Lifesaver

Chapter 5

*2 months later*

The past two months have been the same. Waking up at the crack of dawn by my dad beating me to death, going to school, spending the school day being with Joey anytime I can, going to dance until late, coming home to get beat to death again, and then falling asleep after homework and talking to Joey. The bond between Joey and I has become stronger and I can tell he likes me but could not decide if it was in a romantic type of way, until today.

After school, Joey rushes through the crowd of students walking to their cars to stop me before leaving. When he finally reaches me, he looks at me and asks "Are you free or do you have dance everyday"? I tell him I have dance everyday except Fridays unless we have a performance or competition on the weekends. He looks at me in disappointment and says "Well that sucks because I might have actually found the guts to ask if you would want to hangout after school". As much as I love dance and knew how important it was, I was tempted to ditch this one time. I finally look at Joey and say "I hardly ever miss dance so it'll be okay if I don't go today. It's the middle of October so we haven't been rehearsing for an upcoming performance or anything." I can tell Joey wants to show how excited he is but instead he just smirks and says, "Are you sure? I don't want you to feel like you have to miss dance to hangout with me and I don't want you to think I would want you to do that". I tell him to hush and not to worry about it because I would love to hangout with him for the rest of the day. I ask what he had in mind and he says he was thinking a movie and dinner but we could do whatever I wanted.

Before I went to the movies and dinner with Joey, I decided to take my car home and have Joey follow behind. It was before five so nobody would be home and I could just say a dance friend wanted me to ride with her because she got a new car or something, everything would be fine. When we reach my house, I park in my usual spot and get into Joey's truck. I had never been as nervous around Joey as I was right now. I did not know if he considered this a date or just close friends hanging out.

When we reached the movie theatre, we decided to see a scary movie. I am usually not a fan of scary movies because I get scared easily and was living a scary movie of my own, but all Joey had to say was "I'm here to protect you and I have two hands for you to hold". I just rolled my eyes in a joking manner and got out of his truck because I was already happy just by being with him.

I figured out hanging out after school was in fact a date. Not only did Joey pay for everything, even though I told him not to, but he also held me tight when I was scared. After the movie, I was not too hungry after sharing a popcorn with Joey but he insisted so we went to dinner. We ended up at Outback after driving by and discussing how great the bread and blooming onion are. Joey ends up ordering a steak and I just get a salad because I ate mostly bread and the blooming onion. After leaving Outback, it is only eight so we decide to just sit in his truck and talk. After a while of just talking about school, dance, and basketball, Joey just stares at me with a smile on his face. I look at him and say "What?" and he just replies with "Nothing. You're just too pretty and cute not to look at". As a smile overtakes my face, Joey grabs me and pulls me closer to him while holding my hand. He kisses me on the forehead and just hugs me which gave me butterflies but also made me feel happy. Joey starts to put his hand up the back of my shirt just to rub my back but I freak out and tell him to stop. I had not told him about my living situation and did not want to scare him by him seeing my bruises and marks, but it was too late.

Joey has a look of fear on his face as he says, "What in the world Bella"? I could tell how confused and worried he was but before I could say anything, he gets out of the truck and runs to my side and opens the door. To try and calm him, I just grab his hand and say "It's fine Joey. I'm a dancer, things happen". Joey just shakes his head and says, "I know things happen Bella but it wasn't just one bruise. From what I saw, everything was black and purple. That isn't normal". I did not know what to say after that because I was torn between telling Joey everything about my past or just telling him I did not want to talk about it. Instead, Joey breaks the silence by saying "Can I see all of it"? I could tell Joey was genuinely worried so I lift up my shirt exposing my back and stomach. Joey's mouth dropped and said "I don't want to force you to explain but I know this isn't from dance. I want to protect you and can't if I don't know what happened". After that, I just tell him it is a long story but I am ready for him to know my story.