One

Chapter Seven

"I'm so bored," Joe moaned as he dropped into his office chair. Byron, who had been strumming away on his guitar and coming up with new music for an hour or so, looked up from the strings and smiled at his roommate.
"We could do something?" Byron offered, "I will leave my guitar alone for a few hours if you really want me to."
"What are you doing anyways?" Joe asked as he spun round on his chair.
"Making new music. Well, coming up with chord sequences for some songs," he explained.
"Ah, Byron," Joe sighed, a South African twang to his British accent. "If only I were as creative as you."
The South African laughed and put his guitar down, "Come on. Let's go do stuff."

Half an hour later, Joe found himself in a gym attached to a medicine ball, counting his sit-ups.
"Byron," he spluttered in between sit-up, "I can't say I thought you had this in mind."
Byron stopped dead-lifting and smiled at his sweaty friend. "It's good for you. You may as well keep up your fitness now that you've got it."
"I had it before, cheeky sod!" Joe gasped from the floor. Raising an eyebrow, Byron laughed and held up his hands in surrender before carrying on lifting. Joe went back to his sit-ups, and counted ten more.
"That's 200," he gasped and rolled off the ball onto the mat underneath him. Breathing heavily, he ran his hand over his sore abdomen and wiped his sweaty brow with the other.
"I'm done, do you want to head off?" Byron asked from behind Joe as he slid the weights off the pole and put them back in their places.
"Yes," Joe nodded. "You might have to carry me home Byron," he joked as he sat up, wincing slightly with the ache in his muscles. Byron extended an arm out to help Joe up, which he took gratefully. "Food time?"
Byron nodded. "Definitely."

Dianne rushed around her apartment, cramming the last few bits into her suitcase. She was leaving the next morning and despite having started to pack a few days ago, she had never quite finished the job.
"Toothbrush? No, you'll need that tonight and tomorrow. Shampoo and condition-" she felt her hair, "I'll pack that." She picked the bottles up from the side of the bath and put them into a wash bag. "Already got body wash, and lotions," she muttered, going through her mental list of things and checking them off. "Don't need period stuff, just need to remember my tablets, don't need to take any towels..." Dianne walked through her bedroom and left the wash bag on top of her suitcase; she'd close both tomorrow morning. "I think we're all good."
For quite a lot of the time Strictly had been on, Amy had stayed in Dianne's apartment, on a sofa bed. It had been easier for her as she didn't live in London, but now Strictly had finished, Dianne was back to living on her own and she suddenly found herself in need to talk to her best friend. She turned the tv on as though hoping the noise would drown out the silence in the apartment; Dianne had no one to chat endlessly to and so her apartment was often far too quiet for her liking. Sitting down on the sofa, Dianne scrolled through her Instagram, liking some fan edits and comments underneath her latest posts. It was a picture of her and Joe in the final, doing their show dance.
"That's a dance to remember," she thought to herself as she stared at the screen with a saddened smile on her face. Her muscles would never forget it, that much was certain. She felt a small tear drop from the corner of her eye so she came off the page quickly and messaged her mum instead.

•••

"Mum! Dad!" Dianne raced towards her parents, leaving her suitcase as she threw her arms around both of them at the same time. Slightly taken aback by her daughter flinging herself at them, Rina stepped back a little before hugging Dianne back, squeezing tightly as she kissed her head. On the other side, Mark did the same thing, pressing his lips against the red hair of his little girl.
"I missed you both so much," Dianne said with a wide smile as she stepped back, reaching behind her to grab her case.
"We missed you too," Mark said, his smile just as big.
"How you feeling?" Rina asked as they began to head for the exit of the airport.
"I'm worn out. This dancing lark doesn't get any easier." She laughed slightly as Mark shook his head. "To be fair, I wasn't exactly planning on dancing everyday for 12 plus hours for 13 weeks straight."
Rina took a sharp intake of breath. "When you said you were training long hours, you really meant it. Oh my goodness, I didn't realise you meant that long!"
Dianne laughed. "Yes, Mum. It's full-on. If I struggled, I can't imagine how Joe must be feeling now. I bet he's shattered."
"He was quite the dancer at the end," Mark said, watching Dianne's reaction with a smile.
"He was. Bless him."
"Have you seen him since?" Rina asked, unlocking the car as they reached it.
Dianne nodded, before hauling her bag into the boot. "I went over to his place on Monday to film the last reaction video." Dianne hoped she wasn't blushing as she felt the familiar tingle of butterflies, the ones she had got just before she had left Joe's.
"Yessss," Rina said. She tapped her husband on the arm. "We've been waiting for that, haven't we?"
"Oh yes," Mark nodded. "Favourite time of the night."
Dianne shook her head and laughed. "You best have been appreciating the shoutouts I've been giving you then."

