✓ | 𝐀𝐒 𝐈𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐒 ; joseph quinn

chapter eighteen

EIGHTEEN

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Joni was almost losing her mind in the bubble she was trapped in at her apartment. She hadn't been on her phone since she stepped foot in her apartment. She hadn't gone on social media to distract herself. And she hadn't even turned on the television because she thought that any source of media would make her sick. But even without the media, she was feeling nauseous anyways.

The whole avoidance-of-your-phone was starting to become a placebo to Joni's issues in this case. She had barely touched it in a while that when she did, it felt weird and different. A lump in her throat quickly formed as she was about to flip it right side up to face her before taking a deep breath.

All she found were a bunch of unread notifications from the messages app, Instagram, Twitter, emails, and a whole lot of missed calls from a variety of people. Since that last time she unlocked her phone, she didn't have time to go through all the missed calls and texts she had. There was only one thing on her mine at the time and that thing undeniably failed and backfired.

Joni mindlessly scrolled through all of them, mainly dismissing the ones that were in no use anymore. Most of which were from random people in Hollywood that surprisingly had her number.

She scrolled and dismissed all of them until she found one message that stood out to her. One because she remembered where she was in the first place.

finn: dude i'm in toronto lemme know when ur free

Surely it would be embarrassing on her end if she had just responded to it because the message was from four days ago, and she was almost certain Finn would not be in Toronto anymore at this point. But her subconscious mind had just tapped the message to text back.

joni: yeah i'm free. u still here by any chance?

She almost immediately threw her phone across her bed when she hit send. She didn't want to know what the next response was gonna be. But she needed to know.

Joni had always felt bad of her wasted times with Finn. They were almost so close that they would tell each other almost everything. They trusted each other on everything before Joni peaked in her career back in 2019. Since then, nothing has ever been the same. At least for Joni.

The girl walked over to her already made bed to retrieve her phone and pinched it back up with her thumb and index finger before trying not to spoil whatever unread notifications she had left.

Luckily for her, there was one new unread message.

finn: okay okay cool. can i come visit?

Joni giggled at the young boy's message because of how fast he was to respond. It was only a matter of time from when she responded that Finn was already on his phone so their conversation would be a lot quicker than usual.

JONI
yeah sure

FINN
bruh can u always give me
ur details

i have no fucking clue where
u are

JONI
okay geez

*sent a location*

FINN
...

i'm scared to step foot on
that street

that's a very big and rich area

JONI
there's barely anyone else here

FINN
touché

JONI
whatever

you're not actually gonna come rt?

FINN
do u think that badly of me

JONI
i think badly of everyone

especially you

kidding ily

FINN
oh shut up

i don't 😍🤩

so can i come or not

JONI
you know, you asking that
question multiple times just
makes me doubt u even more
by the second

FINN
wow okay fine🙄

i'll be there

Joni finally put down her phone after only minutes of texting an old friend. It wasn't like she actually doubted him of visiting her; she just doubted everything that happens to her. Almost all the time.

Now that the girl had potential plans for the day, she laid in bed for almost 95% of the time because she couldn't bring herself to do anything productive in the time being. Her room was an absolute mess, she couldn't even eat properly due to her nausea, and she couldn't bring herself to get herself ready for the day.

She mostly spent all her meantime with her phone in her hands, in bed, scrolling through the news about her and her break. She noticed that most of the headlines were about her. If not about anything depressing about the government, which there always was, then the headlines would be her.

Joni scrolled through her messages without answering any of them. Most of them were her own family members becoming worried for her but she didn't feel like answering them because she had already assured them with no contact at the beginning.

But Joni scrolled down to find the one message. She didn't want to think about that night because all it did was being her embarrassment.

joseph: hey, sorry. i was in the bathroom, did you call?

Joni sighed and stared at the message for a very long moment before finally putting her phone back on the nightstand and trying to go back to sleep and forget about everything. She didn't want to think about her breakdown in front of her own house until that message popped up again.

But her overthinking didn't take long until she was interrupted by the ringing at the front door.

It felt like an eternity that Jonalynn had been waiting for this exact moment to come. She immediately got out of bed to run down to the front foyer and open the door, only to be greeted by her old, but young, friend.

"Told you I'd be here." Finn said on the other side of the doorway.