Joe painfully got to his feet and went inside. Hearing the other boys in the living room, he used the back stairs and went upstairs to his room, locking it. Entering the connecting bathroom, he locked the connecting door which led into Frank's room and started cleaning himself up. The blood had come from his nose which had taken the first punch. But he knew he wouldn't be a pretty sight for a few days anyway. After stopping his nose from bleeding, he sank to the floor, his back against the tub, and wrapped his knees with his arms. Putting his head on his arms he lay there until it grew dark, wondering what had gone wrong.

He could understand Biff's rage. He was temperamental and he had just told Joe he was in love with Jeanine. His walking in on the thank-you kiss had been bad, but it had been nothing more. He and Jeanine would be able to convince Biff of that and he would be sorry he had attacked Joe. What had Joe baffled was why Phil, Chet and Tony were mad at him. And worse, why Frank had turned on him. He had let Biff try and make mincemeat out of him. He hadn't tried to stop the fight. He had told him to take it outside.

Feeling completely betrayed, Joe rose to his feet and unlocked the door and entered his room. Squaring his shoulders he unlocked the door and went downstairs. Everyone must have left, Joe realized as he entered the darkened living room. He picked up his backpack and made his way back upstairs. There, he relocked himself in his room and started working on his paper. By ten o'clock, Frank still had not returned. Worried, he put through a call to Phil's house, guessing he might have gone home with his best friend.

"Hello?" answered Mr. Cohen when Joe's call went through.

"Hi," Joe returned the greeting. "Um, is Frank there?" he asked.

"He and Phil have already turned in for the night," Mr. Cohen replied. "If it's important, I can wake him."

"No, no," Joe quickly refused. "I'll talk to him tomorrow. Thank you. Goodnight," he added hanging up. Joe sat in stunned silence. Frank had left for the night. Not a word or note. And after they had promised to keep the alarm turned on while they were at home. Frank really didn't care about him anymore. Joe checked the doors, turned on the alarm and then went to his bed, flipped on his clock's alarm and cried himself to sleep.

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The next morning, Joe pulled his motorcycle to a stop in the parking lot at school. "Nice car," Joe commented, removing his helmet and smiling appreciatively at the car Jeanine climbed out of.

"My dad let me borrow it," she told him. "Oh!" she gasped, touching his cheek. "What happened?"

"I kind of met a solid object last night," Joe evaded a direct answer. He didn't want her to know about Biff. He wasn't about to start a fight between the two on account of him. He had enough problems without adding another.

"I'm so sorry...oh," Jeanine ended, raising a hand to her eye.

"What's wrong?" Joe asked in concern.

"I have something in my eye," she said, starting to rub it.

"Don't do that," Joe told her, grabbing her hand and tilting her chin up so he could look into her eye. From a distance, it almost looked like Joe was leaning in for a kiss.

"What are you doing?" Vanessa demanded, coming up from behind him.

Joe released Jeanine and spun around to see an outraged Vanessa and a shocked Callie standing there. "I was just..." he began but Callie slapped him.

"How could you?" she demanded.

"I..." Joe started to defend himself, but Vanessa slapped him.

"I never want to see you again," she declared and stormed off with Callie following close at her heels.

Joe sighed and dropped his head. And I thought it couldn't get any worse, he thought sadly. "What got into them?" Jeanine asked, shock written on her face.

Joe shook his head. "Let's get to class," he said, leading the way into the school.

By day's end, just about everyone in school was giving Joe the cold shoulder. Joe slammed his locker shut after the tenth time someone had purposefully-accidentally bumped into him. He hurried outside and met up with Frank on the front steps. "Hold it right there!" he ordered, grabbing Frank's arm and pulling him to a halt. Phil, Chet, Tony and Biff came to a stop a few feet away as did Callie, Vanessa and several other students who sensed something major about to take place.

"Let go of me," Frank demanded, shaking Joe's hand off and turning away.

