Old Friends

Aftercare

"Do you think I should wake him up?"

"Maybe you should just let him sleep. It's probably best you stay with him, too. I'll take notes for you in class."

"Thanks. I'll talk to you later."

"Talk to you later, Jeanie! Take good care of him."

My body ached as I slowly sat up, my eyes fluttering open to settle on Jean. He offered a faint smile when he saw that I was awake, setting down his phone and moving over to the edge of the bed to sit beside me.

My eyes widened slightly when I saw that he had a black eye, guilt flooding through me at the sight. "Your eye..."

"Yeah, well it's nothing compared to you," he mumbled, reaching back over to grab his phone and handing it to me so I could use it as a mirror. "You've probably got bruises over the rest of your body too. It might be good if you take a bath or something."

I gave a small sigh when I saw my reflection, one of my hands reaching up to run lightly over my bruised skin. I had a black eye just like Jean, as well as a split lip. "He's stronger than I expected."

"He was holding back."

"It was worth it though-"

"No, it wasn't," he interrupted, his tone completely serious. I lowered the phone slightly, flicking my gaze over to look at him, biting down on my lip when I saw his expression. "You have to promise that you won't try anything like that again."

"But-"

"Eren, he could easily do far worse than he did yesterday. If Petra wasn't there then he probably would have. You can't do that again, okay?" I lowered my head slightly, biting down on my lower lip and giving a slow nod. Jean gave a quiet sigh before shifting slightly, wrapping his arms around me to pull me into a hug.

"I know he hurt you, in more ways than one, but fighting back will only make it worse. I just... I don't want you getting hurt again."

I gave another small nod, wrapping my arms around him and returning the hug. I didn't say anything, just pulled myself closer and rested my head against his chest.

"I called your dad and told him you were staying overnight, so don't worry about him not knowing where you are. Ma has already left for work, but you should probably expect a speech of sorts from her when she gets back. She was really worried when we came back last night."

Although receiving a speech from Jean's mum wasn't something that I was excited for, I was still filled with warmth at the thought of her being so worried. She was basically my second mother, and now that I didn't live with my actual mum anymore it was pretty comforting.

"Thanks for the warning," I said lightly, giving a faint smile as I pulled back too look at him. My gaze then trailed down to the floor of his bedroom, a small sigh passing my lips when I noticed a couple of a pillows and a duvet laid out. "You slept on the floor?" I asked, lifting my gaze back up to look at him.

"Yeah. I mean, it's only a single bed and I find it comfier sleeping on the floor than on the sofa," he answered, dropping his arms back down to his sides and giving a small shrug. 

"You didn't have to do that."

"Idiot. I wasn't going to get you to sleep on the floor, was I?" He said, rolling his eyes and moving to stand up. "Anyway, I'll go run your bath. You can pick out some of my clothes to wear whilst you wait."

He was out of the room before I could even say thank you, leaving me to search through his wardrobe. We were close enough to the same size that his clothes would fit me, so I just picked out a navy sweater and some faded black jeans, as well as some socks and underwear.