Halfway to Love | A Joanne Fanfiction

Six

On a Thursday evening just under two weeks later, both Joe and Dianne were starting their separate commutes home.

Joe had had several productive meetings that day, so he was in a largely good mood. Before entering the underground, he quickly filmed the next segment to a vlog that he knew he wouldn't be uploading for a while, but after a phone call from his dad that had given him some good news, he assumed that now would be a good time to update it. Alongside his numerous projects in his professional life, the prospect of having his own campervan was something that was gradually taking up more and more of his time, and admittedly his money. As he finished the recording, he smiled to himself, taking in his surroundings before stuffing his camera into his pocket (despite the fact it was far too big to fit in it comfortably) and he began to make his way into the station.

Dianne was exhausted. She'd had a long day, a long month, which came off of the back of a long year. She'd been troubled with visa issues all day, which had resulted in a lot of meetings she wasn't convinced that she had completely understood and now that they were finally finished, she couldn't wait to just relax at home for a while. She took her first her first steps into the Oxford circus station just minutes after Joe had done.

Their paths didn't cross again until mere moments before the next southbound bakerloo train. Unfortunately, it was rush hour, and the tubes were packed. People shoved their way onto overcrowded carriages and in the midst of it all, Joe felt his heart sink as he heard the unmistakable thud of his camera hitting the platform floor. By this point, he knew that any attempt to try and leave the carriage and retrieve it would be futile, but he tried nonetheless. He sighed as more and more people grumbled past his "excuse me"s until he reached the edge of the carriage once more. "Wait!" he heard a distinctively Australian voice from the floor as a woman straight up dived onto the floor through the legs of countless people in suits. She somehow gracefully stopped, and picked up the camera to the surprise of the onlookers, who had been half expecting her to end up on the train line itself. Her red hair was the only thing that highlighted her feat, as it successfully covered her entire face.

She stretched out her arm from her position on the floor towards him, her hair still covering her identity. Time had seemed to slow down as Joe moved for the object, but it seemed to have sped up all too quickly and the doors closed just before he reached out to take it from her.

He watched, pressed up against the tube door as the girl, and the camera slipped further and further out of his reach. The other passengers looked at him sympathetically, them knowing all too well that it was unlikely he would see the camera again. Frustrated, he felt his good mood melt away. A hopeful man who had watched the ordeal advised him to take the next train back, and to check the platform, and then lost property, and Joe felt far too awkward to ignore his advice, so he did exactly that. 

Dianne's heart was only just slowing down from her ordeal. The others that had been waiting at the platform looked on at her bemused as she got her breath back, laughing at herself slightly. She had been so close to doing another good deed, but now she wasn't entirely sure what to do. Her plan, she decided, was to wait for the boy for ten minutes on the bench which was currently unoccupied. Those who had watched her rather spectacular dive gave her a wide berth as she made her way to sit.

Brushing herself down briskly, she was relieved to find that her clothing showed almost no evidence of what she had done. Her tights, despite being a bit dirtier than normal, were not ripped, so she sat for several moments, trying to process the previous events. Without a doubt, she knew that her roommate would be in hysterics at her latest adventure.

Eventually, everyone who had witnessed her dive had gotten on another train (to which she was immensely grateful for) but now she only received puzzled looks from those going about their commute as to why she was making no effort to move. However, when it got to almost ten minutes since the events, Dianne was unsure at how to proceed. It didn't look like that the boy would be coming back. She found herself disappointed, but mostly confused.