"I can't believe you didn't tell me, Monty. I would've gave you some money or something girl." Teesha spoke as if she was hurt.

"It's not something that I wanted to tell anyone. It's embarrassing." I sighed.

My secret was out and my entire friend group knew that I was a stripper. Kace, Milly, Joey and Lateesha.

"I understand, pooh but that's what friends are for. I'm here for you. I'd give you my last dollar if I had to." She expressed and I couldn't help but to feel warm inside. I'd never ask for money but to know that she would give it, if need be, was comfort in itself.

"What did Josiah say to you when he found out? The guys told me that he's acting up."

"Yeah." I shook my head, remembering that I would have to deal with him soon.

"He said he's going to kill me and then called me a bitch."

"Oh my god, Monty. Who knew the best friends would be going at it like that." She covered her mouth, trying not to laugh.

"It's not funny, Teesh."

"No. It's really only funny because Kace said the same to me one time." She chuckled, shaking her head.

"No, Teesh. This is different."

I knew that Josiah meant his words because he'd tried it before. I just never told anyone about it. That was my entire reasoning for lying in the first place, I was scared of this exact situation being the outcome but that was all a waste.

"Well what are you going to do?"

"I don't know. I texted his mom and I told her everything. I asked if she could talk to him."

"What did she say?"

"That Josiah isn't listening to anyone right now and she's sure he hasn't taken his medicine either."

"There is no talking to him."

"Montana." She looked ate knowingly.

"I know.."

"She said that I'm the only one who can talk to him and I need to stop running from him because it only enables the behavior."

"Right."

"So are you going to?" She asked.

"I don't know." I poked my lip out.

"Montana, you can't run from him forever. You'll eventually have to talk."

"I know, Teesh but I'm scared."

She couldn't do anything but laugh as I expressed my feelings. She really thought that me being scared was a joke but in all honesty, I really am.

"Alright. Well I'm going to go and see where my man is. I miss him dearly. I'll call you later and we can figure this out."

"No. Don't go. I don't want to stay here alone."

"Montana." She laughed.

"..you're really that scared?"

"Yes." I looked at her seriously. No one was taking this as serious as I was.

"Montana." She laughed before we both jumped, hearing banging downstairs.

"I think someone's at the door." She said.

I began to panic, trying to find somewhere to hide and she simply laughed at me.

"Montana, you're crazy. I'm going to go answer it. If it's him, I'll talk to him." She chuckled, walking out to do so.

I walked out of my room to stand in the hallway as I listened closely. She then made her way downstairs quickly to open the front door.

"Watch out, T." Josiah's voice boomed throughout the house once she got the door opened.

"Nah, don't let him in, T." I heard multiple voices say.

"Yo, Josiah. Chill." I heard Milly's voice.

"Bro, just chill." Kace's voice echoed, they were all trying to calm him down.

I stood at the top of the staircase quietly, scared out of my mind.

"Where the fuck she at?!" Josiah snapped.

"Montana!" He called and I knew simply standing here would only make it worse.

Coming down the stairs with a frightened look on my face, he looked up at me and a smirk fell upon his.

"Josiah, stop." I pleaded and he chuckled, trying to get passed Kace, Milly and Teesh.

"You're lucky their holding me back but they can't save you, Montana. You know that."

"Stop this, Joey. Please." I felt myself getting choked up.

"Whatchu about to cry for?" He looked at me with an amused face.

"I ain't do shit yet." He laughed.

"Josiah."

"Aight y'all. Aight."

"Let me go. I'm cool. I ain't gon' touch her." He put his hands up in defense.

"Aight, bro. Just relax." Kace spoke.

I watched as they slowly let go of him and as soon as they did, he tried to rush over to me but they quickly grabbed him again.

"Chill, Josiah." They held him again as he laughed crazily.

"Y'all can't save her. I hope y'all know that." He smirked.

"Let's just go, man. You need to get your mind right before coming over here to talk to her because you're going to do something dumb then regret that shit later." Kace urged but Josiah didn't budge.

He looked at me with a dead stare and I couldn't even look at him like this. I hated this side of him. He was an entire different person to me.

"They're only making it worse for you." He taunted.

"Joey, stop." I begged, making him laugh.

"I ain't do nothing to you yet, Montana. You already know though."

"You lied to me." He spat, getting himself rallied up.

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah, I know. Come here."

"No." I stood my ground, looking at everybody and Teesh had a nervous look in her eyes. I could tell she was scared for me. I'm guessing now she understood what I meant.

"You know they can't save you from me, Montana. So come here." He said with a smirk.

"I don't want to do this. I don't want to fight with you. I'm sorry for lying."

