Joe and Dianne: Life away from you

Secrets don't last forever - part 2

Narrator's POV:

Silence...

A moment of silence enveloped the apartment. Dianne stood by the door. Her feet planted firmly as she stared at her boyfriend. His crystal eyes turning into an abyss of murky grey as his penetrating glare instantly put Dianne in her place. His stony expression matching his daunting glare. No smile, slouched posture and what can only be described as a disorientating calmness about him. It was something that Dianne had never seen before - and something her inner mind track was telling her she wouldn't want to see again.

"Joe?" Dianne questioned timidly, her voice barely an audible whisper. "Is everything okay?"

Her harmless comment was met by a chuckle from Joe. His eyes tearing away from her as anger once again seemed through veins. As the anger he had tried to suppress since he found out what she had done an hour ago, bubbled up to the surface, making Joe about ready to erupt. Spewing harsh words and reality checks anywhere he could. But once the confusing and admittedly creepy laughing stopped, Joe's eyes were back on Dianne's. Watching as her usually perfect posture slouched ever so slightly, her bag swinging from her finger tips down by her feet, as if she had just got home from school like when she was a little girl.

Joe's stare refused to move off of Dianne, as did the tension in the room. The eerie and unsettling silence enveloping them once again.

"Dianne sit down." Joe said sternly, not moving his body but using his eye line to tell her where Joe wanted her to be. On the sofa, her back to the kitchen and opposite where Joe was sitting.

As Dianne moved to where Joe demanded she did, dropping her bag by the door as she did so, she noticed Joe's eye line follow her. Making her feel more uncomfortable than she ever had. As she sat down she kept her eyes off of Joe, instead focusing on her now clammy hands that were picking at her freshly painted nails. A nervous habit she had picked up as a child.

"Dianne look at me" Joe demanded, causing her to look at him. Fear resonating in her body as she saw his flared nostrils and dominant posture. The look in his eye showing that he was in control. A look that Dianne had only ever seen in one particular night they were together, just after she got back from Australia and he had finished his New Years presenting. But this was no look of lust. This wasn't something to be enjoyed - only something to be endured.
Joe breathed in deeply before beginning his speech. One he never hoped to have, but new he had too.

"Dianne, I'm going to ask you a question. And if you love me I want you to answer it honestly. Do you understand?" Joe watched as Dianne nodded her head in understanding.

"Good...." Joe took a moment. Clearing his throat and attempting to suppress his anger, giving her a chance to explain. "Dianne, what happened in Liverpool?"

Within that one question, Dianne felt everything in her body brake. The fear she felt at Joe's demeaning eye line seeming like nothing but a slight itch compare to what she felt at his question. She began to panic, her skin became clammy as her mouth became dry - her thoughts mushed together making it impossible for her to formulate anything that could come close to resembling a sentence.

But eventually her thoughts straitened out, and she realised that there was now no way in which she could avoid it anymore. She would have to confront her fear and admit what she had done to the man she loves. She breathed in deeply, sat on her hands to stop them from shaking and looked Joe in the eye.

"You know don't you?" Dianne asked as she found a sudden burst of confidence in herself.

Joe took a moment, he too breathing deeply once more. "Of course I fucking know Dianne."