The Lake | BxB

-5- Sneaking Around

Romeo startled awake blinking sleepy dust out of his eyes, the beer can he'd been previously clutching had just hit the porch floor jolting him out of his doze.

Sighing Romeo stood up heading back inside, he discarded the can into the bin before walking into his room.

He had the familiar urge to cut. The urge that so often resulted in scars crisscrossing his arms, that so often resulted in pain like nothing he'd ever experienced. Pain that stayed exclusively in his head unless he did as he was told and slit his wrists.

Taking the secret box out of where he'd hidden it Romeo opened it, slowly he pulled out one of the cold, mean looking silver blades. This one still had dried up blood on it from whenever he'd used it last, most of them did. Looking into this box really told a story of how long Romeo had been dealing with his emotions like this for.

Breathing in deeply Romeo began to cut, he made line after line going deeper with each one the pain almost addictive in the moment, he knew he'd regret it afterwards like he always did, but in the moment it was his medicine.

He didn't stop until his wrist was coated in gory red lines snaking up and down his entire arm. Was his concealer bottle gonna even have enough product to cover this many scars?

Deciding he'd worry about that later Romeo stood up steadily not wanting to pass out from the amount of blood currently flowing down his arm. He quickly rushed through the hallway into the bathroom, once inside he dunked his arm under the cold tap wincing in pain as the ice cold water met the fresh wounds.

The sink turned a deadly shade of red as the fresh water mixed with the ruby redness of Romeo's blood. The blonde was almost transfixed by it, staring intently as the red stained water gradually dispersed down the plug hole. Sighing Romeo turned his attention to his wrist, he'd obviously gone too deep. These weren't gonna stop bleeding for a little bit yet. That meant no swimming for the next couple hours.

Trudging back to his room Romeo found the bandages he'd packed amongst his clothes. Deftly he took one out wrapping it messily around his wrist ignoring the pain as he applied pressure to the wounds. He hated having bandages or bandaids on but sometimes it had to be done, it'd be better than having to explain to his parents why his sweaters and hoodies were blood stained on the sleeves.

Quickly pulling a light weight hoodie on Romeo felt himself already overheating, this was not the kind of weather which favoured hoodies.

A noise then sounded from the room next door, a door opening and shutting, then a males voice. Shit, his dad was up.

Thinking quickly Romeo decided he'd rather go outside even if it meant being boiling hot rather than face the wrath of his dads harsh punches.

Tiptoeing slowly towards the door he opened it as gently as possible cringing at every squeak it made, he was being as quiet as possible yet his efforts soon turned out to be fruitless. His parents bedroom door swung open just as he was about to pass it and his dad emerged from the doorway noticing Romeo immediately.

"Why didn't you wake me up you useless piece of shit?" Mr Swift questioned aggressively immediately squaring up to Romeo.

Romeo stood his ground not flinching as the man drew closer. "You drunk too much, so you face the consequences" Romeo told him shrugging. He really didn't do himself any favours sometimes.

Lashing out his dad punched Romeo directly in the stomach making the boy wince in pain and double over. That was a strong punch.

Showing no mercy Mr Swift punched out again connecting his fist with Romeos shoulder. Romeo stumbled backwards shutting his eyes as he fell against the wall. It was best to not fight it he'd learnt, if he fought back things got ugly really quickly and it usually ended up with blunt objects being used on him, which was a lot more painful than just punches and kicks. The lesser of two evils in Romeo's opinion.

Mr Swift didn't cease his beating for a good while constantly kicking out and throwing punches down at his crumpled son on the floor. Romeo remained silent not showing any sign of the pain he was in other than occasional winces.

After a hellish few minutes Mr Swift seemed to have finally had enough backing away from his son. Romeo immediately scrambled to his feet limping towards the door slowly. He made his way outside feeling the heat of the sun hit him immediately but also the relief of a light breeze.

Making his way carefully down to the lake Romeo sat on the grassy bank staring out at the sparkling water. Everything hurt right now. The back of his head hurt from where he'd hit it when he fell, his legs, chest and arms hurt from where Mr Swift had beaten him, and his left wrist hurt from where he'd inflicted cuts upon himself. It was like torture.

Romeo held back the tears not even allowing them to build up in his eyes rubbing furiously at them. He wouldn't cry. He didn't do crying. As much as his dad had shouted and as much as his dad had beaten him, he wouldn't cry. He wouldn't let Mr Swift win.

His thoughts were then interrupted by something warm and fluffy pressing itself against him panting heavily, could he not even have a moments peace at all?

Glancing down in irritation Romeo spotted the Summers family dog bounding around him. It nuzzled its face into his palm clearly wanting to be petted.

Reluctantly Romeo gave in allowing a small smile to flicker onto his face as the dog let him scratch behind its ears happily. Romeo had read once that dogs could sense when humans were unhappy, maybe this one had sensed his depressive state.

A moment later hurried footsteps sounded from behind him, the dog excitedly trotted over to Gabriel as he approached.

"I- I'm so sorry" He whispered out of breath from running in the heat.

"Yeah" Romeo answered stonily. He was used to hearing that from the brunette boy by now, it seemed to be the only word in his vocabulary.

"Bubbles, come here" He cooed making the dog approach him then as soon as she got close enough attaching the lead. "I'm really sorry about that, she got out before I could- could attach the lead"

Romeo scowled at the boy in silence. All he wanted was a minute to himself, he'd just cut himself open and been beaten up by his own father, having some random boy he disliked running up to him with an equally irritating dog was the last thing he needed right now. Even if said irritating dog was absolutely adorable.

"I heard... commotion from your cabin, is- is everything alright?" Gabriel then asked sweetly his voice dropping to be a softer, more gentle tone. His sapphire blue eyes traced over Romeo in concern but this just annoyed the blonde more.

"Mind your own god damn business" Romeo snapped making Gabriel's eyes widen. He clearly hadn't expected that kind of reaction from his comforting words.

"S-sorry" he stuttered quietly looking away from Romeo and at Bubbles who was sniffing around his feet curiously.

"God you're like a broken record, do you do anything other than apologise?" Romeo hissed in frustration, all he wanted was to be alone with his own thoughts right now, even if that wasn't the safest of options for him. He hated apologies.

"Sorry" Gabriel then blurted out again before covering his mouth, Romeo turned away ignoring the brunettes presence. After an awkward few seconds Gabriel seemed to get the hint and backed away heading in the direction of the woods towards town.

Romeo watched him go silently then glanced back out at the lake wondering what'd it be like to go under that calm water and never resurface, to sink to the bottom and have all his problems solved. it'd be easier than his life right now that's for sure.