When two paths cross

Nine

"Thanks for letting me stay Tracey." Dianne said as they were sat on the Suggs sofa in their living room.
"Of course Dianne. It's lovely having you round. Your like a breath of fresh air." Tracey said making Joe laugh.
"What! am I not Joseph!" Dianne asked laughing herself.
"Course you are Di. Any ways mum, Di can stay in my room again tonight right? She did at the sleepover." Joe asked, he knew his mum was sometimes wary about sharing rooms but thought it would be fine with Dianne, seeing as she was just a friend.
"As long as you are both good I don't see a problem with it. Your just friends as far as I know." Tracey said, both Joe and Dianne agreeing.
"For now!" Zoe shouted from the hall way as she walked past.
"Oh Zoe. Leave them alone. Yes they would be adorable together and make a perfect couple, but if it's not what they want we should respect them." Tracey said making everyone laugh.
"We wouldn't be cute!" Joe said.
"Definitely not!" Dianne laughed.
"Oh Zoe come here a second please." Tracey shouted out of the living room, Zoe came back in. "Could you lend Dianne some clothes, we didn't stop back at hers."
"Yeah come on Di!" Zoe said as she grabbed Dianne's hand.
"I'll be in my room D, come in after!"

"Finally got away from Zoe!" Joe laughed as Dianne walked into his room and collapsed on his bed.
"She kept trying to convince me to wear 'sexy' pyjamas. To impress you." Dianne sighed as she lay on his bed. "You don't have a top I could wear for bed do you? She would only give me a crop top and I'd rather have a proper top on." Dianne laughed, Joe walked over to his wardrobe and threw Dianne a AC/DC t-shirt he had.
"Go put it on. Use my en-suite." Joe said, Dianne got up and went and got changed, she came out in a pair of Zoe's shorts and Joes t-shirt.
"I promise I have shorts on. I didn't realise this would be so big." Dianne laughed, her shorts were pretty much covered by the top.
"It's drowning you. Now get in bed!" Joe laughed, Dianne walked over to the side of the bed and got in.

The pair talked for ages about Dianne's home in Australia and the move over to the Uk.
"You know, you've never talked much about your friends in Australia, do you still talk to them?" Joe asked, he saw Dianne's expression change suddenly as she sighed.
"Not really. I didn't really have many friends. In school I had 2, Megs and Lauren. We all danced. I was always so court up in dance that I didn't want any distractions so didn't really have many friends. And then when I got the tour, Lauren stopped talking to me and then so did Megs. After a while Megs and I started talking again and we talk occasionally now but not with Lauren. It's why I'm glad I only dance on Sundays at the moment here. I don't get too court up in it. And I prefer you guys. Obviously I love Megs but you guys are better friends than I had in Australia." Dianne said, Joe pulled her towards him and gave her a hug.
"Bless you Di, but now you have us. And I know if you were to go on tour again or something like that, we would all still be your friends." Joe told her.
"Yeah I know. Tomorrow can we go in your garden? I've not been in your garden yet!" Dianne said, changing the subject and getting all excited.
"I mean yeah sure, why?" Joe laughed.
"I wanna practice my acro. I can do it in your garden." Dianne said, since moving to the UK, she didn't have her weekly acro class and she was starting to miss it. At her new house, their garden didn't have any grass and she didn't feel save flipping on the paving in the garden.

"Joe, you've never told me about your dad." Dianne said after a while, she knew a lot about Joe but his dad was something that he never mentioned.
"Erm, he left a few years ago. Him and mum got divorced and then he left and we've not heard from him since." Joe said quietly.
"Oh I'm so sorry Joe, you don't deserve that. Are you okay?" Dianne asked.
"Yeah I'm okay. Now I am. It hit me hard when he first left, I blamed myself for about a year and a half, I would get upset, I went through a phase of getting into a bit of trouble at school, in year 7. So yeah, I wasn't good at the time, but I'm good now." Joe said, it was rare for him to open up and be so vulnerable in front of someone, but he felt as if he could open up to Dianne, and that she wouldn't judge this side of him.
"I'm so sorry Joe. You know it wasn't your fault. Not at all. If you ever need to talk about it though, I'm always here. I don't understand what it's like but I'll help." Dianne told him, she felt lucky that Joe had been so open with her, she could tell he hadn't told many people that.
"Thanks. Hey, wanna sleep?" Joe asked, Dianne nodded. "Goodnight Di, wake me if you need anything."

It was the middle of the night when Joe woke up, he could sense something was wrong. He woke up to Dianne have a tight grip to one of his arms and for her to be shaking and crying in her sleep, only quietly but he could tell.
"Dianne?" Joe said, he knew it would be best to wake her incase something bad happened. "Dianne, you need to wake up." Joe said, Dianne started to wake up and she looked up at Joe and he could see the fear in her eyes. He picked her up and sat her on his lap. "Hey, your okay, it's not real, it was just a dream." He said calmly.
"It was real, it's gonna happen." She said quietly after a few minutes.
"Are you okay? What happened?" Joe asked as he rubbed her back, she was still sat on his lap.
"It was Becca and Kay. It was from when they kicked me last week but then worse. It felt real Joe." She cried, Joe knew that the bullying was getting bad but didn't know it was getting so bad that she was starting to have nightmares about it.
"We won't let anything happen to you, I won't let anything happen. And if anything does, you've got us. We're all here for you." He told her as he hugged the redhead tightly.
"Thank you. Sorry for waking you up."
"Don't be silly, it's fine, I just wanted to make sure you were okay." Joe said, he felt Dianne nod, he planted a soft kiss onto her forehead without thinking about it. Dianne looked up at him, both of them staring at each others lips before they slowly got closer and Joe kissed her, Dianne kissing back.

"Wow." They both whispered after they pulled apart.
"I really like you Di, I really do." Joe said, really only admitting it to himself aswell now.
"I really like you Joe. I think I was telling myself I didn't because I didn't want to ruin our friendship but I do really like you." Dianne admitted, the last few weeks she had been silently battling with these feelings. "What do we do now then?"
"I think it's too early to become boyfriend and girlfriend just yet, I say we date eachother, go out, talk and then I'll drop the question." Joe said, hoping he was saying the right thing.
"Yeah I think that's good. And we don't tell anyone. Well maybe your mum because she needs to know if we're sharing a bed and we're actually together kind of thing. But everyone at school and dance, they don't need to know." Dianne suggested.
"Yeah I think the same. We'll talk more about it later, but we need to go back to sleep." Joe said, Dianne's facial expression changing drastically, from happy to almost frightened. "I'm here, yeah. I'll keep you safe, and remember it's just a dream." Joe said, knowing what she was worried about - having another nightmare.
"Thank you, can we cuddle?" Dianne asked, Joe didn't answer but instead pulled her towards him and they fell into a peaceful sleep.