Chapter twenty-four

Max and Joey both sat on the park bench, well Joey was sat on the bench and max was pacing the length of it in front.

"You gotta tell Lauren Joey, she needs to know" max said, rubbing his hands over his face.

"I don't want to upset her" Joey sighed. "Joey I'm sorry this has happened to you, I really am but Lauren deserves to know the truth" max said.

"This will kill her max, to know he's hurt her again, it'll kill her" Joey said. "No Joey, you don't understand. Its killed her more thinking that you don't love her, she was in pieces for months" max sighed.

"She seems alright now, she just seems angry more than anything" Joey said furrowing her eyebrows together.

"You don't know the half of it Joey, she lashed out at Mary as soon as you left" max said.

"What? Why!" Joey said. "She blames Mary for you leaving, Lauren thinks you left because of your talk with Mary" max said.

"Oh god this is such a mess" Joey sighed. "Yeah so there not talking, you need to tell her Joey, she thinks you never loved her, she thinks you used her" max told him.

"I'd never do that to her, if I had any choice I would never of left in the first place" Joey said getting frustrated.

"You need to tell her Joey" max told him. "I can't hurt her any more than I already have" Joey said. "You have to fix this" max told him.

"I just don't wanna hurt her" Joey said, max watched his eyes fill up and he genuinely felt sorry for him.

"I feel so shit! I'm forced away from my girlfriend and when I do finally come back, she's happy with some other guy and he's raising my daughter, my daughter I didn't even know about because of that twat!" Joey shouted.

"Lauren is not happy, she is far from it now come on" max told him. Joey raised an eyebrow at him. "We're going to see Lauren now come on" max said walking off.

Joey dragged his feet behind max, he wanted to tell Lauren but he didn't want hurt her again.

Max knocked on Lauren's door three times and they heard her rummaging about before she answered.

When she opened the door she looked flustered and her eyes were red raw from where she had clearly been crying.

She cleared her throat and her eyes flickered to joeys. "I thought you weren't coming to see Macy til tonight?" Lauren asked Joey.

"That's not what I'm here for" Joey said. Lauren furrowed her eyebrows
Together "what are you here for then? Both of you?" She asked.

"Look babe, Joey didn't have no choice but to leave" max told her. Lauren scoffed at him and furrowed her eyebrows together once more.

"What? So he spins you some bullshit story and suddenly your taking his side?" Lauren snapped.

Joey stared at Lauren as she got herself worked up, he loved her and he hated seeing her like this, suffering.

"You need to hear what he has to say babe" max told her, moving forward to walk into the house.

"No!" She snapped, surprising both max and Joey. "You know what he put me through, you know he made me feel like I was nothing, you were there max, you helped me!" Lauren cried.

"I know babe" max sighed. "I'm sorry, please let me explain. "Oh, you want me to let you explain why I suffered for months, why my heart was broken, why I was emotionally broken so much I got really stressed and nearly lost Macy? Is that what you want Joey?" Lauren snapped.

"You what? How did you nearly lose Macy?" Joey asked. "Stress Joey! I had nobody, not really, all through the pregnancy, the birth and still now, do you know how hard and scary it is to do all that on your self?" Lauren asked him.

"I'm so sorry" he said. "You didn't tell me that Lauren, I was here almost everyday I could've helped you" max sighed. "And you had Sean" max said.

Joey narrowed his eyes at max. "I didn't though did I?" Lauren scoffed while crying. "Ay?" Max mumbled.

"He wasn't interested in me from the start I could tell, he was horrible to me and I knew he was cheating on me from the start" Lauren said.

Joeys eyes filled up with anger at how he could treat Lauren that way when he would do anything to have her.

"So there you go, bet your happy about that aren't you? Stay away from me Joey" Lauren told him.

"I am not happy about that I'm fuming, you deserve so much better Lauren, I am really sorry for what I did to you, just let me explain" Joey asked her.

Macy chose that moment to let out a piercing scream. "Come over tonight to see Macy and we'll talk then" Lauren said.

"Thank you" Joey said with emotion. Lauren guiltily smiled at him and closed the door, she leant against it for a minute then rushed over to Macy.

So who knows what happened to Joey and why he had to leave? Leave a review please Xx