burning red • joe burrow

020

joe walked in from practice, they haven't been the easiest this week.

"hey, how was your day?" tara asked.

joe didn't respond.

"joe?" tara asked, walking into the hallway but the door.

"can you just shut up, tara." joe said rolling his eyes. "you're so annoying."

"joe," tara said. "what's wrong? did i do something?"

"you. you're wrong. no wonder finn liked to hit you so much." joe said.

"are you gonna cook dinner or not?" joe said snapping his fingers in the girl's face.

tara didn't move. "why are you treating me like this?" tara asked.

"go make me dinner. now. i'm not going to say it again." joe said.

tara sighed in defeat. she made dinner, chicken and rice with peppers.

joe has been acting like this for a couple of weeks now. she doesn't know what happened, he came home one day and a switch flipped, sounds familiar?

tara handed him his plate. "what?" joe asked. "you can eat when i'm done. i might want some more."

"go do the laundry or something." joe said, rolling his eyes once again.

tara grabbed joe's laundry basket and brought it to the laundry room, she was putting clothes in when joe walked in.

"i wash my darks and whites separately you stupid little brat." joe said. "how stupid are you?"

"i, i'm sorry." tara said, pulling the whites out of the washer.

"i, i'm sorry." joe said in a high pitched voice, mocking the girl. he pushed the girl away from the washer, she fell on the floor. "get up."

tara got up, and he slapped her. "joe, please, stop. you're hurting me." tara said.

he grabbed her by the hair. "don't you ever disrespect me again." he gritted through his teeth, pushing the girl on the floor again.

"please! stop! joe, please." tara begged. why was he doing this to her?

"tara." joe said.

"please," tara cried out. "stop, please."

"tara." joe said once again. tara jolted awake. she noticed joe next to her, trying to wake her up. she jumped out of bed.

tears were streaming down her face. joe managed to connect the dots himself, she said stop, then said his name and she was crying.

"i'll give you some space." joe said, getting up to walk out of the room.

tara let him walk out. she sat down on the bed. she knows that joe would never hurt her, so why do things like this happen?

she collected her thoughts and went downstairs to find him. before she could place her foot on the first step, she heard joe talking on the phone.

"mom," joe said. he sounded like he was crying. "i don't know what to do. she had this dream, where i was hurting her and, and another time she flinched when i went to hug her. she flinched at me mom. she thought i was going to hit her."

"i'm trying my best mom, i'm there for her when she needs it, i give her space when she needs it." joe said. "i don't want her to think of me like this."

his mom said something tara couldn't hear. "i know mom. i love her so much and i hate that she's hurting. she has these scars and bruises and i just hate that i can't help her." he choked out before breaking down into sobs.

"i'll talk to you later mom, ok?" joe said. "get some sleep."

he let out a huff, he was still crying. "joey?" tara asked, walking down the stairs.

"hm, yeah?" joe said, quickly standing up and wiping his eyes. "are you ok?"

"i'm fine, it was just a bad dream." tara said. "are you ok?"

"yeah, i'm good. why wouldn't i be good?" joe said.

"i heard." was all tara said.

"oh." joe responded. he never really cried in front of other people, especially tara.

"i don't know why these things keep happening to me." tara said. "i know that i'm never going to be in a situation like that again, but i just can't get it out of my head."

"i'm not blaming you, i'm not mad at you. and i'm not going to expect you to pretend that finn didn't happen." joe said.

"thank you, for being so understanding about it." tara said.

"of course, sweetheart." joe said. "i love you."

"i love you too." tara replied, letting out a yawn.

"we should probably go back to sleep." joe said chuckling.

"mhm." tara replied. the pair walked back upstairs and laid down.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

i have another story that i'm currently working on and some others that are completed.

the one that i'm currently working on is a sam hubbard one, the others are joe burrows ones.

i uploaded a chapter of the sam one, so if you read it, that would be great!!

luv you!!