piece by piece~j.d

~20~

Marcus and Josh were the early rises of the four, they sat on the balcony enjoying the morning sunlight as they enjoyed each others company. One of the best things to come out of their footy career other then their premiership and the fact that they get to play the game that they love for a living, was that they had met one another, along with a lot of their other friends of course. The two however had formed a very close from the year that Josh got drafted and hadn't drifted at any point after that, Josh was like the brother that Marcus never had.

"When are you going to do it mate?" Marcus questioned after he took a sip from his morning coffee, the same one he had every morning to wake himself off. No one wanted to be near Marcus if he didn't have his morning coffee, a few people had learnt that the hard way.

"What're you on about?" Josh asked as he ran a hand through his tousled hair.

"Aubrey of course, you should ask her out as quickly as you can. She's way out of your league." Marcus pointed out.

"I know, I just don't really know the perfect way to do it."

"It doesn't have to be perfect, just good enough that it means something to the both of you. I believe in you Dunks."

"Thanks."

"Me too, why am I believing in you?" Aubrey asked as she walked through the front door in one of Josh's hoodies and her hair up in a messy bun from the night before.

"How much of that did you hear?" Josh asked, his cheeks heating up as he got flustered, a rather rare occasion for him.

"Just that we believe in for whatever reason it may be, you don't have to tell me."

"We were just talking about his journey through the AFL, no biggie." Marcus covered quickly for his best friend. "What're you doing up so early anyway?"

"I woke up because I got cold," Aubrey explained and pulled on the hoodies drawstrings nervously, she had woken up because part of her sensed that Josh wasn't laying with his arm around her anymore. "I can leave if you really don't want me here."

"Don't be dramatic Smith, I was just asking." Marcus downed the rest of his coffee and stretched once he stood up, looking out at the waves that were rolling into the shore just across the road. "I better go wake up Jaydo and maybe we can go to the beach again or something."

"Sounds good to me, I'll go get changed."

~~~

Aubrey lay on her stomach on her towel allowing the few rays of sun warm her up and hopefully add a little bit of colour to her skin. The three boys were swimming around in the water and messing around with each other, every now and again she heard an extra loud yell from one of the boys that got splashed by the others.

"Aubs!" Josh called and sat down beside the girl who rolled over and sat up so that they could have a normal conversation.

"What's up?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to have like a date or something tonight?" Josh questioned and despite the hesitance in his voice he looked pretty confident on the outside having thought of an idea that he thought was pretty good.

"For sure, what should I wear?"

"Something nice I guess, we can worry about that later." Josh paused and a smirk snuck onto his face. "For now.." he trailed of and picked up Aubrey, carrying her bridal style towards the water, she couldn't find it within herself to argue as she knew that he was stronger then her and struggling would just give him more satisfaction.

"I might have to rethink my decision on that invitation." Aubrey joked as she resurfaced from underneath the water, pushing her newly wet hair off of her face and faking a glare in the direction of Josh, ignoring the laughs of Marcus and Jayden that were coming from behind her.

"Hey! That's not fair." He complained and crossed his arms before making the quick decision to splash her. "Oops, my hands slipped."

The two then broke out into an all out war of splashing and dunking each other under the water with Marcus and Jayden joining in whenever they felt necessary. The four decided a few hours before sunset that it was time to get home and Aubrey was quickly told to go and get herself ready whilst Josh was setting up for what he hoped would be a night to be remembered by the both of them for a really long time.

~~~

"Where are you taking me?" Aubrey questioned dramatically as Jayden let her to the upstairs balcony. "There's no one here?"

"That's because it's not happening here," he pointed onto the roof where Aubrey was greeted with Josh in some nicer clothes and a blanket set up on the roof with a few snacks also sitting there. "Have fun you two." He winked and then in a flash he was gone.

"We're having a picnic on the roof?" Aubrey questioned as Josh leaned down to help her climb up onto the top of the house. "As the sun sets, who came up with this? It's so cute."

"That would be me." Dunks internally pat himself on the back knowing that he should be proud of his romantic idea. "I hope you like it."

"It's beautiful," Aubrey giggled as she took a seat beside the boy and looked out at the water and sighed in content. "What's on the agenda for tonight Mr Dunkley?"

"I was thinking we could do a bit of this." Josh said and placed his lips gently against hers, Aubrey felt herself smile through the kiss. "If that's okay with you."

"Well I'm definitely not saying no to the idea." Josh kissed her again before taking both of her hands in his and taking a deep breath. "Are you alright?"

"I also wanted to ask you a question." Josh admitted and Aubrey nodded looking a little bit worried, thinking that it may have been something bad.

"Fire away."

"I'm not the best at being romantic or cheesy so please excuse me. But the past few months of knowing you, us being together just feels right and I really don't want to lose you. I couldn't imagine not having you by my side anymore and as incredible as it is for us to just be friends I need it to be something more. I don't care that we weren't initially supposed to even go on a date, I don't care if some people don't want us together. I don't care about anything right now other then us. So Aubs, will you be my girlfriend?"

i know, i know. this is really bad but i'm tired and in the mood for writing so this is what you end up with.
hope you are all staying safe and healthy xx