*Thank-you for the reviews on the last chapter. They were greatly appreciated thank-you all so much*
"You little bitch," I hear Ian's voice as I am in my locker getting out the books and stuff I need to take home with me for the night.
"Excuse me?" I ask.
"You just couldn't keep your mouth shut could you? You just had to run to old Daddy and tell him that I raped you. I didn't rape you, Teagan you and I both know that. You wanted it just as much as I did."
"Why are we having this conversation?" I ask slamming my locker shut. "I thought we were done with this. I told you I was letting it go and I wasn't doing anything to get you in trouble."
"You told your dad," he says. "You act like he doesn't talk to people. Word is going around about me being a rapist and guess who else found out," he says.
"Ian, I don't really care. You raped me so if it's getting around it's getting around. I don't know what to tell you."
"My coach found out and so did the principal so you know what is happening now?"
"What?" I ask rolling my eyes as I hold my books in my hand. "I really don't have time for this. I have stuff to do so if you could talk to someone that gives a shit that would be great."
"I got suspended for the rest of the season. I'm benched. I can't play basketball because you opened your mouth spewing off lies. No one is going to believe you, Teagan. NO one will believe you."
"Obviously my dad did," I say. "And the basketball coach and the principal."
"Just because your dad is a scout doesn't mean you have to ruin my life."
"I didn't tell my dad to ruin your life. I didn't tell him to tell anyone. He did that on his own because he doesn't want scum like you to get a full ride to college and rape other unsuspecting girls. Ian, just leave me alone."
"Are you going to the police, I need to know are you going to the police?"
"Ian, I went through this. I told you no but if you don't leave me alone I might have to because right now you're harassing me."
"Right," he says as he towers over me. "If you open your mouth again you little bitch you're going to be sorry. Are we clear?"
"Let me go," I say as he holds onto my arm too tightly.
"Are we clear, Teagan, I don't want there to be problems," he says in a threatening tone.
"GET OFF OF ME!" I yell as Joe appears from nowhere pushing him out of the way and knocking him to the ground as I drop my books to rub my arm.
"Is there a problem, Ramirez?" he asks.
"Nothing that concerns you, Joe, mind your own business this is between Teagan and me this has nothing to do with you."
"Anything that has to do with Teagan has to do with me," he says making me smile. "If you have a problem with her you have a problem with me."
"Mind your business," he says.
"Teagan is MY business and if I ever see you with your hands on her like that again or I hear you talking to her the way you were again I am going to shove my fist down your throat and rip out your insides got it? You don't look at Teagan, you don't talk to Teagan do you understand me?" he asks and I have never seen so much rage in Joe as I do in this moment. His eyes dark and his tone even. He is not playing around with Ian. I didn't even know this side of Joe existed. "Now get out of here before I kick your ass," says Joe as Ian stands up. He looks at me and as he is about to say something Joe rubs his fist and Ian backs away slowly walking off down the hallway. "Are you okay?" he asks picking up my books for me.
"Yeah," I say, "I'm good."
"You sure?" he asks handing me my books.
"Yeah," I say.
"What was that all about?" he asks as we start to walk down the hallway to walk home from school.
"I guess my dad has been telling his friends about what Ian did to me and he got suspended for the rest of the season."
"He deserves more than that," says Joe, "he deserves to spend some time in jail. Why won't you just report it to the police?"
"No sense in doing that. I just want to let it go. It was a horrible experience and I am tired of thinking and talking about it. It's like reliving it over and over again. I'm fine and I'm not pressing charges so let's just drop it okay?" I ask.
"Okay," he says as he takes my hand into his making me smile. "So how was school for you today?"
"Same old stuff," I say with a smile. "It's nothing new. Same stuff just a different day. I'm ready for it to be over. I feel like this year is taking forever."
"Me too," he says. "Ugh," he says.
"What? What's wrong?"
"Gina is coming over today she wants to hang out. I guess I owe her that much since most of my time has been spent with you lately. I guess I owe her a little bit of my attention."
"But I like getting all of your attention," I say with a pout.
"I like giving you all my attention," he says.
"So why don't you? Forget about Gina, you don't love her anyway. You're always with me. Why do you need both of us, Joe?"
