Joanne through the years.

The Beating

Zoe
I woke up to arguing. It was late. I checked my phone. 4:34am. I could hear my dads voice and another...Joes. I leapt out of bed. Joe wouldn't be able to deal with this. What if it put him over the edge? 
"I come home after a long hard day of work and I find you still awake, texting a girl in the middle of the night." I peered out of my door. I could see my dad angrily pacing around and Joe cowering in the corner. "Who is this Dianne girl?" He demanded.
"A friend from school. I promise nothing more" Joe whimpered.
"Why was she here after school? You were supposed to clean the bathroom."
"I needed help with my maths homework" Joe pressed himself against the wall. He couldn't mentally handle this. I knew he couldn't. Dad undid his belt and I just stood there. He pulled Joe by the scruff of the neck and yanked his t-shirt up. He whacked him again and again with the belt. Joes whole back erupted. Old cuts reopened and new ones were made.
"Now away with you" Dad yelled and Joe scampered off to his bedroom without a backward glance. Whenever I heard dads bedroom door close a few minutes later, I walked to joes room. I opened the door but Joe wasn't there. I went to his en suite and saw him crying over the sink. I grabbed a cloth and placed it on his back. Neither Joe nor I spoke as I cleaned his wounds and bandaged them up.
"Thanks Zo" He muttered whenever I was done. I pulled him into a big hug.
"Stay strong Joseph. Stay strong. You can get through this" I kissed his forehead and left the room. Whenever I glanced back I saw him taking another tablet. Why couldn't life just be good to him?
I woke up the next morning to the sound of Joe being sick. I ran in and rubbed his back. It was the tablets. They always made him sick whenever he took them after a while off. I put him back to bed before walking to school. I met Dianne at the gate. She grinned at me but her face fell slightly whenever she realised that I was alone.
"Where's Joe?" She asked.
"Ummmm he's sick" I replied. "In fact, you should probably come round after school. I think he wanted to talk to you about something" I said. I had asked Joe if he wanted to tell Dianne and he had said yes so I figured that the sooner he told her, the better.
Dianne
I felt a bit lonely without Joe. Especially in maths.
"Alright Red head" Caspar called as I was in the lunch line.
"Have u finished Joe off?" Mikey laughed.
"He's sick" I replied
"Yeah. From all that time he spent with you" Josh pulled my hair and I backed away. But ended backing right into Jack who picked me up and carried me outside.

 "Get off me" I screamed.
"Wash your mouth out Red" Josh kicked me in the shin. I began to cry.
"Oi" a voice yelled behind them. Zoe was running towards us. "Get lost" she screamed and the boys scarpered. She turned to me. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, thanks" I hugged her tightly.
"Let's take the afternoon off school and go see Joe" She smiled.
"Can we do that?" I asked cautiously.
"They won't care" Zoe took my hand and together we ran to her house. When we burst in I could hear someone being sick.
"Joey?" Zoe called and began to run to his room.
"I'm in my en suite" he replied and we both ran in. Joe was leaning over the toilet, having just been sick.
"You good Suggy?" I stroked his hair. He visibly stiffened.
"I didn't know u were here Reddo" He turned his head slightly took look at me. I noticed Zoe leave the room. I knew something was wrong.
"She said that you wanted to talk to me" I lowered myself so that we were both sitting on the floor. Joe stood up and took my hand and pulled me into his bedroom.
"I haven't told anyone this" He rang his hands nervously.
"So why are u telling me?" I asked.
"Because you and Zoe are the two people who mean the most to me so since Zoe already knows I feel like this would be a fake friendship if I didn't tell you..."
I didn't say anything but blushed slightly whenever he said that I meant the most to him. "A few years ago, I was diagnosed with depression. I started medication. But it makes me sick. About a week ago, I stopped feeling like I needed it and I went off the medication but last night I took a lot of them because..." he pulled up his shirt and turned around. I gasped.
"What the heck happened?"
"Dad got pretty angry last night" He looked down at his feet. I tilted his head up.
"I'm glad you told me" I hugged him and he hugged me back.
"I'll be off school probably until Monday being sick but after that my body kinda gets used to it and I stop throwing up."
I hugged him and whenever we pulled apart we leant our foreheads on each other and closed our eyes. He was perfect for me.
Joe
As promised, I was back to school by Monday. Dianne had brought every bit of work we did at school home for me to do and even spent her evenings helping me do it. I was falling hard. She was such a nice girl and was extremely pretty.
"Hey Suggy" Dianne smiled at me as she slid into the seat next to me at maths. "How ya feeling?"
"I'm good" I smiled. "Not 100% yet but I'm almost there."
"I'm really proud Joey" Di ruffled my hair affectionately, causing me to blush and for several people to turn around and smirk at us. Dianne and I walked to our second lesson of the day together. I glanced at her hand swaying by her side. I could just reach out and grab it. Chill Joseph I told myself firmly. You've known each other a week. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I noticed that Dianne was watching me in history. I turned my head to look at her. She blushed deeply and looked away, looking slightly annoyed that I had caught her. I texted her.
Me: enjoying the view reddo?
Dianne: shut up Joesph
I looked over and we both burst out laughing. Dianne stuck her fist in her mouth to quieten her laughs but I wasn't quite quick enough.
"Not again Joseph" The teacher sighed at me. "Just get out."
I stood up and winked at Dianne before hurrying out of the room
Dianne
Crap. Joe had caught me staring at him. My phone pinged with a message. I began to laugh uncontrollably when I read it. I replied and began to laugh harder and so did Joe. I stuck my fist in my mouth so the teacher couldn't hear but Joe wasn't quite so quick. The teacher sent him out in a jiffy but on his way to departure he looked back at me and winked and I just about had a heart failure. What was this boy doing to me? 

A/N: Nothing much has really happened yet but I promise that something will.  I've already wrote up to chapter twenty two so I have something planned.  The next chapter will just be some Joanne stuff but it's relevant to the story line.