easy come, easy go ⇾ joe mazzello

i

      JOSEPH'S BREATH CAUGHT IN HIS THROAT as he scrolled through social media, a glimpse of her flashing on his discover page. clicking on the username, his jaw quite literally dropped as he scrolled through, admiring how she had grown. "you good, mate?" benjamin hardy asked, barely looking up from his own phone.

      joseph shoved his device towards his co star, having landed on a particularly stunning photograph of her. "i knew her!"

      benjamin looked at him skeptically, handing him his phone back as he asked, "you're telling me you knew poetess and part time model ollie kravchenko?"

      "she still uses my nickname?" the older man's eyes begin to tear up as his cheeks flooded crimson, the muscle in his chest racing in a way it hadn't for seemingly eons.

      the younger counterpart raised his brow, entirely confused at the actions of his good friend. "what are you going on about, joe?"

      "summer of two thousand one, i'm at the beach, and i meet this startlingly gorgeous young woman, olena calliope kravchenko. and after we parted ways to go to colleges on separate coasts, we wrote and called each other constantly. we went on little beach excursions for a couple summers. life was good and we were in love."

      "okay, i'll bite: what happened next?"

      "we had a falling out," joseph shrugged. "though we loved each other, we were more in love with our dreams and it tore us apart. i wanted her to give everything up for me and she wanted me to give everything up for her. don't get me wrong, i don't regret a single thing about choosing my career, but i do wish we had found a way to work it out. she was my everything, man."

      it was the tears falling down joseph's cheeks rapidly that made benjamin realise that this wasn't a joke. pulling him into a hug, benjamin consoled him, saying, "hey, it's okay. why don't you message her?"

      this was the scene that gwilym lee had walked into, stopping in his tracks. it was only the third time that gwilym had seen joseph cry so passionately, causing worry to ignite in his veins as he knelt beside the two men. "hey, woah, what's going on here?"

      "joe discovered an old flame on instagram that things had gone sour with," the blond man explained, pulling out of the embrace.

      turning his attention to the redhead, gwilym firmly commanded, "message her."

      "that's what i said!"

      joseph shook his head, wiping at his face. "i can't do that, i just can't."

      "mate, message her or we'll do it for you."

      with a glare, he replied, "fine."

•••

joe_mazzello
hey, remember me?

olliekrav
joseph, my darling, how 
could i forget? how are 
you? i saw you in that 
movie about queen and 
meant to message you 
but i suppose i just never 
got around to it

joe_mazzello
i'm doing pretty great,
all things considered.
how are you?

olliekrav
i'm decent, i suppose

this is stupid, this whole 
direct message thing

just call me, honey