Bruised And Broken

Joe's POV

"Lynn, I love you"

"I love you too, Joe"

I leaned in to kiss Lynn when I heard Kevin yelling.

"Joseph! why the hell did you just up and leave like that?"

"I needed to get away and think okay?" I said to Kevin, who at this point was right in my face.

"you have mom and dad worried, and Frankie is freaking out cause he cant find one of his brothers and..."

I cut Kevin off "its not like I wasn't going to come back and either way Lynn knew where I went, she was the ONLY one that knew where I disappear to so that I can think but you showed up here, I'll have to find somewhere else to go now"

With that Lynn grabbed my hand and we walked home, there was NO way i was getting a ride home from Kevin.

"hey Joe, can I ask you something?" Lynn said as she looked at the ground.

"yes you can...you can always ask me something"

She knew she could just come out and ask me anything but she is the type of girl who feels that she needs to ask before asking the question ... if that makes sense to you.

"I've always sensed tension between Kevin and myself, almost as if he doesn't like me. So tell me the truth, does he hate me?"

I was shocked to hear her ask if my older brother hated her but it was the truth and I cant lie to hear.

"okay so here's the thing, he kinda doesn't like you all that much but he would never hate you. He just thinks that you are with me because I'm a 'rock star' " I said as doing the famous air quotes when I said rock star.

"what?" she said as tears had started to fill her eyes.

"Lynn, please don't cry"

As I finished asking her not to cry, she removed the hoodie of mine that she had been wearing and handed it to me and ran off into the woods.

I started walking into the woods in which she ran. I searched for an hour in those woods and no sign of her anywhere. As much as I wanted to keep looking and find her I just couldn't go on due to the sun having to set. I ran home and busted the front door open.

"hey Joe" Lil said

"where's Kevin?" I demanded

"whats wrong? where's Lynn?" she continued

"WHERE'S KEVIN?"

"...upstairs...jeesh no need to yell"

"sorry I'll explain later"

I ran up the stairs to his room and practically took the door off its hinges. I walked over to Kevin and gave him a nice solid punch.

"Joe, man what is your problem?"

"you wanna know what my problem is? well right now you are because of your yelling spree earlier at the football field, Lynn asked me if you hated her, and of course I wasn't about to lie to her, so I told her and she took off the hoodie of mine that she was wearing and ran off into the woods full of tears"

"dude, how is this my fault"

"because if it wasn't for you she wouldn't have asked me the question and I wouldn't have had to tell her at the moment and she wouldn't have run off"

"then why are you standing here when you should OBVIOUSLY be out there looking for her"

"its dark and I came to get you"

"me?"

"yeah you"

"why?"

"because you're going to find her"

"why me, she's your girlfriend"

"don't make me say it again"

"fine, whatever"

I ran downstairs while I waited for Kevin to get dressed. I started to pace back and forth. I should have made him go in his pj's.

"Joe whats wrong? and where's Lynn?" Erika asked firmly

"you see what happened was..."

"yo, are we going to go or what?" Kevin said as he came down the stairs.

"I'll explain later" I said to Erika, and Nick and Lil who were now listening to what I had to say.

Kevin followed me as we walked out the door and to his car.