Stray Cat

Chapter Four

They walked to the bathroom, and Dan waited in the hallway while Phil brushed his teeth. As Phil was putting away his toothbrush, he realized that Dan didn't have one, but luckily Phil had a spare. He handed Dan an unopened toothbrush and Dan beamed at him. "Thanks."

"No problem." Phil left the bathroom, heading to his bedroom to get dressed since he was still wearing his pjs. He heard the bathroom door shut behind him and the water being turned on. Before he could walk into his bedroom, he realized something else that Dan didn't have: clean clothes. Phil walked back to the bathroom door and knocked loudly to be heard over the running water.

"Yes?"

Phil turned the knob and pushed open the door. "Hey Dan, I just realized that—"

He stopped talking as he realized that Dan had already taken off his shirt and jeans. He was standing there in only a pair of boxer briefs, which were riding low. Phil stared at him, but not in appreciation of his body – all he could see were the bruises on his body, in particular a matching set of bruises on Dan's hips which look like they must have been made by hands that held him roughly.

Dan's face flushed and he grabbed a towel to hide his body. "What is it?"

"I... came to ask you if you wanted some clean clothes. We look like we wear about the same size, so you could borrow mine. But Dan, are you okay? Do you need to go to the hospital?"

"No. Could you get out please?" He refused to meet Phil's eyes.

Phil didn't argue, and he shut the bathroom door. He returned to his room and sat on his bed, shaking slightly as he couldn't get the image of those bruised handprints out of his mind. His phone, which was sitting on his night table, buzzed. Hoping for a distraction, he checked it and saw his brother had sent him a text.

Martyn wrote, Hey, are you up? Haven't seen you in a while. Do you want to catch up today after you get off work?

Phil sent a response, I don't have work today. I got fired last night.

He put his phone down then because the conversation with his brother wasn't distracting him from what he had seen. Someone had hurt Dan. And the places where the bruises were – did that mean what he thought it meant? Phil wanted to help him, but he wasn't sure what to do. It seemed he had already messed up by staring at Dan until he kicked him out of the bathroom.

Finally, Phil decided to get dressed since sitting around in his pjs wasn't helping anything. He picked one of his brightest t-shirts since he always felt better for some reason when he was wearing bright clothes. Phil returned to the hallway. He was tempted to stand by the bathroom door because he wanted to apologize to Dan for his behavior as soon as possible, but he knew that would be creepy. Phil went into the lounge and turned on the TV. A cooking show was on the current channel, and it wasn't interesting, but he didn't change the channel. He stared blankly at it, waiting for Dan and trying to decide what to say.

What if Dan felt that Phil had invaded his privacy too much and he left? What if after he left he got hurt again? Phil had to convince him to stay. He was startled from his thoughts some time later by a knock on the door. He had no idea who it could be, so he peered through the peep hole and was shocked to see his brother on the other side of the door. As he opened the door, he said, "What the heck are you doing here?"

Martyn snorted. "Good morning to you, too."

Phil stood to the side so that Martyn could enter his apartment. "Sorry. Morning."

Martyn was carrying a six-pack of beer, which he carried to the kitchen and placed on the counter. "When you told me you were fired, I sent you like a dozen texts and I called you. I got worried. I thought you might be wasted, so I grabbed some beer from my fridge and I came to check on you and join the party."