Sweet Emotion

Chapter 23

**Tw: Verbal abuse, gaslighting, panic attack and sexual assualt (s/a)**

"It's her, isn't it?"

Tom nodded grimly, his face and body language expressing immense sorrow for his friend. "We told her you weren't here, but she kept insisting that she talk to you."

His thin lips pressed firmly together, and he shook his head in complete disbelief at the ridiculous situation.

Well, it wasn't so much ridiculous. He just didn't realise how psychotic Elyssa actually was. Now he knew.

Elyssa was terrible, which was quite frankly an understatement since she'd made it her mission to treat Joe like shit and destroy his life. Tom, and indeed the rest of the band, had hated her since Joe first introduced her as his girlfriend.

Well, Steven already knew Elyssa, having had the displeasure of growing up with her, so he hated her as much as any of them, even more so when he found out that 'the witch', as he called her, was dating his best friend. But it was a fitting nickname, seeing as she had already cast her magic spell on Joe that had made him fall madly in love with her.

"Good luck. We'll give you some privacy." Brad patted his shoulder with a small smile and motioned Tom and Joey to follow him into a different room.

The door to one of the rooms shut softly, signalling Joe that he now had complete privacy without the worry that someone was listening in to the conversation.

Joe gulped nervously, his heart racing as he put the phone to his ear. "H- hello?" he stuttered, unable to hide the intense anxiety that radiated through him.

"Joe, where the hell have you been?!" Elyssa shouted down the line, making Joe drop the phone. "I've been trying to contact you for days!!!"

Joe scooped the phone up with trembling hands, nursing his ringing left ear. He hadn't expected the earsplitting shout. "I'm sorry..." he apologised into the receiver, his lips wobbling as he spoke. "I've just been busy with work." He flicked his tongue around the backs of his teeth as his jaw tightened.

Elyssa scoffed with a bitter 'tsk'. "Uh-huh. Look, I'm so sorry for losing it at you back home, I didn't mean any of the things I said, but you can't do without me, which is why I didn't want you to go. I'm just trying to be a good girlfriend," she insisted.

"Sweetheart, I- I love you," Joe grimaced at the words that strewed the lie, his hands tightening around the phone. "and I appreciate the concern, but I can do perfectly well without you."

There was a long pause, as though this statement had completely broken her. He listened to the gravelly heavy breathing that echoed through the line, an intense feeling of distress coming over him as he picked up on how angry Elyssa was getting.

"Fuck you, Joe," was the splenetic response. "Seriously, fuck you. You're so delusional. You're nothing without me, you know that right? You need me!"

Joe's eyes darted downwards. "Why?" he asked quietly, playing with his clothes as he spoke.

"Why, what?"

"Why did you say all those things about me in the paper? I- I know our relationship isn't perfect, but I'd never hurt you, even when I'm mad."

He sniffed and rubbed at his face, remembering all the tumultuous fights he and Elyssa had had. Never had any fight, whether over something as small as a meal, been free from abuse. It was always a horrible altercation that ended with one of them storming off or refusing to interact, but as usual, in the morning everything would be forgotten and forgiven and there'd be showers of hugs and kisses and 'I love yous'.