The Unlikely Couple (cont.)

“Uh, Ashlee?  You’re squeezing me a bit too much.”  Joey chokes out.

She loosens her grip on him and blushes slightly. “Oh, sorry.  I don’t know what came over me.”

He smiles.  I know what came over you.. “It’s okay sweetie.”  Now or never to see if the drugs really work..  Without saying a word he leans down and kisses her.  Ashlee jumps at first, startled, then she starts to return the kiss.  STOP!  She yells at herself mentally.  You hate him!  Stop!  Don’t do this.  She ignores her own pleas and continues to kiss Joey, much to his delight.

“I-um, wow.”  Joey says after the kiss ends.

Ashlee smiles as she sits down again.  Joey follows, sitting down next to her.  “I love you..”  Her smile widens.  She leans her head on his shoulder.  “I love you too, Joey..” she replies, music to Joey’s ears.

Ashlee, listen to yourself!  You don’t love him.  Andrew!  Think of Andrew!  Joey’s drugged you.  Snap out of it before you do something you’ll regret now and forever!  She shakes her head, trying to rid her mind of thoughts.  Nonsense!  I love Joey!  I wouldn’t want it any other way…

“Why are you so quiet?”  Joey asks, placing an arm around her.

“Just.. thinking.”  She replies while kicking her shoes off.  She lifts her legs up and stretches them out on the couch.

“Getting comfortable?”

“Uh huh.”  She positions herself so that her head is resting on Joey’s leg, looking up at him.

Joey looks down at her, a smile shining on his face.  He traces his fingers along her forehead, sending chills down her spine.  She closes her eyes, sighing happily.  They sit in silence for a few minutes.  Suddenly the phone rings, startling them both.  Ashlee frowns and sits up.  Joey shrugs, leaning over her and grabbing the phone.

“Yes? Oh, hi Shane.  Where were you before?  I tried calling, but, WHAT?  You were where?  He did?”

Ashlee rolls her eyes, finding no interest in the conversation whatsoever.

“Jericho, huh?” Joey takes a slight glance at Ashlee.  “You got him though, right?  Good.  Oh, Ashlee?  She’s fine, fine.  Finally coming to and has quit fighting me.  Yep.  Well,” he whispers into the mouthpiece, “a little bit of some drugs helped too.  Uh-huh.  Yeah, well, we gotta get up early tomorrow, y’know.  Yep, night Shane.  Call ya when we get there.”  He hangs up the phone, then unplugs it.  “There, no more interruptions.”

“Finally!” Ashlee exclaims, wrapping her arms around his neck.  “I thought you’d never hang up!”  She pulls his head down and kisses him.  He leans down on her as she starts to lay back.  The two stop kissing as Joey proceeds to take his shirt off.  Ashlee smiles as she pokes him in the stomach. He grabs her finger and bites it playfully.  She pulls it away and shakes her finger at him.  He leans down and gives her little kisses on her neck, making a trail down to her collarbone, when suddenly he feels her hands pushing up against his chest.  “Joey, get off of me!  What do you think you’re doing?!?” She screams at him.

He looks down from atop of her surprised.  “What?”

“I said, GET OFF OF ME!!!”

Joey frowns.  Damn, the drugs wore off. “B-But, I don’t wanna!”

“Well, I don’t care whether you want to or not!  Get off of me and get a shirt on, UGH!”

“No.” He says flatly. “I refuse to move.  I’m going to finish what we started.”

“We? WE??  Nuh-uh!  No way!” Ashlee protests.

“Uh huh.  We.  Now, we can do this the easy way, where you go along with everything, or we can do this the hard way, where I’ll be forced to make you go along with it.”  Joey explains.

She shakes her head violently.  “No, no, no!”

He sighs.  “Guess it’s the hard way then..”

“NO!  Joey, don’t you know that this is rape?!?!”

Joey grins slyly. “Not if the other person is willing, and I know you’re more than willing..”

“I am not-“  “Enough with the chit chat, time to get down to business.”  He says, cutting her off.  She shakes her head once again, shoving her hands into his bare chest.  He growls angrily and with one hand, grabs her hands and holds them above her head.  She tries her hardest to free herself, but he’s too strong and determined.  He kisses her, cutting her cries of protest short.  When he finishes kissing her, he starts to tug at her shirt.  Her eyes widen in fear and she kicks her leg up, hitting him right in the family jewels.  A gasp of pain and surprise escapes his mouth as he lets her hands go and falls to the floor in pain.  She jumps up and runs to the door.  She tugs at the doorknob, not knowing it’s locked.  She turns around and sees Joey making his way o his feet, an angry expression on his face.  She temporarily freezes in fear as he starts to walk closer.  She shakes her head, snapping out of it.  She runs in the opposite direction, toward the stairs. She hears Joey curse loudly as she runs up the first few stairs.

