𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮 - 𝐣𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡

𝚏𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗

What people fail to tell you about having a career in the music industry is that you rarely ever get a day off.

Joelle was struggling. After she finished her album, she released her promotional single, 'Here' and released the album shortly after. This meant that she was constantly away from home, trying to promote her music to the rest of the world, or the UK in her case.

What Joelle struggled with the most though was not seeing Jack as often and the guilt that she felt because of it. Nothing had happened between them since their movie night and it would be fair to say that both of them were disappointed.

Joelle and Jack's parents were both back from their three month trip so the curly-haired girl's best friend had officially moved out. She felt sad about it. She enjoyed having him around and living with him wasn't so bad since he pulled his weight around the house.

"Mum, what's the Grealish address?" Joelle asked her mum who was now very tanned from her trip abroad.

"Are you sure Jack's there and not at his own house?" Marie asked cautiously, not wanting her daughter to get her hopes up since she knew that the footballer had early training the following day.

"Mum, it's the day before his birthday. Besides, he posted to his Instagram story." The small girl admitted sheepishly, causing Marie to shake her head before texting her daughter the address.

Joelle muttered a quick 'thanks' to her mother before leaving the house in a hurry. It was the day before Jack's birthday and two days before Joelle's. Joelle and Jack had always had a birthday tradition, starting from when she was just five years old.

Upon Joelle's arrival, she suddenly became nervous. She had never been to the new Grealish house before, only the house he stayed in when he was her next-door neighbour. It was too late now for her to back out. She had already knocked on the door and it was currently being unlocked.

"Joelle! What a lovely surprise!" Karen, Jack's mum, spoke with amazement. She hadn't expected the young girl to ever make it to their house since she had been avoiding it for the past six years.

"I came to see Jack, is that okay?" Joelle questioned nervously despite the fact that Karen was pretty much her second mum. To tell the truth, Karen couldn't be more delighted that Joelle had come to visit her son. She had been desperate for them to make amends since their fallout and now that they were friends again, she wanted them to take it to the next level.

"Of course. He's in the gym so it's the door right at the very end of the hall." Joelle smiled at the older woman and made her way down the hall and opened up the door that she was told to.

Inside was a full blown gym. There were treadmills, weights and various different machines that Joelle had never seen before. Jack was always the sporty one of the two and that's the way Joelle liked it.

The girl saw Jack sprinting on the treadmill at full speed with his headphones on at the far side of the room so she made her way towards him and tapped his shoulder, causing him to stumble a little but stop safely.

"Joelle, you can't do that to me." Jack panted, glad that he hadn't tumbled on the treadmill and been thrown off it like he had seen in YouTube videos.

"Sorry, I just didn't know how else to get your attention," the small girl apologised and watched as her best friend got off the treadmill and took a swig of water.

"You know how we had that tradition when we were younger? We gave each other a gift to open on the day before your birthday." Joelle tried to remind him and jack nodded his head, remembering clearly.

"I brought you something. I don't expect anything in return by the way since the tradition stopped for six years but I wanted to bring it back." The smile that was on Joelle's face was nervous and Jack could see it. He could read the girl like a book, he knew her like the back of his hand.

The Brummie boy didn't question it and opened the neatly wrapped gift to reveal a CD.

"It's a modern day mixtape and an old age Spotify playlist. It's a compilation of all the songs that 'defined' our childhood together." The curly-haired girl was hoping for a better reaction from the Aston Villa midfielder but he was expressionless.

"Tell me honestly, why are you here, Joelle? You've been in and out of my life for the past few months and I understand why but you wrote me a song, kissed me and let me tell you how I feel only for you to disappear. It hurts." jack opened himself up to the girl, placing the CD very carefully on the bench next to the treadmill. He turned all of his attention onto his best friend and watched as she fiddled with the hem of her oversized jumper. Jack recognised it as her nervous tic.

"Honestly, I don't know," she whispered and Jack shook his head at her.

"Joelle, I said honestly. You don't have to be scared with me," he reassured, using his finger to tip her head up to look at him.

"Because I love you, Jack and I don't want to lose you again." The smile that appeared on the taller boy's face was enough to let Joelle know that everything between them was alright once again.

"And I love you." He leaned down as he spoke, his lips meeting hers for the first time in a few months.

It was a feeling of pure bliss for Joelle. She still got the same butterflies as she did when she was sixteen.

"Seventeen year old me would have loved to have seen this." She giggled once they pulled away for air. His brown eyes were lost in her chocolate coloured ones.

Jack couldn't believe it. He had let her go when he was seventeen. He had regretted it every day since and now, here he was, six years later with the girl of his dreams. She was in his arms once again.

a/n: finally!! my favourite chapter yet! we have ten chapters left ❤️

also, this scene inspired the whole book. it was a dream (obviously the dream was a bit crazier) that i had about jack.

it's thunder and lightning here and i love it! does anyone else really like thunderstorms for some reason? i feel like a little kid! i get so excited whenever lightning strikes lol.

enjoy and stay safe!

lots of love, e x