abyss ↣ joe sugg au

thirty five

[Trigger Warning: mentions of depression/suicide]

Today was the day of Joe's presentation. It was being held at the old theatre a ten minute walk away and Joe was a bundled of nerves. He'd been pacing around the apartment all day, had printed off way too many copies of each photo and stuck them every-fucking-where so he could stand and stare at them before walking over to another one and doing the exact same. A chorus of "what if they're not good enough" and "fuck I'm gonna fail" rang out through the walls for several hours before Charlotte found Joe leaning against the banister on his balcony, cigarette between his lips and eyes closed.

"Oi sleepy head, you have a show to do." Charlotte nudged Joe's back with her foot and all that could be heard was a dramatic sigh. In unison, Charlotte sat down cross-legged and Joe leaned back, putting his head in Charlotte's lap and releasing a puff of smoke up into her face.

"M'so nervous Char. Never done anything like this before." Joe wined, throwing the rest of the cigarette off into the distance and poking at Charlotte's face. 

"You'll be so great. Remember, all you need to do is stand at that podium and flick through all the photos and describe. Easy." Charlotte offered her best award-winning smile and Joe continued to poke at her cheeks. 

"Easy my ass, you don't have to do it." Joe pouted and Charlotte ducked down to kiss it because who wouldn't?

"Point taken, but I do have to sit among the rest of the audience which consists of human beings. Equally as painful." Charlotte reasoned and Joe considered it for a moment before they fell back into a comfortable silence. 

# 

It felt strange. This. Joe entering the theatre wearing his cleanest pair of black jeans and a button-down, with Charlotte gripping on to his arm wearing a skirt. It contrasted so painfully with the last four months of her life that she couldn't help but dig her nails a little too hard into Joe's arm as some sort of plea for normality. 

It also felt good. Good because Joe was raising his arms up when he saw certain people, embracing them in friendly hugs and introducing Charlotte as his girlfriend and his smile ran the risk of splitting his face in two and no-one was judging. Well if they were, they were making a good job of hiding it.

A notice rang out, informing everyone that there was two minutes until all the photographers had to go back stage and prepare themselves and everyone else had to take their seats. Not long after that, a man with mint green, yes mint green hair jumped upon Joe's back, causing him to stumble. 

"Tyler you prick, get off me." Joe nudged him off and Tyler's grin could of possibly replaced the stage lights Charlotte could see through the gap in the door behind him.

"Oops, we talked about this. Mature in front of your woman. Got it." Tyler saluted and winked at Charlotte, his words lathered in an American accent.

"Ugh. You're repulsive." Joe scoffed. "Tyler, this is my girlfriend Charlotte and Charlotte, this is my human back-pack, Tyler." 

Tyler extended a hand and took one step forward, shaking Charlotte's.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Tyler and this is my boyfriend Troye." He said, stepping back and revealing a man (boy? he looked too little to be anything but a boy) that Charlotte had failed to even acknowledge. 

"Hey." He offered a little wave. Charlotte smiled in return. 

"Right, we better get going Suggy! See you on the other side when I'm a qualified photographer." Tyler saluted once again and lifted Troye's bowler hat to press a kiss to his cheek.