heart of glass • joe burrow

005

January 9th, 2022

the chiefs played the broncos yesterday, they won. it was a stressful game for travis, games against the broncos usually were for him for some reason.

it felt this rage filled rivalry with them, no one could quite put their finger on why though.

kenzie told travis she was going on a "trip" to clear her mind. she was going on a trip, but was it a coincidence that they bengals will be playing the browns in cleveland, at the exact time she planned her trip there? spoiler alert, no.

she wanted to surprise joe and come to his game considering this might be the only game of his she can go to so that travis wouldn't get suspicious.

it's not like she cared, but what kind of sister would she be if she stressed him out and distracted him like that before the playoffs? probably not a good one.

she got a seat near the end zone like she usually does, it has a great view. she got there at a normal time any other watcher would, considering she had no special relationship with anyone on the bengals or browns.

joe hasn't noticed her yet, it was the second quarter. it was 14-7, the bengals were losing. it wasn't until the start of the third quarter that joe had noticed her.

he smiled, not expecting her to be there. he didn't wave but he mouthed 'hi' which kenzie smiles and mouthed it back. every now and then, he would steal glances at her in between plays.

the game ended 21-16, the bengals lost. it made kenzie think that if she wasn't there, they would've won the game. what if she was just a distraction to him?

she left the stadium quickly, not wanting to see joe again. there was a very high percentage that she was the reason that they lost.

she went back to her hotel, and parked her car in the garage. she turned off the ignition and let out a frustrated sigh. she definitely made a mistake showing up to the game.

she sat in the car for a couple hours, looking through instagram and seeing what people were saying about the bengals loss. nothing much, though.

she let out another sigh and got out of her car. the elevator was a little far considering there were a lot of cars in the garage.

she took the elevator to the lobby so she could get on the other elevator to take her to her room.

she got inside of the elevator, she was alone. the door was almost shut as someone walked up to it and it opened.

kenzie didn't pay any mind to who was walking in to the elevator until her eyes locked with the bright green eyes of joe burrow.

"hi, kenz." joe said as he went to press the floor to his room, which was the same as kenzie's.

kenzie didn't respond, she definitely did not expect him to be standing there, in the elevator. they have never been this close to each other before.

"kenzie?" he said leaning over to see what she was doing. "earth to kenzie?"

"mm," kenzie said snapping out of her own thoughts. "what?"

"are you ok?" he asked letting her get off the elevator, him following her.

"fine." she said walking left down the hallway hoping his room was to the right, it wasn't. her room was at the end of the hall.

the entire way there, joe didn't stop. did he pass his room?

kenzie reached her room, at the end of the hall and joe stopped at the bed of the hall as well. his room was directly next to kenzie's.

"goodnight." joe said opening his room door but when he looked up, kenzie's door was already closing.

what did joe do? why was kenzie so upset with him?

kenzie

mr shiesty
are you ok?

kenzie
yep

mr shiesty
did i do something?

kenzie
nope

joe took her one word answers as a sign to not text her again. he was frustrated, why would she not talk to him?

he kicked the wall out of frustration, not super hard, he didn't want to break it. well, he did, but he didn't want to damage someone else's property.

he slid down the wall he had just kicked, and rested his head against the wall, kind of hitting it against the wall. he let out a sigh. he isn't good with emotions.

on the other side of that wall, was kenzie. sitting in the exact same spot as joe, as if their backs were together but a wall was keeping them apart.

if either one of them listened hard enough, they could hear the other talking. neither of them had words to say. and even if joe did, it was doubtful kenzie would listen.

"kenzie?" joe said knocking on the wall. he hoped she answered, but if she didn't, at least he tried.

"yeah?" kenzie replied. as least she replied.

"can you talk to me?" joe asked.

"through a wall?" kenzie asked. why would he want to talk to her through a wall.

"text me." joe suggested. kenzie was glad he didn't ask her to come to his room, they hardly know each other.

"texting isn't for long conversations." kenzie said. she had thought about it, and maybe coming to his room would be the better idea.

"facetime me then." joe suggested.

"okay." kenzie said. she got up from the floor and grabbed her phone off of the bed and sat against the head board.

joe grabbed his phone as sat in front of his bed and facetimed kenzie.

"hi." joe said once kenzie answered the phone.

"hi." kenzie replied back. what did he want to talk about?

"why are you mad?" joe asked. somehow he could tell she was mad, well upset, more like regretful but anyways, for him to be almost a stranger, he knew her pretty well.

"i'm not mad." kenzie said. she was telling him the truth, she wasn't mad. she was regretful.

"okay, then why are you regretful?" joe asked. how did he know exactly how she was feeling?

"because, you lost. i shouldn't have came if i knew i was going to distract you." kenzie said looking away from the phone.

"look at me." joe said, not in a demanding but in a caring way. "i mean, you can't not distract me." joe said with a laugh. "but that's not why we lost. we just lost. and, the browns tend beat us in these games."

"well," kenzie said looking at her phone again. "next time you play the browns, you better win."

"only if you are there." joe said with a grin.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

so as i am writing this, the bengals beat the browns yesterday so that is where i got the inspiration for this last part at