Monsters and Men ~ Rosenwalker & Richpez

Chapter 41

Joe slammed his gym locker shut. Outside of the play, football practice was the only break he got from Zoey. He made an effort to purposefully take longer in the showers, staying well past when everyone else had left. Now, he was changing back into his clothes, soaking up as much time as he could so that his break in between football and the play would be short.

It was the following Friday, after school. Joe's situation with Zoey had not improved in the slightest. When Joe had gone over the previous Friday, she'd forced Joe to lie and tell his parents that he was spending the night at Nick's so that she could keep him there all night. Ever since then, she'd only allowed him out of her sight during football practice, his work shifts, at night when he had to go home to his family, and—surprisingly—the play.

Of course, she'd originally told him that he was done with the play. He hadn't even tried to argue with her, out of fear that she'd hurt him even more than she'd already had. He'd felt horrible, thinking about how most likely the play was going to have to shut down. But when she finally let him leave on Saturday, she told him that he could stay in the play, claiming that she felt bad about everything she'd done and wanted to make it up to him.

Joe closed his eyes, resting his forehead against his locker as the weeks events came flooding into his mind. He didn't want to think about any of it, especially Friday night. While Zoey had been livid the entire week, thankfully that particular night had been the worst of it. Maybe with luck, one day he'd be able to just block it out.

It was the last night that her parents were out of town. The first thing she'd done once he'd walked in was take his car keys. "Get upstairs," she told him, and he obeyed, knowing that everything would go over a lot easier if he listened to her. Inside of her room, she made him tell the lie to his parents, before taking away his phone as well.

He shivered, wrapping his arms around himself and trying to focus his mind. He wasn't inside Zoey's bedroom anymore. It was a week later, and he was in the locker room. His breathing was beginning to pick up, and he could feel the tears welling up in his eyes. "I'm in the locker room," he whispered, in a desperate attempt to ground himself. "I'm in the locker room. I'm safe." He took a deep breath, wiping away the tears before they could run down his cheeks. 'I'm safe. For now,' he added as an afterthought, but at least he'd managed to put this current panic attack at bay.

"Keep it together," he whispered to himself, picking his head up. He pulled out his phone, to find it flooded with messages from Zoey wanting to know what was taking him so long. Joe sighed miserably, trying to come up with an excuse.

"Everything good Walker?"

The voice snapped Joe out of his trance. He turned to find himself face to face with Tom Houston, who was opening his locker. "Hmm? What?"

Tom peered at him. "Are you doing okay buddy?"

Joe resisted the urge to laugh. He was anything but okay. He'd barely slept all week, he wasn't eating, his girlfriend physically abusing him had become a regular occurrence, and he couldn't figure out a way to get out. Worst of all, part of him still didn't want to leave. "Yeah, I'm okay. Just a lot going on."

"Oh I'm sure, you must be exhausted between football and the show. Hope you're not too tired for my party tonight?"

Joe shook his head. "Party? What party?"

"Buddy, have you not been checking the group chat?" Tom asked, pushing his shoulder. "I convinced Sam that throwing a victory party Saturday night was a bad idea when we have practice Sunday morning. Remember? You asked me to talk to him on that."

"Oh, right yeah," Joe responded guiltily, seeing as football hadn't been taking up much of his attention lately.

"Yeah so, Sam's parents are still in town tonight, but mine are gone. So, party's at my house."