I'll Take Care Of You (boyxboy) ON HOLD

• o n e •

"How much school have you missed already?" My eyes burned as I stared up at the ceiling, Tanner choosing to wake me up at 5:30 in the morning.

"Somewhere close to the last two months." I rubbed my eyes.

There was a long pause, and if I was being honest, I wasn't sure if he was actually being quiet or if I had fallen back asleep. Regardless, I'd heard him say. "I'll be back on my lunch break to check on you"

I wanted to protest but there wasn't a point so I nodded.

He smiled at me, and the best I could do was give him a tired, warn out one back. But he accepted it, closing the door softly behind him.

I hugged my pillow. It wasn't technically my pillow, but it was my case, so at least something about it was familiar. Familiar or not, I wanted this all to be a dream and to just climb out of this bed and into my own. It was too big, too empty, it just wasn't mine. I wanted to go home.

To my home. With my mom and my dad and Jesse. But instead, I was here, with Tanner. Oh so incredibly kind Tanner Walsh. Why had he taken me in? Honestly? He hadn't spoken to my brother in the last five years — so how did he even know?

I'd never been told why, instead, just getting the answer of "it's none of your business." My parents knew, but they'd never spill it, telling me it was between the Jess and Tanner.

I had the right to know a lot of things but I would never get the answers.

Like why that had happened. And the fact that I almost wasn't here anymore, if it hadn't been for my brother saving my life...

I laid in bed and before I knew it, I heard the front door open. Tanner must have been back from whatever he was doing to check on me. What? Was he expecting to come home and find me dead or something?

"Hey," My door opened. "I got lunch, and," He tossed a thick bunch of folders on to the bed, "All of your missed school work. I don't want you to fall behind."

"How did you get these?" I grabbed the them, careful not to spill the papers anywhere.

He shrugged. "Wasn't like it was hard."

I rolled my eyes. "You didn't have to do this."

"I'm not gonna let you fail your senior year. It's bad enough Jess—" His voice died in his throat. "—Anyway. Come eat. I got take out."

He got us Chinese food from my favorite restaurant - did he know that it was my favorite, or did he just randomly get it? The odds felt too high that it wasn't random... He must have been suckering me for something.

"The administration asked me when you think you'll feel fit enough to come back to school."

"I don't know." I shrugged, "I honestly hadn't given much thought to it..."

"Which is what I, in more or less words, told them. Which is why I was given all of your missing assignments. The school, given the circumstances, are willing to let you not only catch up on all that you've missed, but they also are going to give you your work week-by-week, so you can stay caught up."

"That's reasonable I guess."

"Now here's my personal catch, I want you to have all of this missing work done by tomorrow, so I can take it with me on my way to work."

"Tanner!" I protested. "How do you expect me to get a six weeks worth of five classes done in...what? Less than twenty-four hours?"

"Better get to it." A smirk laid on his lips. "Besides, I already told the school I was gonna have it in before school was over tomorrow."

I huffed and went back to my room to go do it. Tanner promised not to "disturb" me so he left for the condo once more. I sorted it from easiest to hardest and worked on the harder stuff first which was a chemistry review and a couple of different essays for books we'd gone over in english. Those, thankfully, I had a note saying that I would be excused from them, since I wasn't there for the book readings. If it were up to Tanner, though, he probably would've gotten the books for me, himself. Math and American History proved to be easier. And I didn't have to worry about music class. But in the long run, there wasn't nearly as many things as I thought I would have to do.

By the time I had finished maybe 1/3rd of it, Tanner was home once again. "Did you finish everything?"

"Not even close."

"Am I being too unreasonable?"

"If you really have to ask that, then what do you think the answer is gonna be?"

"Fair enough point." He crossed his arms over his shoulders and then shrugged. "Just finish what you can, okay? Don't push yourself too hard."

At some point, I'd given up, and somehow fell asleep at the kitchen table. Only coming to when I suddenly felt weightless. That woke me up almost instantly. I jumped, panicked, and then felt two strong arms wrapped around me, and I pressed my face into his chest.

"What's are you doing?" I half-ass demanded, tossing my arms around his neck to keep myself from falling.

"Taking you go your bed...?" He said it so nonchalantly.

"You couldn't have just woken me up?"

"I didn't want you to wake up. You've been working hard all day, I figured I'd let you sleep."

"..."

I let him carry me the rest of the way, letting my toes touch the floor before being placed down entirely. He turned on his heels, ready to leave back out the door. "Tanner, wait," I'd barely caught him by the dark blue sleeve of his button up, making him face me.

"What?" He put his warm hand over mine, "Are you alright?"

Why did his hands have to be so warm? I could feel my heart beating in my ears, no doubt turning them red. "Thank you."

His gaze caught mine, those dark blue eyes felt like they were peering right into my soul. He was such a beautiful person, inside and out. The corner of his mouth curled into a smile, and I swear I felt my heart rate get faster. "Why don't you get some rest, I believe you still have some assignments to do."

He let go of my hand, only to grab my chin and pinch it, playfully while smirking. I don't know if my mind was playing tricks on me, unable to tell if he'd just brushed his thumb along my bottom lip or not.

Surely that was just my mind, right?

...Right?