Breaking

Lies

A few days had passed since Leo received his punishment, Leo had woken up a bloody, bruised mess. His dark eyes opened, filled with pain, fear, and exhaustion. It took Leo a while before he could drag himself and crawl to his bathroom. That amount of exertion caused him to give out on the tiled floor beneath him. He lay there for some time until he had regained some more strength to begin administering to himself again. He thankfully didn't have to pull off his shirt, it had been torn to shreds that night. However, Leo faced another difficulty, the large glass shards from a mirror that were lodged in his back. He winced in pain and bit his lip to keep him from crying out as he pulled one out and tossed it into the trash bin. He did that multiple times until all the shards lay in the trash can in a bloody, sharp mess. Leo stared at his back in the mirror, quite a few, most really, of the cuts on his back probably needed stitches; he sighed. The only way to get that would be by going to a hospital, no way was he going to do that. First reason, because his father would kill him, the second reason because if he did, the doctors and nurses would all be there asking way too many questions, interrogating him. His injuries were too big to be able to pass off as a simple accident. Leo sighed at this realization, he would just have to do the best he could to clean himself off.

A few days had passed, and Leo's wounds were still open and bleeding as though they were fresh. Granted, the smaller and more insignificant ones had started to heal, but those were few. Leo had to be especially careful at school, thankfully, his school gave the boys an extra day off for some celebration that Leo was unfamiliar with, so that he had an extra long weekend to at least semi-recover from. It wasn't enough though. Leo also worried about how he would be able to physically and mentally perform at school, if he so much as barely lean back, if something so much as lightly brushed against his back, waves of pain and adrenaline would shoot throughout his body. He tried taking as many, if not more, painkillers as the bottle prescribed to dull the pain, but he couldn't get rid of it completely, causing his  mind to be so fuzzy from its effects that he doubted he would be able to participate in class.

Unfortunately for Leo, he had no choice, so there he was on Monday morning, driving in his Maybach Exelero, leaning forward so as not to irritate his cuts, completely dreading the whole day ahead. The happiness that Leo had felt a few days ago became nothing more than just a faded dream to him. He had allowed himself to go to fantasy land, only to be brought down hard, down to the ugly and cruel world that was known as reality. The darkness inside him only appeared more black as that fantasy rested within him, taunting him, reminding him that it was not his station to feel that joy. Leo raked his hands through his hair in frustration, letting out his quiet scream of built up emotion. It was unfair, unfair that those five boys had showed him such happiness but didn't help him keep it, Leo knew that it would probably be better for him if he left them altogether, yet he didn't want to. He realized that it wasn't the boys' fault; it was all too clear, those five boys almost shone with a light of happiness, a light that Leo wanted.

Leo came into the parking lot of his school; he watched as the other kids all gathered, each talking about what they had done with that longer weekend. A pang of jealousy pierced Leo's already wounded heart, wishing his misery onto them; however, as soon as he had thought that, he instantly regretted it. How could he, Leo, after facing so many horrors possibly wish another to have to endure that pain too? The guilt soon spiraled down into self-loathing once more. He began to reach for his little blade that had been tucked away, when his friends came up to him. Hadrian whistled, eyeing the car:

"She's a beauty Leo," he gave a small smile in return, trying to make it seem real, but feeling that he was failing miserably. Leo gave an inward sigh of relief, though, as the others smiled and laughed back; if they had noticed, they didn't let on. Leo got out of the car and joined them as they walked into the building. Nicholas then tried to convince Leo to let him fix him up again.