Sidemen One-Shots and Smut

41. JJ- Letters (requested)

The room was cloaked in a heavy silence, broken only by the soft hum of the air conditioning. Evening sunlight cast long shadows on the walls, mirroring the weight that had settled upon Willow's shoulders. She sat alone, her body hunched over a worn-out notebook, pen poised in hand, but mind trapped in a labyrinth of regrets.

The sound of footsteps echoed outside her door, but Willow paid no attention as she wrote the first sentence.

Dear JJ,

She was lost in a world of what-ifs and could-have-beens, her heart burdened with the weight of missed opportunities. Her mind replayed the moments she had let slip through her fingers, the chances she had allowed to fade into obscurity.

She had started on this path alone, desolate and hopeless as she left her University- a wide-eyed, helpless girl just looking for a place to work- someone to recruit her. Her degree should've helped her get a job, land a fine place in any respectable accountancy firm- but all it landed her was interviews and praying. Through stuttered sentences and shaking hands, Willow couldn't land anything past the interview, instead spending her days drinking chemically salty pot noodles alone in her flat, shrouded in a beaten grey blanket and misplaced hope.

Then she moved to a smaller, more hopeless flat just above a pub looking for workers. That was where she found her first job. Lacking hope or dreams, simply exaughsted- she started her first shift, face gaunt and eyes despondent as they followed a group of six come marching in, camera crew and all- dressed head to toe in the clunkiest outfits, gaining a dry exhale as I realised they were already wasted. They ordered blowjob martinis, and I got a start on making them. 

It was their last hole for the pub golf, the last bit of content they would have to make before they could shut down all their cameras and retire back to themselves. And just like that- they all did. All leaving one by one until there was only one left.

You know that before I ever became involved with you, I was first to meet Harry.

A little unhappy himself, by the looks of things. Could I just have a regular pint? Of course I had to give it. Even if I knew he clearly wasn't in the right mind to be drinking, all I could do was serve him and offer to listen. And I did listen, as all those heavy truths and guilts came spilling out from a stranger across the bar, drowning himself in pints and fears before the pub closed at 3am. 

Can you get home safely? He just pointed to a lime green bike outside. With a sigh, I'd had to pull him to his feet and up the backstairs, up to my dingy little flat. He got the sofa, that night. I got the bathtub. 

And that became a cycle, for about two months, as I watched the stranger across the bar slowly become an acquaintance across the bar. At least once a week, he'd come for drinks and end up on the sofa. About three weeks in, I had let myself sleep in and he'd realised I didn't have a bed and instead had to opt for the bathtub. The next week he bought a mattress and helped install it in the flat before he got wasted, that night. That helping hand was one of the kindest things I'd ever had done for me.

Then I unknowingly agreed to go on holiday with you and your friends.

I liked to think Harry and I had a stable relationship. He managed to pay off my rent by buying himself those drinks, and I managed to take away his grief by giving him a listening ear. He came in at the end of those two months, with a sober face with no intent of getting wasted. 

"We're going to LA next week and we're gonna be there for the next three weeks." Harry stated sombrely, sitting down on a bar stool without reaching to his pocket to withdraw a fiver. That's how I knew it was serious. 

"T-that's great." I smiled. His presence usually felt lightening. Even if I wasn't doing the best, spending time with someone with such little filter definitely helped get rid of the chip on my shoulder. It had helped me become warmer, more friendly with customers and I'd daresay made me a better person.