The days after Mary left for New York, everything went back to normal.
Joe has been away from home often, because he wanted to make up for the shifts he missed thanks to the sudden visit of his sister.
Which left Ben home alone. The time the blond is alone, he mostly spends with relaxing, doing some workouts and cleaning the house a bit.
Most evenings, the two watch some tv together before going to bed.

This morning, Ben wakes up from the front door closing. Quite confused, he looks to Joe's side of the bed. The only thing he finds is a small note.

Morning sunshine♡
I'm already at work. Brian asked me if I could take the early shift today. But that means that I'll be back before lunchtime, so I'll bring us some lunch on my way home.
I love you xxx

With a small smile, Ben puts the note on his nightstand. He pulls the covers up to his chin and closes his eyes again, enjoying the warmth of his bed.
Although he really wishes that Joe would be here so they could cuddle.
To make sure he doesn't sleep all day, Ben sets an alarm in case he falls asleep again. But after 15 minutes of staring at the ceiling, he gets up anyway and walks towards the kitchen.
After grabbing some toast for himself, he pours himself some orange juice. With his plate and his glass, he plops down onto the couch. When Ben's phone makes a noise, he sees he received a text from Rami.

(9:33 Am) Rami: Hey. Do you know where Joe is? I need to talk to him about something.

Ben frowns as he reads the message. The fact that Rami sent him a message without any emojis or exclamation marks shows that it must be something serious. He takes a bite from his toast before typing a message back.

(9:34 Am) Ben: Yeah, he's at work. Shall tell him to come by your place when he's home?

(9:34 Am) Rami: He isn't at work

//////

When Joe opens the front door of their home that afternoon, the house is awfully quiet. The living room, the kitchen and the bedroom are all abandoned.
Ben is nowhere to be found.
After calling the boy's name a few times, Joe's eye falls on the bathroom door.
It's locked, which it normally never is. Joe lays his ear on the wooden door, and listens if he can hear Ben inside. When all that is heard is silence, he wants to walk away.
But then he hears a broken sob coming from the other side of the door. Joe knocks on the door once again. "Benny? Are you okay?" He asks, worried that the boy might be having another panic attack.
Some louder sobs are heard, but Ben doesn't answer Joe's question.
"Baby please let me in? I wanna help you." Joe desperately tries to push the door handle down, hoping that the door will magically open anyway. Although he knows it won't work. "Please Benny." He pleads.
"Get away from me, p-please. Just l-leave me alone." Ben chokes out. The boy is sitting on the edge of the bathtub, looking at himself in the mirror. Tears are flowing down his cheeks, and they just won't stop falling. He is sad, but deep down he also feels angry.
When Joe won't stop knocking on the door and keeps begging him to let him in, the anger only grows. "LEAVE ME FUCKING ALONE!" He yells. His voice cracks halfway through the yelling because his throat is hurting so badly from all the sobbing.
Joe can feel his heart ache when he hears the raised voice from his boyfriend. Deep down, he wants to give it one more try. Trying to get in there, so he can comfort the boy. But he doesn't. "Okay then. I'll leave you alone to cool down. But at least tell me what I did wrong?" He asks with tears in his eyes.
For a minute, it stays silent.
"You know very well what you did! Will you please fuck off now?" Ben snarls.
Joe can hear the bitterness in his voice. And although he really tries to stay calm, he can't help but feel the anger boil inside of him. Obviously he did something to piss Ben off, but if the boy won't tell him what he did wrong, he can't apologize for it either.
When Ben notices that Joe is still there, he just gets more furious. "Is it really that hard to follow ONE FUCKING instruction?! I SAID FUCK OFF! Bloody idiot."
That's the point when Joe can't stay calm anymore. "You know what? SCREW YOU! I love you, but I'm not letting you yell at me for no fucking reason!" The ginger gives a hard kick on the door before walking away.

As a single tear finds his way down, Joe quickly grabs some stuff before storming out of the house.
The front door closes with a loud bang.
The boy has no idea where to go, actually. If he goes to Gwil, he probably gets a lecture about how sensitive Ben can be because of his past. How it is probably his own fault that Ben is mad at him. And he really doesn't need to hear that.
Rami and Lucy aren't an option either. Seeing them being one happy couple won't make things better.
And so the ginger just keeps walking. He bites his lip to keep the tears away. The boy is so deeply absorbed in his thoughts that he doesn't even realize where he's going.
It isn't until he looks up that he sees he's in a street full of clubs and bars. Is he really going to drink at 2 pm? Joe sighs and walks towards one of the bars.
Things can't get much worse anyway.

Once inside the bar, Joe is quite surprised to see how busy the place already is. Apparently he isn't the only one with a fucked up afternoon.
He sits down on one of the bar stools at the counter. The bartender comes to him to ask what he wants to drink, but for now Joe doesn't want anything yet. Even though his body is screaming to get wasted to forget about the fight, he decides against it.
After a while of just sitting there, a boy sits down next to Joe. The ginger shoots him a small but friendly smile, and receives a small one back. Judging by the boy's face his day hasn't been great either.
"Got the blues, mate?" The boy asks Joe after he got himself a drink.
The ginger sighs and nods. "Yeah. Just got into a fight with my... roommate. So I'm just... fleeing the house, I guess. And you?" Joe says with a quite pathetic chuckle.
The boy takes a sip from whatever alcohol he has ordered. "Just some trouble with my girlfriend. Luckily there's alcohol to soften the pain, isn't it?" He says with a sigh.
Joe smiles and nods.
The boy shoots him a wink. "Let me get you some alcohol too. We deserve it, right? My treat."
And before Joe can argue with that, the boy has already gestured to the bartender for another drink.
Joe smiles gratefully at the boy. As the bartender gets their drinks, Joe quickly checks his phone to see if he might have a message from Ben. He can't help but hope that he does.
But when he wants to check, he sees that he took Ben's phone instead of his. He groans and shoves the phone back in his pocket.
The boy next to him hands him a glass with what looks like scotch.
Joe shoots him another grateful smile before raising his glass. "Cheers. To this screwed up day." He says with a smirk.
The boy rolls his eyes with a smile and clinks his glass against Joe's. "Cheers."

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Sorry for not uploading sooner but school has just been taking up my time (and my sleep)

Hope you enjoyed this chapter despite the drama🙃

Much love from me♡