she's here to destroy you

Victoria looked out the window of her familiar bedroom, the four walls that once stood as just Joe's room, then transformed into their own bubble, isolated from the rest of the world, only to become once more Joe's property when their relationship went down in flames. She realized that ever since they decided to give it another go, she hadn't felt the same warmth as before. Nothing was the same after that, as some parts of their relationship felt more secure, and stronger than ever, there were still some bits that didn't really fit.

This was the prime example. Any argument triggered her fight or flight response, scared to death that he would have some form of relapse of his previous behavior, and go back to being the same dick who fucked up their relationship.

And Joe certainly wasn't helping, given that after their altercation, he had just vanished from their home. She thought about calling him, but couldn't gather the strength to face him, so she just sat there, staring at the quiet residential neighborhood in front of her.

Until she heard the front door opening, and she identified the cadence of the steps walking down into the kitchen downstairs. It was him.

Walking towards the room where he supposed Victoria would be still, Joe's heart pounded in his chest. He knew he had fucked up once more, running away from an argument, instead of facing her the way a man should his battles. But the biggest fuck up of the night, didn't even compare. The phone call he made, the grievances he caused, a thing that was now becoming a rift between he and his old friend.

"Vic, love can we please talk?" His voice almost broken.

Victoria glanced at him, hollowed eyed.

"Now you wanna talk? So we can only have conversations when you happen to be in the mood?" She replied, out of spite.

"I know it looks bad, like I ran away but..."

"Yeah you bet it looks bad. Matter of fact, it looks exactly like last time" Victoria raised her voice at Joe, who was approaching her from their bedroom door, cautiously, almost scared of her reaction.

"Baby please listen to me. I now I acted like an idiot again, and I hurt you, again but I didn't know how to react. I felt blindsided by the whole situation, and some primitive, stupid part of my brain felt denied some idiotic sense of a right over you" Joe confessed, as the words made their way out of his mouth without consent.

"At least you can admit you're an idiot" Victoria scoffed. 

"A big one. But then as I was walking I realized that I don't give a flying fuck about you changing or not changing your name. I just wanna marry you, have my life forever tied to you, calling you my wife. Mine only. Because I love you, and part of loving you means loving you as an individual, with your own identity and life" He reached for her hand, which she reluctantly let him hold.

"It's not about not loving you. Or whatever you're imagining. It's the legacy I've built under my name, with so much hard work. Imagine someone asking you to give up your last name" She leaned upward and guided her hand to his cheek.

"I know love. And I get it, fully"  Joe replied, putting his hand on top of hers and holding her with his other arm.

"It still doesn't justify you running away like a child. Is that what it's gonna be like every time we have an argument? Because we've seen that doesn't work out. So if this is something you plan on keep doing, let me know and we can call it quits right now" Victoria bit her lip, almost choking with her own words.

"No" Joe lifted her chin up with a soft touch of his left hand. "Please don't talk about leaving. Not again" Joe stifled a whimper, his voice almost cracking at the thought of losing her once more.

"Where did you go? Just now" Victoria asked him, curious as to what was his destination.

Joe's countenance went pale, ashamed to admit what he had done to her, but realizing that there was no way out, and he needed to own his fuck ups, he chose honesty, above everything.

"I need to tell you something. And I need you to let me explain why I did it" He spurted out.

Victoria nodded, swallowing hard, deep down in her brain, the sentence formed "you went to her". Of fucking course he'd run to his ex girlfriend the minute things got difficult.

"I called Justin. And I told him everything. That he should keep his bitch on a leash because there was no way in hell I'd let her get in the way of us two" Joe confessed, embarrassed to have referred to his ex as a bitch, specially to have said to someone he considered his friend, and was his teammate and wide receiver number 2.

"What? Why?" Victoria inquired, not making sense of Joe's reasoning behind calling up his ex buddy to rant on his wanna be cheating wife showing up to his front door.

"I don't know. I wanted to unleash my anger on someone, and I'm sure as hell not going to put you through that ever again. Olivia seemed like the answer, even if I hurt my friend as collateral damage" Joe tried to explain himself, even if his train of thought made no logical sense.

"Or the team. Have you forgotten what happened to your overall performance last time you got in a rift with your teammates?" Victoria continued to scold him.

"I just can't think straight when it comes to you. The power you have over me it's staggering" Joe reached out for her hand, and led her to sit on their bed, on top of him. Victoria admired the beautiful face of the man standing before her, his blue eyes could made her fold even under the harshest circumstances, just a little glimpse and her judgment was engulfed in flames.

"Don't you blame this on me Burrow, you made the choice to pick up the phone" She half-joked.

"I know. I probably really fucked up again, I just hope it doesn't affect the team as a whole, specially not in the divisional round of playoffs" Joe playfully caressed her hair, staring at her like she was an ethereal creature. Her magnetism was as enigmatic as beautiful, she looked like a nymph, the one redemption of his soul.

