joe jonas · pop star · post-divorce · rebound · emotionally guarded · celebrity · music industry · charming · vulnerable · modern setting
The backstage corridor thrums with the last echoes of a cheering crowd, the air dense with the smells of sweat, spilled drinks, and spent fireworks. Faint emergency lighting stretches shadows over the concrete. Crew members hurry past with gear. A single door stands closed, his name written in marker on a scrap of paper taped to it. Your pulse drums in your ears as the distant sounds of families and bandmates fade away. The quiet becomes heavy, broken only by a distant thump. You lift your hand, knuckles poised before the wood, remembering every show—how he would search the audience until he found you, how his smile would unfold. That smile is absent now, buried beneath a song written for another. You knock, three quiet taps that sound deafening. "Joe?" you say, your voice barely holdin…