The Big Five

31. Confession

Joey clenched his fists tightly, his knuckles white from how hard he was holding them. I unconsciously placed my hand on his and he relaxed.

"Trust me when I say this: I felt your hurt. It killed me to see you like that. But, when you broke up with him, no matter how devastated you were, a small part of me felt glad. I tried to suppress it, telling myself that you were hurt bad, but I just couldn't help but feel satisfied when you finally broke up with him."

I winced slightly, not at all expecting him to have done that. I understood what he was saying. I knew how he felt. I wanted to rip off the heads of all the girls that flocked Paul, so I could only imagine what he was going through whenever I was talking about him. But I couldn't help but feel slightly betrayed.

He was satisfied with my hurt.

I shook the thought away immediately. No way was I going to get angry at him for that. How could I blame him? It still nagged me at the back of my mind, but I ignored it.

"You're not....mad, are you?" He asked warily, as if I'd explode at any moment.

I shook my head. "Just continue. I can deal with my emotions after."

He hesitantly nodded and continued.

"When I found out you still liked him, I got angry. Like blood-boiling angry. The kind of anger when all you see is red. I never hated someone so much in my whole life. I went up to him and told him to leave you alone. He fought back. He had a big build. Beat me to a pulp."

"You mean the time when you were hospitalized?" I gasped as realization dawned on me. "You said it was a bicycle accident."

"Yeah...."

Coming to think of it, I did wonder why his face was all messed up while his arms and legs were just fine.

"But don't worry. Trey handled him very well. He made sure that jerk never talked to me or you again."

"I'm sure he did," I rolled my eyes at the thought. "He's Trey."

Joey smiled slightly, and I was glad to have lightened his mood, even a little.

"Yep. You're brother is pretty awesome."

"That's when he's not your brother," I said flatly. "When you have Trey Peterson as your brother, be prepared to have a lot of bossing around and a lot of restrictions. Seriously, he's worse than my mom."

Joey laughed. "Yeah, well, someone needs to be the father of the family, right?"

Normally, I would have found that insensitive, but right now, I couldn't agree more. Without Trey, I probably would have become like Sophie. I do pity her sometimes. Having to use her looks to be popular with people and all, instead of actually trying to make friends.

"Right," I said. "So, basically, all those times you did something stupid, it was because of me. Gosh, I feel bad now."

Joey shook his head. "It's not your fault, really. I just couldn't help myself. I am really stupid, aren't I? Wait. Don't answer that."

I smiled evilly. "Yep. I couldn't agree more."

Joey groaned and ruffled my hair. "What am I going to do with you?"

I laughed. "You feed me, clothe me, give me shelter, and become my slave."

"Ugh. I would never...." Then he smiled. Uh oh. "Actually, I don't think that's such a bad idea. I feed you. Then," with a wiggle of eyebrows he smirked, "I clothe you. Which means I get to see you in your pretty birthday suit."