TW this is going to be a violent chapter.
"Loved the show!"
"Hilarious!"
"You were amazing Joe!"
"Take off your shirt Voldemort!"
Joe waved nervously as he made his way through the crowd of people who'd been waiting in the hallway to talk to the cast. He was still in his Voldemort hair and makeup, but he'd ditched his cape for his pink Spider-Man shirt. He scanned over and over again for Zoey, not finding her anywhere. He stood up on his toes in an attempt to get a better view as two nervous freshmen boys ran up and asked him for his autograph. Joe flushed, signing the boys playbook awkwardly.
"Thank you!" The boy said happily. "My boyfriend Chad will love this! Come on Stu."
The two boys ran off, one of them carrying a football. Before Joe could even begin to remember if he knew them from the football team, he felt someone clap him on the back. "Loved the show buddy! And I don't even like this crap."
"Hey, thanks Tom!" He turned to find himself face-to-face with Tom Houston, and his incredibly pretty girlfriend, Becky Barnes. "I can't believe you guys came!"
"Of course! We wouldn't have missed it." Becky said sweetly. "Tom told me how important this was to you."
"I even dragged my step-cousin and her boyfriend along to this thing." Tom gestured to the petite girl standing behind him.
"Oh yeah, loved the show!" The girl said politely. "Didn't we Paul?"
The awkward blond boy next to her shrugged. "Eh, between this and Brigadoon, I'm starting to think that maybe I just don't like musicals."
Joe raised an eyebrow at the girl. "Do you work at Beanies coffee? You look familiar."
"God no, never been there. I've heard that the coffee is shit." She said with a laugh. "I get that a lot though. I guess maybe there's a clone of me that works there or something." She shrugged, walking off with Tom.
The Beanies girl doppelgänger left Joe even more hung up on finding his girlfriend. He couldn't even begin to process his emotions on how the show had gone until he found out what she'd thought of it. He was worried enough considering the fact that she probably hadn't understood any of the jokes. Hopefully she'd enjoyed the songs.
Joe sighed in relief as he spotted her friend Allison. She smiled at him as he waved to her. He ran over, to his disappointment finding that she was only accompanied by Craig and Beth. "Hi Joe! We loved the show!" Allison said sweetly.
"I was dying laughing," Beth added.
"Thank you!" Joe said with a forced smile. "It means a lot to me that you guys came!" He glanced awkwardly at Craig, who was wearing the hood on his hoodie even though it wasn't cold outside, looking everywhere but at Joe. "Um, do you guys know where Zoey's at?"
Craig laughed at Joe's question. Allison and Beth exchanged nervous looks. "Um, Zoey left at the end of Act One." Allison told him sympathetically.
"It was weird," Beth added. "She just sort of stormed out."
"Oh," Joe responded, not sure what to say. He could feel his chest flooding with dread. She'd left? After all of that, she hadn't watched him? "Have you heard from her at all?"
"No, Sam went to look for her during Intermission, but he never came back." Allison admitted.
Joe ran a hand through his hair, taking a step back from them. "Um, okay. Thanks for telling me." He turned away, the anxiety crawling over his skin. Had he done something to upset her? How could he? He'd been acting in a show.
He pulled out his phone and called her. It rang once before sending him voicemail. Joe felt his hairs stand on edge. She was ignoring him. She was mad. What had he done? He burst into a run, hoping that she was in the parking lot. If her car wasn't there, then he'd have to go to her house and wait. His relationship was more important than the cast party.
As he sprinted towards the student parking lot, he guiltily ignored the students who cheered and waved to him as he ran. He didn't want to be rude, but his anxiety was way too high. The dread had spread from his chest down to his stomach and he felt like he was going to be sick.
To his relief, he found her car to be parked in her spot, and the car lights were on. A shiver ran up his back. Was it a good thing that he'd found her? He walked up to the door, knocking once before opening it. He looked inside to find his girlfriend sitting casually in her car, holding a blunt. Sam was sitting in the passenger seat, sipping from a flask. Zoey stared up at him, before bursting into a giggly smile. "You look ridiculous."
"Zoey, what the hell?" He asked, feeling his stress turn into anger. She'd left in the middle of his show to get high with another guy? On school grounds, where if she got caught she'd get expelled?
Zoey's smile faded. "Excuse you?"
"You— I—" Joe stammered, realized that he was in the wrong for yelling at her. "Is it true what Beth and Allison told me? You walked out in the middle of the show?"
"In the middle of your solo to be exact." She brought the blunt to her lips, inhaling deeply before passing it over to Sam. She coughed a little as she let it go.
"Interesting show Walker," Sam muttered, his words sounding a little slurred. "What I saw of it was... very special. To say the least."
"Dude, get out of here!" He yelled at Sam. This scum bag was the last person that he wanted to talk about right now. He looked to Zoey. "Can we talk in private, please?"
Zoey glared up at him for a moment, before turning and looking over at Sam. "Do you mind? I'm sorry he's being such a jackass."
