The love that binds us

Untitled Part 8

Tyler left to go and get ready for school, I showered and got myself ready, I stopped to inspect the damage. A cut eyebrow and a very scary black eye but no broken bones, I applied some disinfectant and headed down stairs to leave when my dad gripped my arm tightly, I jumped back in fright but he held onto my arm and glared at me with conviction, like this was all my fault.

'Where are you fucking going?' Surely the man is clinically insane? It's a bloody Thursday.

'It's Thursday, I'm going to school.' I tried to keep my tone soft so he wouldn't hit me again, don't get me wrong I'm a strong guy but... I've been coping this since I was eight, and he's my dad, it's hard to fight back.

'No, you're not, you're staying home today.' He was giving me such a strange look, it worried me and I definitely didn't want to stay home with him, more now than any other day, I'm pretty sure he's still drunk...

'Dad, I have to go to school. It's football practice this afternoon.' His grip loosened slightly and he looked down at me, the same look as before, the unnerving look like he wanted to hit me but had no reason yet was still on his face but he loosened his grip just that little bit more allowing the blood to flow through nicely.

'Straight home this afternoon.' He said shoving me towards the door and when I opened it I found Tyler standing there with his school bag. 'Who are you?' Dad growled and Tyler did very well to keep his face clear of a scowl, I'm surprised he didn't growl back or bare his teeth either.

'I'm friend, here to go to school.' Tyler said and Dad glared hard at him like he wanted to punch Tyler but also had no good reason, maybe he just wanted to hit guys... Maybe he's the secretly gay one?

'You must be Tyler, making my son a gay fag are we?' Dad scoffed and headed back into the kitchen, I closed the door and we headed out. That was embarrassing and I felt horrible, not the best way to start the day.

'What are you doing here?' I asked and he took my hand in his the moment we were inside the tree line and no one could see us, the embarrassment and shame from my dad slowly trickling away.

'I tell you. I protect you.' I felt my face flush and I looked down at the floor, I didn't bother taking my hand away because in all honesty it was very cute what he did, but he doesn't even know it.

We walked through the woods hand in hand; he even caught me as I tripped on a fallen branch. We dropped hands the moment we came to the tree line on the other side however, and it kind of sucked, but Tyler kept close as we walked, our hands brushing ever so slightly on the occasion. He spent pretty much then entire day with me but I noticed that people were whispering, why was the new kid who was barely ever there hanging out with me, and why did I have a massive black bruise on my face. I got asked to stay back after chemistry by Mr Blanch. Which caused more whisperings like did I get into underground fights and the teachers knew?

'I'm going to ask you two questions, and I would like you to answer them truthfully. Can you do that?' I nodded, I felt a little closer to him, now that I know about him being like me. 'Right, did Tyler do that to your face?' My body moved back slightly a little insulted by the question.

'No sir, he would never-'

'He bit you the other day.' His words weren't attacking just strong, I liked that about him, he didn't attack but he had confidence in everything he spoke about.

'I promise sir, Tyler might bite but he's never hit me before.' He'd never hit me, if you could see him when he's with me, you'd understand... I know he'd never hit me, not on purpose.

'Alright, then I'll ask my second question.' I nodded. 'Did your dad hit you?' I remained quiet and Mr Blanch took in an audible breath. 'I thought so, now, I've noticed the black eyes before, and the bruises on your arms, so I would really like to do something about it.' Another thing I liked about him, he always wanted to step up and do something about a problem, even though it had nothing to do with him.

'Sir, you can't, he's just the way he is and he's not going to change, I only have this year and next before I'm out of here.' I'd already started applying for early consideration of scholarships.

'What about Tyler? Have you talked about his plans?' My thoughts stopped, we hadn't really talked about college before, does he even want to go?

'Not yet, but I'm willing to go where he goes and I think it might be similar.' I wasn't certain of it but I do think it's a possibility.

'I see, and have you two developed more? Or did you take my advise and are moving a little slower?' I felt my cheeks flush, was he just here to find out a bit of gossip for him and his husband?

'Ah, a bit of both, thing escalated again yesterday afternoon but then later this happened.' I pointed to my face and he nodded.

'Did your dad find out about the two of you?' I shook my head no.

'No, he just gets like this sometimes.' I said quietly, not really wanting to admit my dad was a drunk and an abusive parent. I like Mr Blanch but I don't trust him that much, for some reason telling him about my dad fell into a completely different category of trust to that of being gay, maybe because he was gay and that made it easier?

'I see, and was Tyler there for that?' I snapped out of my head to look back at him, he waited patiently for my answer.

'He was, he hid in my closet, my dad doesn't like me having people over and well, Tyler doesn't exactly use the front door when he comes inside.' I smiled to myself and Mr Blanch chuckled shaking his head.

'Alright, I suppose you should head to lunch like everyone else.' He smiled and I nodded. 'But if I see this situation happen again I'm going to report it.' I smiled sadly and nodded. Mr Blanch was a good guy.

Tyler looked at me nervously, coming closer from the other side of the hall; had he been waiting for me outside my class the entire time?

'Why so long? What doing?' He asked quickly and I let my hand fall on his forearm softly, only for a moment before pulling it back.

'I was just talking to Mr Blanch, he wanted to know if you did this, obviously I said no and then he asked if my dad did it, he said he'd report it if he did it again.'

'Well, he good.' I smiled.

'He is a good man.' This caused Tyler to frown and look down at me as we started walking towards the cafeteria.

'You like him?' I continued to smile as we walked through the cafeteria doors; he gets quite jealous sometimes, it's very funny.

'I do, he's nice to me.' This made Tyler growl and I looked at him. 'I don't like him like that you dummy.' He stopped growling and we stood in the cafeteria line together, waiting patiently, picking out food I wanted to eat, he did the same but there wasn't much there on his tray. I wonder what he did eat... I don't really know that much about him... We walked out to the bleachers and sat underneath quietly. I sat on an under seat while he sat at my feet between my legs on the floor, his back to me. 'Tyler? What's your favourite food?' I asked and he stopped eating his Pizza slice after inspecting it for five minutes. I noticed when he did eat normal food he would look at it for a long time, as if someone might have poisoned it or something.

'Favourite?' He dragged his eyes up from the pizza to meet mine.

'Yeah, the one you like the most.' I forget sometimes that he doesn't know the meaning to some of the words I use, I felt a little bad about it but it is going to take some time for him to adjust to a few words.

'Oh,' He sat and thought about it for a moment. 'I like rabbit.' I scrunched my nose up but didn't say anything. 'What your favourite food?' He said looking back down at the pizza slice.

'I like lasagne.' I shrugged not thinking about it, he might not even know what that is, I'm not really sure what his brothers feed him.

'What is it?' Well, that confirms the not knowing what it is.

'Ah, it's hard to explain; I'll make it for you some time. There's meat in it.' He nodded and we continued to eat lunch, occasionally I would ask him questions and then I would help him read the Dr Seuss book, I think he liked the Dr Seuss books because they rhymed so it made it easier for him to get the sounds.