The Web I Spin for You ~ Richpez & Rosenwalker

Chapter 40

It's one of those chapters where I have too much fun doing Hatchetfield cameos. Some NPMD people show up but the chapter is spoiler free!

Joe resisted the urge to slam his gym locker shut, knowing that he needed to practice some sort of self control. It was the day after Zoey's post had hit the internet, and he had just had an annoyingly infuriating Sunday afternoon lacrosse practice. He truly was at the point where he couldn't wait to be done with his sports, arguably because so many of his teammates simply annoyed the shit out of him.

He had know that this practice was likely going to give him some insight as to what his life at school was going to be like now. Most people had been avoiding eye contact with him, which overall suited him just fine. He had know that some abuse was going to come his way from Sam and Craig and all of their cronies, but he had definitely endured an unreasonable amount of it on the field. Those that were more his friend, such as Tom, had checked in with him at the beginning of practice. Tom had even texted him beforehand asking if he wanted him to lie and tell Hidgens that he was sick, but Joe knew that staying cooped up at home wasn't going to help his mental health. Besides, he had to go audition for his school play of choice for the second half of the semester.

That made his stomach turn over, but not from performance nerves. He rested his forehead against his locker, closing his eyes. Although he couldn't fully remember it, he knew that he had been nothing short of a major asshole to his boyfriend yesterday. He had purposefully woken up extra early in order to reach out to Brian before practice, but had found that words failed him when he tried to put an apology together. How was he supposed to explain that what Brian had said had triggered him, but instead of telling Brian like they had agreed upon, Joe had kept that information to himself until it blew up inside of him? It was exactly the opposite of what Brian had made him promise to do.

As per usual Brian had been sweet,  caring, considerate, and absolutely right about everything; meanwhile Joe had been a stubborn asshole in response.

'God, we truly are Quirrell and Voldemort. No wonder they cast us in those roles,' Joe thought to himself miserably. 'I am a stubborn asshole who desperately pretends to have it together when in reality I'm completely lost. And he sees right through it.' How the fuck was he supposed to go and audition for Brian's show when he could barely bring himself to look at him right now?

He opened his eyes enough to glance down and check his watch. There was only about a half hour until auditions started; but maybe he could call Brian and talk to him beforehand. He hated the idea of giving this apology over the phone, but he knew that he had to man up and do it at some point, sooner being better than later. He reached down into his pocket to grab his cell phone, opening it just as something smashed into the back of his head.

He fell down to his hands and knees, crying out in pain. "That's for what you did to Zoey," Sam told him, before stomping down on his back to knock him all the way to the ground.

"You like hitting innocent little girls Walker?" Craig asked, kneeling down and grabbing him by his hair.

'Oh yeah, that looked like acting all right. How fucking dare you humiliate me like this.'

'Zoey! None of that was real! I promise! Please, he's just a fr—'

Sam slapped him across the face, hard enough to already make Joe taste blood. His body began to tremble. It was just like when she attacked him, it was just like that night in the car where she had locked him in. "Yeah, there we go. How do you like a taste of your own medicine?" The sarcasm in Sam's voice was just slight enough to where it would allude people who didn't know any better, but Joe did. Sam knew the truth; he was hurting him just for fun, just like Zoey used to do.