I Can't Help It

Chapter 11: Dirty Laundry

"Hey there babygirl"

I jumped at the voice and turned.

The man was standing in the far corner of the room. I stood completely still just staring at him. He looked devilishly handsome as usual but thinking back to our last conversation I knew he probably wasn't happy with me.

"Joseph I..I mean... What are you doing here?" He takes a few steps towards me and I don't make a move. "How did you find me?" A smirk arose on his face at my question.

"It's a funny story actually. Just when I was about to give up on finding you, a video went viral on Facebook of two girls dancing on a street. When I watched it I knew it was you in the video." My eyes go wide as I remember the night with Nicole and Trevor.

"I paid someone to trace the video to its original profile, and that's how I found your little boyfriends page." His fists clinching at the word boyfriend. "After that I searched his city, found out where the video was taken and the rest is history. All lead to finding you babygirl." He ended with a smile.

My mind went wild processing what he told me. "Why would you do that, why go through all that just to find me?"

He paused for a bit. I thought he was going to yell at me, but he didn't. "I'm here to bring you home of course". He chucked a little at my question.

"Home? I am home." I knew saying that would set him off.

"No you're not! How could you do this anyway? How could you just leave me like that, after everything I've done for you?!"

"How could you not support me and my dreams?!" He knew how important graduating and finding my dream job was and yet he still didn't want me to go. Did he even listen to me when I talked about myself?

"Oh please, you don't need these dreams. I gave you everything you needed. And how dare you get a boyfriend, I can't believe you prefer that loser in the picture over me. Admit you never actually cared about me."

"Oh my god he's not my boyfriend and my dreams are IMPORTANT to me. And I loved you!"...oh god why did I say that. But it was true..I did use to love Joseph at one point in time. He paused for a second and I actually thought he was gonna say something nice. But he regained his composure and walked away. He pulled a bag from the side of the bed and tosses it on the bed.

"Help me finish packing your things." My head fell.

"Joe...did ever love me? At all? Or was it just sex for you?"

Joesph signed.

"Babygirl we had a perfect SD/SB arrangement. Now let's get home and pretend this never happened okay." He turned back to the bag

"No!" I was done with this. "I'm not leaving, so just get outta here. I'm over you!"

He looked surprised at first but then calm. His face softened and he came very close to me.

"Over me? You can never be over me babygirl." He places a hand on my cheek and the warmth is all too familiar. "I know you still think about us, I know you still want me." I stay quiet not knowing if that was true or not.

Me and Joe have tons of history and it's hard to ignore. "If you didn't then why would you keep the dress and lingerie I bought you?" I blush thinking that maybe that wasn't a good idea to keep those. I tossed everything he ever bought me the day we broke up, but I guess i couldn't let go of everything.

"And." He paused to pull the ring he also bought me from his pocket. "You wouldn't of kept this as well."

"I...umm I..." He stops me by placing the ring on my finger. My heart begins to ache. Why does he always do this to me?

"Come on, just come home with me. You know we make each other happy again." He tilts my chin and I look him in the eyes. I feel weak and scared around him and I hate that he does it to me. He leans in to kiss me, but I turn away.

"I'm sorry Joseph...but no. I just can't" I look up and his face goes hard again. He grabs my arm tightly.

"Enough!"

"Ouch! Stop you're hurting me." He push's my arm and I fall back against my dresser with a loud crash. I look up at him with fear, hurt, and heartbreak on my face.

Just then I hear my front door slam open.

"Lori! Lori!!" Huh?

Stan shows up at my bedroom door. He looked panicked and alert. Joseph looked like he wanted to rip Stan's head off. Then he looked at me with red eyes.

"You slut!" I fill tears well in my eyes but I push them back. "So this is the real reason you came here. You found another sugar daddy!"

"What? No." I look at Stan.  "Stan what are you doing here?" But Stan stayed quiet and just looking at Joseph confused and angry.

"Is he paying you more or something. It's certainly not because he looks better." He says with a laugh. Which isn't true by the way. Even though Joseph is younger then Stan by 7 years doesn't make him more attractive.

Stan's face turned dark.

He launches himself at Joseph. His fist crashes into his face hard and he falls back on the floor. Stan rushes to me and stands me right on my feet. Just then Joseph wraps his arms around Stan's neck from behind. I scream for them to stop, but I'm not heard.

"Look I don't know how much you pay her or what bullshit she told you, but she's coming back home with me where she belongs."

Stan stumbles around the room with the extra weight on his back. Stan leans back, reaches for Joseph and flings him over his shoulder. Joseph is tossed out of my bedroom and into the hall.

When me and Stan reach the hall Joseph is already on his feet and sends a punch to Stan's face. He stumbles back and I scream again.

Stan runs at Joseph and tackles him to the ground. I head for the door wanting to get away from all this. Stan sinks his weight into Joseph's neck with his arm. He holds it there for what feels like forever. I froze in shock standing at the front door unable to leave.

After a few more moments Joseph started to close his eyes and his thrashing began to stop. Stan saw this and loosened his grip only slightly. Joseph inhaled a big gust of air and his eyes shot open. Stan said only no thing to him then.

"Leave"

He got off Joseph and stood up. Joseph leaned to the side and started coughing and gasping for air. He stood up rubbing his neck and glaring at Stan. He stood for a moment, but decided to back down. He headed for the front door, but right before he left he turned to me and whispered in my ear.

"I'll be back for you babygirl."

He left and closed the door with a loud slam.

I look over at Stan and his face is red with anger.

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What do you think will happen next? Will Lori fall for Joseph again and leave with him? Should Lori and Stan make up or keep fighting? Are you #teamstan or #teamtrevor ? Or maybe even #teamjoseph? Lol

Shae