After the Kiss (A Shoey FanFic)

Chapter 4

Shane

Everything had been going great until this moment. I quickly sat on the couch as Joey nervously walked over to open the door. I felt so bad for him, having to do this by himself. But I was here with him, I would always be here. As Joey twisted the doorknob and pulled the door open, my stomach felt like it was about to explode.

"JOSEPH GRACEFFA!" Stacy screamed at him. I got up from the couch and walked over to the table, standing there dumbly. "YOU DIDN'T TELL ME YOU WERE FUCKING GAY!" I clenched my fists as anger boiled over me. Joey could be whatever he wanted no matter what. "Uh, um, I-I'm actually bi...."Joey started, but was quickly cut off by Stacy's screeching.

"OH MY GOD JOEY DOES IT FUCKING MATTER?! YOU COULD HAVE AT LEAST TOLD ME BEFORE YOU DECIDED TO FUCK AROUND WITH A FAT PIG LIKE SHANE!"

I couldn't take it anymore. I ran to the door where Stacy was standing and yelled, "JOEY CAN BE WITH WHOEVER HE WANTS! GOD STACY, WHY DO YOU EVEN CARE?! JOEY'S SEXUAL ORIENTATION IS NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS! AND HE DOESN'T HAVE TO TELL YOU SHIT!"

Stacy stared at Joey, tears in her eyes. "You could have just told me,"she muttered softly, pain in her voice. "You could've told me." And with that, she ran to her car, tears streaming down her face. "Stacy wait!"Joey tried to call out to her. But she was already gone, driven away in misery.

Joey sat on the couch and put his head in his hands. His body shook as he cried. It was so heartbreaking, like he was an angel with a broken wing. I sat down next to his and patted his back.

"Hey, she was asking for it," I told him. "She had no right to do that." Joey looked up at my face and gave me a watery smile. "Thank you for helping me Shane," he said, wiping away his tears. "I love you."

"I love you too," I cooed, gently running my hand through his soft fluffy hair. I wrapped my arms around him, gently holding his small warm body. It was almost like Joey radiated warmth, the warmth I had so desperately needed.

Later on we went out to eat. We went to In 'N Out and got some burgers. I looked at Joey and he daintily sipped his strawberry milkshake. I watched as he slowly chewed on some fries, and took a small bite out of his burger. Everything about him was so gentle, kind, loving. I wondered how he actually loved me, with my clumsy moves and emotional eating issues. God, I was a mess compared to Joey.

Joey seemed to notice me looking at him. He smiled at me, a twinkle in his eyes. I took a sip of my chocolate milkshake and finally asked, "So, um, what do you want to do after this?" Joey thought for a while, and finally answered, "Ooh, can we go to the park?" The park we usually went to was a dirty, old, beaten down park, with a rusted playground and a muddy field of dead grass. "Oh please, I haven't been there in oh-so long!" He chirped in his Effie Trinket immitation. I couldn't possibly say no to that.

"Oh, alright," I finally agreed. Joey cheered and finished the rest of his food. I munched on some fries and he finished up his burger. Sitting here, having dinner with him, was Heaven. Anywhere where we were together was Heaven, no matter what place we were in. It didn't matter.

"Oh God, look at this place!" I held Joey's hand as we entered the park, which looked worse than it had ever looked. Seriously, this place needed a major upgrade. If you had never been there before, you wouldn't be able to tell what color the playground uses to be. The colors were all bleached and faded, rust covering most of the metal. The grass was still dead, frost scattered on the dead blades.

"Awesome!" Joey exclaimed. He was happy even though the park was shit. That made me happy.We both sat down on the freezing cold benches and watched as two little kids beat the crap out of each other and three teenagers stood bye groggily watching, smoking joints.

"Well, in, this is something," I mumbled. The park was now officially the ghettoest place I'd ever been to. And that's saying something since I've been to the east side of L.A. That seemed like Disneyland compared to this. But I was with Joey, and he was happy. That's all that really matters to me.

We got home at around 9:30pm. Joey washed his hands then yawned. "Well, I think I'd better get ready for bed," he told me as he stretched. "Oh okay. Goodnight," I replied. Once JOEY had left to sleep, I got a text from Lisa. It said:

"baby i want u back cn u cm bak plz?????? luv u"

I deleted the text and hurried on upstairs. Joey would not know of this. Ever.

Joey

As I brushed my teeth, I saw Shane run up the stairs. He looked nervous. "Huh, strange,"I said to myself after I was done with everything. I went to his door and knocked on it. "Hey Shane, everything alright?" I asked curiously. "Yeah, yeah just hold on a sec-," he mumbled before replying, "Everything's fine, thanks Joey."

"Um, okay then. Goodnight." I replied. Shane was acting a bit strange, I wondered if it had anything to do with me. I decided to just forget about it and go to bed. Besides, I could trust Shane, right? Right.

I slowly climbed into bed, pulling the covers over my head. I knew it was the middle of summer, but I had always liked the feel of warm blankets. It reminded me of the good parts of my childhood, not the parts where I was fighting with my family to be put in a normal classroom.

I shuddered at the memories that came to mind. It was all because of those stupid paint chips. Just the thought of them made me blister with rage. Those God Damn skank ass bitch ass-

No, that was the past. I would not get mad about it now, or ever again. It happened, it's done, it's gone. I sighed and closed my eyes. Tomorrow I was going to do a video with Shane again. I just hoped he was alright, he sounded a bit nervous back when he was on his computer in his room. Did it have something to do with Lisa?

"Nah," I reassured myself. "It was probably just some crazy fan hating on him or something." I knew Shane would never cheat on me behind my back with Lisa. He would never do such a thing.

It would he?