My friend, Demise

Chapter 19

I laid in Demise's bedroom floor while my mom was in the hospital, both of us staring at the ceiling. We laid opposite ways, our head right next to each other's.

"I think I love you." He reached up and ran his fingers through my hair. "It's not like me to be so scared."

"It is." I turned my head to face him. "You just didn't realize how scared you've been until I showed you."

"When I saw you in that room with him." He squeezed my hand. "I realized that you're the only person I know that truly doesn't deserve to die."

"What about your sister?"

"She's like dad...."

"Is everyone in your family dangerous?"

"Yeah." He faced me, allowing me to see the tear sliding across his nose and over cheek, only stopping at his ear and dropping onto the carpet. "I don't want to be like my family, Azriel."

"What do you want then?"

"I want to keep you here with me." He pushed the hair from my eyes. "Where you're safe and nobody can hurt you anymore."

"That can't be all that you want."

"I want you." He pressed the tip of his nose to mine and closed his eyes. "I want to hear you laugh and watch your stupid burn mark fade. I want-...." he stopped for a moment and took a deep breath. "I want you to be here with me forever."

"You make me sound like a hostage."

"I'll never let you be someone's hostage again." He opened his eyes and stared at my lips. "You deserve better than that."

"Thank you for helping me. I really didn't want to die...I want to change."

"Change?"

"I don't want to be an asshole anymore. I'm tired of getting in fights."

Yeah okay that was me 20 hours ago. Now I'm in school with bruises on my face and bloody knuckles. "Seriously, Azriel?" Amanda sighed and caught up to me. "It's not that hard to provoke you, huh?"

"Shut up."

"Why do you start fights anyway? It seemed like you were trying not to back there."

"I promised Demise I wouldn't fight again."

"So why did you?"

"Because I like it." I wiped the blood from my left eye, smearing the blood on my knuckles across my cheek.

"How can you like getting hit in the face?"

"I just do." I shrugged, opening my locker and pulling out a roll of bandages to wrap around my hands. I also grabbed a face mask to hide my busted lip. "Plus I didn't like how that guy talked about you. It's not right."

"I can hold my own."

"I didn't do it for you." I slammed the locker shut and bent down to her level, pulling my face mask below my chin. "I hated what he said so I kicked his face in. Fucker deserved it if that's how he talks about bitches."

"Wow that was almost sweet." I grinned, which made her entire face turn white. "There's blood on your teeth, Azriel."

I traced my tongue over my teeth and swallowed the blood in my mouth. "Not a word about this to Demise, okay? The last thing he needs right now is to find out that I'm off starting fights."

"Got it. I'll get my makeup."