The Web I Spin for You ~ Richpez & Rosenwalker

Chapter 6

TW for mentions of domestic abuse and sexual harassment. Also a brief mention of Darren's brother, nothing about what happened to him just his name comes up.
CW alcohol. Also potential The Rise of Skywalker spoilers if you've been living under a rock. ALSO the opinions in this star wars debate are not mine I purposefully looked up stuff on the internet to make sure that the argument didn't appear biased😂

Joe continued to stare up at the ceiling. Every time he blinked he feared that he would open his eyes to find the ceiling covered in spiders again, but it remained as white and empty as ever. It was half past noon on Saturday, and he had yet to get out of bed. He'd continuously been having the spider dream night after night, and between that and his encounter with Zoey, he was too emotionally drained to do anything.

He glanced over at his phone, pushing the power button to check the time. He'd been lying in bed motionless since six in the morning, and he hated himself for it. He wanted to get up and be productive—like he usually was—but for some reason today his body and mind just weren't in sync. He felt paralyzed, as if he'd been lifted out of his body and had no control over it. No matter how much he told himself to get up, he simply couldn't get out of his current position.

Eventually, he managed to roll over to his side, which at least saved him the stress of looking at the ceiling. He knew why this was happening; she'd been on his mind all day. Usually when he woke up missing her—which was most days—he'd do something to distract himself, like exercise or call a friend. He'd been going out of his way to not think about her for the last two months, and she'd finally worn him down.

He picked up his cell phone, going to his text thread with Zoey. He scrolled up through the last two months since they'd broken up, coming across the current messages that were haunting him.

Zoey Chambers
Sunday, Oct 16, 9:41 PM

Tomorrow's Monday. You're going to have to see me. You really think you can ignore me forever?
Call me. Let's talk.

Monday, Oct 17, 12:25 PM

really?? Ditching class? That's the best you can do? What, you really just going to continue to ignore me?
Fuck you, you fucking baby. You think you can cut ME off?
I'll happily never speak to you again.

4:00 PM

Football practice too? That's pretty selfish, to make the whole team suffer because you're too much of a coward to come talk to me like a grown up. You're gonna get yourself kicked off the team.

6:15 PM

it's like you forgot that I fucking know where you live.
call me, right the fuck now.
or I'm coming over.

"Stop texting me. I-I don't want to talk to you."

"And he speaks! Was that so fucking hard?"

"I'm serious Zoey. We're, we're broken up. There's nothing to talk about. Stop messaging me."

Zoey laughed over the line. "What are you going to do Joe, block my number? Drop out of school? Kill yourself?" When Joe didn't speak up, Zoey smiled in satisfaction. "We're done when I say we're done. And I don't want us to be done. I love you, you know that. Sam means nothing to me."

"You think that's why I broke up with you? You've been basically flaunting to me that you've been cheating on me for weeks and I happily turned a blind eye to it."

"And here you go with making shit u—"

"I broke up with you because you're a psycho who sent your fucking friends to beat the shit out of Brian!"