burning red • joe burrow

012

after tara mailed off her letter to finn this morning, with no return address on it, she was feeling a lot better.

her head wasn't cloudy anymore and her chest wasn't weighed down by the world. she was even feeling better physically too.

after much convincing, lily, charlie, and rory finally let her start doing things by herself. the only things she couldn't do were the stairs and driving alone.

she could drive, but someone was always in the car with her. tara and lily were currently on their way to joe's house, where jamar currently was as well.

tara was going to talk to joe about what he said during truth or dare, or what he didn't say for that matter.

"do you know what he didn't tell me?" tara asked lily. they were almost and joe's house and tara was collecting her thought to figure out what she was going to say.

"no, i have no idea." lily said. "jamar didn't tell me, he said it wasn't his story to tell."

"it sounds serious, that's why i'm so nervous." tara said biting the inside of her cheek. "he snapped about it, i've never really seen him like that before."

"i don't know," lily said letting out a sigh. "let me know how it goes."

• • •

once the girls arrived at joe's house, lily quickly parted ways with tara and joe once she found jamar.

"can i talk to you?" tara asked, chewing on her bottom lip. that was a bad habit of hers. she did it a lot when she was nervous.

"yeah," joe said taking a seat on the edge of the couch, tara was in the middle. "what's wrong?"

"what was tee talking about? you snapped at him, you clearly didn't want to talk about it." tara said.

"it's nothing, it's not a big deal." joe replied, trying to dismiss the conversation.

"it is a big deal if you reacted like that." tara said.

"i just don't want to talk about it." joe responded.

"well we are going to talk about it." tara stated simply, joe sighed, knowing she wouldn't give it up.

"marlee cheated on me with finn." joe said. tara's eyesbrows raised slightly. "she's been dating him for years."

"oh." tara said. she didn't know what else to say and was once again biting the bottom of her lip.

"how long have you known?" tara asked.

"a couple months before we broke up." joe responded. "that's why i broke up with her."

"you said you broke up with her because you had feelings for someone else." tara recalled. her expression clicked with each word she said.

she completely forgot what joe had told her. he only told her those things because she was dying. he didn't mean any of it.

no wonder he hasn't asked you on a date yet, he likes someone else.

"you only told me those things because i was dying." tara stated. she couldn't believe she thought he was being serious.

"what?" joe said. "where did you get that from?"

"you told me." tara said. "you told me you broke up with her because you have feelings for someone else. and you never said anything about cheating."

"i broke up with her for two reasons." joe responded.

"do you don't tell me she's cheating on you with my ex, and you lied to be about how you supposedly feel about me." tara said. she felt betrayed.

"no, tara." joe said. "you don't understand." he said before tara interrupted.

"no," tara said standing up. she was angry. she fell for his lie. "i understand perfectly. you only said those things to me because i was dying, not because you meant them."

tara was yelling at this point. how could he do this to her? "why would you lie?" tara yelled, she was so disappointed in herself. her eyes were filling with tears. "i believed what you said. i thought you meant it. you let me believe it!"

tara's breathing was rapid now, she couldn't help but let the tears spill from her eyes. she felt her chest was caving in, her lungs hurt, she couldn't breathe.

she sat back down on the couch. "tara." joe said, he walked over to her, reaching to put a hand on her shoulder.

"no!" tara said pushing his hand away from her. she sat with her hand in her hands for a couple of minutes, gaining control of her breath again.

tara got up from the couch, not taking another glance at joe. she went to find lily. when she did, she said, "lily, i'm gonna leave."

"okay," lily said gathering her stuff, ready to leave.

"you can stay if you want, if jamar doesn't mind driving you home." tara said.

lily noticed her expression and the redness in her eyes. "are you ok? what happened?" lily asked, concern laced her voice.

"marlee cheated on joe with finn, he knew, broke up with her a couple of months later but told me it was because he had feelings for someone else. and i let it slip my mind and when i was in that ambulance, he told me he loved me, like heartfelt speech and everything." tara said. "but today i remembered what he said, he had feelings for someone else. he only told me those things because i was dying. he lied."

"tara," lily said. "i'm so sorry." her best friend walked over to her and gave her a hug.

jamar sat there, speechless. "do you need me to knock some sense into him?" jamar asked. jamar was like your older but younger brother.

"no," tara said. that made her laugh a little. "i'm just gonna go home."

"okay, call me if you change your mind." jamar said.

"i will." tara said. she left joe's house without saying another word.

she drove home in complete silence. once she got home, charlie and rory noticed her mood and the gray cloud hanging over her head.

she told them what happened, and they were quick to console her. she told them she was okay, and went to bed.

she was in love with a liar.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

thoughts??

also, halfway through this story