you're my sunshine ↬ joe mazzello [3]

real life!

when joseph walked into the front door of ophelia's apartment earlier that day, the last thing he expected to find was her form laying on the floor, staring up at the ceiling with eyes puffy, presumably from crying. he made his way over, laying down beside her, asking, "what are we looking at?"

"for."

"for?"

"for. we're looking for where i went wrong."

he didn't question her, just laid back and listened to her recount of the day.

"before i came here, i had an amazing friend group. mind you, antony and i do have a rather rocky history that i don't like talking about, but i was so sure we had worked past that to strengthen the group for the better. but when i started speaking with you... i don't know, something deep and primal snapped in him. like all of those anger management workshops and therapy appointments left him entirely and there was old ant again, in all of his terrible glory. and as terrified as i was, i was done. and we all called him out."

she took a deep breath, steadying herself before looking over at joseph with diamond tears in her eyes. "he showed up at my front door this morning. he knew when bart was leaving to come up here and left long before him so that he would arrive first. so when i heard knocking on the door this morning, i presumed it was bart and that i had slept in. had i checked my phone, i would have read all of the warnings in my group chat and pretended like i wasn't home. but instead i had ran to the door and antony came bursting in, slamming it shut behind him and throwing me down in his path.

"i suppose his goal was to catch us together. he went back into every room and tore them apart, screaming 'where is he?' all the while. i kept begging for him to stop; to just leave, but he wouldn't listen. i'm positive he would've started hurting me if it weren't for emil and bart bursting through and pulling him away and out. they got him to leave, came back in, tried to talk to me but i just wanted to be alone. i sent them away in a bout of anger and now they won't respond to me." she closed her eyes, breathing out a long sigh. "why do i ruin everything." it was a statement rather than a question, and it damn near shattered joseph's heart.

"hey," he whispered. "hey." propping himself up, he reached over to wipe a tear from her cheek. "none of this is your fault, okay? not a single lick of it. you're relying on the idea of post hoc, ergo hoc to blame yourself instead of understanding that the actions of antony do not reflect any of your actions. you're okay; it's going to be okay."

rolling over, ophelia clung to joseph for dear life, hiding her face against her chest. they lay like that for a long while before they finally rose, burning incense in each room and making coffee as they delved into conversations of the universe.