Confusion. // Jyrus

Chapter 22

I made my mom go to her yoga class early so that she wouldn't be hanging around Cyrus and I. I also made sure that she had a booked afternoon, brunch with her boss and then a report to write at work. I vacuumed the living room and the couch and folded all of the blankets nicely. On the coffee table, I took some flowers out of our garden in the backyard and put them in a vase. I popped popcorn and poured juice into the nice glasses from the dust coated back of the cupboard. I had been running around trying to get the house to look nice that I forgot to make myself look nice.

I ran to my room and tried to find a nice shirt to put on. I found one that was red and short sleeved with a color on the top and I put it on with my dark jeans. I couldn't find any gel in the bathroom, so I just used water to try and make my hair look good, but it would never look as good at Cyrus'. I was still trying to fix my hair, my hands covered in water, when I heard the doorbell. I grabbed the hand towel beside the sink and dried my hands and rubbed  my head. Then, I ran downstairs and there Cyrus was with him mother placed beside him.

"Hello, you must be Jonah," she smiled. He hand was clenched onto Cyrus' shoulder.

"Yes I am ma'am," I replied, flashing my signature smile.

"Is your mother home?" She asked.

"No, she had yoga this morning."

"Alright," she said. Then she bent down to Cyrus' level and told him, "I'll be back at five. Behave."

And then she was gone, walking down the sidewalk to her fancy, shiny car. I invited Cyrus inside and took his coat, hanging it before mine. I brought him into the living room, saying, "This is where we'll be. Um, I made popcorn and my mom rented us some movies."

I picked the movies up and showed him, trying to get him to talk, but he wasn't budging. "Um, what do you want to watch?" I asked trying to pull him out of it with eye contact.

He shrugged. I gave up, setting the movies back down. "Are you okay?" I asked.

He quickly shook out of it and smiled at me. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just tired."

He still wouldn't answer my question and tell me hat he wanted to watch, so I picked one mad popped it in. Well, this was going just great. I sat in the couch beside him, us sitting a door apart with our backs not touching the seat. We stared at the screen, me occasionally looked over at him. He had his hands sitting on his lap, just like mine. I took a deep breath and scooted over to him, eliminating half of the space between us.

I could see him look over at me out of the corner of my eye and he scooted closer a little bit. I took my hand from out of my lap and placed it on the couch, hoping that he'd get the idea and do the same so that I didn't have to do all of the work in the whole handholding thing. He put his hand on the couch beside mine and I took the last step and quickly grabbed his hand.

He hesitated before grabbing mine back, interlocking our hands. I smiled and blushed to myself and I heard him silently laugh a little bit. I looked over at him and he was smiling with me, causing us both to start laughing. We laughed for a second before scouting closer together, me wrapping my arm around his shoulder, a move that Walker was notorious for.

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By the time the movie was over, the popcorn was gone and Cyrus and I were laying on the couch, him slightly on top of me with his head resting on my chest. I had my arm wrapped around his body and holding his hand. His eyes were closed like he was trying to sleep, just not trying hard enough. His sweater sleeve was rubbing against my bare arm and it felt really strange. I didn't know how he could wear it, it was so itchy.

I let go of his hand, and fished my finger up his sleeve, pulling it up his arm. I noticed slight discoloration, but he sprang up from his spot and moved to the opposite end of the couch, pulling his sleeve down and holding it in place.

"Don't look," he snapped.

I sat up on my knees and out my arms in front of me. I maintained eye contact, although he was glaring at me with fire in his eyes. I kept slowly moving towards him to grab his arm. When I was in reach, I reached out to him and he yelped. He curled himself into a ball, tucking his arm underneath him. I grabbed at him trying to get him up, trying to see what had happened, and he wasn't strong enough to stop me. I ripped at his shirt, it coming up on the back and revealing a long cut and several bruises. I finally pushed him up and grabbed his arm away from him, pulling up his sleeve. It was littered in bruises. I pulled up the sleeve on the other arm and it was identical. I stared at his arms before looking up to Cyrus.

He had tears beginning in his eyes and he looked down from me in shame. "Cyrus. What happened?" I asked.

He didn't respond, so I raised my voice and repeated, "What happened?"

He mumbled, "Nothing," pulling his arms back to himself.

"No, not nothing, Cyrus, who did this to you?" I was now yelling.

The tears fell from his eyes and he said, "Walker."

I don't think I've ever felt more angry in my life. I stood from the couch, my hands in fists at my side. "Walker? Walker did this?"

He looked up at me with his sad eyes and nodded his head. I sat back down on the couch beside him, and enveloped him in a hug. And I didn't let him go until his tears had stopped pouring.