HOW TO RUIN YOUR LIFE (LGBTQ+)

23

Joe glared at the phone in his hand.

    He was back at his apartment after leaving Persia's, tense and unnerved.

    "Should I...?"

    Maybe Asa needed a good beat down. If Persia's husband and his friends were after her, she probably wouldn't be able to do much if they caught her unaware. Why the hell was he expected to run errands now? Asa could take care of herself.

    Right?

    Asa had known about Persia's husband. She'd beaten him up and then he'd told Persia to never see her again, and his hatred began to grow for his sister in law.

    Joe smirked wryly. At least Asa did one thing right. Beating his ass.

    And now Jayce had discovered that Asa had been seeing Persia secretly, and wanted to prove his manliness and mark his territory. But he needed a whole group of men to help him. Joe swallowed. There's no way that situation would turn out okay. Things could go horribly wrong.

    Asa could snap...

    ...or Jayce and his friends could go too far.

    He lifted his phone up, finding Asa's blocked number in his phone, and unblocked it. "Here it goes," he sighed, then pressed the call button, holding it up to his ear. It rang for a while, too long. Just before it ended, the call was picked up.

    "Joe?"

    He hesitated, then said, "Yes."

    Asa didn't respond, and Joe could hear the muffled sound of a car running, the audio slightly distorted, as if there was bad service. They both sat on their sides of the phone silently, waiting for the other person to speak.

    "What do you want?" Asa asked, her voice deadpan.

    Joe rolled his eyes, already feeling frustration rising up in his body like it usually did when he had anything to do with his older sister. "Persia's husband wants to beat your ass, you know. And he's taking his friends with him."

    "I don't care," Asa responded quickly. "He can try all he wants. I'll beat his sorry ass again, in front of all his friends - and I'll beat all their asses too."

    Joe blinked. "No, you can't do that."

    "I'm going to."

    "Persia's worried that you're going to snap and take things too far with him. I'm worried too, you know. Persia doesn't want to be a widow."

    There was silence on the other end, then Asa said, "I wouldn't do that to Persia."

    Joe glared down at his fist on the counter, clenching tightly, his nails digging into his palms. His other hand was squeezing around his phone, tighter every second. "You say that now."

    "Listen, if you want to stop him, go ahead. But if he attacks me on the street, I'm not gonna sit back and take it. Got it?"

    Joe released a sigh, uncurling his fist, staring down at the crescent shaped marks that had been pressed into his palm from his fingernails. He found a part of himself resisting telling Asa about the bruises he'd seen on Persia's face that evening. He was barely keeping it together, feeling two sides of himself fighting each other. One of them was his child self, knowing that Asa would want to protect Persia with all her might. That's what she'd done when they were kids. Anytime other kids would pick on either of them, Asa would interject and push them down, usually making them cry. But she got the job done, and they were left alone.

The problem was, whenever Asa was around, Joe and Persia were always left alone. Any potential friends were scared away by their older sister. And rightfully so, because she turned out to be a killer.

...but a protector nonetheless. Joe wouldn't - couldn't deny it.

She'd always tried to keep him and Persia safe, even in her fucked up, twisted ways.

He wouldn't tell her about Persia.

But he wouldn't discourage her from beating Jayce's ass either.

"Fine. Just..."

"Yeah, I won't take it too far, alright? Get off my back." Asa hung up, and the line went dead with a beep beep beep.

Joe pulled the phone away from his ear with a scoff. That was expected. The last conversation they'd had was a major trash fire, and they'd both left with more anger and frustration than before. But their common ground was Persia.

Joe couldn't help but hope that Asa would hit Jayce hard enough to injure him, and maybe shake his brains up enough to change his personality into a nice one. Joe had never been close with him, but they'd been friendly with each other at family gatherings. Joe was a professional businessman, and Jayce was more of a sit-on-the-couch-and-watch-football guy.

Joe hated football.

He couldn't help but wonder if he hated it because his father had loved it...

Joe leaned his head on his hand. Asa had seemed very confident in her abilities, and she always had. But she was cocky sometimes. What if the group was too much for her? She didn't even know when they'd come for her.

Would she be prepared?

Joe shook his head, pushing down the nerves that threatened to consume him.

Asa could take care of herself.

And besides, Joe had created boundaries between the two of them.

Asa wasn't welcome in his life unless she went to therapy and seriously changed her ways. He wouldn't go near her until then.

Yeah.

She'll be fine.