The Lake | BxB

-11- Swimming

Romeo awoke the next morning with a yawn, he'd slept in considerably that day after his late night adventures the night before. Sighing he stumbled out of bed fetching his towel and swim shorts, then heading into the bathroom.

Standing under the familiar scalding hot water, Romeo washed his blonde locks roughly. His wrists stung with the aching pain he'd begun to become accustom too at this point, but he ignored it powering through.

After his shower Romeo stared into the mirror looking at his own reflection dismally, the bruise on his face was sticking out like a sore thumb, it stung whenever he moved his face at all, even just to speak.

His toned chest and especially the area around his ribs was also littered with brown marks which were out of place on Romeo's ripped body. Taking out his concealer he looked into the bottle in irritation slamming it back down, there was only a little left. He was going to have to choose between concealing his cuts or bruises.

Bruises would be easier to explain than the red lines that crisscrossed his wrists, but he was worried he'd be seen by someone from the Summers family who might already be suspecting abuse because of what had happened the other day.

Making a rash decision Romeo coated the concealer on his wrist covering up the red marks that were painted on his skin, he barely had enough to finish but luckily did. How had it even rubbed off so quickly?

Pulling on his swimming trunks Romeo set off out of the house, his parents were no where to be seen which was both a good thing and a slightly scary prospect, Romeo preferred knowing where they were as opposed to not.

As he clattered down the porch he immediately spotted Gabriel knelt down beside his dog picking up it's business in a bag.

"Lucky you" Romeo commented strolling up to the boy, his actions last night were still fresh in his head but he knew gaining the boys trust then having a hook up with him would likely satisfy his feelings and get them to stop plaguing him. At the same time he also felt awful for even thinking about taking advantage of Gabriel like that, why did he care? Was he going soft?

"I know" Gabriel answered sweetly clutching the bag in his hands as he stood up. "You about to go swimming?" He questioned shyly eyeing Romeo up hungrily.

"Yeah, wanna join me?" Romeo suggested, that would be step 1. Getting the brunette comfortable enough to have his shirt off around Romeo.

"Sure, I'll finish walking Bubbles then go get changed" Gabriel decided making Romeo nod, he'd never really had a crush on anyone before, but he thought this might be what it felt like, he'd never been anything other than a player. This was uncharted territory for him, ground he didn't really want to walk. He was happy bouncing from guy to guy with no strings attached.

They slowly walked back towards Gabriel's cabin chatting lightly as they got closer.

"Have you ever been on vacation here before?" Gabriel asked softly keeping his eyes on the dog in front of him but stealing a quick, flustered glance at Romeo. There was no way Gabriel wasn't gay, or at least bi, the way he looked at Romeo proved it entirely. He liked what he saw.

"No" Romeo responded shortly.

"Neither" Gabriel answered nodding. "Are- are those bruises from the other day?" He asked quietly clearly nervous at voicing his concerns.

"Probably" Romeo replied shrugging nonchalantly, there was no way he was admitting to this boy he was being abused by his own flesh and blood. He didn't want Gabriel to see him as weak.

"I'll just drop Bubbles off, then I'll get changed and be out" Gabriel told him quickly heading inside, Romeo sat on the grass for several minutes waiting in silence for the boy, the wind swayed the leaves around him lightly creating a peaceful atmosphere that Romeo wasn't used to experiencing. It was nice.