Joe and Dianne: Life away from you

Secrets don't last forever

Narrator's POV:

It had been barely 24 hours since Dianne had let out her biggest secret. The cast where finally satisfied that everything was okay in the red heads mind, and Dianne found herself in an instantly better mood. A weight lifted off her shoulders and her mind at ease, she found herself enjoying the show she had worked so hard for properly for the first time in over a month.  Ever since their opening night in Liverpool - Dianne had found that not even her safety net of dancing could save her from the dark thoughts and fears that her brain was succumbed too.

But withing the past 24 hours, Dianne had fallen back in love with her safety net, laughed at everyone's stupid jokes on the late train back home, and settled back into both Joe's flat, and his life as if she had never left. But this time things were slightly different. And Joe had noticed it too.

From the moment that she walked in the flat - her hands filled with gifts and bags from tour - there was one aspect of her that Joe instantly noticed, a smile on her face causing the dimple in her cheek to deepen at the sight of him - a sight which since day one, had made Joe's heart melt that little bit more. But in the early hours of this morning as Dianne unpacked her things for the week before she was back on tour again, the continued sight of the indentation on Dianne's face had a strange effect on Joe. It confused him. After the way that they left things last week when Dianne left, and with the conversation he had with Caspar yesterday, Joe had just opened up to the idea of breaking it off with Dianne - or at least allowing him to be prepared for when she broke it off with him. But this.... This new found feeling of confusion and doubt was still overwhelmed by the feelings of happiness and relief within Joe's brain. Happiness at the fact that the doubt about himself, and whether he was good enough for Dianne were, in the simplest way, bull shit. Happiness at the fact that Dianne's distant and quiet moods the last time they met weren't his fault. And nothing but relief at the fact that their relationship was no longer seemingly on the rocks, as exemplified by the way in which Dianne's giggly, chatty, bubbly personality kept him laughing all night long, until she cuddled into the warmth of his body all night whilst they slept in the same bed together for the first time in almost 9 days.

And when the two of them woke up this morning, nothing had changed. Dianne was still nestled into Joe's chest, with his arms wrapped around her torso, his face inhaling the air surrounding her sweet coconut scented hair. Dianne's eyelids fluttered open as the intruding sunlight burst into Joe's room - and after the room was lit it didn't take long for the both of them to wake up - stretching their ceased up limbs and speaking to one another with croaky morning voices and messy hair. At least an hour moved on before the piercing voice of Dianne's alarm forced her to escape the comforting hold of her boyfriend and get out of bed and dressed - Joe sat up in bed as Dianne got changed, passing the odd comment and giving the odd opinion on what she was wearing until eventually, Dianne came bounding back over to Joe, sitting down on the side of his bed, looking into his eyes and stroking a hand through his hair - savouring the feeling of his soft locks passing in between each of her fingers. 

"Right, I'm off to have breakfast with Oti, then I'm getting these catered to" Dianne said with a smile on her face, whilst holding her hand out in front of Joe's eyes to showcase the cracked away nail polish on her finger tips. She pressed her lips briefly onto his, feeling a shiver go down her spine at the feeling of Joe's soft lips against hers, before she pulled away and gave him a smile which was instantly reciprocated with a smile from Joe.

Dianne walked away from him and headed out the door, but was stopped at the sound of Joe's voice. 

"Uh Dianne!" Joe yelled out.

"Yeah?" She questioned turning on her heal to look at Joe.

"I love you" Joe said simply. There was a brief pause before the dimple deepened on Dianne's cheek.

"I love you too" And with that she walked out the door.

As she did, the both of them let out a sigh of relief knowing for sure now, that everything was back to normal.

Joe's POV:

Dianne had been out for around an hour now, and within that time I had moved from sitting in bed doing nothing but looking through social media, too sitting on the sofa, editing and looking at social media. Admittedly how the majority of my mornings went. 

As the morning moved on and I finished up editing a vlog from a few days ago, I heard the infamous sound of my buzzer go off. Moving my laptop onto the sofa next to me I hauled myself off of it and walked over to the door, bending down to see the familiar face of Ben Jones smiling at the camera. Buzzing him into the apartment, I did my usual thing of waiting by the door until the hefty sound of the lift doors graced my ears - opening the doors to see Ben holding a box in one hand with a bag on his back.

"Hiya mate you okay?" I asked as I moved to one side to let him into the apartment.

"Hi Joe, I'm good thanks - you?" He politely asked back.

"Yeah not bad. Do you want a drink or anything?" I asked as I followed him into the living room, shutting the door behind me.

"No I can't stay but thank you anyway." He paused for a moment, readjusting the bag on his back and holding out the box too me. "I just popped by to Give Di her dancing heels back - Amy had to borrow them whist we were on tour last week." I took the box for him, nodding in a grateful response. "How is she anyway?" Ben asked me as I turned to place the box on the counter behind me.

"Dianne?" I questioned, soon wondering why knowing that Ben wasn't talking about anyone else. I looked back at him, his eyebrows were furrowed and his head was tilted telling me that he was concerned about her. This did two things to my brain, firstly it gave me reassurance that she was being cared for whilst away on tour, but secondly it proved that the words Pasquale had told me a few weeks ago where nothing but truthful. "Yeah she's good. Things were a bit touch and go for a while, but last night when she got back home, everything was good." I small smile drew to my face as I recalled the happiness between us from last night and this morning. As soon as I stopped talking Bens features relaxed, and the breath he was holding was let out audibly.

"Thank god for that, I was worried about her to be honest." As he paused I almost interrupted him, but something inside of me knew to stay quiet for a moment. "I mean after what she told us about this weekend, and with her mood over the past couple of weeks, I'm glad that you two worked things out. It's clear that she loves you and I'm glad that everything is okay again."

My confusion at Bens words were endless, and I knew I had to question something.

"Wait, what did she say?" I asked, my look almost piercing, instantly throwing Ben off, causing him to shuffle on his feet slightly.

"She just told us about her and Anthony spending the night together whilst we were up in Liverpool." 

There was a moment of silence. A moment which to Ben seemed like a harmless second in time. But to me it was a single moment where everything changed. My heart broke at the words, but at the same time refused to accept that they were true. My head stayed scrambled at the concoction of thoughts and phrases I held in my head. The feeling of confusion slowly being taken over by sorrow and pain. Then being swallowed up by anger. A single moment where I felt everything fall apart.

"Anyway I'm sure that you don't want to talk about it, and I should probably get going." My thoughts were ripped away from me for a moment as I took the time to focus on the present rather than what my future would hold.

"Yeah I'll see you soon Ben." And with that he left. Leaving behind him a trail of broken egg shells and lies and confusion falling slap bang into the middle of my life. And I had no idea how to clean it up.

So leaving the metaphorical pile of mess where it was left, I walked over to the sofa and sat. Sat there staring off into the distance waiting for that door to open and for her to walk in.

It was at least another hour, probably longer but eventually the door clicked open, my girlfriend, my dance partner, my friend,my liar walking through the door...