It Wasnt A Goodbye

Chapter 51

(God help me I'm back again 🙏)

*Three Month Time Skip*

Dianne's POV:

So, a lot has happened in these last few months. For starters, AJ's arm was fully able to heal, and he slowly made his way back into our dance classes when he felt up for it. Him and Jack also moved into a different neighbourhood, slightly further away from the rest of us, however, a place that was safer and more accepting of them, which is what meant the most to all of us. Secondly, I had properly started up my channel, gaining quite a few subscribers in such a small amount of time, however I think that was mainly down to Joe's help behind the scenes. All of us were as close as ever before, and this seemed to be going great, almost too perfect but we didn't care. As long as things were okay, that was good enough for us.

We were on our way to Lauren and Josh's apartment, Josh wanting to film a video with the rest of the boys, however all of us were invited to hang out afterwards.
"You ready to go?" Joe asked, walking up behind me, car keys in hand. I nodded, a smile on my face as I tied off the braid I'd just done.
"Yeah, I'm ready." I said, standing up from my dressing table, heading downstairs. We skipped on our shoes before heading down to the car park, getting in and driving to our friends apartment.

Like usual, we were the first to show up, Lauren pulling me into a hug as a welcome, Josh patting Joe on the back. We headed through to the living room, Josh going into the kitchen to make us a cup of tea.
"So, how's training been?" I asked, looking over in Lauren's direction.
"It's been really good actually, I feel like I've improved a lot over the past few months." She beamed, Josh carrying the drinks over, carefully placing the mugs down on the coffee table.
"And what about the channel?" Lauren asked. I nodded, smiling back at her.
"Yeah it's been going well, I feel like I have a lot to learn still but I'll get there one day." I laughed slightly, picking up my tea off the coffee table. We all perked up slightly, hearing a knock at the door. Josh got up, heading over to open it, soon waking back into the living room, Jack, AJ, Conor and Chloe walking in behind him, all saying hello practically in sync before sitting down.
"You not going to make us tea then Josh?" Jack smiled sweetly, noticing the mugs that we all had.
"I would've if you had gotten here earlier, I'll make you all drinks in a minute." Josh laughed, sitting back down next to Lauren, putting his free arm round her shoulder.

Slowly, everyone started to show up one after the other, the boys going upstairs to the bedroom to film a few videos for some of their channels, leaving the rest of us downstairs.
"So AJ, how is it being back at dance?" Chloe asked, walking back from the kitchen with a glass of water.
"I'm quite happy to be back, I missed being off but Jack didn't want me accidentally making it worse, quite nice being looked after he did practically everything for me." AJ laughed, the rest of us laughing along with him.
"Well it's nice to finally have you back." I smiled. "As lovely as Giovanni is, it's nice to have my actual dance partner back." I joked, AJ smiling.
"It's good to be back, and I'm sure he's a great dance partner." AJ laughed.

We continued to talk and properly catch up with each other, the boys soon coming back downstairs, having finished with filming. Joe smiled, sitting down next to me, kissing my cheek, swinging an arm around my shoulders, holding me close.
"How did filming go?" I asked, looking up at at him, resting my head against his shoulder.
"It was good, except Jack forgot to turn on the camera and we didn't realise for 20 minutes." Joe laughed, Jack going slightly red.
"It wasn't my fault I thought it was already on, and besides, it could've been left longer." Jack huffed, slouching back against the sofa, AJ smiling up at him.
"Yeah but we wasted another 10 minutes laughing about it." Caspar smiled, sitting down with a cup of coffee, Nadiya cuddling up beside him.
"Well on that note, what film should we watch?" Jack asked, changing the subject.

We all settled on watching The Impossible, Josh turning off the lights and handing around some blankets for everyone before sitting back down on the sofa next to Lauren. I cuddled up to Joe a little more, Joe wrapping the blanket around the both of us, pulling me into a loose hug. I kept my eyes on the screen, tearing up a little 30 minutes into the film, Joe gently rubbing my arm to comfort me.
"Why did we have to watch a sad film?" I asked, frowning a little.
"Because it's a good film." Lauren said, glancing over at me before looking back at the screen. I leant against Joe a little more, all of us watching the rest of the film in complete, yet comfortable, silence.

*A Few Hours Later*

I opened my eyes, glancing around, realising the room was as half empty as it was when I had fallen asleep. I had fallen asleep? I sat up, hearing some voices in the kitchen. I slowly pulled myself up, wrapping the blanket round myself as I headed into the kitchen.
"Morning Sleeping Beauty." Joe smiled, looking over in my direction.
"What time is it?" I asked, my voice a little groggy.
"It's 10:30pm." Jack said, his arm around AJ.
"Josh and Lauren said we could crash here since we had fallen asleep during the film, the others decided to go home." AJ smiled, yawning a little. "We were just waiting for you to wake up so we could set up the living room properly before we headed to bed."
I nodded slightly, walking over to Joe, leaning against him.
"Well I guess we should set up this bed before you fall asleep against me." Joe laughed. Jack laughed with him, walking into the living room, moving the coffee table, Josh going and getting some spare pillows and duvets for us to use. I walked back over to the sofa with AJ, the two of us laying down.
"Don't fall asleep yet." Joe smiled, putting a pillow under my head, draping the duvet over me. Jack did the same to AJ, laying down next to his husband. I smiled, Joe turning off the lights before walking back over, cuddling up with me under the duvet.
"Night everyone." Lauren smiled, waving to us before heading upstairs with Josh.
"Goodnight." I said softly, closing my eyes and slowly drifting off to sleep

A/N

So happy new year I guess 😂
Sorry it took me a year to update this, probably should've done that sooner but haven't had the motivation to do so, which I apologise for.

Hope you enjoy this chapter, that's if you're still reading, and I'll probably see you again in 2022 when I update it :)