There Really is Life on Mars - An Adopted by Yungblud Story

Chapter Two - Red Flags

TW: MENTIONS OF ABUSE, BODY IMAGE NEGATIVITY

Dom's P.O.V.

    I studied the duet I'd just seen and liked, noticing something was off. This kid, their name is Y/N, I think; something seems off about them in their Fleabag duet. They seem...scared. Along with all the dead giveaways of anxiety seeping out of them, they seemed really small and were incredibly shaky. Nonetheless, they looked excited to be making the video; it made me smile. I could already tell this kid had been through a lot.

    "I guess they'll be my fourth caller, then," I thought out loud, my smile falling as I continued to study their video. The more I looked, the more off the post felt. The room they were in seemed to be their bedroom, but it was incredibly barren, only holding a bed and a small dresser within it; there weren't even any posters or anything hung up on the bleak, beige walls behind them. Red flags started shooting up in my head:

    "All of this feels really off, somethings got to be going on in their family, or something; maybe I can find out more when I call them," I settled on in my head, finding their instagram and flagging a DM with them for when the time came to notify them of their call. I set my phone on my nightstand, finally deciding to sleep at about 3 AM.

Y/N's P.O.V.

    I woke up in immense pain, immediately reminding me of last night; I forgot to clean the house, got tossed around a bit, had yungblud like my TikTok-

    "WAIT," I screamed internally, ignoring my sore body and checking to make sure the notification I got last night was real; it was. Another genuine smile graced my mutilated complexion as I got up and tiptoed to the bathroom to wash up. Upon entering the bathroom, I quickly cleaned myself up before yet again retreating into my room. I went back on my phone, seeing that Dom had called his first caller today. This same process repeated for the next two days; wake up sore, clean myself up, avoid my parents, check my phone, look at the new caller, sleep, repeat. On the day of the third caller, though, something changed. I opened my phone to a very shocking notification:

    Instagram: yungblud: SEE YOU TOMORROW! 🖤 please download skype if you haven't got it already, send a message to fans@yungbludofficial.com saying "ITS Y/N" and i will see you there! i can't fookin wait. imma be calling at 5pm (BST) xxx🖤😍   

    "OH MY GOD!" I squealed, praising the gods above that my parents weren't home. I felt myself tear up out of pure joy - I allowed the tears to escape.

    "I'M CALLING YUNGBLUD TOMORROW!" I yelled into my pillow before quickly setting out an outfit; the same one I wore for my TikTok. My parents had said they would be out until some time tomorrow, so I just had to pray that they didn't arrive while I was calling him. For the rest of the day, I cleaned myself up as much as possible, even trying to ignore the screaming thoughts about my body image as I ate a full meal for the first time in a while. As I fell asleep later that night, I smiled wider.

    I hadn't broken that smile once today. God, I cannot wait for tomorrow.

I slept soundly; a rare occasion. Upon waking up, a wave of excitement immediately hit me. I'm calling Dom today. I'm actually gonna speak to him. My parents probably won't be home until way later today, either. I squealed as I checked the clock, realizing I only had an hour until the call. I quickly got ready, making myself look as presentable as possible. By the time I was ready, there were only ten minutes until the call. I had already texted the Skype account I needed to text yesterday, so now all I can do is wait. I sat anxiously in the living room as a long, grueling twelve minutes ended up passing before I got the call. I quickly answered, smiling from ear to ear. Dom's face appeared on my phone screen (which was indeed screen recording), as happy as ever.

"HI Y/N!" I heard through the phone, smiling wider.

"Hi!" I replied shakily, trying to hold back a squeal.

"You look so sick, man, are you alright?" He asked, still smiling. I nodded, covering my mouth with my sleeves for a moment before pulling them away and taking a deep breath.

"Do you wanna hear the new song?"

"...YES?" I replied, starting to feel a little more comfortable around Dom, enough so that I even worked up the courage to get a little sarcastic. He laughed before having Tom help him set up the song. Soon enough, I heard Fleabag start playing; my jaw immediately dropped. I quickly composed myself and leaned closer to my phone to hear the song a bit better. I got comfortable enough to start nodding my head along with it and lip-sync what little amount of the lyrics I knew; at the same time, I saw Dom smile even wider out of the corner of my eye. As the song came to a close, I immediately heard Dom begin speaking again.

"SO! What do ya think?" He asked, seeming a bit nervous to hear my reply.

"THAT WAS AMAZING!" I gushed, shaking my hands a bit in excitement.

"I'm glad you like it! Are ya sure you're alright, though, love? You seem a bit shaky," Dom asked me, his face falling a bit as his smile morphed into a look of concern.

"Yeah, I'm alright! I'm, uh, just a bit nervous, and there's a lot I wanna say, haha!" I replied, giving him a shaky grin. His smile returned as he egged me on:

"Aw you're well cute, man! Then go ahead and say it! I'm all ears,"

"I, uh, I guess I kinda just wanna say thank you. Thank you so much. I, um, have been having a really, really, hard time lately, especially with my gender identity. I haven't been able to fully work up the courage to come out to my parents yet, but listening to your music and seeing how confident you are has really helped me a lot and taught be to be myself and not-" I cut myself off as I heard the front door open, quickly followed by loud, hurtful insults from my drunken parents. I felt fear wash over me as I quickly turned back to Dom, seeing a complexion of concern staring back at me.

"I have to go-!" I quickly went to hit the end button on the call as my parents approached me, prepared to do their worst. There was really only one problem, one small issue I hadn't noticed.   

My finger had missed the end button, simply turning my camera off instead.

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word count: 1152

things are starting to escalate! please vote and comment if you enjoyed <3