your beauty never ever scared me.

chapter five

bruce's pov

i walk into my room and shut the door behind me , once i reach the middle of the room i smile the hardest i've ever smiled and giggle to myself. this is so stupid. vance obviously said he likes some girl , of course he doesn't like me- boys don't like boys. but i physically cannot resist the urge to swoon head over heels for him no matter how hard i try not to. i don't know what this means for me , this could end very badly , but i love him so much.

i spend the rest of that evening smiling about it. i feel a mix of emotions , mostly happy ones but i also feel kind of confused. why do i feel this way if i already know he likes a girl? i just know i'm going to get my heart broken.

vance's pov

after that evening bruce was all i could think about. i hope he didn't think i was weird after what i did. well , he did ask me to show up to his baseball practice tomorrow so i guess he still wants me around.

the walk home was quiet. the streetlights were on and nobody was out , hardly any cars. once i get home i open and shut the door quietly , not wanting to wake my parents if they're asleep. my dad is a deadbeat alcoholic and my mom usually just passes out not wanting to deal with his shit but he falls asleep not long after her due to being blackout drunk.

" vance? honey is that you? " my mom spoke softly from the other room. " yeah it's just me mom , sorry. " i said in response. i love my mom , she's not like my dad at all. " where the fuck have you been all damn day? " fuck , why is he awake. " leave the boy alone tim. " my mom says in my defense , she's always defending me against him. " no no no , this little shit is going to answer me. why the fuck are you so goddamn late , huh? "

i look at him blankly and feel my breathing getting faster and anger rise before responding , " i was hanging out with a friend after school , it's not that big of a deal. " i can tell he's drunk , again. i feel bad for my mom now , she has to put up with him every day. " fucking around with some hoe? huh? or you got your ass beat again? " he says referring to my bandaged hand. " no girl , just a fight. i'm not hurt. " i said wanting this to end quickly.

" fucking stupid boy , got a call from the school. do you know how many fights you've gotten into in the past month ? do you know how many?! " he says picking up the volume in his voice. i sigh and look away but only for a moment before he says something again. " look at me you , maybe i'm gonna' have to beat your ass so you know how it feels , huh? " he says as he angrily stomps over to me and grabs my face in his hand , turning my head so i'm looking at him directly in his eyes.

" tim knock it off! leave the poor boy alone for god's sake! " my mom yells at him from the background. " shut up erin! this boy needs to learn some fucking manners. " he yells back at my mom. i hate when he yells at her. he turns his head back to me and sticks a good punch on the left side of my face just under my eye. i fall to the floor suddenly and he's kneeling over me , grabbing my shirt and yanking me up to him before hitting me again.

my mom rushes over , making an attempt to get him off of me. to no avail , she gets pushed back forcefully by the man and falls back in pain. i grab his arm which was securely ahold of me and swing at him with my other arm. i manage to get at least one good swing to his face before he head-butts me making my nose bleed. goddamnit. i am now completely on the floor as he gets up , bleeding from his head from the punch i threw. " fucker. " is the last thing he says before he walks away.

i let out a cough and sit up , my head hurts like a motherfucker. i reach up to my face and can see that i am bleeding from my nose , that asshole. i'm not too worried about me though , i need to get my mom. she's sitting up with her back leaned against the wall , quietly crying. " hey , shhh momma , it's okay look i'm okay. " i comfort her as i reach out to lift her to her feet. " are you okay mama? did he hurt you? " she looks at me with teary eyes and shakes her head. " oh my baby , my beautiful boy i'm so sorry honey. " i look at her empathetically feeling absolutely terrible. she cares so much but i'm such a terrible person , it's because of him. she cups my face with her gentle hands , moving the hair out of my face. " i'm okay momma really , i'm okay. come on , let's get you to bed. " i say reassuringly as i hold her , leading her to her room and onto her bed. " there you go mom , goodnight. " i tuck her into bed and give her a soft kiss on her forehead , leaving after and quietly shutting the door.

i sigh and walk to the bathroom shutting the door behind me. i'm so angry. at myself and my dad. i grab some toilet paper and stop the bleeding from my nose before leaving the bathroom and going to the kitchen. i put some ice in a paper towel and hold it up to my face , asshole beat the fuck out of it. i shouldn't have let him but i knew if i stopped him he'd go to my mom. i hold the ice there for a few moments before going to my room and shutting the door. i go to my bed and sit down , what is bruce gonna' say? i stop thinking about it completely and decide to just fall asleep , i end up thinking about bruce anyways.