Halfway to Love | A Joanne Fanfiction

Seven

Joe's journey back to Piccadilly station was significantly longer than he had expected. Having spent a few years living in the nation's capital, he was more than used to the unpredictable delays on the smallest of journeys but he was disappointed to find that it was more than fifteen minutes after he had last seen his camera by the time he had managed to turn around. His heart sank when he arrived back into the station and the red hair that he'd been hoping to see was nowhere to be found. He sighed, having known it was a long shot.

His evening only seemed to get worse when he discovered that the escalators had managed to break in the time that he had taken to come back. He sighed, internally cursing his lack of physical fitness as he joined the queue of people trudging up the stairs. As he reached the top, he could have sworn that he saw a red-headed figure dart away from what appeared to be lost property and his hopes lifted slightly.

Lost property was thankfully a quiet area of the station, so he managed to speak to the attendant relatively quickly. "No sorry Sir, we've not had a camera matching that description brought in today."

He sighed, his hopes dashed. "Have you seen a girl with bright red hair, by any chance then?" he asked, almost desperately.

The attendant looked at him quizzically, before recognition flashed in his eyes. "Yes, I have. She waited in line for a good ten minutes before changing her mind and leaving." He murmured.

Joe thanked him hurriedly, as questions swirled around his mind. Who was this girl? Why didn't she just give the camera in? Why was he more focused on the girl than the camera?"

He ran his left hand through his hair, teasing the strands in stress, before making his way to the pedestrian exit. He'd had enough of the underground for one day, so he hailed a taxi instead, trying to mask his audible gasp at the price of the twenty minute journey.

He greeted his roommate before deciding to film an Instagram story. Despite not personally feeling annoyed at the prospect of never seeing his camera again, he knew that his audience were already impatient to find out what he had been teasing. Frustratingly, the footage he'd shot that day was going to make up the majority of the first part to what was going to be a three part process of acquiring a campervan of his own. He sighed, having spent most of his taxi journey deliberating to come to the conclusion that refilming would be almost pointless.

"Hi everyone, I know that I've been teasing part one to my next exciting venture, but you're all going to have to be patient, as I lost my camera with all the footage of part one today. Stay tuned for the new year, as I'll be posting the entirety of the process then!" he said, exhaling audibly and posting it. He excited the app almost immediately, not being particularly keen on seeing the full force of the disappointed and impatient reactions he knew would be only inevitable.

Byron, meanwhile had been minding his own business on the sofa when his roommate had started filming. Perplexed, he waited patiently until his friend had finished (as he knew how many takes Instagram stories usually took with the absence of distraction) before asking more. "What happened man, you're usually so careful with your camera?"

"I know, I know. It fell out of my pocket at a platform and this girl with the brightest red hair picked it up and was about to give it back when the tube door shut. I went back to try and find her, but it turns out she waited in line to give it in at lost property before deciding against it and leaving." He explained, sounding drained but not annoyed.

"Oh interesting." He replied. "I wonder what changed her mind."

"Me too Byron, me too."

By the time that a week had passed, aside from the fact that he now had a shiny new vlogging camera sitting on his desk, and that he had been on a conscious look out for Australian girls with red hair, Joe's live had barely changed.