Painful Love

f i f t e e n

"Grayson wake up." Katherine whispers putting her head on top of Grayson's chest. "We need to go to school."

"I don't want to go to school." Grayson murmurs pulling the bedspread over his head.

"Hey!" Katherine says throwing it away. "I can't breathe, I have told you a million times not to do that." She says putting her head back on her pillow.

Grayson opens one eye to look at her and smiles, noticing he made her mad again. He knew she hates that, but he did it anyways to provoke her.

"You're mad at me." Grayson whispers pulling her towards him.

"I'm not." She replies pulling away. "Now get up or we will be late again."

"Why the rush?" He asks grabbing her by the waist, close to his body.

"Stop." She says now smiling.

"I thought you said you liked it when I did this." He replies kissing her neck. "You don't like it anymore?" He says caressing her hair.

"I do." She says turning around to face him.

"So what's the problem?" He asks looking at her green eyes.

"You need to go to school." She says playing with his hair. "Your grades aren't the best."

"I know." He sighs.

"But I'm helping you get better ones, and you need to start by actually attending school."

"I know." He says once again, before kissing her.

They stay there for a few minutes looking at each other. Grayson was feeling happy today for some odd reason and Katherine felt like Grayson was turning back again to the guy she fell in love with a few years ago.

"Your brother called yesterday." She said. She notices how Grayson tense by her words.

"What?" Grayson asks seriously now.

"When you were showering." She says scared she made a mistake.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He says trying to stay calm but she knew he was mad.

"He asked me to no tell you." She says nervous. "But I figured I tell you anyways."

"Yeah, you decided to tell me now?" He shouts standing up.

"I'm sorry, I didn't thought it was a big deal!" She says standing now too. "Besides, you don't even talk to him anyways."

"And that's an excuse for not telling me?" He screams clenching his fists.

"You're lucky I even told you." She scoffs crossing her arms. "Next time I will follow Ethan's advice and keep my mouth shut."

Grayson was so mad that he did something he regrets almost immediately. He went to her and punched her in the jaw, making her fall to the ground. Katherine moans in pain, putting her hand on top of the bruises.

"I'm sorry." Grayson whispers going to her. "I didn't mean to."

Katherine pulls aways, trying really hard to contain the tears. "Don't." She whispers going to the bathroom and locking the door.

"Katherine wait." Grayson says going behind her. "Open the door." He says resting his forehead against the door.

"Go away." She says trying to control her voice. "You can shower in the guest bathroom."

"You know I didn't mean to." He says closing his eyes. "Okay, I haven't done that in weeks, I'm getting better at controlling it. I just..." But he didn't have an excuse to justify the fact that he had hit her once again, because no matter how mad he is, he doesn't have the right to hit her.

"Just let me shower and we will talk later." She replies opening the faucet.

Grayson sighs taking a towel and going to the other bathroom just like she told him to.

When he came back after a quick shower he saw Katherine on her underwear, looking for her uniform. He admired her perfect body from afar, but when she turned around his heart fell. The bruise that was laying in her jaw was pretty awful.

"Katherine." Grayson says putting his hand on top of her shoulder.

"We need to go to school." She says putting her shirt on and closing all of them bottoms before putting the shirt inside the black skirt. "If we don't leave now we will be late."

Grayson sighs putting his boxers on and the uniform afterwards. He observes Katherine while she did her make up perfect enough to cover the bruise he had left on her just a few minutes before.

"You know I love you, right?" Grayson asks getting inside his car, while she went inside too on the passenger seat.

"I know." She says closing the door.

Grayson gave her a quick peck before turning the engine on, because he knew that she would be back to herself in a few hours.

~

When they got to school, they were in fact late. So Grayson went his way and Katherine did the same since neither of them had the same class in the morning. But for Grayson luck he stumbled into someone he wasn't expecting.

"Ethan." He says taking a step back.

"Grayson." Ethan says surprised.

"I heard you called." Grayson says awkwardly.

"She told you." He sighs closing his eyes. "I'm sorry about that."

"It's okay." Grayson says frowning. "What did you want?"

"Nothing."

"You called for nothing?" He asks crossing his arms.

"Yeah."

"You know, you were always a bad liar." He says smiling.

"I know." Ethan replies trying not to blush.

"So, why did you call?" He asks once again raising his eyebrows.

"It's just," But Ethan had no idea why he called in the first place. "I went to the hospital yesterday."

"Are you okay?" Grayson asks worried.

"Yeah I am." He say smiling, happy that for some reason Grayson cared for him. "Kimberly's mother had a stroke so I went with her to see her, and it got me thinking." He says looking at the floor. "About mom."

"Oh." Grayson says sighing. He wasn't expecting that and for some odd reason he wanted to cry, not hit him for mentioning her. "I'm sorry."

"About what?"

"Not answering the phone." He says grabbing Ethan's arm. "It must have been really hard on you going back there."

"It was." Ethan says trying to ignore the fact that Grayson was touching him.

But when Grayson hugged him Ethan wasn't able to ignore it, or the feelings that he was feeling either.

"I'm sorry about all of the things I said to you that night." Grayson says squeezing his brother tightly.

"Okay." Ethan said frowning.

Grayson takes a step back and looks at his brother for a moment before disappearing. Ethan was surprised that his brother actually said he was sorry. Maybe Katherine was right, maybe he could go back to normal.