Goodbye Blues

"Joy?" A voice peeped from behind the slightly open door. Joy looked up from her shoebox filled with pictures. She hadn't looked at any of them, just stared at the stack laying comfortably in between the four walls of the box. "Joy, are you still awake?"

"Yes, come in, dear," Joy said softly. Her eyes, through the dim light, saw the door open then close and Donna make her way over to Joy's side. Joy smiled at her welcomingly and patted the seat on the bed next to her invitingly. Donna sat and put her hands in her lap. "Was there something you needed?"

"I guess you could say I needed it," Donna said, smiling a bit to herself. She looked up at Joy's hazel eyes with a pleading look that she explained, "I was hoping that, if you weren't too tired, you'd tell me a bit of the story?"

"Of course, dear," Joy said with a soft smile on her lips. The ladies got comfortable before Joy started.

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In Joy's eyes, everything was going great. She ignored the fact that nobody approved of Brendon and kept on smiling. It went on for a full two weeks; the small kisses, holding hands and occasional drink here and there, no crazy parties. It was exactly what Joy had hoped for - a summer fling on tour.

What she didn't notice was the way her heart was slowly making its way into Brendon's hands. She didn't know exactly what it was about him that made her swoon, but she knew there was some features about him that she adored a bit too much.

Like his deep voice, how it made everything he said sound so profound. Or his soft lips, how they made her melt every time he pressed them against her skin. And his infamous smirk, the one that told Joy he was up to no good. What was sad was, those were only a very few.

She was growing attached to say the least.

Maybe that's why she made "such a big deal," as Brendon put it, when she saw his lips attached to an unfamiliar red head's one night at a club.

Joy had no intentions of partying that night. As a matter of fact, she told Butcher, when he told her that night's plans, that she "was having a lot more fun not going to clubs, getting drunk and having a headache the next morning because of the hangover and the fact that the annoying techno music is stuck in her head."

But, as usual, with a pout and big puppy dog eyes, the boys in all the bands persuaded her to go. And once there, with only one drink being consumed that night, she was having a pretty good time. She danced casually with just William and Ryan for fun and talked to Andy Horst about Seattle. She was on her way to the ladies' room when her whole night fell through the cracks.

Leaning up against the wall, a red-head was being almost consumed by a dark haired boy. Their lips hungrily crashed against each other's as his hands took in every part of her barely clothed body and her hands stayed tangled in his hair. Joy sneered at them as she pushed open the door but when she noticed the boy's pale skin and girly body type, she questioned if what she was seeing was real.

"Brendon?" She managed to choke out. The boy looked up from the red head who shot a scowl Joy's way, but she ignored it. With painted red lips, Brendon stared at the girl in front him, caught, "Oh my God."

"Joy - " Brendon began, untangling himself from the not so stranger, but Joy didn't want to hear it. Chris was right. She rolled her eyes and walked away, pushing through people, rushing towards the door. It was all so familiar.

When she had seen him kissing that girl at the club in the beginning of tour when she was drunk, she knew he was scum. She knew then, drunk and emotional, that he wasn't worth her time. But she got so caught up and now she was walking out the door to a different club with the same scenario running through her mind.

There was only one difference: Brendon was rushing after her.

"Joy," He huffed when he finally caught up to her. She didn't look his way. Instead, she kept her eyes ahead, her feet moving as she struggled to remember where the tour buses were parked, "Joy, come on, look at me."

He stepped in front of her, holding her shoulders at arm's length. Joy glared at him and knocked his arms down, but he ignored the fact that his hold on her was gone and kept talking, "Why do you care if I kissed some other girl? It's not like we have something serious between us."

The words were unexpected and harsh. They slapped Joy across the face, bringing tears to her eyes. The emotions washed over her and she snapped, letting her hands take control, shoving Brendon backwards.

"Of course I fucking care, Brendon!" She screamed. The pedestrians around and the people in the cars that were flying by watched with wide eyes, but Joy didn't seem to care, "Just because we don't have something that's serious, doesn't mean I don't have feelings for you whatsoever. But apparently, you didn't know that. Apparently, all you care about is getting physical with me."

Brendon tried to interrupt at this point, but she kept going.

"How long, Brendon?" She questioned, her voice calming. "How long were you going to stay with me? How long were you going to flower me with pretty words that didn't mean fucking shit to you, but the world to me? Until I spread my legs?"

Joy paused for Brendon to say something but at this point, he couldn't say a thing. He just shoved his hands into his pockets and stared at her with sympathetic eyes. The last thing Joy wanted, though, was sympathy.

"Forget it," She spat, shoving him aside with her shoulder. She let her feet take her where she thought the buses were, letting the feeling of his eyes boring into her bring the tears in her eyes to fall onto her cheeks.

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"You went through that?" Donna said, her eyes sad. A tired Joy nodded with a small shrug as she yawned and looked towards the clock. Donna quickly got the hidden message and put her hand on Joy's, "I'll leave you now, so you can rest."

"Thank you, dear," Joy said softly as her eyes closed a bit. Donna smiled and got up, walking towards the door. Joy turned off the light and got under the covers, shifting until she was comfortable.

"Goodnight, Joy," Donna said. Through the dark, Joy could feel the smile on the nurse's lips.

"Goodnight, honey," Joy would be lying if she said Donna's smile wasn't the least bit contagious.