Blue

Losing Hope

Leo's Perspective
I woke up to see Mario standing in the doorway. He has a black eye and a scowl on his face. "You're back."

"I'm back." I sit up.

I hear, "Mario! Get your ass down here!" from downstairs.

The sound of Dad's voice makes Mario and I flinch. He whispers, "Sorry brother." before he yells.

"Leo's back!"

I stand up and grab him. "Why the fuck would you say that? You're 22 fucking years old, stop tattling like a fucking kindergartener!"

I hear running and stomping. The first to arrive is Jack. "Oh, shit. Wait 'til Dad gets a load of this. You're dead, Leo. Welcome home."

He has a busted lip. I glare at him. The stomping gets louder and Jack and Mario are pulled out of the doorway. Dad looks at me and seethes. I can see the switch flick on in his eyes, and I know he sees red. I look down at his shoes.

Fuckin' steel toed boots.

Casper's Perspective
"When they wake up, which should be around now, Leo's getting beat. There's no way around it. Once he's forced back into submission, he'll have to run the shitty jobs while someone else stays home as punishment. Either tomorrow or the next day, things will go back to exactly how they were before he left. Hopefully, the concept of spending a lifetime with you will get him to come back. Don't lose hope, Casper."

"He said he's not coming back until he's 'better.'" I tell Link.

"Oh." Link eyes flicker away from mine.

"You don't think he'll get better, do you?" I try to not sound defeated, but it seeps into my voice anyway.

"Not there, he won't. But maybe he can find a shelter, or a home. And who knows, he could change his mind any day."

I stare at him. I want to ask him. He stares back. He knows what I want. "Casper... I can't. I love him, but I can't."

I nod. "Give me the address."

"What?!"

"Give me the address. Now. Please."

"Casper, no. They'd eat you alive and find out he's gay. You'd both end up dead."

"I can't stay here. Not while he's getting hurt. I refuse. Give me the address."

Link clenched his jaw. "You're serious? You'd do that for him?"

"Yes. I'd do anything."

He shakes his head. "I can't let you do that. Okay, shit. Okay. I should be back before dark. If I'm not, get Lucille from the maintenance room. Luther owes me one, anyway."

He takes one look back at his table, but does not go to them. He walks out of the mansion, looking afraid.

I walk back to his table. "Where's Link?" Adam asks.

"He'll be back. He's helping out Leo today. He said he'll be back before dark."

Max and Adam nod, but Luther looks extremely afraid. "Where exactly is he going?"

I stay silent. Luther's voice gets louder. "Where is he going? Where is he... he's breaking the fucking pinky promise. Why the fuck..."

"Luther, what's going on? Don't stress yourself out too much." Max says in a kind voice.

"Casper. Is he going back? Tell me right now."

"Please don't stop him. He needs to save Leo."

I've never really seen Luther mad before. "He's done enough saving for a lifetime, Casper. He doesn't need to clean up his older brother's mess!"

"I need him back! I cannot sit here while Leo is suffering. I offered to go! I wanted to go! But Link left, instead! This is not on me!"

"You're right, it's on that piece of shit brother and that piece of shit family!"

"Hey!" Adam shouts. "What the hell is going on?!"

"Casper sent Link to go back to his abuser all because he misses his boyfriend, which he's known for an entire two weeks."

They all look at me. "Casper, is that true?" Max asks.

I turn and leave, wiping tears off my face.

Leo's Perspective
The goal was to shower, but then I discovered I couldn't stand up. Then the goal was to get into bed, but I couldn't make it up the stairs. My back hurts the most. I made it close to the couch, but Dad said, "If you get blood on my couch, boy, you're dead."

So now I'm laying face down on the floor in the living room, like a bear skin rug. My nose is gushing blood. My back is bleeding. My everything is bruised. And I feel like I'm home.

The front door opens and I hear Kellen's voice. "Why is there a corpse in the living room?"

Jack responds as he grabs $20 off of the fridge. "Not dead yet. It's Leo."

"Leo? Oh shit." Kellen's footsteps get closer to me.

He lifts my head by the hair, and drops me back down. "Stupid enough to come back, huh? I knew you didn't have it in ya. You missed it, didn't you?"

"No." I mumble.

"You didn't miss the pills? I heard that's the thing about shelters. They don't let you get high. I'd bet 3 bricks you missed the pills so bad you wandered back home to daddy. Speaking of which, our jackass at the border took an entire double the last amount this time. We need a new guy."

Dad paused his show. "You fucking idiot. Did you bring a gun?"

"Of course I brought a fucking gun. You think I'm going into operations with a fucking magic sword?"

"If you have a gun, why don't you fucking use it to get what you want, Kelly?" Dad sneers.

I can feel Kellen roll his eyes, I swear. "What do you want me to do, pull out a pistol at border control? What parasite crawled up your nose and ate your brain? Was it in the coke, father? You should start watching what you snort." Kellen retorts.

Next thing I know, Kellen's laying right next to me.