TW: abusive relationship, bruises, violence
I looked at the bruise on my cheek and watched as the tears slowly streamed over it. I reached up to wipe it but my throat tightened when I saw the bruise on my wrist. This one was more purple than the one on my cheek.
I jumped, letting out a small shriek when my phone started ringing. Due to the broken screen, thanks to him, I couldn't see who was calling me. I would've held my breath as I answered but my lungs were killing me.
"Hello?"
"Why do you sound so scared?" Joe chuckled. Suddenly, the tone of his voice changed. "What's wrong, Y/N?"
"Nothing," I stuttered.
"Hey," he said, lowering his voice. "Talk to me. What's going on?"
I opened and closed my mouth, wishing I could tell him the truth. I wasn't even sure where I should begin. There was something I could do instead. . .
"Come over."
"I'm on my way."
* * * * *
I sat on my couch, nervously playing with my hands as I waited for Joe. I tried to figure out how to explain this to him but couldn't come up with anything.
How do you explain to your extremely protective best friend from childhood that the guy you've been dating for two years has spent the last 18 months taking his anger out on you?
My breath and heart got caught in my throat when the doorbell rang. With shaking hands, I stood up and went to answer it. I knew who it was, but I still checked the peephole. I took a slow, calming breath before finally opening the door. The minute I did, Joe's face dropped.
"What happened?!" He panicked as he closed the gap between us.
He gently held my face as his eyes scanned my bruised cheek. I reached up and grabbed his wrists. This was a mistake because Joe glanced down at my wrists, seeing the other bruise.
"What the. . ." He let go of my face and grabbed my hands. I held my breath as he examined my wrists. When he looked back up at me, a sob got stuck in my throat.
"What happened to you, Y/N?" He asked slowly. I opened and closed my mouth, unable to find the right words. Joe took a step closer to me, still holding my wrists, and lowered his voice.
"Y/N, who did this to you?"
I looked at the worry in his eyes and the guilt suffocated me. I opened my mouth but nothing came out again. The longer it took me to respond, the more Joe figured it out.
"No," he whispered. "Y/N, please tell me he didn't do this to you."
"He didn't mean to," I sobbed. "He was drunk and got angry. I was on the phone and he broke a cup because I wasn't helping him. He promised he'd never do it again."
"Yeah, right," he scoffed. "Alex'll never do it again."
"I'm sorry," I finally said, my voice breaking with each word. I waited for him to get angry, but he didn't. Instead, he pulled me into his chest and wrapped his arms tightly around me.
"You have nothing to be sorry for," he said softly. "It's not your fault, Y/N. Alex did this. Not you. He hurt you. And I'm going to fix it."
"How?" I asked, pulling out of his tight hug. Joe reached up with a soft smile on his face and wiped a tear off my cheek.
"By helping you," he clarified. "If you're worried about leaving him, okay. We'll take our time and figure it out. Until then, I will be your buffer. I'll be your escape plan."
"Joe," I sighed, my breath getting caught in my throat. "I can't do that to you. I can't use you like that."
"Of course you can," he chuckled. "I'm your best friend. That's what I'm here for. "
"But. . ."
"But nothing," he instantly said. "Y/N, my job as your best friend is to help you. To stand by your side. To protect you. To hold your hand and wait until you're ready. Then, once you're ready, I pull you with me and we run like hell."
I studied his eyes, finally realizing that he wasn't going to let this go. "Okay," I whispered. "So, what do we do?"
"Simple," he soothed. "If Alex ever starts to get angry, you come to me."
"But. . ."
"Straight to me," he gently cut me off. "I don't care where you are or where I am. I especially don't care what I'm doing. I want you to interrupt me, Y/N. I want you to run to me. Can you do that?"
"Yes," I said a slow smile spreading across my face. "I think I can do that."
"Good," Joe chuckled. "And I mean it. No matter what, where, or when. If something happens, if he threatens you, run to me. Promise me that you come straight to me."
