a speck of dust would have more chance of hearing that than the baby'." Charlotte admitted.

"So, it's not really cool at all then." Joe mocked as Charlotte made some distance between them, furrowing her brows and making sure Joe knew this was not a joking matter.

"It is, I just think I'll give them a bit of space until they're having a domestic about Andrea pissing on the bed sheets at four-thirty on a Monday morning."

PLEASE VOTE AND COMMENT I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH