My Beautiful Boy ✔️

08

Alayna follows me into my bedroom, closing the door behind her. I clear my throat, perching on the edge of my bed. I watch as she slowly walks over and sits next to me, her eyes focusing on the wall opposite the both of us.

"So..." She says, looking up at the ceiling.

"I appreciate your help." I say, quietly. I glance at the side of her head, trying to sniff out what she's feeling. "I understand that it's difficult for you to help me when you don't know what's going on." I say.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Alayna says, and I feel her gaze on my temple. Her shoulder is lightly pressed against mine and the proximity of her body and her skin slowly chokes me.

"I know." I say, looking to the ground. "I'm not really... allowed to say anything, but I'll tell you that my parents- mostly my dad- are in a lot of debt. And until they can pay it off, the people he owes money to will continue to beat me up." I tell her, and I hear her intake of breath. She's staring at me now, and I glance at her to see her eyes wide with shock and her mouth slightly parted.

"Dawson, that is... that is not okay. You have to tell someone- the police, I don't know-" She says, and I sigh, shaking my head.

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because they're my parents. And, no matter what, I love them." I say, and Alayna sighs, her hand on my shoulder. I shiver under her touch. "I just have to deal with it until he can pay them off." I say.

"No. No, are you serious?" She exclaims, and she's on her feet now. "Dawson, you shouldn't have to deal with anything. You're just a kid. It's not fair of your parents to let you get beat up because of a problem that they have, and not try to protect you." Her hands are in her hair and she's pacing the room, breathing heavily. "Do you know how fucked this is? How fucked this entire situation is? It's not... it's not normal."

I stand up as well, placing my hands on her shoulders to calm her down. "I don't have a choice, Alayna. They're my parents." I say, and she stares up at me. "Can you just understand why I don't want you involved with this?" I ask, tilting my head to the side. "I want you well away from this, because I won't-" My jaw clenches at the thought of anyone hurting her. "I won't forgive myself if anything happens to you."

"Dawson..." Her eyes are wide as she looks up at me. "You'll end up dead if this carries on going. This will kill you. I'm sorry, but I can't sit back and watch as you-" Her voice breaks. "-Fall apart and get killed." She says, and now her hands are in mine and her eyes hold so much pain that I can't help it when I wrap my arms around her shoulder and pull her in to me. She gasps lightly as her cheek presses against my chest and she hesitates before wrapping my arms around my waist. I squeeze her, resting my chin on the top of her head and caressing her thick hair.

"I should go home." I hear her mumble, and I look out of the window to see the dark, starry night. I curse under my breath.

"No, I think it'll be better if you stay here tonight." I say, quietly. Alayna looks up at me, her eyes flickering all over my face. She purses her lips together, looking to the ground.

"Won't your parents be home?" She asks, quietly. I sit back onto my bed, folding my arms over my stomach. The bruises on my face hadn't fully cleared up, yet, but the ones on my body were almost gone. Ready for a top-up.

"They never come into my room. Both of them will be at work before either of us wake up." I say, and Alayna hesitates before she nods her head. "I'll, erm... I'll give you some comfortable clothes to sleep in." I say, walking over to my wardrobe and grabbing a pair of grey jogging bottoms and a black oversized shirt. Slowly, I pass them to Alayna and she sends me a small smile before clearing her throat and pressing my clothes to her chest. "I'll sleep on the floor. You can take the bed." I say, and Alayna looks up at me, tilting her head in confusion.

"What? No, it's okay. You can have the bed." She says, and I shake my head. She really loves to disagree with me, doesn't she?

"Seriously, Alayna. You can take the bed. I'm gonna go and brush my teeth." I say, and before she argues, I quickly slip out of my room. Quickly, I use the bathroom and brush my teeth before walking back into my room.

Alayna had turned the light off and had crawled under the covers of my bed. All I see is the bump where her body lays, and I smile to myself before opening my closet and pulling out a blanket. I walk over to the bed, careful not to wake her, and grab the spare pillow before throwing it onto the floor. I didn't have anything to place underneath me, so I lay on the rough carpet, throwing the blanket over myself. I pull off my shirt, placing it next to me.

As I'm trying to sleep, I keep tossing and turning. I tried to tone down my breathing so that Alayna wasn't disturbed, but I couldn't sleep being in such close proximity to her.

"Dawson?" I hear, and the sound of her voice makes me sit up on my make-shift bed. My breath is shaky.

"Yeah?" I whisper, and Alayana too sits up, peeking down at me from the top of the bed.

"Please get into the bed. I can't sleep knowing you're down there." She says, and I sigh, admitting defeat. I slowly get to my feet, grabbing the pillow and holding it to my stomach as I drag my feet towards the bed. Alayna watches as I freeze next to the bed and she slowly pries the pillow out of my arms and places it on the bed in its correct place.

I don't think I'm breathing as she scans my stomach, her eyes flickering over the bruises. "They're healing quite well." She observes, and I hesitate before pulling the duvet back and slipping into the bed.

It's weird seeing Alayna wearing my clothes. Even though my joggers are practically falling off of her and expose her hips, she wasn't complaining and looked quite comfortable. I look away from her.

Slowly, I lay down, my head softly landing on the pillow. Alayna pulls the duvet over my body and I close my eyes, trying my damn hardest to try to sleep.