"I promise."
Joe called me every day after work that week. He would be leaving for set or driving home and he'd call me to ask about my day. He'd then offer to pick up dinner and bring it over. Most times I turned him down and told him I was fine.
Any day when Alex would yell at me or be rude or get close to hurting me, I'd beg Joe to come over as soon as he called me. On those days, Joe would bring food and we'd stay up most of the night watching movies.
Friday night, I was in the middle of trying to stay awake during our third movie of the night. Right as I was about to give in and let sleep take over, Joe whispered something that gave me enough courage to finally leave Alex.
"I wish you knew how much it kills me to watch you waste your time on a loser like Alex," Joe whispered. "I wish you knew how incredible and amazing and awesome you are. If I was lucky enough to have you the way he has you, I'd never let you go."
* * * * *
Saturday, I was supposed to go over and "help" Alex clean his apartment. I got there on time, but he wasn't home. I waited in the hallway instead of letting myself in and starting without him. When he finally got home and found me, he wasn't happy.
"What the hell are you doing?!" He snapped.
"I was waiting for you," I said softly, any motivation I received from Joe evaporating.
"You could've gone in and started," he said through clenched teeth. I gasped when he roughly pushed me away from the door so he could unlock it. I regained my footing and wrapped my arms tightly around myself.
Throughout the night, I cleaned Alex's apartment while he yelled at me for doing it wrong. It escalated. His words got harsher and louder. He didn't get abusive until I was mopping his kitchen floor.
My entire body froze when Alex walked in and slipped on a spot I just mopped. I slowly turned around, holding my breath in fear of seeing him on the ground. I would've let out a sigh of relief when I realized he wasn't on the floor but his furious glare stopped me.
"What. . . the. . . hell?"
I gasped and fell to the ground as he hit me. My jaw instantly started throbbing. I looked up at him through the tears in my eyes.
"What is wrong with you, Y/N?!" He yelled. I gasped, the force rolling me to my other side as he kicked my ribs. I didn't remember much else.
A little while later, I woke up still on the floor. When I sat up, I felt like I could barely breathe. I shakily stood up and looked around the kitchen. I was flushed with relief when I realized Alex wasn't home. Pain suffocated me as I tried to leave. I was able to get to the hallway, but tears filled my eyes as I tried to walk down the stairs.
Halfway down the first flight, I had to stop. I slowly lowered myself so I was sitting on a step. I grabbed my phone out of my purse and dialed his number. I felt like I could barely breathe as I listened to the phone ring.
"Hey, you," Joe said as soon as he answered. "What's up? Do you want to get a burger? Or we could order dinner and watch a. . ."
"Joe?"
He instantly stopped talking when I shakily said his name. "What's wrong?" He said, a little bit of anger in his voice.
"I need you to come pick me up," I said, my voice breaking.
"Where are you?"
"Alex's apartment. I was cleaning his place and. . . But I didn't. . . And he. . . He got mad."
"And he took it out on you," Joe said, not an ounce of questioning in his voice. "Stay there. I'm on my way."
* * * * *
After Joe picked me up, he drove me straight home and stayed the rest of the night with me. I tried to convince him not to, but he insisted on staying with me the entire weekend. Eventually, he had to go back to work and I was left alone.
I was in the middle of doing laundry when someone knocked on my door. Hard.
I didn't have to answer it. I knew who it was which is why I didn't dare answer it. The longer it took me to answer it, the louder he knocked. Soon, the knock became a bam. I let out a small shriek as I heard him yelling.
"Where the hell are you?!"
I couldn't move. I couldn't think. The only thing I could do was grab my phone. I was about to call him when Alex came running into the room.
"Seriously?" He scoffed. "You ignored me all weekend!"
"You didn't call," I said before I could stop myself.
"You bitch!"
I woke up several hours later. Tears instantly filled my eyes the second I was awake. I stood up, cringing as the pain flooded my body. I couldn't take it anymore.