"I can't just break up with her," he says.
"But you can just sleep around with me and date me behind her back. That's not fair to her. Why are you holding onto her? Let her go she's evil, Joe. You know that and I know that."
"It's complicated," he says.
"Because you make it complicated," I say, "you are in some crazy love triangle at 15 years old. You don't know what you see in her and you don't know why you love her so why are you with her?"
"I don't know, Tea, I wish I could answer that."
"If you want marriage and kids someday I'm willing to give it to you but you need to get that bitch out of the way and focus on us. Focus on what we have. We have something special. We're meant to be together and you see a future with me do you see a future with Gina? Do you think you could have kids with her and marry her?"
"The only person I see in my future is you, Teagan. I know at 15 it's so young to say that I want to be with you the rest of my life but it's true. I can't deny what I feel. I have this need to control you but I have this need to love you and love you in every way that I can. I want to love you the rest of my life. Our dreams are similar and we both have this connection. I need you with me the rest of our lives, Teagan."
"Then get rid of Gina you're just wasting her time and your time. I want to be able to show us off to the school and to the world. I want people to know I love you and that I will always love you. I want them to see but how can they see if you have to keep us a secret?"
"I don't know, Teagan, I'll do what I can."
"You said that before," I say. I'm starting to get annoyed with the whole thing. I love Joe and when I say I love him I mean I love him with every beat of my heart. He talks of having this future together and I want that too but he is dragging his feet with this Gina thing and I don't know. I'm not sure if he really does love her or not but what I do know is that it's exhausting and tiring hiding a relationship from people. I don't feel bad about what we're doing I just feel bad that I'm not really his number 1 if he can't just give up on Gina. "I want a normal relationship Joe one where we can be public. I don't like being the secret."
"Soon enough, Tea," he says before he kisses my cheek. "Be patient."
"I am," I say. "I am."
JOE's POINT OF VIEW:
"So what happened with you and Ian today?" asks Gina as we are cuddled up on the couch in my living room spending time together.
"Who said anything happened with Ian and me today?" I ask. I don't think there was anyone around when I confronted Ian for inappropriately talking to Tea or for putting his hands on her. I want to know how she knew about it.
"I heard some stuff," she says, "I heard that you threatened to rip out his insides why?"
"Yeah I did," I say, "I did it because he was harassing Teagan at her locker. He was hurting her."
"But that isn't your business," she says. "Every time you get involved with conflict Teagan is in the center of it. Just stay away from her she's nothing but trouble."
"She's not trouble. I'm not going to stand back and let someone disrespect her or let her get harassed by someone that assaulted her."
"How do you know she was even telling the truth? Maybe she's lying about it, Joe, it's not your business stay out of it."
"You know I'm getting sick and tired of people telling me that Teagan isn't my business or what happens with her isn't my business. She is my best friend. She's my business. I don't want to see her hurt. I don't care if you like it or not I'm not going to stop protecting her."
"I just feel like you do it too much, Joe and where have you been lately? Because you surely haven't been with me."
"Gina we are 15 years old."
"Actually, I'm 16 my birthday was two weeks ago remember you blew off my Sweet 16 because you weren't feeling well?"
"Oh," I say. I remember the night I told her I wasn't feeling well. I knew it was her birthday but I didn't want to go to her party. I wanted to be with Teagan instead. I always want to be with Teagan instead. Maybe Teagan is right. Maybe it is time to cut Gina loose. "I wasn't feeling well."
"You never feel well and you're always hanging out with the guys but never with me, Joe."
"What do you want me to do, Gina?" I ask as I wrap her up tighter in my arms and take in the scent of her hair as I kiss the top of her head. "What do you want me to do?"
"I want you to spend time with me, Joe, I want you to act like I am your girlfriend. I want you to be with me. It hurts me when you don't spend time with me. It makes me feel like you don't want to be with me and you would rather be with someone else. I can't have you with anyone else, Joe I love you and I want you to be with me."
"Okay," I say, "what if I want to break up?"
"Why would you want to break up with me? I didn't do anything to make you want to break up with me. Please don't, Joe."
"I just feel like maybe we should take a break for a while you know what I mean. I think we should just take a break maybe see other people whatever."
