beautiful mistake - joe burrow

58

At home, as usual, his parents were already waiting for him. While he was reviewing the game with his dad, his mom asked him several times if he was really okay after hitting his head in the second quarter, and when he assured her after the fourth time that they definitely wouldn't have let him keep playing if it had been something serious, she switched to the topic that had been bringing her up at every possible second for the past few weeks.

"How is Elle? I think I saw her on the sidelines today. Is everything good between you guys? Are you guys still seeing each other later?"

Ever since Joe had told her about Elle, she just couldn't wait to finally meet Elle in person and was disappointed that Joe still refused to grant her that wish.

Again, Joe just sighed. "Elle is fine. Everything is fine between us and no idea if we'll see each other later. I haven't seen her since the final whistle and she hasn't answered my message yet either" he answered all the questions.

His mother questioned him some more. What exciting things had happened in the last week, what they had done and so on.

It wasn't until Joe's father pointed out to his wife that they should start heading home, since they still had to drive for a while and Joe's mom had to go back to work tomorrow, that she finally let her son out of the cross-examination.

Joe said goodbye to his parents, promised his mom that it wouldn't be long before she finally met Elle, and waved goodbye to them until the car was out of sight.

Back at the house, he cleaned up a bit before sitting down on the couch and pulling out his cell phone. Elle still hadn't answered him, which was very unusual.

Without further ado, he decided to call her to make sure everything was okay.

It took longer than usual for Elle to answer the call. "yeah, what's up?" she asked, seeming out of sorts.

"Hey, it's me. Are you okay? Why haven't you answered me yet?" Joe asked.

"Oh, hey. Sorry, everything's okay. Just still at work. Haven't even checked my messages yet" she mumbled and Joe somehow got the feeling that something seemed off.

"Has something been going on? You seem weird" "there's really nothing wrong, Joe. It's probably just a little exhaustion from today. Why did you text me?" she quickly deflected from the subject.

"I just wanted to know if we were still going to meet tonight" "oh, uh...I don't know how much longer I'm going to be here and I'm really exhausted" Elle suddenly sounded almost nervous.

"Well, it doesn't matter. I don't care if you come to me and go straight to bed. I just want to see you today" Joe replied. Elle sighed. "Ok. I'll text you when I'm done and then we'll see again, okay?" She suggested.

"Sounds good to me. So I'll see you later?" Joe asked. "See you later" Elle replied and hung up.

Confused, Joe looked at his display. Something about this conversation had been pretty strange, he just didn't know what it was. But an uneasy feeling spread through him.

Shaking his head, he stood up. He had probably just imagined it. It was pretty sure it was really just exhaustion that made Elle sound funny, and the uneasy feeling would surely go away when he saw her later.

Not 10 minutes later, his cell phone suddenly rang. At first he wondered in surprise if Elle was already done and wanted to let him know she was coming over, but it wasn't her name that was on the display of his phones.

"Nick, what's up?" he answered the AT's call. "Good evening, Joe. Recovered from the game yet?" Nick asked him. Joe sighed. "More or less. Really was a weird thing today. Like there was a curse in the air."

"I can't believe all that's happened" Nick agreed with him. "But I'm not calling to talk to you about it. We want to do another check on you tomorrow to make sure there was no serious or severe damage to your knee or head in this collision"

"So I have an appointment with you guys tomorrow?" Joe asked with a grin. "Yep. Between the meeting with Quarterback and the Offense, you've been squeezed in. Won't be that long. It's just a routine check" Nick explained.

"Yep, no problem. Can be arranged" Joe assured him. "Great, have a good evening then. And give my greetings to Elle" Nick laughed.

"Greetings to Elle? But...she's not here. She told me she was still working" Joe replied confused. Nick remained silent. "Nick, isn't Elle still there?" Joe asked concerned, but the AT was still silent.

"Nick, can you please answer me!!!" Joe didn't know how many feelings and emotions were coursing through his body right now, fighting over who would get the upper hand.

Worry, what was going on with Elle? Confusion, had she lied to him? Disappointment, why was she lying to him? Anger, why the hell wasn't Nick saying anything? Despair, what was he supposed to do?

"Nick!" Joe sounded a little angrier than he wanted to, but the silence was just driving him crazy.

Nick sighed before finally breaking the silence. "Elle already went home over an hour ago, after we were done with everything here. She's not here anymore, Joe. I thought you guys were spending the evening together"

"But...why, Nick? Why is she telling me she's still working?" Joe asked, confused. He couldn't find a logical answer to all his questions. He couldn't find an answer to anything at all. His mind was a mess. For every question that flashed through his mind, he found no solution, only more questions.

"Joe, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have...it shouldn't have come out. But it's probably not what you think. There's an explanation for it. I know there is" Nick seemed kind of glum.

"What's the explanation, Nick? Fucking explain it to me. I don't even know what to think. Why is she lying to me?" Joe was literally freaking out. The not knowing was driving him crazy and Nick's pressuring around was only driving him more so.

If he had the answer, why didn't he just say it?

"Joe, I...I'm not the one who should be giving you the explanation and I'm afraid I can't tell you what you should do now. That's for you to know all by yourself" it wasn't exactly the answer Joe had hoped for, but it made one thing clear to him.

He needed to know now. He needed to get an explanation. He needed to see Elle.

"I know what I have to do" He muttered and hung up. He quickly slipped on his jacket, grabbed his keys and pulled the door shut behind him as he ran out of the house.

There was only one way he was going to get an answer to everything. He had to confront Elle about it.

What do you think is about to happen? What will Joe find out?

sorry for not posting yesterday, i was really busy and totally forgot about it, sorrryyyyyy

WHO-DEY 🧡