In too much pain, I got into a cab and gave him directions to Joe's set. When I got there, I paid the driver and slowly walked onto set. With my arms wrapped tightly around myself, I walked around looking for Joe.
I kept my head down, not wanting to draw attention to myself. The last thing I wanted was for one of Joe's costars to see me covered in bruises. I froze when I saw Joe was in the middle of filming.
Instead of waiting for him with the possibility of someone who knows Joe seeing me, I quickly went to his trailer. I sat on his couch and nervously picked at my hangnails. As I waited, I tried to figure out what I was going to do about Alex. The second his trailer door opened, I stood up and ran to him.
"Oh," Joe gasped as I wrapped my arms around his waist. He slowly wrapped his arms around me. "Is everything okay?"
"I can't do this anymore," I sobbed. Joe didn't respond. He just tightened his arms around me. "But I don't know what to do! How do I get away from him? Just because I ignored him all weekend he came to my apartment and kicked my door in."
"He what?!" Joe yelled as he pulled out of our embrace. I didn't mean to cringe. It just happened. Joe instantly saw me cringe and grabbed my hands, intertwining our fingers. He led us over to the couch and sat down. The second I was on the cushion, he scooted closer to me. "I'm sorry," he said, completely changing the tone of his voice. "I didn't mean to yell, Y/N. I've been worried about him doing something like this. And knowing I wasn't there. . ."
"It's not your fault," I said softly. I saw the look in Joe's eyes sink when he finally got a look at me. He reached up and gently glided his finger across my jaw.
"I don't want you going back to a place with no door," he whispered. "I need my favorite girl safe."
"But I only feel safe when I'm with you." I didn't mean to say it. But when I did, I couldn't take it back.
"Good," he smiled. "Because there's nowhere I'd rather you go than with me."
"That didn't make sense," I giggled.
"But it did," he smirked.
"No, it didn't."
"Yeah, it did."
"No, it didn't."
"Yes."
"No."
"Yep."
"Nah-ah."
Instead of continuing to tease each other playfully, Joe leaned in and delicately pressed his lips to mine. I was too shocked to respond. He slowly broke the kiss, deeply looking into my eyes.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I didn't. . . I was just. . . I couldn't help. . ."
This time, I grabbed his face and pressed my lips back to his. Unlike me, he didn't hesitate to kiss back. He grabbed my waist and pulled me closer to him as things quickly got heated. I didn't stop him as he pulled me onto his lap and relaxed into the couch. He finally broke the kiss and leaned his forehead against mine.
"I know things are incredibly complicated for you right now," he whispered, "but you have to know how much you mean to me."
Joe leaned back and couldn't look away from me. "You know how much you mean to me, right?"
"I think so," I stuttered.
"Think so?" He teased. "Maybe I need to explain it again."
Joe leaned back in and kissed me again. I reached up and ran my fingers through his hair as I kissed him back. Without breaking the kiss, Joe carefully laid us down. I let out a soft moan as our bodies rolled against each other. My stomach was going crazy as he reached his hand under my shirt.
"Joe," I gasped, breaking the kiss.
"Sorry," he chuckled.
"It's not that I don't want to. . . I just think we should. . . I haven't officially broken up with Alex yet," I finally got out. I quickly continued, "I've tried, but every time I do, he gets angry and. . ."
"I understand," Joe said, lowering his voice. His smile dropped a little. "What if you just left?"
"What do you mean?" I asked. "I can't 'just leave'. I ignored him for a weekend and he broke down my door. What? I send him a text? He'll kill me."
"I won't let him," Joe said, getting weirdly serious.
"If I leave, he'll know I went to you and then he'll. . ."
Joe pulled me so we were sitting up. Once we were up, he pulled me into his chest and wrapped his arms tightly around me.
"He's not going to hurt me," he reassured. "And he's definitely not going to hurt you anymore."