“Ashlee, there’s no escape!”  Joey shouts, running after her.  She ignores him as she nears the top of the stairs.  When running up the last step, she rips.  She hits the floor hard, landing painfully on her knees and twisting her left one. Grabbing her knee in pain and fighting back the tears that threatened to come, she glances back at the top of the stairs.  Sure enough she can hear Joey getting closer.  She stands up quickly, favoring her left knee.  She looks around.  Where to go? Where to go?  She runs to the closest door and opens it.  She quickly shuts it.  She holds her breath as she hears Joey makes his way to the top of the steps, breathing heavily.   She looks around, but doesn’t see a thing.  Damn, it’s too dark.  I must have entered a closet or something..  She takes a couple of steps back until her back hits a wall.  To her relief, Joey passes the door without going to open it.  Ashlee lets out a deep sigh and stands in the closet for a few more minutes.  Suddenly, she realizes who quiet it’s gotten and wonders if Joey gave up searching.  Well, can’t stay in here forever.  I wonder if there’s a phone up here..  She walks up to the door and turns the handle slowly, making sure not to make any noise.  Opening the door, she pokes her head out and looks around.  No sign of him anywhere…  She steps out fully and tiptoes toward the door across from the one she was behind.  She goes to put her hand on the knob, when the door suddenly flies open.   She gasps in fear and surprise, jumping back.

Joey looks at her, a stern expression on his face.  “Did you really think you were actually going to escape?”  He steps toward her, grabbing her by the wrist.

She pulls away and steps back, forgetting about her twisted knee.  Sharp pain sears through her leg as she leans on it.  The pain, being too great, causes her to fall down, shrieking.  She cradles her knee, glancing up at Joey fearfully.   He shakes his head disapprovingly.  From his back pocket, he pulls out an all-too-familiar pair of handcuffs.

“N-No..”  Ashlee starts to move backwards slowly.  Joey nods and picks up his pace as he approaches her.  He grabs her by the arm and pulls her up, ignoring her cries of pain.  Without saying a word he pulls her two hands behind her back and handcuffs them together.  She tries to free herself, but fails.  She starts to cry, realizing she’s defeated.  Joey picks her up over his shoulder and carries her down the stairs in silence.  Her sobs grow louder as Joey sits down on the couch and places her on his lap.

“There, there.  It’s okay.  I know this is both what you and I want, so let’s just go ahead and get it over with.”  Joey says, wiping the tears away from her eyes.  She pulls away, causing him to frown.  “Ash, honey, I’ve waited too long for this day, and I’m not going to give up the only chance I have.” He puts his hand on her chin and forces her to look at him.  She looks back with hate-filled eyes.  “You’re sick, Joey.”

“Sick?”  She nods.

“Oh, that hurts sweetie!  Surely you don’t mean that..”

“I DO!  First, you put my friends in the hospital by beating them with a chair.  Second, you force me to marry you.  MARRY you!  Do you realize how horrible that is?”  She shouts.

“I-“

“Then, for the past day and half, all you’ve done is suffocate and smother me with kisses every 5 minutes!  Now, not more than 10 minutes ago, you try to rape me!  By drugging me too, might I add.  And you say that me telling you you’re sick hurts?  Well, you know what they say Joey, the truth hurts!” She exclaims loudly, glaring at him.

He looks back up at her, fury in his eyes.  “It doesn’t matter now, because this is you’re life is going to be from now on, so you better get used to it!  I don’t want to hear anymore bitching coming from you, got it?!!” Joey roars at her.  She gasps lightly, frightened.  I’ve never seen him this angry before..  Tears well up in her eyes once again and stream down her face.  Joey wipes them away sympathetically.  “So, you ready to go along with it now?”

Ashlee nods sadly. “I-I guess so..” She sobs.  Joey smiles. “Great!  I’m going to keep the cuffs on though, k?”

“Uh-huh.” More tears stream down her face.  There’s nothing I can do now.  Nothing anyone can do.  Oh God, please save me..

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