8th December 2018
~Joe POV~
After our last dress run, I let Dianne head back to her dressing room, clearly ready for a break from the chaos of the week. She'd been stressed out about our dances all week, had a hard night with Izzy and was stressed out over her Christmas flights. She could have done with being left alone, and as a smart man, I gave her space.
Instead of being antisocial, I dodged my dressing room after leaving wardrobe, heading to the star bar in hopes of finding a conversation with the girls. It was somewhat awkward, being the only guy left. I'd never been the most confident around women in general, but we'd been around each other for so long that I could sit in a room alone with them and manage to be interesting enough to avoid being ignored or kicked out.
They had become some of my closest friends over the past few months, it was going to be weird not seeing them over Christmas. The tour would be amazing though, adding Ranj and Graeme would only make the cast stronger.
When I entered, Stacey was on the sofa challenging Izzy to a game of travel-sized Kerplunk, Ashley and Faye in deep conversation, and Lauren pouring herself a coffee from the pot in the corner, heading back over to the lounge area.
"Ello Joe Sugg!" Stacey greeted me, gesturing to the space next to her for me to sit down.
"Hey Dooley, girls!" I replied, surprisingly jolly and calm for a semi-finalist. This was reciprocated with a greeting form each of the others, much more tired than Stacey, fully immersed in the energy of the six-year-old crouched down next to the coffee table at my feet, calculating her next move.
Observing this concentration as Izzy reached for an orange stick (ready to play), I decided to commentate the match.
"Miss Buswell has locked her eyes on to her stick, an orange one - risky move... getting closer, closer..." I started in a silly voice, a smile creeping onto her face.
"Stop it Joeee! I'm winning!" She groaned, reaching behind her back to push me away.
"Oh so that's how it is!" I exclaimed, reaching in front of me to tickle her sides as soon as she pulled the stick out, causing a number of marbles to unintentionally run down to the base of the game as Izzy squirmed in my arms, trying not to laugh.
"Oi! Now I'm losing Joe!" She said between giggles, by then collapsed over my shoulder as I ran around the room tickling her before returning next to Stacey on the loveseat.
"Would you like it if Stacey won next week! I bet not! I want her to now, so you'd know how it feels Joseph!" She continued, still salty about my sabotage, making the whole room laugh with her sass.
"Hey! You've just jinxed it! Watch Dooley go win now, she'll be so smug!"
"And I'll be the first one to say I told you so, Joseph. It's called Karma!" Izzy said under her breath, arms now folded in defeat.
This continued everyone's laughter, the room having lit up considerably with her adorable personality bubbling up significantly since she had first woken up earlier.
"Izzy, don't you want mummy to win though?" Faye questioned, clearly just wanting to embarrass me more.
"Not as much as I want to see Joe lose now, he needs to feel the painnnnn!" She emphasised, a cheeky smirk on her face as she turned to me.