"Aight. Just come here so we can make it right, Montana." He spoke calmly.

"Montana, don't." Teesh warned as I was about to come down the steps fully.

"Bro, lets just go so you can cool off. We can come back later." Kace suggested.

"Montana." Josiah spoke sternly, dismissing everything that they were saying.

"Come here now or its going to be worse later." He warned and I sighed, conflicted.

"You want to listen to them?" He raised his eyebrows and I shook my head.

"Then come the fuck here!" He snapped and I finally coming down the steps.

I knew that if I didn't listen now, it would only be worse later. Teesh, Milly and Kace wouldn't be here to hold him back. I'd rather whatever was going to happen, to happen while they were here with me.

"Only if you really want to talk." I spoke softly and he nodded.

"Aight." He put his hands up in defense.

They all sighed before letting him go again and he didn't do anything this time. He simply walked out of the front door and I followed behind slowly.

"Go ahead y'all, I ain't gon' do nothing to her." He told them as he turned around to me with them right behind me.

"Don't put your hands on that girl, bro." Kace shook his head.

"Man.."

"Let's go, Montana." He spoke sternly as he pulled me along and I dragged my feet.

Getting to his car, he opened the door for me politely before slamming it closed once I got in.

I sat there nervously as he walked around to the other side and got in. He said nothing as he opened his glove box and put the gun that was now back in there, into his lap.

After a hard battle of trying not to cry, tears began to fall from my eyes as we sat there in silence.

"Why did you lie to me?" He asked and I couldn't even speak. I was too afraid to.

"Huh? I told you not to lie, Montana."

"I gave you chance after chance to tell the truth in that hospital room and you lied to my face. Had me thinking my brother was making shit up about you."

"Put the gun away or I'm not talking." I spoke softly, closing my eyes.

He cocked the gun back, trying to scare me but he'd done this before and I wasn't going to show him that I was scared again even though I was.

"You ain't talkin?" He narrowed his eyes, trying to intimidate me.

"Put it away, Josiah."

Gripping it into his hands as I sat there shaken up. I tried my hardest to pretend that I wasn't afraid until he pointed it at me. I began to sob loudly.

"Stop crying because that shit don't faze me. Why the fuck did you lie to me?!" He snapped, putting the gun to my head.

Sniffing hard as my face flooded with tears, I cried loudly.

"This is exactly why we'll never be together." I cried. This is the second time he'd held me at gun point. After the first time, he promised never to do it again and here we were. Again.

"Now I'm the bad guy?" He laughed harshly.

"Typical Montana, playing the victim as always."

"I was wrong for lying, yes but you're even more wrong for this. You say you love me but how? If you threaten to kill me, Josiah? That's not love."

"Fuck all that emotional shit. You was shaking your ass and showing your body to other people for money, bitch. Fuck is wrong with you?!" He roughly slapped me in the face with the gun, making my nose bleed off impact.

My eyes went wide as I looked up at him. I noticed dark glint in his eyes quickly went away as I began to bawl, sobbing loudly.

"I hate you." I cried my eyes out, getting out of the car. I bawled as he got out, coming after me.

"Fuck, baby. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." He pleaded, trying to grab me and I turned around and smacked him as hard I could but it didn't even faze him like I wanted it to.

"Montana. I'm sorry, baby." He got on his knees, looking up at me. He pulled me toward him and laid his head on my stomach.

"Leave me alone. This is over. We're not best friends anymore and I'm done fucking you. You don't love me."

I knew that everyone could probably hear us but I didn't care anymore. It was obvious what was going on between us anyway after today.

"Baby, I'm sorry but why you had to do me like that? Why you had to go and strip then lie about that shit, Montana?" He asked as my blood dripped all over the ground.

"Come on, let me clean you up."

"Don't touch me." I roughly pulled away, wiping my eyes.

"Oh my god, what happened?" Teesh came outside with Milly and Kace right behind her as I cried.

"You put your hands on her, Josiah?" She asked him, shaking her head.

"I told you not to hit her, bro." Kace shook his head.

"Monty, I'm sorry." Josiah pleaded.

"Go home and take your fucking medicine! Don't talk to me again until you do." I spat.

Saying nothing else, I walked into the house as Teesh and I went upstairs to clean my face. I was devastated. I couldn't believe he'd actually hit me. I mean, Josiah was full of threats and intimidation but he never physically hurt me...until today.

*

Holding an ice pack over my eye as I sat in the mirror, looking at myself. I had a huge bruise under my eye and I couldn't believe it was because of Josiah. I continued to replayed the events from an hour earlier in my mind, making myself even more upset.

