Self Inflicted

Chapter 5: Cuts and Kisses

When Billie woke up, Mike was asleep next to him with their legs tangled together. Used to this, he sat up and kissed his head softly. Mike grumbled and stretched his arms out, obviously not content with the idea of waking up this early on a Saturday.

Billie looked over at Mike's bandage, and decided to re-dress it. He went to the bathroom and came back with a clean bandage and set to work.

He pulled the tape off and started unwrapping Mike's arm, careful not to wake him up.

His heart dropped when he saw the cuts. Neat little rows, not resembling anything a cat or a dog could do. Mike had done this to himself.

But Billie stayed quiet as he pulled the bandage off and trashed it, kissed the cuts softly and wrapped Mike's arm up again, securing it with tape.

He'd be mad at him but he knew that Mike's life, was frankly just shit. So he decided to stay quiet, just keeping an eye on him. He didn't want to make anything worse or make Mike upset by telling him to get help or something. He lay next to Mike, watching him sleep.

He looked so peaceful, lying still and breathing slowly in and out. After a while he opened his eyes and looked up at Billie. Billie watched Mike's eyes focus on him before he smiled big and stretched.

"Hi Mikey. Feeling like getting up?" Billie asked, and Mike pulled himself up. "Hungry?" Mike nodded and got out of bed.

Billie smiled and went downstairs with him as they met up with Billie's mom, Ollie, in the kitchen.

"Hi boys, do you want some breakfast?" Ollie asked, and they both nodded. She put some bacon on to cook as she started frying eggs. "How've you been Michael?" She asked, hugging Mike. "Oh my lord, you're skin and bones! Is your mother feeding you properly? Does she give you a balanced diet?"

Billie drifted away from the boring conversation and into his sister Anna's room. "Hey."

She looked up at him and rolled her eyes. "Hi Bill. What do you want?"

He twisted his fingers around before speaking. "Why do people hurt themselves?"

Anna frowned, looking over at Billie more carefully. "Why? Who did?"

Billie scratched the back of his neck. "A friend."

Anna gasped and put her book down. "Mike? Mike did it?"

Billie widened his eyes. "N-no, I said-"

"I can't believe it. That's disgusting. Tell him to stay away from me."

Billie put his head down and walked back to the kitchen, sitting down with his mother and Mike and eating breakfast, only talking when absolutely necessary.

What if everyone thought Mike was disgusting and started hating him? What if Anna was to tell someone? What then?

Billie put his head in his hands and tuned out of Mike and Ollie's conversation all together.

This was bad.