When two paths cross

Nineteen

"Joe quick word." Rina asked as Joe knocked on Dianne's front door. "Did anything happen yesterday at school, she's had a bit of a meltdown about going in." Rina asked.
"She didn't tell me anything. I only saw her in form and art, and art was before lunch. I've spoken to her over messages and stuff and she's not said anything." Joe said, starting to get a bit worried.
"See if you can get anything out of her, she's coming now." Rina said as Dianne appeared at the door. "spero che tu abbia una buona giornata e se qualcosa ti preoccupa dillo a Joe"
"Lo farò. ti amo. addio." Dianne said as she waved to her mum and took Joes hand as they walked down the driveway.

"What did your mum say? I think I managed to get have a good day? Did she say that?" Joe asked.
"Well done, yeah she said have a good day and if anything is worrying me to tell you." Dianne told him, she was happy that he was starting to pick up bits of Italian, it made her happy that he was interested in it.
"And is there anything worrying you? Did anything happen yesterday?" Joe asked her.
"Nope."
"That was a quick no, so what actually happened. Was it Toff and the other two?" Joe asked. "And don't lie coz I already know." Joe lied, hoping to get something out of her.
"Who told you? Ash?" Dianne asked, he nodded. "I told her not to say anything."
"So something did happen, Ashley's not told me anything, I have no clue at all. I just wanted to get it out of you." Joe said, "so now, the truth, what happened."
"Nothing. It's fine, please just leave it." Dianne said.
"No Dianne, I won't, somethings obviously happened, if you won't tell me at least talk to someone about it." Joe said, going to hold her hand but she snatched it away.
"Leave It Joe. I can deal with it myself!" Dianne said and then walked away from him as soon as she spotted some of her friends.
"Di wait." Joe shouted but she just ignored him.

The rest of the day went very slow, everytime Joe saw Dianne he would go over and try to talk to her but she would just ignore him.
"Di do you want a lift home?" Joe asked as he walked past Dianne stood at the gate.
"No." She said and looked back down at her phone.
"How are you going to get home? You can't walk it's raining." He said.
"I'll find a way." Dianne said. "Your not my carer, I can get myself home!"

The day hadn't been very good for Dianne, she has gotten a lot of verbal abuse from Toff, Kay and Becca. Nothing physically but it was verbal. And it was starting to get to her. She didn't realise that it was until today. Her shouting at Joe made her realise that it was effecting her. She stood at the school gate waiting for Andrew to pick her up.

"You okay?" He asked as she got in the car, she shook her head and burst into tears. "Oh shit, Dot, come her, give me a hug." He said reaching over to her. "What's happened?"
"I'm not going back in." She cried. "Never."
"Right let's get you home and you can talk to us, get mum." Andrew said as he started driving, he knew that there were a few girls picking on Dianne but didn't realise that it was getting this bad, so bad that she didn't want to go into school.

"Mum! Dots upset." Andrew said as they walked in, Dianne still crying.
"Oh dotty, come here. What's wrong." Rina asked and Dianne walked over to her.
"I'm not going back to school. I want to move!" Dianne cried. "I want to go back to Australia."
"Right, what's happened?" Rina asked her daughter as they were sat cuddled on the sofa.
"It's awful mum. I don't want to go anymore." Dianne cried. "Please don't make me go." Dianne kept saying.
"Right Dot, I need you to tell me what's happening." Rina said to her daughter.

Dianne explained everything, everything that had been going on. She was crying, her parents and her brothers were crying. She just wanted it all to stop.
"How about we call Joe round? Give you something else to think about." Mark suggested.
"No. He won't want to. I was mean to him." Dianne said quietly.
"What did you do?" Andrew asked, chuckling slightly knowing that she won't have done anything bad.
"I shouted at him when he kept asking what was going on and then I ignored him all day and was rude to him."Dianne told them.
"He will be fine, do you want me to invite him round." Dianne nodded. "And Dot, I won't make you go in for the rest of this week. You've got 2 days left till you finish for Easter, we'll just keep you off, I'll explain to the school why and then after if your still sure you want to move, we'll look at other schools in the area. But I would rather you stay at the one your at." Rina reassured her.
"Thank you." Dianne said. "Can I go upstairs?"
"Yeah, I'll let you know when Joes here."

Girlies GC💕💝
Dianne- hi guys, just thought I'd let you know, I'm not going to be in for the rest of the week. And then I'm going Aus on Saturday for 2 weeks.
Faye- hope your okay Xx
Lauren- aww, I'll miss you, hope your okay x
Stacey- see ya when your back in, if you need anything message me xx
Ashley- if this is to do with yesterday, message me privately D, we're all here for you. Love you bubs 🤍

Ashley R🗽💓
Dianne- hey, yeah it's kinda to do with yesterday, it's all getting to much for me. Thank you so much though for yesterday, you helped so much Xx
Ashley- bless ya, honestly, if you need anything, ring me. Love you loads xx

"Dot, can I come in?" Someone asked from outside Dianne's bedroom door, she recognised the voice straight away.
"Yeah." She said quietly. The door opened and Joe walked in with 2 tubs of Ben and Jerry's and some fruit.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to shout." Dianne said as he sat down on her bed.
"Don't worry about it. You did nothing wrong. Now, your mums told me what's happened. And my mum has said that if you want, I can stay off tomorrow. I can stay tonight and we can have a chill out day tomorrow. How does that sound?" Joe said as he handed Dianne one of the tubs of Ben and Jerry's, the non dairy peanut butter and cookies one as he knew it was her favourite.
"Yeah, is it definitely okay with your mum? For you to stay?" Dianne asked.
"Yeah it's fine with her, and it's fine with your mum, I checked downstairs." Joe told her. "And I think that tonigh, we won't talk about what happened, we'll just chill and tomorrow we'll have a little chat yeah?"
"Yeah that sounds good. Thanks Joe, and I'm sorry for being horrible today, it just all got to me I think."