"Montana, are you alright?" Josiah's mom spoke into the phone, I'd been staring off into space so long I'd forgot she was on the line.

"Yes. I'm fine. I just can't believe he hit me."

Staying silent for a while, I could hear that she was fuming.

"It's alright, mami. As soon as we hang up, I'm calling Lorenzo."

Good. I thought.

Lorenzo is Josiah's uncle, he'd been in and out of jail his entire life. He didn't care about anything but his sister and her happiness. He'd do anything for her, including keeping his nephews in check because they didn't have a real father figure in their lives to do so.

I was happy she was calling him because Josiah was tough with everybody on the planet except him. Lorenzo kept him in check when I couldn't.

"Alright. I'm going to finish icing my eye."

"Alright, baby. Call me if it gets any worse. Okay?"

"Okay, Ms.Carol."

"Alright. Bye bye."

*

"Hello." I awoke from my slumber, seeing Ms. Carol FaceTiming me.

Josiah's face appeared on the screen instead making me roll my eyes.

"I'm sorry." He blurted out.

"I'm sorry, Monty." He repeated.

"What happened to your eye?" I dismissed his sorry apology, referring to his now black eye, sort of matching mine.

"My mama called Lorenzo." He scoffed and I said nothing, looking away from the camera.

Good.

"Look at me." He told me as I looked down at the phone and into his eyes.

"I'm going to get help for this, Monty."

I simply nodded, not saying a word.

"And I just want you to know that I'm sorry."

"I hurt you today and you know I never want to hurt you intentionally.

"..but you know our rules, Montana. You know I'm fucked up. We been good for a year. I ain't had no outburst since, ma."

"Why do some shit like this that you know is gon' make me act crazy? You already know how I am about you and you already know how this shit is set up."

"You're my peace, Montana. I love you because you make me feel the same way my medicine does. You're my medicine, ma."

"But you go and show your body to random people, letting them touch you on, letting them do whatever to you.." He trailed off and I could tell that this was fucking with his manly ego.

"And then you lie about the shit, making it worse."

"You lied to me face, Montana.

"You act like things are easy to tell you, Josiah. You were about to shoot me and this is not the first time." I spoke softly.

"I'm scared to talk. I was scared to tell you the truth. I didn't want to lie, I had to."

"I wasn't gon' shoot you, Monty. I was only trying to scare you and you know that."

"You're not supposed to do shit like that to me, Josiah. You promised you would never do it again."

"And I meant that shit! Have I done it since? It's been a year, Montana and I kept my word. You're the one that provoked this shit. You knew what you were doing. You like when I'm crazy."

"I don't. I don't want to see you crazy, Joey. I don't like it at all."

"I know your situation and I'm scared when you have episodes. That's why I lied."

"Don't use that shit as a fucking reason. I gave you a chance to tell me the truth. I was on my medicine then, we could've worked that shit out."

"That's a lie and you know it. And if we're saying don't use your illness as a reason for me to lie then don't use your illness as a reason to put a gun to my head."

"There's no reason why you should ever pull a gun on me if you love me like you say you do."

"Then you wonder why I'm in no rush to put titles on this. Look at this..." I pointed to my bruised face.

"How do you expect us to be together? I'm scared of you, Josiah. I'm scared this will happen every time I do something that makes you mad."

"And you know I'm scared of you and that's not okay."

"Baby, you think I want you to be scared of me?"

"Don't call me your baby." I shook my head, full of anger now. He sighed deeply and shook his head.

"You think I want you to be scared of me, Montana?"

"I don't know anymore." I was fed up.

"I don't want you to be scared of me, ma. I want you to love me like I love you and I want you to be able to talk to me about anything."

"I used to be able to talk to you about anything, Joey but then we caught feelings and we started having sex.."

"Then you went crazy." I slipped up and said, instantly noticing that I messed up.

"I'm crazy now?" He asked, becoming triggered by my words.

"You know I didn't mean it like that."

"Nah.."

He hated being called crazy because though you couldn't tell on the outside, Joey was very insecure about his disorder on the inside.

"I didn't mean it how I said it, Joey. It's just, it's not easy loving someone with a disorder like yours."

Still letting it come out incorrectly, I sighed as he nodded slowly into the camera.

"I hope you don't take it the way that it sounds." I explained.

"Nah, it's cool. You're right."

"I understand how you feel. You don't have to worry about loving me no more, ma. I'll see you around." He said, ending the call.

I shook my head as I debated calling back or not.

I guess some things you just have to let go of, no matter how much it hurts.

*

I was honestly falling asleep while writing this chapter so I hope you guys like and enjoy. Excuse mistakes, I'll edit later.

Goodmorning from where I am❤️ have a good day peoples.

B.