"Dotty!" Andrew called as the car pulled up in the driveway. His sister stepped out of the back and they ran for each other immediately, flinging their arms around each other. Picking her up, Andrew spun around before setting Dianne back down and beaming at her. "It's so good to see you!"
"I should hope so," she grinned, "I've been travelling for roughly a day, I would be upset if you didn't think so."
Andrew rolled his eyes. "You're so weird, you know that right?"
"Of course I do. Brendan!" Dianne ran past Andrew into the arms of her other brother.
"Hiya," he said, his accent strong. "How ya been?"
"Good, so good. You?"
"Amazing. Hey!" He turned around, shouting into the house. "Mia, Billy. Auntie Dianne's here!" From inside the hallway, Dianne heard excitable squeals and the sound of little footsteps running to the door.
"Auntie Dianne!" The two children cheered as they ran to meet her.
"Hi guys!" Dianne bent down slightly and hugged them both, kissing their cheeks. A voice came from behind them, Rina's voice.
"Let's get inside. It's getting too hot and I imagine Dot is in need of a coffee."
Dianne turned and grinned. "Ah, coffee really is the best invention."

•••

Joe sighed and turned over in bed, dropping his phone onto the sheets. He'd been going through Instagram stories, trying to wind down when he came across Dianne's. Seeing her so happy in Australia had brought a rush of emotions on, yet he wasn't sure why. He missed her, that much was sure, but Joe couldn't help and wonder what else he felt. There was another emotion hiding but Joe couldn't put his finger on it. Not just yet.

He was still awake hours later. Joe checked the time on his phone, 2am, 25th December.
"Why am I still awake?" He grumbled slightly, his voice breathy to make sure he didn't wake anyone. His mind was still running in circles, trying to figure out his own emotions. A lot had happened in the last few months and, even though the show had been finished for roughly two weeks, Joe was still coming to terms with the madness that had ensued. From the job offers, to the new array of fans, Strictly had been a risk worth taking. Joe was both mentally and physically drained so he readjusted his pillow into a comfier position and finally fell asleep.

"Dot, can you come and help me please?" Rina called from the kitchen where she was starting to prepare the Christmas Dinner. Dianne slipped her phone into her back pocket, finished the last of her drink and walked into the kitchen.
"What do you want me to do?" She asked.
Rina pointed to a bowl of veg on the side, waiting to be peeled and cut up. "Could you get a start on the veg please?" Dianne took the peeler from inside one of the draws and set about peeling whilst Rina put the meat into the oven.
"How are you, sweet? I feel like we haven't had a chance to properly talk yet, with Christmas and all."
Dianne looked up and smiled. "I'm alright, not sure my body's quite recovered from the last thirteen weeks-"
"I didn't mean your body," Rina interrupted, "I meant you and that weird brain of yours."
Dianne chuckled. "Oh right. Me and that 'weird brain of mine' are okay."
Rina nodded. "Good, how's that boyfriend of yours?"
Dianne stopped peeling, and hissed slightly. Shit, shit, shit. She had always been so close to her parents but Dianne hadn't wanted her mum to worry so she'd never told her.
Rina noticed Dianne's sudden change in behaviour and stopped what she was doing. "I've hit a nerve, haven't I?"
Dianne nodded, almost timidly. "Yeh."
"What happened?" Rina asked, suddenly much more serious than she had been before.
"Uh, it's um a long story?" Dianne stuttered. She could feel herself going red so kept her head down, concentrating on the task at hand.
"Well," Rina said, putting the tea towel down on the table with more force than she had meant to. "Oops. Anyway, this dinner isn't going to be ready for a good couple of hours so hit me with this long story."
Dianne shrugged. "It's nothing, don't worry about it."
"I'm your mother," said Rina, a more stern tone to her voice now. "I'm always going to worry. So, tell me. What's happened?"