The Sea Wasn't The Only Thing That Changed

I’m The Option You Shouldn’t Have Chosen- Chapter 5

“Joshua, can you please be normal, for just two minutes?!” I said, giving him a stern look as he made an extremely ugly face at the camera lens. 
“Just do the normal smug face thing, please?” I suggested, as he moved closer, playing with his hair making sure it sat in the same spot as always. 
“Can we do something fun, please?” he whined, dragging on the ‘e’ at the end of please, 
“Well, Franceschi, what is your idea of fun?” 
“FIFA AND BEER!” he screeched, looking like an over-excited child. 
“Fine, call the boys, but you’re telling Tom that we didn’t get any good shots”.
“Tom won’t give two shits, I’ll just let him beat me”, Josh said with a wink, walking down the road to my apartment, dragging me behind him by the arm.

“Alright, you’ll get the beer, yeah? See you at HQ”, Josh said, finishing up on the phone to Max. Matt already knew, due to him basically living at Grace and I’s apartment now. Although we had only net the boys just over two weeks ago, it seemed like we just bonded not like work colleagues but as a family. We had the two couples, Chris and G and Gracey and Matt. 
No one really knew where Josh and I stood after the ‘Hanna’ thing. I mean, I didn’t even know where we stood; we were friends with uncontrollable romantic moments. Then there were Max and Dan, ‘the lads’. They just floated around and got pissed at every single chance they had. We all clicked, we all complimented each other, and although Grace and I were newbies to the group, they welcomed us into the wolf pack.

‘Beer and FIFA’, was most certainly an understatement of the situation that became the night. It was a repeat of when we first met the boys, and it was all a bit of a cliché. There were people and shit everywhere, bottles and cups sprawled over the floor along with pizza crusts and toppings that no one wanted. By the time it was about 11, the house was filled with old friends, new friends and crew of the boys, and the party was only getting started. 
Josh was walking around holding friendly conversations talking about the ‘Take Off Your Colours’ days, which to be honest I had no idea what the hell they were. As I went into the kitchen to grab myself yet another beer, I decided against, knowing that tomorrow we were shooting a video for a single of the boys. Walking around looking at everyone, holding little conversations with the crew members, talking about how exciting the next leg of touring was going to be was my activity of the night, not really feeling up to doing very much. Doing the normal scan-the-vibe room spin, something caught my eye. Some bimbo, clinging to an obviously intoxicated Josh, was acting like a full-on slut. Josh only enjoyed it because he was too drunk to have any better judgement of the Barbie that was grinding her hips into his. When the girl turned around I knew her face all too well. Hanna.

Seeing her touch him like that made me feel sick to the stomach. That she could even think about doing that after cheating on him after being together for four years. I ran to the door, looking back with tears in my eyes as I opened it and ran out. I ran home as fast as I could, not letting my body stop to take in any air for the whole 20 minutes it took to get from HQ to the apartment. I fumbled with the keys, tears swelling up in my eyes, which didn’t seem to help my vision get any clearer. I finally placed the key in its rightful place on the lock, slamming the door on the way through. I ran immediately to my bedroom and slumped myself on the bed. I just laid there for a good 3 hours without moving, just sitting there crying.  I didn’t know why this bothered me so much, it’s not like Josh and I had made it clear where we stood, neither of us knew what was happening, so I shouldn’t be upset at all. I think it was more me being so heartbroken that some bitch could use him like that. He was the kindest guy I’d ever met, and to think that someone could play him like that made me so upset.

I woke up in the morning, looking like a puffy racoon from all the crying and falling asleep with my makeup still on. I left my sweet haven and went to the kitchen to make myself some tea, not waiting for the boiling liquid to cool down before I downed it in a single gulp. I burned my throat but I didn’t care. It warmed my insides, making me instantly more alive and ready to face a day that I really didn’t want to. I knew that the day meant nothing but taking photos of the boys whilst they were filming. This meant driving to some remote location and having to put up with Josh for the whole day.
Joy.
I called in sick because I couldn’t bear myself to face him. I know it was bad, avoiding him just because of something he did when he was drunk, but that doesn’t make it any better that he was with her.

Later that afternoon I got a message from Josh;

‘Where were you today? ‘

‘I was at home sick, Joshua’,

‘Can I come over?’

‘If you must’.

I heard a knock at the door and reluctantly got up from the couch, making a few coughing sounds to make it look like I actually was ill. 
“Cut the crap, I know you’re not sick,” he began. “I also know that you weren’t at the little gathering last night for very long, why was that?” he asked, leaning in, taking the pose of The Statue Of David of on the couch. 
“Bite me” I said, mimicking a cough. “I wasn’t up for a party. Sorry that I didn’t make your drunken soul aware of my early departure last night”, I responded in a smart ass tone, just to piss him off a little bit.
“I wasn’t that drunk, was I?” he questioned, messing up his hair like he had just begun to do as an automatic thing. “Well, you did happen to have your ex-girlfriend hanging off your side for the whole night, who, mind you, was acting extremely flirtatious”. I said, smiling, thinking about how stupid it was that I was crying over this point last night.

“Tea?” I asked from the other side of the breakfast bar. 
“I’m right thanks, love”, Josh replied looking at the television that I had plugged into my laptop, streaming the AFL match that was played last week. 
“You Australians have one weird sport”, he said with a confused look on his face, engrossed in the match taking place at AAMI Stadium in Adelaide.  The game was taking place between Collingwood Magpies and the Port Adelaide Power. Knowing that Port had no chance in the world of wining, I decided to teach the rules of AFL to a very, very confused Joshua. At three quarter time I was yelling insults at the television, much like Josh did with the soccer. 
“Fuck me, you really get into this” he said as I blushed, embarrassed at what I was doing without even thinking it was any different. 
“Yeah, us Australian are most commonly born and bred with the AFL on every Sunday, but you can’t speak! Have you seen you watching the soccer?”  
“I believe the term you’re looking for is ‘football’, not soccer” he said with a wink, sprawling himself across the couch.

Sitting on the couch with Josh made me think about how comfortable we were with each other. His head was resting on my thighs and it felt unbelievably right. When he was with Hanna it looked like he had to have some fake persona, acting like someone everyone but Hanna knew he wasn’t. I think that was their problem, knowing and dating each other forever.  Musically the band had changed so much from the second to their current album Sinners Never Sleep, not to mention the difference between the Take off Your Colours and Sinners Never Sleep. Knowing how much it pissed him off when people played with his hair, I messed it up with my fingers, giving him a small kiss on the forehead before he sat up and fixed his ‘do with his fingers himself.