beautiful mistake - joe burrow

95

When Joe woke up in the night and reached his arm out to Elle, her side of the bed was empty and cold. Seemed like she hadn't been lying next to him for a while.

Sleepily, Joe lifted his head and looked at his alarm clock. It was just about four in the morning. They had been in bed for less than five hours after Celine and Javier left.

There was no light shining through the bathroom door, so Elle wasn't there. Sighing, Joe got up, slipped into one of his shorts that was next to the bed, and left his bedroom.

He spotted Elle as he ran down the stairs into the living room. The lights were dim, illuminating only half the room, but it was just bright enough to make out the crumpled body on the couch. Elle was lying there in the fetal position with her arms wrapped around her legs.

For a moment Joe wasn't sure if she was asleep, but as he walked down a few more steps, Elle suddenly startled and looked at him, shocked.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, sitting down as she brushed her hair out of her face and yawned.

"I could ask you the same thing. What are you doing down here?" Joe had reached the couch by now and sat down next to her. Sighing, she leaned against him.

"Can't sleep" she mumbled as Joe put his arm around her and pulled her closer.

"it's taking you that much?" He asked softly. Elle nodded. "when I lie awake, I get way too worked up. It stresses me out and...and then when I tried to sleep, something else came back up and pulled me out of sleep"

"You had a nightmare?" she nodded again. "Of...him?" another nod. Sighing, Joe pulled her onto his lap and wrapped his arms tightly around her.

"Why didn't you wake me?" he murmured in her ear. "Because you needed the sleep" Elle whispered.

"Oh, babe. Unlike you, I can sleep in tomorrow and I don't have to be at a meeting at eight. And even if I did, you need your sleep too and I'm here for you, you know that. You don't have to go through this alone, so will you promise to wake me up next time?"

Elle gave a sighing nod.

"Good, now let's go back to bed. I'll stay awake until you fall asleep, okay? And when you wake up again, you wake me up, deal?" Joe brushed the strand behind her ear and gave her a kiss on the temple.

"Deal" Elle whispered back and stood up. She grabbed Joe's hand and pulled him behind her into the bedroom. Snuggled together they lay down in bed and protected by Joe's arms and enveloped by the warmth radiating from Joe's body, her eyes soon fell shut from exhaustion.

With no nightmare and from a fairly deep sleep, the alarm clock jolted Elle out of the world of dreams a few hours later. Quickly she turned it off and freed herself from Joe's arms, who only made mumbling noises and then turned away from her, sighing.

Grinning, she looked at him. He looked so cute when he slept. His hair was flattened and a few strands hung on his forehead. There was a mark on his cheek from the fold of the pillow, and his mouth was open a crack from which his soft, steady breath escaped.

Elle slipped into the bathroom, changed and put on her makeup before slipping back into the bedroom and kissing Joe goodbye on the cheek. "Thanks for the night" she murmured in his ear before leaving the room.

She made herself a coffee and grabbed an apple while she packed her backpack and then ate breakfast. She decided not to go on social media so as not to ruin her day from the start, checked her mails and messages, wrote a few replies and finally grabbed her jacket and keys and left the house.

Since Leila and she met in Elle's apartment, where Leila stayed when she was in Cincy, Elle simply unlocked the door and entered the apartment. Immediately the smells of coffee and chocolate hit her.

"Hey, I'm here!" she called out loudly when she didn't spot Leila in the living room or kitchen, and set her bag down next to the dresser before flopping down on the sofa.

"Hey, I'll be right with you" Leila's voice sounded from the bathroom, from which she also came a short time later. Her hair was wet, so she had probably taken a shower.

Elle stood up and pulled Leila into a hug before she went off to the kitchen and came to the couch a moment later with two cups and a tray full of brownies.

"I thought brownies might lighten the mood, so I baked them quickly this morning" she placed the tray on the small side table before handing Elle one of the cups.

"You're the best" Elle gushed before taking a sip of the coffee and grabbing a brownie. "These are awesome" she sighed after taking a bite.

"But back to business. Have you been on Twitter today?" Leila clasped her hands together and put on her serious manager face.

Elle shook her head. "It took a lot out of me yesterday, and that's why I decided not to check it this morning"

"Yeah, Joe mentioned you were pretty down about the whole thing" Leila nodded and opened her laptop on her lap.

"Joe?" Elle asked, surprised. Leila nodded. "I texted him yesterday to ask how you were taking it".

"Anyway..." she changed the subject. "...As I suspected, someone else posted the whole video last night. So you got even more people on your side because now it's very clear in the video how Brittany is reacting towards you and how insecure you look"

"Insecure?" Elle asked. "It shows?" Leila laughed out. "Your look is pretty disturbed actually. Do you want to see the video?" Elle considered for a moment, but then nodded.

She had to agree with Leila. She really did look highly confused and distraught, while you could clearly see Brittany and Jackson talking at her the whole time. Even how the two had interrupted her several times could be seen very well on the video.

"twitter pretty much feels sorry for you Elle. Most of the tweets are in the direction of: poor thing, she looks so helpless, save her" Leila showed her a few tweets.

"That meant I don't have to make a statement, right? People see now how it really was and no one needs a statement from me because you can see in the video exactly what happened, right? It's not like I could say anything more than what you see" Elle looked at Leila hopefully.

"If you don't want to, you didn't have to, Elle. We can always make a statement to tell your side of the story, too, if Brittany or Jackson decide they want to talk their way out of it. But for now, I would even advise you not to add fuel to the fire" Leila smiled encouragingly at her.

"Okay, good. But then there's still something I want to do, Leila" Elle took a deep breath. "I want to write Brittany a message and apologize for what's going on right now".

WHO-DEY🧡🧡