Both of them were right to be scared of the team's reaction to yet another stupid fight between the most important members of the offensive line.

Justin didn't say a word to him for the rest of the week, consumed by his own jealousy. After all how could he not be insecure? Olivia wasn't a stranger to infidelity. And Joe Burrow was the ex boyfriend in question. The dazzling quarterback who had American women swooning over him. Olivia showed up at his place when he thought his current girlfriend wouldn't be there. And she wasn't shy about how disappointed she felt about Victoria staying home.

It was killing him. Almost as much as it killed him to have to work with the man causing his pain and rage. Someone he used to call his friend. But didn't he got himself into this mess in the first place? He knew that Olivia was dating Joe, he met her when she was still his girlfriend.

He played a significant part in Olivia's refusal of Joe's proposal. Or at least he suspected it, since he and Olivia had been fucking for months behind Joe's back when he got down in one knee.

The turmoil of emotions in Justin's mind impacted his ability to properly hold on to a football. Not only during training but in the first quarter of the playoff game, his performance was a hot mess.

Frustrated, he was benched, forced to watch his team scrambling to come up with strategies that didn't involve him, knowing he was failing to the one thing he was drafted for.

"What the fuck is up between you and Burrow?" Ja'Marr questioned him as he approached the bench. The Bills were on the offense.

"Look Marr, I really don't feel Iike talkin bout it" Justin scoffed, annoyed by the questioning regarding Joe.

"Well I don't feel like meddling in little children's business either but here I am, because your stupid little fight it's costing us. And because I know a thing or two about being in bad terms with nine. It ain't fun" Ja'Marr confessed as he gulped what felt like liters of Gatorade. Joe sat a mere four feet away from them, reviewing film with Zac, planning their next offensive moves, trying to distract his mind from the anger still very much beating in his chest.

"The dickhead called me up last week to tell me I should keep my wife on a leash. Except he didn't use the word wife. He told me she had gone lookin for him" Justin's voice almost cracked, imagining his wife begging for Joe's attention.

"But my guy's taken. As taken as one can get. He smitten, and ain't no way he's got eyes for anyone else" Ja'Marr replied, shocked by the information he received.

"Well that certainly never stopped anyone. I would know" Justin let out a sigh, as he stared his quarterback down. Pure desperation and rage in his eyes.

"What do you mean?" Ja'Marr asked him.

"Nothin. But I still didn't like the fact my wife was looking for him. Specially given their history"  Justin tried to conceal the guilt in his eyes. No one knew about his and Olivia's true love story. Or so he thought.

"Well you knew their history pretty darn well given we were all friends at LSU. The fact Joe didn't have an issue with you marrying his ex was surprising. I can assure you he's totally over her" Ja'Marr tried to reassure his teammate.

"Yeah I guess" Justin replied.

"So can you stop being a little kid and go out there and play like you're being paid to do so?" Ja'Marr placed his helmet back on, it was ball time for the Bengals.

Joe had a clear vision of what the play was gonna look like: He'd have his offensive line protect his pocket space, and his wide receiver number one do a screen pass, only to switch the person who'd receive the football at the last minute: Justin. Not his ideal situation but the best thing they could come up with to remount their 13 point deficit.

If only his tight end hadn't crossed paths with a flustered and distracted Justin in his run to block for him, maybe he could've prevented the massive blow to the head Joe received before even being able to release the ball.

Joe's sentence resonated in Victoria's brain when she saw the man she loved collapse in the field, after getting. "I hope I didn't fuck up again"

Well he did. He experienced a seizure on the field, his body twitching uncontrollably while he laid, unable to control his body on top of the snowy field.

The minutes the game remained steady, the clock unmoving, Victoria felt her pulse raising, she wondered if her heart would give in before she got a chance to receive an update on his fiancé. When she arrived at the medical tent Joe was being treated in, she saw what she felt was the reason for her sudden situation.

"I hope you know this is all your fault!" She screamed as she approached him, with watery eyes and a knot on her throat.

"Victoria, don't it's not worth it" Andrei immediately tried to stop her from doing whatever she intended to.

"Not worth it? Is Joe's health not important?" She redirected her fear and anger towards Andrei who was now holding her hands with his own, preventing her from straight up punching Justin, who seemed afflicted and distraught.

"I never said that. Let's just wait for the results of the medical examiner" Andrei tried to reason with her, and Victoria finally gave in, feeling safe in Andrei's arms, the only member of the team who was on her side from day one.

She bursted into tears and sobbed against his dirty jersey, unable to breathe, scared to death for her man.

This was aggravated by the look on the face of the doctor who performed the examination on Joe's head: Dread.

"It's serious" Was the last thing she could discern before the words that came of his mouth all blurred into nonsense.

Hello'I didn't take thaaat long to update this time. I've been missing writing as often. Lysm 🥰Hope you enjoy this updateThings sure are heating up