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I said, "You don't wanna know the things I had to do"

She said, "Son, you gotta tell me why you're black and blue"

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Joey grabbed Elena by her shoulders and pulled her further into the room. He glanced back at the door once more before facing her.

Elena stared back at him, at a loss for words. For a couple of times her mouth opened and closed by its own accord and no sound came out.

Joey said, "I can explain."

Elena looked at him incredulously, "You can explain the scars covering half of your back?" Her heart was sinking down to her stomach. They did not look like the aftermath of an accident.

Joey looked over his shoulder again. He did not want to provide any other person with a lie. "It's a really old accident and I would really owe you one if you don't mention it to anyone else. Nobody knows about them and there's really no need for them to."

Elena shrugged off his hands and took a step away from him. "Joey those are not accidental scars! The three in the middle are perfectly straight lines! Do not fucking tell me those are not deliberate." 

He raised his hands towards her, "Keep your voice down!" And then in an almost desperate voice he added, "Please!"                                                                                                                        

She relaxed her stance and said, "Alright. But you're gonna tell me why your back is fifty levels of fucked up."

Joey closed his eyes for a second, wishing he was anywhere else but there. 

He did not want to make up a cover up story. Not for her sake, especially not after last night. Regardless, he said, "It happened when I was thirteen." That part was true.

"It happened at my parent's house." Again true. "Their house was getting rebuilt and I was on the top of the roof when they were moving some glass furniture out." Fuck. And the lying starts.

Elena raised an eyebrow at him, "And you just fell on top of it."

Joey shrugged in response and she continued, "And by chance the cuts were more or less equally apart."

He stared right into her eyes. He knew how stupid the story was but nobody had ever seen the scars before and the few who had, had been there when he had gotten them.  

Elena couldn't decide on what she wanted to do most. Slap him for lying which he very clearly was, not care about the lie because it was none of her business how his back looked, or laugh at how stupid his cover story was.

Finally, she said, "If you don't want to tell me you can totally say that."

Before she could continue, someone knocked on the door and Alex's head came into view.

"Hey..." he trailed off, sensing the tension between them. "I'll come back later," he gave them a little nod and closed the door behind him.

Joey stepped forward and took one of Elena's hand into his and put it over his heart.

Elena blinked at the sudden proximity and tilted her head up to look at him. Which wasn't a very good decision because the first thing she saw were his lips. And that quickly sent her mind away from the conversation and towards a not so holy place.

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