Sorry guys, I didn't get this posted as quickly as I was hoping :( I hope you guys like this chapter though. It's shorter than the last couple. Thanks for all the reviews, keep them coming!
Joanne started to walk back to the Life, frustration and anger running through her body. She was having a hard time believing that this guy, who at one point in her life she cared so much about could be so cold and ruthless. He claims to love me, yet he can hurt someone that I love and talk to me like that, unbelievable. Joanne had never before felt so much hatred towards another person. Her hands were shaking she was so angry; wanting so bad to go back and continue to yell at him. However, Joanne knew that she just needed to walk away from this situation; let the justice system do its job, he'd get what he deserved soon enough. Before she got out of the park she felt a hand grab tight onto her arm. She jumped and quickly spun around to see Steve standing there in front of her.
She stood there glaring at him, "what the hell do you want?" The hatred rang strong through her words. It was taking every ounce of fiber in her body not to hit him again. But Joanne knew that her words could hurt him more than her fist. Her words were her weapon; she continued, "leave me and Maureen alone. I don't want you. I don't even want you anyway near us."
"Joanne, just wait, listen to me please," his voice was soft, yet Joanne still felt a little uneasy standing there in front of him. This Steve was not the Steve she knew back in high school and college; she didn't know how he would react to anything she said and did, that slightly scared her. But she didn't let on that he was making her nervous. She started to back way from him heading out of the park, but every step Joanne took backwards, Steve took one forward.
"Steve stop," Joanne stuck her hand out. She then awkwardly looked down at her hand, like that's going to stop him. "Steve I got to go back to Maureen, she's probably worried about me by now."
"NO, NO, NO," Steve started stomping around, covering his eyes with his fists. He had started throwing a fit like a two year old. "She doesn't deserve you," he was forcibly walking back towards her. Something had come over him, he wasn't just angry, there was something else. Joanne wasn't moving, she had frozen solid in her steps. "I don't understand why you'd want a woman when you could have a man." He was clinching his fists; his arms were trembling.
"First off, I wouldn't call you a man," Joanne had blurted it out without thinking at potentially how mad he may get with her saying that. She didn't really care. She started getting daring with her words, "and why not a woman over a man. She knows exactly what I like, what makes me moan, and how to turn me on," Joanne was seductively walking towards him running her hands over her body.
"Stop it Joanne," Steve was screaming at her; a look of rage had come over him. Steve was trying everything to keep himself from hitting Joanne. He loved her and he didn't want to her hurt like he had hurt Maureen. Everything he had done he justified by his love for Joanne; for wanting her back. Then something exploded within Steve and before either of them knew what was happening Steve was pushing Joanne on a grass embankment, straddling her.
Joanne wasn't giving up that easy though, "what you going to do, hit me like you hit Maureen? Go ahead ya big man!" She was trying to act cocky and unscathed. If she doesn't appear weak and vulnerable, maybe he won't attempt to beat her up.
He was furiously shaking his head back and forth; his hands over his ears. Joanne was confused and almost freaked out by his reactions. She tried to release herself from underneath his body. But just as she was almost free, he realized it and had his hands on her shoulders pinning her back to the ground.
"What do you want Steve?" Joanne was trying to say this as calm as possible, seeing how crazy he was reacting. Remain calm Joanne. She was attempting to convince herself that if she was calm, that he may calm down and release her. Even though he was evidently crazy, she still didn't think that he would hit her. At least she hoped that her theory was correct.
He looked down at her, "I want you!" A look of pure evilness came over him. "But I can't have you because you don't want a man, but I just think you've forgotten what it was like to be with a man." Joanne now became terrified, her stomach in knots. "You always said it was good."
Joanne's body began to shake; her eyes were welling up with tears. This couldn't be happening, not to her. "Please Steve no," she was begging. She was looking around to see if anyone was there to help her, but no one was. Joanne wasn't letting Steve take anything else away from her, without putting up a fight. She managed to knee him, but not exactly where she had intended. However, it was close enough, that it caused some pain. Steve had lost his grip on Joanne, falling slightly to the side. She scrambled her way out from underneath his body. She didn't get too far though. She wasn't even on her feet when Steve yet again had a grasp on her and was quickly back over top of her.
This enraged Steve even more and he furiously reached down and ripped open Joanne's blouse. He continued tearing at it until her stomach and bra were fully revealed. She was twisting her body back and forth, hoping to break loose from his grips, or at least make it harder for him to continue. He bent over and started kissing and sucking on Joanne's neck, chest, and stomach. She was now screaming in terror; tears freely flowing from her eyes. He looked back up at Joanne's eyes, "you'll thank me later," he truly believed this was true; that if Joanne just had sex with him she'd remember what it was like to be with him and leave Maureen. Joanne was making every effort to release herself from him, but nothing seemed to be working.
Joanne just shook her head, she couldn't speak. All hope that she had of someone coming by was dwindling. She wasn't completely giving up, she'd occasionally make certain jerks or movements in hopes that he'd loose some grip. Eventually a feeling of defeat had come over her. She tilted her head back and closed her eyes. "Maureen," she cried out.
Steve stopped kissing on her when he heard her call out for Maureen. He went directly to unbuckle Joanne's pants. He slowly moved his hands down and unbuckled them. As he was ready to unzip them, he was knocked off of Joanne's body. Joanne's eyes shot open to see some guy pounding Steve. The guy had got in a few good punches, but Steve was quickly on his feet, running out of the park. The mystery man went to take off after him, but stopped remembering about Joanne.
