Iced Over || Joe Burrow

Chapter 2 - Selfish Jerk

Mia's POV
I breathe in and out a few times to calm my nerves as I walk over to Joe. I want to talk to him before we go home in the hopes to keep from upsetting Kara. Of course, it all depends on how this conversation is going to go.

Joe's walking across the field and I jog over to him.

"Joe, wait up. I want to talk to you!" I call. Joe looks back at me and stops to wait for me. "What's wrong?"

"Do you really care more about your career than Kara and I?" I ask. Joe frowns.

"You've been talking to Ja'Marr, haven't you?" He asks. I nod.

"Yeah. I have. You would rather put your career before your family?" I question. Joe chuckles and shakes his head.

"Mia, my career is important. I've got a whole team depending on me to win games,"

"I knew you had started to become self absorbed, but I didn't think it was this bad. Obviously you think that Kara and I are just distractions now, right? I mean, what else would you consider us?" I question. Joe scoffs.

"I never said you were a distraction," he snaps. I laugh and shake my head.

"Yeah, you did, Joe. You did. Putting your career before your family makes us a distraction!"

"You're not my family yet, Mia! We're engaged," Joe argues. I feel hot tears starting to form in my eyes.

"Not your family?! We're engaged! That means that we're going to get married and that considers us a family! You know, I hope you enjoy being single, Joe. Consider the wedding off!" I shout. I take my engagement ring off and drop it into Joe's palm.

I storm away and Joe stands there, calling for me to come back.

"Mia! Mia, wait!"

I don't listen to him and keep going. I dial my aunt's phone number and ask her if Kara and I can stay with her until I find a new apartment. Thankfully, my aunt says yes. She offers to pick Kara up from school while I pick up all my things from Joe's house.

Joe's POV
I can barely believe that it's really happening as I watch Mia storm out of the stadium. I look down at the engagement ring I had given Mia back in February and I almost feel as though I want to cry.

I clasp my hand tightly around the ring and fight the tears that threaten to fall.

"Hey man, what happened?" Ja'Marr asks as he jogs over to me. I look at him and I'm not happy to see him.

"What happened is that Mia broke up with me! What did you tell her?!" I shout angrily. Ja'Marr sighs.

"I told her exactly what you told me. And I told her to do what she thought was right. I didn't think that she would break up with you though," he explains. I laugh and shake my head.

"You didn't think that she would break up with me?! Great. Thanks for ruining my life, Ja'Marr!" I snap.

Before I walk away, Sam joins Ja'Marr and stops me from leaving.

"Look man, do you love Mia? Or do you love your career more?" Sam asks. I sigh.

"I... don't know," I mutter, shaking my head.

"You better figure it out before Mia's gone from your life forever," Ja'Marr says. Sam nods.

"Yeah. You're the reason she broke up with you so you're the only one who can fix this," he explains.

I try to understand what I did wrong and then I connect the dots. I used to have equal focus between my career and my family, but now I want to focus only on my career therefore I'm only worried about myself.

The only problem is that I don't know how I'll be able to fix any of this.

Mia's POV
When I get to my aunt's house, my uncle helps me unpack my car. I had picked up everything of mine up from Joe's house and brought it here.

"Thanks for letting Kara and I stay here, aunt Kate. I really appreciate it," I say as I place the last box of stuff on the floor. My aunt nods.

"Of course sweetie. Dinner's on the table if you're hungry,"

I go into the dining room and Kara's sitting at the table eating dinner. She looks at me and I notice that she's crying.

"Why'd you leave Joe?" She asks. I sigh.

I knew this would hurt her, but I have a plan to get Joe back and breaking up with him is a part of it.

"I broke up with him because he was being a selfish jerk," I reply. I dish out some of the spaghetti my aunt made and continue my explanation for leaving Joe. "I also think that he can change his ways and that the best way for him to realize his mistake is by me breaking up with him,"

"Wait. So you're telling me that you broke up with him to get back with him?" Kara questions. I shrug.

"In a way, yes. He let being famous get to his head and I'm hoping that he'll realize that when he has no fiancé anymore," I say as I twirl some spaghetti noodles onto my fork and take a bite.

"Wow. I have a lot of respect for you right now," my sister mutters. I laugh.

"Thanks. How's Justin?"

Justin is Kara's boyfriend. When he first came to pick her up for a date, Joe acted like an overprotective older brother. I thought it was really cute, but Kara thought it was absolutely annoying. I just thought it was funny that Justin was in awe that he was standing in the presence of Joe Burrow and he nodded his head to everything Joe said because he was too in shock to say anything.

"He's good. I had to tell him that my address changed now that we're living with Aunt Kate," Kara replies. I nod.

"That's good. Make sure you tell him that we're not going to be staying here long. I don't want him coming here and we're not here anymore,"

"Okay," Kara says as she pulls out her phone and texts Justin.

When Kara's done texting him, she sets down her phone and leans towards me, an intrigued look on her face.

"So, how are you planning on making Joe change his ways? Are you going to show him what he's missing? Are you going to show him how it feels to only care about yourself?" Kara asks with a smirk. I laugh and roll my eyes.

"I don't know. Neither of those ideas sound very good to me,"

"What?! I think those ideas are awesome. Joe definitely needs a taste of his own medicine," my sister says. I shrug.

"True, but I don't feel like being self absorbed. It's just not me,"

"It wasn't Joe either until he let fame go to his head," Kara mutters, rolling her eyes. I nod.

"Yeah. I have a plan and it involves the Bengals players. Oh, and Joe's mom. I told her about the break up and she was behind me on it one hundred percent," I explain. Kara laughs.

"Joe's mom? Joe's mom is in on your plan?"

"Yep. She's calling him tonight to talk to him about the break up," I say.

"I love Joe's mom even more now than I ever did before," she says as she laughs and shakes her head. I laugh.

"Yeah. Me too,"