The others

The sign

"I'm sorry what?" Dianne questioned in utter confusion as she followed Joe round the footsteps of his old school

"What do you mean?" Joe returned, a characteristically chirpy smile on his face and a gentle edge of laughter behind his voice as he spoke.

"You got pushed into a hedge?"

"Yeah! Did that not happen to you when you were a kid?"

"No!" The redhead retorted, the sign of an unshed tear of laughter filming over her irises as she convulsed into giggles.

"Oh yeah, you just threw snakes at each other instead didn't you."

"Throw snakes at each other?" She echoed in yet more confusion. "We did not do that you idiot." Dianne chuckled as she casually hit Joe on the arm in response to his utterly ridiculous idea. "You know there is more to Australia than snakes Joseph."

"I know there is, but who knows what weird stuff you got up to in school." He responded, shaking his body a little in mock of a sarcastic shudder that fell through his spine at the idea of Dianne's childhood. Something which prompted the Australian to softly hit him on the arm once again. A habit which Joe had learnt quickly over the last three weeks was her way of telling him to shut the hell up.

"Hey, I was a good kid in school!" She knocked back.

"I find that hard to believe." The brunette hit back, his voice oozing with sarcasm.

"I was though. Granted I wasn't all that great at it, and I did leave at 15, and I did spend most of my time daydreaming and looking out to the ocean, but I was still good all the same."

The pair of them continued to laugh, joke and chat as they made their way around Joe's old stomping ground. The brunette consistently re-telling the jovial stories of his youth, enlightening the Australian about the life of an awkward 13 year old living in Wiltshire.

It was nice, the two of them thought, just to be as they were. Just to be Joe - a young man from the West Country, with a knack for making people laugh, and a smile on his face - and Dianne - a happy-go-lucky, fun, crazy and ultimately bubbly young Woman from the depths of Western Australia. Not Joe and Dianne - the pair of strangers who had been brought together by chance, only to freak out and cheat on their other halves with one another, whilst competing in the most high profile television programme of the century. There were no cameras, no awkward - condescending conversations, and for the first time in what felt like a life time between the pair, no confusion. The lines which had been drawn, crossed and erased in the space of three weeks seeming not to take part in their day that Wednesday morning, just one week after they had found themselves waking up naked in one another's arms. It was something which had so simply slipped away from them that neither of them wanted to bring it up. And as Dianne listened to Joe ramble on about an art piece which was plastered before them, still on the wall of one the art rooms after Joe had drawn it twelve years before hand, she couldn't help but love the new found peace she had been able to divulge in all morning. However, there was still very much one conversation weighing heavily on her mind.

The last time that the conversation in question had been called upon, was back on Saturday night where, after spilling the words that Dianne wasn't convinced he hadn't even thought about, Joe had left the redhead with a rather heavy question. 'Do you regret it?'

It was a question which had been weighing on her mind all week. And one in which the redhead had spent the vast majority of her Sunday, sitting at home staring at walls as she tried to figure it out. At first she told herself that she didn't, and that after the hypnotic words which Joe had been able to throw at her moments before they kissed one another, and later on the bench before kissing the back of her hand, she too felt the very same way. She felt as if she wanted nothing more than to be transported back into that hotel room, to feel his body on hers, to be able to kiss him again, and to ultimately - one day - submit to that bubbly feeling he seemed to give her, and call him more than the boy she worked with. And she was ready to tell him that. She was just about ready to sit him down on a Monday morning and tell the words which she had rehearsed, and was certain that she felt to him. However, after a conversation with Ant late Sunday evening, a conversation which held so much laughter, so much love, and nothing but pure, unadulterated happiness, Dianne knew that she couldn't break the other mans heart. She knew that despite a part of her wanting to be back in that hotel room with Joe, there was an even bigger part of her that wanted to be back in Manchester with her boyfriend. Yet here she was, stuck in the middle - not knowing whether to head North or West - so instead chose to keep her head down and stay alone in London for at least a few more days till she could figure it out.