He walked back over to Joanne helping her to her feet. She had buckled her pants back, but Steve had torn her blouse so bad that she couldn't cover herself completely.
"Here take this," the man had taken off his jacket and was delicately draping it over her shoulders. "Did he…?"
"No," Joanne was trembling, barely able to speak. "Thank you." She leaned over and hugged him. He softly wrapped his arms around her and held her. She completely broke down while she was hugging this strange man. Tears were streaming down her face; her body shaking uncontrollably.
"Joanne?" she heard a familiar voice from behind her. She turned around to see Mark and Roger running towards her. Roger ran up to her and took her in him arms.
"What happened?" Mark was glancing back and forth from the strange man to Joanne, puzzled and confused.
"Joanne?" Roger was trying to get her to tell them what had happened. She couldn't speak though. Every time she went to say a word, the tears came heavier. He was lightly rubbing her back while she continued to sob into this chest. Both Roger and Mark looked up at the strange man; both of them ready to jump him if need be.
The mystery man quickly realized that the guys wanted some answers and fast. "Look guys, I just came up on this guy trying to…" he paused looking over to see how tore up Joanne was, "some guy was trying to rape her; she said he didn't though." Roger and Mark looked at each other, fire in their eyes.
Roger pulled Joanne's face out of his chest and looked into her eyes, "Joanne was it Steve?" She just shook her head and buried back into his chest.
"Where'd he go?" Roger was trying to contain his anger, but he was finding it hard. His body was tensing, he wanted to kill him. How could any man do this to a woman?
"He ran off in that direction, I'm sorry. I thought I'd make sure she was ok instead of running after him." The guy actually seemed to genuinely care about her.
"That's ok man. Hey thanks though." Mark reached out and shook his hand. He was disgusted at what Steve had done to both Maureen and Joanne. He didn't understand any of this. This guy, who apparently loves Joanne, beats up her girlfriend and then tries to rape her. Rage was welling up inside of Mark, he wanted to find Steve, release some of his anger out on him. Right now though Mark knew that he needed to help Joanne and make sure she was ok. "Can I get your number, in case we need someone to identify him?" Through his anger Mark was trying to be practical.
"Definitely, I'll help anyway I can."
Roger took a piece of paper and pencil out of his coat pocket and handed it to Mark. He was still tightly holding onto Joanne, who's tears how begun to slow.
"My number is 555-2432. My name is Angelo, but everyone calls me Angel."
All three of them turned and looked at him, "Angel?" For the first time since Joanne had left the Life earlier, her eyes lit up.
"Yeah," the man looked confused at their astonishment to his name.
"Thanks Angel," Mark said looking at the man. "Thanks Angel," this time he said it softer looking up to the sky.
Roger and Joanne thanked him too. Joanne actually let go of Roger to hug the man once again. She slowly took off his jacket to give back to him. Roger quickly had his jacket around Joanne's delicate body. Angel then left the three of them alone in the park.
Roger led Joanne over to a bench where they all three sat down; Joanne in between the two men. They sat their awhile, no one speaking a word. Joanne had calmed down somewhat, but it was still evident of how much fear and pain remained inside of her.
Finally, Mark spoke up. "Are you ok?" Mark reached down to touch Joanne's knee. She gasped and jerked her leg away from his touch.
"Sorry Mark," she looked over at him, embarrassed at how she had reacted to his caring touch. "Yeah I'm ok."
"Well listen I'll take you back to your place and stay with you until Maureen comes home. Roger can go back to the Life, say we saw you outside in the alley and you were sick, so I just took you home."
"Ok," Joanne didn't really seem to care. Her eyes looked so distant. She had quit crying now, but knew it wouldn't take much to set off the tears again.
Mark and Roger stood up, helping Joanne to her feet. Roger hugged Joanne goodbye, told her he loved her and promised he wouldn't tell anyone what had happened tonight. He then turned and left to go back to the Life. As he was walking back he had to wipe a few stray tears from his cheek.
(Mark's POV)
I had brought Joanne back to her apartment. The entire way back she didn't speak one word to me; she just clutched onto my arm. I hadn't really expected her to say much anyway. I'm almost glad she didn't; I don't know if I would have known what to say to her. It wasn't fair what had happened to her or Maureen, this guy Steve was an ass.
She had gone back to the bedroom to change; she made a point to tell me not to come in the room, but to stand outside her bedroom door. I wasn't sure why she had asked me to do this but I did. She soon immerged from the bedroom and headed straight for the front door. She checked and double checked to make sure the door was locked.
She turned around and faced me, "please don't tell Maureen what happened," she was so serious, "and tell her I'm asleep, even if she comes home in the next few minutes." She just looked at me, she looked terrified. I went over to hug her, she jumped at the touch of my hand on her back; her body rigid. She had quickly pulled away, "thank you Mark." And with that she headed back to her bedroom.
I sat down on the couch waiting on Maureen to get home. She was going to have so many questions and I'm sure she'll be dramatic about it. Hopefully, she'll just let Joanne sleep tonight.
I had been sitting there about twenty minutes when I heard the front door being unlocked. Maureen and Eden walked in; Maureen looked like she had been crying, "where is she Mark?"
Ok so? I was kind of hesitant of posting this chapter. I wasn't wanting this to seem like a repeat of what happened with Maureen, because I have some plans to build onto this happening. Hopefully it didn't feel like I was just rewriting Maureen/Steve fight to Joanne/Steve fight. I'm alittle nervous but please review!