When Love Gets in the Way

Chapter Sixty-one

James

"Stop right there. The police are on their way." A voice booms through the alleyway. The hodded people instantly stop fighting and rush to the end of the alleyway where they shove past whoever's staining there.

I lean against the wall leting out a sigh of relief as I cuddle my shaking legs close to my aching chest.

"James! Luca!"

I look up at the sound of my name to see Becky rushing towards me, panic clear on her face. She crouches down in front of me and touches the side of my face which feels swollen.

"What happened?" She asks me urgently and it takes me a few attempts to get any sound out.

"Homophobes." I stammer as tears start to leak from my eyes and she gasps in horror.

"How hurt are you?" She asks her voice shaking with panic.

"Only achy here and there. I'm more scared then anything." I reasure her and she nods before she turns away from me to talk to Luca. He's standing but only just. He leans against the wall and lets out a long sigh before wiping his bloody nose with his sleeve.

I stand up and stagger over to him before I pull him into my arms and start to sob. He pats my head gently and then wraps his arms around me.

I was so scared.

Luca had tried to get us away from them but we only ended up getting shoved into this alleyway. I think they thought it would be easy to attack us but they were wrong. Luca took them on telling me to leave but I couldn't leave him her alone with them...

It's thanks to me that he got punched. If I had just left like he told me to then he wouldn't have had to protect me.

"Ya need ta get home." He tells me sternly once I've finished sobbing into him.

"Will you come too?" I ask but he shakes his head causing my heart to sink.

"Becky can walk ya." He tells me before he starts to stumble off, clearly hurting more then he's trying to let on.

"My parents have medical traing, they can help us." I call after him.

"Don't need help. I've had worse." He says as he starts to sway.

"Luca?"

He falls an Becky quickly catches him before he hits the floor.

"Luca!" I scream. I try to rush to him but the pain in my side makes me wince and almost fall. They must have hit my harder then I thought.

"We need to get back to yours." Becky tells me and I nod.

_________________________________________

I wince and flinch away as my father pokes the worst purple bruise just under my ribs.

"No internal damage. That's good." He tells me and I nod. I look over to the sofa where Luca lays out cold. My mother is trying to clean all of the blood off of his face first while muttering all sorts of things to herself.

"Is he okay?" I ask her unable to keep the panic out of my voice.

"I don't think he sustained any direct blows to the head that would have caused a brain injury but his nose is broken." She tells me and I nod relived that his head is alright.

My father pushs a pack of ice against my swelling face and tells me to hold it there before heading over to help Luca. I stand and Becky instantly jumps up to support me. I limp over to where Luca is to watch my parents tend to him.

"We're going to have to remove his top to check for damage." My mother states and I frown.

When Luca and I... When we did that, he kept his top on. He got all funny when I tried to remove it so I told him that he can keep it on. I didn't want him to feel uncomfortable so it was fine. I've never seen him topless before and as curious as I may be, I still feel as though we should wait for him to wake up before undressing his top half.

"Oh my..." Backy gasps and a strangled sound escapes my thought. Luca's chest and stomach is bruised and it's clear that it's not just from the fight either. He's skinnier then he should be like he hasn't eaten enough in years and both of his arms are red with scratch marks.

"Dose he have a history of getting into fights?" My dad asks his inner doctor being released at the state of Luca.

"Yes, but I don't think they've ever been that bad. Besides, the last fight I know him to have been in, he didn't get injured in." I tell them and they both nod.

First they bandage up his raw arms. The damage could only be caused by continues scratching most likely trying to inflice delibedate pain. Luca did that to himself. He's been hurting himself and I have no knowledge of why.

Then my parents rubs creams and ointments onto his many bruises to help heal them quickly and make them less painful for him.

My parents don't know Luca. Well, they've seen him and have let him stay for a few hours but they've never really spoken to him. Despite what they think of him they let him into our house and have treated his wounds.

"Thank you." I say to them both.

"Don't thank us yet James. You have a lot of explaining to do." My mother says sternly and I gulp anxiously at my parents fierce glare.

Please just let everything be okay...