Joe grabbed him again. "I want to know what your problem is," Joe said through clenched teeth. "Because whatever it is has spread throughout the entire school."

"My problem?" Frank asked in contempt. "Face it, Joe. When you act like a heel you're going to get treated like one."

"I haven't done anything wrong and I don't deserve the way everyone has been treating me," Joe said.

"You don't deserve?" Frank's eyes went wide before he burst out laughing. "You haven't done anything wrong? I trusted you! And what do you do? You go off and play hoochie koochie with my girl!" Frank was too steamed to notice the surprised look on Joe's face or the paling of his features. "I'm the one who doesn't deserve this. I can't believe I was so blind for so long. You're nothing but a superficial egomanical playboy. You have no depth; no feelings; no loyalty. I don't know how I ever cared about you in the first place."

Joe was silent. Too shocked to say anything. Callie, however, was ready to explode. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?" she demanded, pulling Joe out of her way and standing in front of Frank, her eyes flashing.

"That you're a slut?" Frank retorted. "If the fishnets fit."

"Frank," Joe said warningly.

Callie spun around. "You stay out of this!" she screamed. "This is all your fault."

Joe opened his mouth to argue but after seeing how everyone was looking at him, he turned on his heel and walked away. As he reached the parking lot, he saw Jeanine getting into her car. "What's wrong?" she asked, seeing how upset he looked.

Joe shook his head, too upset to discuss it. "Get in," she offered, leaning over and pushing open the passenger door. "Let's get a soda and you can tell me about it." She saw Joe's hesitant look. "You'll feel better if you get it off your chest," she urged.

Joe nodded and started to get in. "Oh," he said, reaching in to move the sweater which lay on the seat.

"Leave it," Jeanine said. "I spilled some soda there."

Joe shrugged and climbed in, squealing as he felt something sting him. He shoved the sweater aside, his vision growing blurry, and spied the tranquilizer dart which had jabbed him. Jeanine pulled him the rest of the way into the car and closed the door. "Rest, darling," she whispered, putting the car into gear. "They won't bother you ever again."

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When Joe woke up he lay still for a few seconds as the memory of what happened came rushing back to him. He sat up and was accosted by a wave of dizziness. He fell back and closed his eyes. The next time he opened his eyes, he sat up a bit more slowly. He looked around, confused by his surroundings. He was on a full sized bed covered with a satin red comforter and pillows with matching pillow shams. There was a small table by the bed with a red tablecloth but nothing on it. Too his right there was an open door leading into a bathroom.

About six feet in front of him were iron bars and at the end of the encaged area was the door into his cage. Joe jumped from the bed and raced for the door, being pulled to a halt inches from it. He looked down and noticed his ankles were encased in metal bracelets with chains extending to the wall near the head of the bed. Going back to the bed, he sat down to see how loose the leg irons were but stopped as the basement door on the outside of his cage opened.

Joe leapt to his feet and grabbed onto the iron bars as his captor entered the room. "Relax, Joe," Jeanine purred, smiling at him. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Then let me out of here," demanded Joe, his face red with anger as he gripped the bars of his cage and glared at her.

"I can't do that," she denied with a shake of her head. "I've gone to way too much trouble to get you," she added, letting down her hair. She reached up and removed a contact from her right eye and then one from her left.

Emerald eyes? Joe was confused. Why would she hide such beautiful eyes with dull brown contacts? I've seen those eyes before, the thought struck Joe with intense clarity although he couldn't remember where. He watched as she turned and left the basement without another word.

He sat down and tried to remove the leg iron from his left leg. No good. He would have to have the key. Or at least a decent lock pick, he added, his face breaking out into a derisive frown. He laid back on the full bed, his arms crossed beneath his head as he wondered what Jeanine had in store for him.

An hour later, the basement door opened and in walked Jeanine...no! "NO!" the thought became audible and he leapt to his feet in alarm as he stared at the young girl who had transformed herself into a raving beauty. "Angelic," he whispered, his face turning white.