roses are red, violets are blue | joe keery

| 151 |

It was late at night and Joe, Dacre, Natalia, Charlie and I were all still on set, chilling in the trailer. Nobody but Dacre knew about the incident that happened a week ago and thankfully, my injuries were able to be concealed more easily as time went on. Joe hadn't noticed anything that much and fell for my 'falling down the stairs' cover story which I was amazed about.

Charlie and Nat were sliding their jackets on, getting ready to go back to their temporary shared apartment. "See you guys tomorrow," Charlie waves, stepping down off the trailer with Nat following behind.

"Bye guys, love you!" Natalia also waves and we all bid our farewells before they exit the trailer.

"I should be going too now, I guess." Joe says, removing his arm from behind me and standing up from the couch.

"Do you really have to go?" I pout, wanting to spend more time with him.

He smiles, pulling me to my feet with his hands. "I'll speak to you later, okay? I did ask if you wanted to come back to mine but you declined so..."

"I know, it's my own fault..." I wrap my arms around his waist and plant a firm kiss on his lips. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Joe puts his coat on and says a quick goodbye to Dacre before also exiting the trailer. I fall back onto the sofa I was previously sat on and let out a deep breath.

"You still haven't told him, have you?" Dacre pipes up, looking at me with his blue eyes as he remains sprawled out on the single sofa in the corner.

"What about?" I pretend to be clueless.

"You know what about." He rolls his eyes.

I sigh, "He'll just get angry and start a whole thing about it, I'm fine now Dacre, really."

"That girl hurt you bad, Vi. Really bad. I hate keeping this from everyone, especially Joe, when I know that girl should be punished for what she did to you!" He raises his voice slightly, acting more stern so that he could get his point across.

"I already told you, it's not that bad. She just hit my head and kicked me, I've had worse." I remind him, hoping he'd stop worrying about me now.

"Yeah but at least your mom is out of your way now..."

"I don't want to tell him, okay?!" I yell, getting angry at my best friend as the trailer door opens and reveals Joe. Shit...

"Why not?" Joe asks, no emotion showing on his face as Dacre turns his head slightly to see him at the door. "Why didn't you tell me this wasn't an accident?" He motions to my face and stomach.

"I just didn't, okay?" I reply in a quieter tone, embarrassed that he had figured out I lied to him. Why was he even eavesdropping anyway? "I didn't want to make a big deal out of it."

"But this is a big deal! Somebody has done this to you and you've told no one! I've seen your stomach, Vi... It looks so bad, I didn't wanna say anything but I honestly don't know how you're walking right now. Why did you keep this from me?" Joe answers frustratedly, his voice cracking emphasising how painful my injuries look.

"I just did. I don't want you to worry about me, I'm fine! You can hardly see the cuts anymore..." I fiddle with my fingernails, avoiding eye contact with him.

"That's not the point! You lied to me!" He yells, not angrily, more annoyed and upset than anything.

"Just go away, I don't want to talk to you." I snap, holding back my tears, staring at the patterned carpet covering the floor of the trailer.

"Yeah, well I want to talk to you." Joe sighs, "What's this about your mom too?"

My heart sinks as Joe mentions her, I didn't want to tell him. The only people who know are my family and Dacre.

"Mate, maybe you should just leave her alone for a bit?" Dacre delicately intervenes but Joe wasn't having it.

"No, you lied to me too! You can trust me, Vi, you know you can..." Joe crouches down opposite me, trying to get me to look at him.

"It's not about that Joe... Please, just leave..." I say solemnly, finally building up the courage to look at him in his hazel eyes.

"I'm not leaving. Just talk to me," he places his hands on mine and I sniff.

"Violet, I'll wait for you out here, okay?" I faintly hear Dacre say in the background as he leaves the trailer, leaving Joe and I alone.

"My mom.. She used to be really horrible to me and my brothers. She used to hit us and stuff, and it was really bad but then she finally left. What that girl did to me, it was nothing compared to what my mom used to do to us, okay? So can we just forget about it? Please?" I literally beg, holding his hands a little tighter so that he'd agree to me.

"I don't know why you felt like you couldn't tell me..." My boyfriend answers in a soft voice, tucking a strand of my undone hair behind my ear.

"Because I know you and if I told you, you would've tried to find the person who did this and it would just cause even more trouble. Especially with us being in the limelight... And with the mom thing... None of us really talk about it, we just forget she ever existed." I try to explain, wondering if that made sense to him or not.

He clears his throat, "So what do you mean your mom's done worse?" He asks, seeming scared to know the answer.

"Honestly, others have it so much worse but I just mean that she's put Oggy and me in the hospital before. We had to lie to the nurses all the time and stuff but it's fine, I'm fine. I'm used to it. But now I know that if you tell someone then it'll just get worse. I'll be okay as long as Dacre and I go back at the same time..." I tell him and he looks lost for words. I felt bad piling all of this information on top of him but at the end of the day, he did ask.

When he looks up from staring at our intertwined hands, I see that his eyes are watering. "You can stay with me, you know? There's room, you'll be safe with me."

I smile lightly and put my palm on his cheek, "I know, baby but I'll be okay. Me and Dacre are going back together for a while now... Don't worry."

"Well I do worry because you're my girlfriend and I can't be there to protect you."

"I don't need protecting Joe, it's just a one-off that won't happen again. I'm sure of it." I assure him, trying to ease his worries.

"Thank you for telling me..." He mumbles, running his fingers through his hair and giving me a sorry smile.

"It's fine, I just don't want any sympathy. It happened a couple of years ago now, it's okay."

"I didn't realise your mom was that shit. I knew she left and you've told me you have no contact with her but I didn't know that was the reason for it..." He says, still getting his head around everything. "You know you deserved better, way better, Violet. You still do, people don't realise how lovely and funny you are, I can't believe someone actually fucking hit you. I'm so fucking angry, why the fuck did that bitch hit you?!"

"I don't know..." I tell a little white lie. I knew she thought that I was bad for Joe and she didn't like us together but at couldn't tell Joe that. He'd end up blasting himself and I couldn't do that to him.

"Well, you're safe now. I promise this'll never happen again, okay?" He tells me and I believe him. "I'm taking you home now, everyday. I don't care how sick of me you get, I'm not letting anyone touch you."

I giggle at how protective he was being, "Okay, just don't be too protective or I'll end up smacking you."

He pecks my lips before getting up and re-ready to leave the trailer and go back to my hotel room.

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yikes let's pretend these chapters don't exist i wrote this all like a year ago when i didn't know how to write a good storyline so thank u for cooperating and for 18.9K reads i don't know how this happened but THANK YOU and yeah the story gets better 💖