Blue

Percy

Leo's Perspective
I had to figure out how to switch my eye color back, but I figured it out eventually. Home is father away than I remember. I must've ran for an hour or so when I first left home. It takes me a while, but I see the old brick house at the bottom of the hill. I roll my shoulders back and head towards it.

The ladder's still in the back, thank god. I climb into my window and jump inside. Please let my bed be empty. Surprisingly, it is. There's a bottle of pills on the pillow, and the covers are still messy. I hear Percy snoring. I put the pills on the nightstand and crawl into bed. I feel my heart pounding. I miss Casper already. But this is the right choice. This way, if I freak, I'm only hurting bad people. So what if I dislocate Percy's shoulder? It's Percy. So what if I run down the street because I'm panicking? No one cares. No need to steal pills, my family does it for me in exchange for staying home.

Percy stirs. Always been able to tell when a situation changes, that one. He's the best at reading the room. He sits up and stares at me. "Even Little Link had the decency to stay away. Fuck off and die in a hole like him. I don't want you in my room."

"Yeah, I missed you too, you middle-school has-been."

We stare at each other in silence. He glares at me. "Maybe you coming back will knock some sense into dad. He's been acting stupid."

"Reckless stupid or violent stupid?"

"Well, when we realized you weren't coming back, he realized he can't even keep his kids. Made him angry. He started beating on Mario but it ...wasn't enough."

"Don't tell me he's hitting you, too. We all thought you were untouchable."

He scoffed. "I fuckin am. Old man is just that to me, an old man. I'll kill that fucker if he steps to me, and he knows that. But Jack? Kellen? They're still scared of him, even if it's just a little bit."

"He's hurting all three of them? Is it just beatings?"

"I mean, Kellen doesn't get hit much because he spends half his life driving. But it's bad. Dad got these steel-toes boots. Heard they hurt like a bitch."

I frown. "Shit."

"Yeah. They've all been taking everything you left behind. Helps 'em. You screwed us over by leaving, you know. Link screwed you over, you screwed over the rest of 'em. But hey, at least you lived and came back. Maybe it'll go back to how it was."

He doesn't look me in the eyes as he talks. He stares at a small switchblade in his hands. There's something about being brothers. A bond you have even when you hate each others guts. Percy hates dad almost as much as I do, even if he's the favorite. But he still keeps my secrets.

"I saw Link, Percy."

His eyes go wide. "Errand boy's alive?"

I nod. "And happy. In love, eating well. Living better than you guys."

Percy nods and pops the blade out and back in. "He's adopted. He had a chance. We were doomed from the beginning. If you weren't Dad's kid, if you weren't really my brother, you would have stayed gone, too."

"Well, isn't that a happy outlook on things?"

Another beat of silence.

"He might kill you tomorrow. Him and his fucking steel-toed boots. I won't save you." Percy says with little to no emotion.

"I know. But where else would I go?"

He chuckles. "You got fucking nowhere and nothing outside of this house, Leo. I think you're smart for trying to leave, and I think you're stupid for coming back. But it's what had to happen. Get a good night of sleep and hope your last meal won't be your last forever."

He lays down, shoving the switchblade under his pillow, and turns away from me. I sigh and lay back down.

Casper's Perspective
I spent the night trying to convince myself Leo was staying out of trouble. But not knowing what he was going back to was killing me. A few hours after the sun rose, I headed downstairs to find the Lavenders. I see them chatting away at their usual table. I tap Link on the shoulder. "Link, I need your help."

"Where's Leo? I'll sort him out." He sighs and stands up.

"He went back. I wanna say he went home, but I don't think it's really a home."

Link and Luther make eye contact, then Link pulls me away, over to the stairs. "He went back? You let him go back? What the hell happened?"

"Doesn't matter. I need to know what he went back to. You need to tell me how he got those bruises and those nightmares. I'm sorry, I don't want to make you relive anything, but I need to know."

He nods. "You can't tell anyone about this. Especially my boyfriends."

I nod. "Of course."

He side-eyes the table, but they're not looking at him. He looks back at me. "Leo and I had the low-level jobs. I did the deals to high school kids, E-cigs and weed. Leo was the alibi. He kept track of who was where doing what, and if cops showed up he would come up with a lie of where we were and how we spent most of the day together. We all had alibi locations to corroborate his lies. Jack was our marketer. He'd give out a dose of shit and tell people that it came from us. Kellen bought the shit from people in the country or even Mexico and smuggled it back. Mario dealt the party drugs. Percy and Dad dealt the harder shit and... defended the family when needed."

"That's a whole-ass operation."

"And then I left, spreading them a little thin. But Leo leaving? That's an actual man down. Probably hurt Dad's ego, too. Can't imagine he's gonna be happy seeing Leo again. And a pissed off Dad is the worst kind."

"How does he... hurt his kids?"

"He beats the youngest, or so I've been told. I thought it was a me thing until Leo got here. We talked about it a little bit, enough to know that Dad's been escalating over the years. For me, it was just a belt, throwing shit, and the occasional bad beating. Dad doesn't know when to stop when he punches. Leo always pulled him off of me eventually, or I'd have to wait for Dad to tire out. Percy also threw shit and would kick me in the ribs, but he was mostly fond of verbal abuse. It was worse for Leo. No one pulled Dad off of him."

"Percy? Your brother is named Percy?"

"Yeah."

"Shit. I know what triggered him. Tell me more, if you can."