Blue

Leo Leaves

Casper's Perspective
When the men stumbled into the lobby, I put two and two together really fast. The Lavenders and four men stumble in, the strangers looking sweaty and bloody. They all look like different arrangements of my boyfriend, with brown wavy hair, similar builds, and the same face shape. Leo leaves my side and runs to the people. The brothers. Leo's not going to be able to handle this.

I run up and stay back a little bit, watching this unfold. I ask Leo if they're his brothers after everyone disperses, and he doesn't respond.

The brothers are gone, and the crowd leaves. I don't touch Leo. Bad things happen when he thinks about his brothers, and now they live here. I stand in front of him. "Leo? Do you want to go upstairs?"

He blinks and shakes his head. "I need to go on a walk. I'll be back."

I cross my arms. "Nope. No way. Not happening."

He looks at the door, then back at me. "I'll be back. Don't try to stop me, Casper."

"Leo, I'm putting my foot down. Do not leave. We can do something else to ground you, we can go to bed, we can do whatever. You can talk with your friends or something. Do not leave."

He turns to leave, and I instinctively grab his wrist. He whips around, grabs my sweater, and gets up in my face. "Don't try to stop me. I don't want to hurt you. Got it or do I need to repeat myself again?"

The feeling of inferiority infects me and spreads through my body, making me curl in on myself. Tears start falling, and I feel stupid. "Leo, stop."

He lets me go and walks out the door. I don't try to stop him again.

I have no idea where he slept that night, but I saw him talking to his brothers in the dining hall the next morning. I didn't approach him. I don't know if he wants me to. Why is he acting like this?

My self harm gets worse, and I end up knocking on the Oranges' door. Merida answers, and smiles at me. "Hey Casper, heard some weird stuffs been going on. What's up?"

"Sorry to bother you, but I need to stay in here for a while. I... where's Ethan and Chrissy?"

She opens the door fully and I see Chrissy on the bed reading and the bathroom door is closed, meaning Ethan's probably in there. I walk in and take off my shoes before flopping onto the bed. Chrissy finally notices me, and puts down her book. "Dude, what's going on?"

"Bodyguards." I say quietly.

Chrissy looks surprised and immediately says, "Absolutely."

Chrissy, Ethan, and I have been best friends since high school. Thats when we started the bodyguard thing. It's when I need them to lock up sharp things and watch me to make sure I don't hurt myself. Ethan and Chrissy are outstanding friends, and always take being my bodyguards seriously. Ethan walks out of the bathroom with wet hair and Chrissy immediately says, "Bodyguards."

He nods. "On it."

I focus on Chrissy so Ethan can lock up everything without me seeing the combination on the lock. "What's happening, love?" Chrissy asks.

"So, Leo and his brother Link have four other brothers, who they don't like because at least one of them is abusive. That's Percy, which is why he was repeating that name and got triggered at my family's house. They're all here now."

She nods. "Shit."

My eyes go wide. "Uh-huh. So then I'm like, 'Let's take care of Leo and help him get through this.' I mean, if his brothers are here, it means they can be good people, right? It's Diversion Mansion, land of good people. I don't know. Anyway, Leo leaves. I try to get him not to, because it's obvious he's going to go get high, but he lowkey threatens me and I can't stop him. He triggered me and now I'm hurt, and he slept somewhere else last night. But he's at a table, chitchatting with the same brothers he said he didn't like! I'm confused. And I feel stupid."

Ethan finished up and stands by us. Merida sits on the couch and listens politely. Ethan asks, "What if he's only okay with talking to them when he's high?"

"Maybe." I respond.

"Maybe he's reverted back to how he used to be, triggered by his brothers showing up." Chrissy ponders.

"Probably." I nod. "What do I do?"

Ethan speaks his mind. "Honestly, I'm tired of you cleaning up his messes. You should wait until he realizes he fucked up, then he'll come crawling."

"And if he never realizes?"

Ethan opens his mouth to speak, but Chrissy quickly says, "He will. It's Leo. He's your soulmate."

I nod. "Yeah, for sure. He'll come back. He has to, right?"

Everyone reassures me, and we spend the day together. I spend my time worrying about Leo and resisting the urge to hurt myself.

The next morning, I woke up on the Oranges' couch and we ate breakfast together. No sign of Leo. I occasionally saw his brothers walking around, but not him. The day had a lot of crying, and not a lot of focusing on school. Leo's even fucking up my academics now.

My anger towards him grows throughout the day, and now I'm not even sure I want him to apologize. But he should soon, because I'm afraid the anger's going to continue to grow until he does. I just got my family to think he's not a complete asshole, and he pulls this shit?