A New Beginning • Emmerdale

Chapter 5: "She wasnt very nice.."

*just a warning this part has mentions of abuse!*

KENNEDYS'S POV

My eyes slowly flutter open and they land on and land on an unfamiliar room. I shoot up, unaware of where I am. I then soon realise I fell asleep on the sofa last night with Joe. He must've carried me upstairs.

"Joe?" I call out, hearing nothing so I decide to head downstairs thinking he may already be up.

"Joe" I say again. Yet again. No reply.

"Hmm" i say to myself and head towards the kitchen, walking past the sofa I see Joe asleep. I smile to myself and walk over, sitting on the edge of the sofa.

Joe stirs a bit and sits up slightly and looks at me and smirks. "Good morning" he says.

"Morning" I reply "why did you sleep down here?" I ask

"I'm not going to make you sleep on the sofa am I" He chuckled a bit

I smile looking down at my hands that were sat on my lap "thank you"

He sits up fully, keeping his legs across the sofa, grabbing my hand pulling it closer to him.

"It's oka-" he stops, as he looks at my arm, then at my eyes looking for an answer. I look down to see what he's looking at, i yank my arm away pulling the sleeve on the shirt down and break eye contact looking at the floor.

"What the hell was that?" He said gritting his teeth.

"A burn, from my curlers?" I say convincingly.

"That's more than one burn"

"I'm clumsy" I state

He just looked at me, an unconvinced look plastered all over his face, as he raised his eyebrow at me.

I let out a deep breath "she wasn't very nice" I mutter

"Who" he says angrily

"My uncles fiancée" I gulp "when I first moved there, she kept calling me a burden and how I wasn't wanted. It started with her calling me names, then moved onto the odd push, locking me in my room for hours. Then it's got real violent. Slaps, she'd put out her cigarettes on my arm, and she'd hit me, real hard" I say, my voice trembling with every sentence, I broke down finishing, covering my face with my hands as the tears kept pouring out of my eyes.

Joe face hardened, then a sad look took over as he looked down his eyes watering also. "I- I didn't know it was anything like that" his voice broke.

I shook my head unable to form words. I feel his strong arms wrap around me as he pulls me into him, resting his head on top on mine, allowing me to let all my tears out on him. His hand rubbing small circles on my lower back.

"Shh" he whispers, attempting to calm me down. I just spurted out what happened like it was nothing. I've not even told Debbie, Joe is the first and only one who knows.

"you're the first to know" I mutter into his chest, that was damp from my tears

"What? Why haven't you told anyone? Why have you told me before your family" He pulls me back a little so he can see my face, but still keeping a safe grip on my upper arms.

"I haven't told my family, because something inside of me told me they wouldn't believe me. And I told you because something was telling me I could trust you" I admitted as I rose my hand to wipe the tears away from my tear stained face.

Joe's hand beat mine to it, his thumb slowly wiping the tears away "I appreciate that, but you must tell your mum at least. Is that why you came back so soon?"

"I know, and I will. Yeah, I needed to get out of there" I stood up off the sofa "I'm going to put for a bit, clear my head. But I'll see you soon?" I say in which he nodded.

I ran up the stairs and grabbed my now washed and dried jeans off the end of the bed, because my top and coat were light, they were in a separate wash that was just on, so I grabbed another one of Joe's long sleeved shirts and tucked it into my jeans before grabbing my bag and heading backwards downstairs.

"Bye" I say quick to Joe who had been joined by Graham in the kitchen.

Walking down the dry dirt road I head into a cafe I saw on Main Street.

"Hello dear, what can I get for you?" An older woman asked me.

"Just a tea would be great thanks" I give her a friendly smile

She taps a few buttons on the till. "I've not seen you around here before, my names Brenda"

"I'm Kennedy" I smile, leaving out my surname for now, not being in the mood to explain.

She hands the drink to me "that'll be £2.20 today please sweetheart" she smiles warmly

I hand her over a £5 note "keep the change" I nod smiling and head over to a small table in the corner, not before bumping into someone.

"Oh god I'm so sorry!!" I apologise, luckily my drink didn't spill

"It's okay, it's my fault" she smiled at me before quickly walking out the cafe. Weird. I thought to myself.

I sat at the table looking at my phone, debating on wether or not I go back to Mum's. I look up as I hear someone sit in front of me.

"What do you want" I say to Debbie crossing my arms placing them on the table.

"I want to apologise, you're right, I can't tell you what you do. But I'm still serious about him. Be careful around him" I roll my eyes

"Sure" I take a sip of my drink. I notice her staring at my, well Joe's, shirt.

"Tell me that is not whose I think it is" she said with a frown

"Don't know what you're talking about." I state simply

"Is that Joe's?" I shrug and give a slight nod.

Debbie's mouth drops open "tell me did-"

"No!! Of course not. Mum didn't want me staying at hers yesterday, it was poring with rain and he was the only one for me to go to. That's all" I say calmly "nothing happened, I slept then woke up and left"

She bit her lip as if to say she was t sure I was telling the whole truth, but then she nodded "okay"

I took a deep breath knowing now was the time to tell Debbie the truth, of why I returned so early.

"Debbie.. there's something I've been meaning to tell you. About why I came back so early"