"No that's a horrible idea," she says. "Why would you want to break up, Joe?"
"I just feel like maybe we've gotten too close too soon. I mean we are 15 years old well you're 16 but still. I think we are too young to be this serious about each other. It's nothing against you, Gina it's just I think that maybe a little break wouldn't be so bad."
"Joe," she says with tears in her dark sad eyes as she looks up at me. "I love you. I don't want to let you go. I know I'm a bitch sometimes and I know I can be rude but I do love you. I want to be with you. I know I'm not perfect and I know I'm not the best person in the world but please just give me a chance to prove that I love you. Joe, you have no idea what you mean to me. I know I'm 16 but true love is true love. Please don't do this to me. It will destroy me and my heart will break into a thousand pieces. Please, Joe," she says as tears fall from her dark eyes. She is a manipulator over me. She knows how to pull at my heart. I can't break up with her not with those beautiful dark eyes looking at me and not that sad tear filled face. For the first time in the last few months I feel something for her. I think I might actually be in love with her. I have to be if she can tear my heart apart like this with a single tear. "Please, Joe," she says.
"I don't know what you do to me, Gina," I say, "I don't know what you're doing to me," I say as I lift her chin as she looks down at the space forming between us. "I love you, Gina," I say. "I know you're not perfect and I know you're not the best. I'm not looking for perfection I'm looking for the perfectly imperfect person," I say with a smile. "I love you. We're all a little flawed."
She smiles at me and I lean down kissing her lips softly tasting the tears that fell onto her beautiful lips. I don't know how I can love both Teagan and Gina. They are two different people but I love them both. I think it's Teagan's submission to me, her gentleness, her kindness and her intelligence not to mention those beautiful blue eyes that remind me so much of the gulf. I love her because of all those things. I love her because she's Teagan, the girl I have known all my life, I feel the connection between us and I see my future with her but with Gina I don't get it. She's the complete opposite of Teagan. I don't understand my feelings for her. "Are we breaking up?"
"I don't know," I say. "I really don't know. I just feel like we should but a part of me feels like we shouldn't. I don't know what to do, Gina."
"Joe," she says, "Please I'll be a better girlfriend if you just give me the chance to be."
"All right," I say going against my better judgment. I know Teagan is going to be pissed but she doesn't feel bad about what we're doing. I don't feel bad for what I'm doing. I'm in love with Teagan. I'm in love with Gina. I have the best of both worlds but I know that's not going to last forever. "Come here," I say as I pull her into my arms with a smile. "I love you."
"I love you too," she says with a smile before I kiss her lips once again. "Can we go upstairs now?"
"Yeah," I say with a smile as I stand up. I take her hand and lead her upstairs to my bedroom. I shut the door behind us as I strip out of my shirt as she does the same. We waste no time stripping out of our clothes and finding our way to my bed where she towers over me before her lips are on mine, my arms wrapped around her and my hands in her hair. We spend the evening having sex with each other. We reach our climax together one last time before I kiss her lips softly before I remove myself from her. "It's getting late," I say.
"I know. I have to get home. You want to do this again tomorrow?" she asks as we start to get dressed.
"I don't know," I say, "You don't want to go on a date or anything?"
"No I am okay with just hanging out at your house," she says putting on her shirt. "I had a nice time this evening, Joe," she says with a smile.
"Me too," I say as I put my shorts on. "I don't know about tomorrow."
"All right," she says, "just let me know."
"I will," I say. Once she is dressed I walk her downstairs after she calls her dad to come get her. We sit out on my porch as we wait for him. "So we're good?" I ask.
"Yeah," she says as I hold her hand in mine. "We're good."
"Good," I say before I wrap my arm around her and kiss the top of her head. I look over at Teagan's porch and see her out front looking at us. We make eye contact she shakes her head and walks into the house.
*A/N: What did you think of Ian threatening Teagan? Do you think Teagan told her dad to ruin his life? What did you think of Joe standing up for her and jumping in to save her? What are your thoughts on Gina and Joe? Why do you think Joe can't let her go? Do you think he's in love with her or is he just confused? What makes their sex life so much different than his with Teagan? Is this whole thing going to blow up in Joe's face the next time he talks to Teagan? Please review and thank-you for reading.