Sam raised his hands innocently. "All good all good." He handed her the blunt, opening the car door. Zoey looked between the blunt, to Joe, and then to Sam. She grabbed Sam's jacket to stop him from exiting the car. She brought the blunt to her lips, inhaling, before leaning over and bringing her mouth to Sam's, shotgunning smoke into his mouth.
Joe took a step back in horror. Not only was she kissing another man... but she was going to do it right in front of him? Was this her making good on her threat? But why, when she'd just promised him that they were going to work through their issues?
Sam responded eagerly, running a hand up and down her back as he sloppily kissed her. He grabbed the blunt from her and breathed in, leaning over to blow smoke into her mouth. Before he could get too into it, Zoey pushed him away harshly, smiling devilishly at him. "Take a hike, asshole," she said with a wink, reaching over and taking the blunt. She turned her attention back to Joe, locking eyes with him as she ran a finger along the bottom of her lip to fix her smeared lipstick. "Get in the fucking car. Now."
Joe obeyed, walking around and sitting in the passenger seat. Zoey reached over him, fiddling with something before she closed the door. Before sitting back in her seat, she greeted Joe with a hand to his face.
"Ah! Why?" Joe cried out, bringing his hand up to where she'd hit him.
"So, when exactly we're you planning on telling me that you were playing opposite of that little fairy?" Zoey asked casually, acting as if she hadn't done anything to him.
Joe shook his head in disbelief. "What the fuck are you talk—"
SMACK! She brought her hand down again, slapping him. This time, Joe tasted blood. "Don't fucking play dumb. You know what I'm talking about, you twisted little liar. Brian. Being your fucking love interest in the play?"
Joe withdrew away from her, as far as her small car would allow him to. "I, why does it matter?" He asked, scared she was going to hit him again. "We're just acting."
She grabbed him by his hair, pulling his head back. "Oh yeah, that looked like acting all right." She pulled him down harsher. "How fucking dare you humiliate me like this."
"Zoey! None of that was real!" Joe cried out, tears beginning to run down his face. "I promise! Please, he's just a fr—"
Zoey slapped him again with her free hand, Joe reaching up and tearing her hands out of his hair. "Get off of me!" He reached for the door handle and pulled, but the door wouldn't open. He pulled again desperately, his heart dropping.
"Childproof locks, I set it right after you got in. Don't bother trying the backseat either, I set those hours ago." She grabbed the blunt, which she'd rested in her cup holder. She inhaled and exhaled, blowing smoke into Joe's face so he coughed. "You're not getting out until I let you out."
Joe continued to pull back at the handle desperately. That feeling, that horrible feeling that Zoey was someone that he feared, someone who was a threat to him, was flooding its way back into his body.
He hugged himself, knowing in his heart that it had never left.
"Is that why you were here with Sam?" Joe asked. "Is that why you just blatantly cheated on me, right in front of me?"
Zoey rolled her eyes. "Jesus Christ Joe, don't be so dramatic. It's called shotgunning. You act as if we had sex."
"You made out with another guy! And you did it right in front of me!" Joe yelled, his anger boiling. She was not going to twist around what had just happened. He knew what he saw, he was not going to let her distort his reality.
"I wouldn't raise your voice at me if I were you Joe." Zoey said firmly, placing the blunt back down. "But hey, you wanna go there? Let's compare." She turned to face him, leaning closer to him. "I got high and blew smoke into some dudes mouth. That's my list." Before Joe could react, she reached out and grabbed Joe by his hair, slamming his head down on to the car cupboard. "You lied to me, for months. Claiming that there was nothing going on between you and that little homo, promising me that you were just friends and that he was just 'in the play' with you. You neglected me, and then turned around and threatened to break up with me because I went looking to Sam for comfort? Maybe if you were around me as much as you were around your little boyfriend, I wouldn't have to go to other men for attention." She yanked on his hair tighter, leaning down to whisper in to his ear. "And then to top all of that, you humiliate me. You go out there, singing and dancing like a fucking idiot, the two of you portraying yourself as gay in front of the entire school? And then you have the nerve to not trust me to be faithful?" She grabbed his arm with her free hand, digging her nails into his wrist. "You're a pathetic, attention seeking slut, and you've disrespected me for the last time." Her nails still digging into his skin, she ran her hand up his arm harshly, scratching him. She suddenly released him, pushing him harshly into the car door. Before he could react, she hit him across the face one last time, before exiting out the drivers seat and walking around. She opened the passenger door, grabbing the back of Joe's shirt to pull him out. "Get up. Now."
Joe obeyed, scrambling to his feet. Zoey shut the car door behind him. "Here's what's going to happen," she started as she walked back over to her side of the car. "I'm going out to party and rehabilitate my image. You're going to go home. And you're going to stay there until I say so." She got into her car, slamming the door shut.
"Don't drive, you're high!" Joe yelled, tapping his fist against the car window. Zoey sped back, almost running over Joe's feet. "Zoey, please! You could get hurt!"
His girlfriend sped off, leaving Joe standing alone in the parking lot, blood running down his arm as tears ran down his face.
I'm a little iffy on this chapter so sorry it took a few days to get it up, I kept coming back and changing it. The next three chapters are already done so expect more updates soon!