Hellooo. Apologising again for the wait.. ooooopsy.

I wanted to say, this story will be ending shortly, just not entirely sure when yet! And is anyone else crying at the advert for fridays EE? omg:'( but yeah, enjoy :-)

Joey's POV

"What the hell Joey?" The door to my room swung open and a rather flustered Alice waltzed in.

"Al?" I asked, more than confused, this wasn't normal Alice behaviour.

"I want your side of events" She demanded, still confusing me. I raised an eyebrow and furrowed my forehead at her in confusion, silently asking her what she was on about. She rolled her eyes at me and placed her hands on her hips whilst sighing. "Lauren?" My eyes grew wider and I bowed my head. How did she know? It wasn't that I was bothered that she knew, because she was going to find out at some point, but Lauren could have given me the heads up.

"What has she said?" I asked, wanting to know how much she knew.

Alice huffed and rolled her eyes again, "She said you're in love," She emphasised the word love, making her point stronger, "And it just happened and you could stop it and blah blah blah. Come on Joey, tell me she's talking shit? I mean you're not in love with her! You never 'love'. "

I chuckled sarcastically. "She's not talking shit." I sighed and looked up at my sister, her expression unreadable. Her hands dropped from her hips as though I'd destroyed the confidence she had in her argument. "Have you not noticed how happy I've been? Well no, obviously not. Al…" I paused and walked towards her, "I love her too," I shrugged at my admittance.

"You? You really love her?" She asked clearly not buying my argument.

"Yes" I stated all 'matter of factly.'

"Don't be stupid Joey, since when did 'Joey Branning' fall in love? And your cousin? Joey, she's our cousin for god's sake!" Her voice raised as she ended and I stepped back, not really believing what I was hearing.

"You think I don't know that?" I asked, raising my eyebrow at her. "You don't think that crossed my mind you know, once or twice? Come on Al, you know me, as you said I don't fall in love, so why would I make this up?" I paused before my voice softened somewhat, "She's… different, okay so what she's my cousin, we only met 6 months ago, it's not like we grew up together… I've never seen her as my cousin."

"No one is going to accept this Joey. Uncle Max will go ballistic, after how good he's been to us! Dad would turn in his grave." She snapped back.

"We'll cross Max when we come to him whereas, Dad wouldn't have accepted anything I did. Maybe the thought of that encourages me a little more, knowing he'd hate the thought of this. He's not here Al, finally where he belongs." I argued, getting a little heated and regretting the last part as soon as it left my mouth.

Alice gasped and her eyes fell, absorbing what I'd just said about her precious father. Just because he was dead doesn't mean I want to start being nice about him. He made my life hell as a child and I didn't everything I could to protect Alice from that, not that she's aware.

"Joey" she whispered, taken aback by my outburst. I sighed and bowed my head.

"Sorry." I whispered back, genuinely meaning it. "But seriously Al, I have never been this happy. This holiday has changed me in so many ways. She's special, you know I've never fallen before. Yet here I am, fallen head first down the rabbit hole." I shrugged my shoulders.

"I just don't understand Joe," she sighed deeply, rubbing her forehead.

"Yeah well you're going to have to deal with it. I thought you of all people would be happy for me, Abi's happy for Lauren. Why are you different?" I huffed sarcastically, walking towards my jacket. "Now I'm going to go and find my girlfriend and console her after you shit all over our parade. When you've grown up and realised I'm not doing something for you for a change but rather for me, then come find me." I took my jacket and headed straight out my door, pausing for a second as it closed. I shook my head and ran my hand over my face in frustration before pulling my phone out of my pocket, dialling the number I did the most.

"Hey," she called from the other end of the call.

"Hey beautiful, where are you?" I asked hoping she was near rather than in some foreign bar after a brutal grilling from my sister.

"Lobby," she mumbled back.

"I'm coming okay?" I told her, smiling slightly. I'm pretty sure she nodded at the other end before realising I couldn't see her.

"Okay," I heard a smile in her timid voice as well.

"And babe?" I called before hanging up, a bigger smile forming on my face.

"Mhm?"

"I love you," I stated, exhaling a breath built up during the conversation with my sister. "Do not let her get to you okay?"

"I love you too" she whispered back, hearing a smile in her voice. Hearing the words I loved I hung up myself and proceeded to the lift to meet my beautiful girl.

"Hey princess," I whispered in her ear as I wound my arms around her waist from behind after sneaking up on her.

"You scared me," she told me, smiling sweetly. We locked eyes and she leaning round gently and pecked me on the lips sincerely.

"Sorry baby," I kissed her once more, "You okay? My sister wasn't too harsh was she?"

She shook her head at me and smiled up at me, "Not too harsh, nothing I couldn't handle," She winked at her last statement.

"That's my girl," I told her, turning her around in my arms and allowing myself to kiss her properly. As we pulled away she smiled at me, that special smile she shows when she's confident in herself, the one she only shows around me. "What you doing down here anyway?"

"Well I was coming to find you, but then I realised Alice would probably have come straight to you and I didn't want to go back to my room and look like a coward in front of Abi because she practically kicked me out and…"

"Why did Abi kick you out?" I asked, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.

"She told me I had to come and see you, after Alice spoke to us" she admitted, smiling at me.

"She came round good and proper then," I winked, knowing Lauren probably didn't need much persuading from Abi in order to come and see me.

"Mhm, do you think Alice will?" She wrapped her arms around my neck and began playing with the backs of my hair.

"Yeah," I told her, smiling down at her, leaning in and placing a kiss to her forehead. "If not, that's her problem," She nodded.

"But she's your sister Joey?" she told me, clearly insinuating that she thought her opinion mattered more than her.

"Yeah, and you're my girlfriend. I love you and I'm not leaving you." I told her before leaning down and planting my lips softly against hers. She pulled me closer with her hands surrounding my neck and smiled into the kiss. My tongue brushed her top lip as she granted entrance and allowed me to absorb a little more of her. Reluctantly we pulled away, realising we were in a public place.

"I don't want to come between you," she told me, her eyes avoiding mine.

"And I've told you, I'm not leaving you. You're special," I admitted, kissing her lips once more. She moved forward and leaned against my chest, nuzzling into me. My arms tightened around her and pulled her closer as I rested my head against hers.

"Love you Joe," she whispered as I felt her kiss my t-shirt clad stomach.

"Love you too baby girl," I told her back, kissing the top of her head.

"How about we go for lunch? Just us? Save us packing for now yeah?" I joked, taking her hand and entwining it with my own as we both pulled out of our embrace. She looked up at me and nodded, allowing me to walk her out of the hotel and down the path towards the town. We walked in silence for a few minutes, her being the one to break the silence.

"We'll be okay wont we?" she asked, stuttering in her speech. I stopped walking and looked at her.

"I've told you countless times Lo, yes. We'll be fine" I wound my one arm around her waist and pulled her closer to me, beginning to walk again.

"I just worry about home, sorry" she told me quietly.

"Don't be, and don't worry. I've told you, I'm not going anyway baby," I leaned over and planted my lips on her cheek sweetly, us both continuing walking before we had to get back to finish packing. I wanted nothing but to protect her, to shield her from all discomfort and unpleasantness. There were bound to be those that didn't agree or didn't understand but Alice? That shocked us both, but what didn't is that we both landed firmly on our feet, heading off for lunch as a couple. My sister can think what she wants, I'm in love, what can I say?

Hope you enjoyed, R&R? love yaaaaaaaa x