Stitched up Heart

Safe

When the bus arrived we paid for our tickets and sat towards the back. Rhys's nose had stopped bleeding and only bloody stains remained on his shirt. He didn't say anything on the journey; I could tell he just wanted to be left along for a while.

The bus pulled up at the stop, a few minutes walk from my house. We got off the bus in silence, and walked to my house. I got out my keys and opened the door. Rhys closed it behind us. The noise echoes through the empty house.

"Just leave your shoes by the door." I said slipping mine off. I flicked the light on in the kitchen and put my stuff down on the table. Rhys sat down at the counter so I pulled the stool round so I was opposite him. "So... w-what happened?" He didn't say anything for a moment, just stared blankly at his hands.

"It was my dad."

"What was?" He pointed at his nose.

"Mum sent my sister, Annie, off to stay with our Grandma. So dad couldn't abuse her anymore. But he came home drunk and wanted to know where she was. I was just sptrying to stand up for my mum... he was..." Rhys trailed off, not wanting to finish his thought.

"He was hurting her." I finished; he nodded in agreement. "Have y-you eaten?" I said realising it wasn't even 7 o'clock yet, thought it was dark outside. That was just because it was autumn.

"No, I, umm, I haven't."

"Help yourself to whatever's here. You can't make some toast and have something with it or whatever." While Rhys was getting something to eat, I unpacked the things I'd got for, the shop. It was mostly food things that I had run out of, bread, milk, things like that. The last thing I got out of the bag was a little tub of pills. They were the main reason I was in that side of town. The doctor I was registered with moved to the other side of town and began working in the GP surgery there. I opened the tub and got one of the pills out.

"What are those?" Rhys asked nodding at the pills. Ok, now it was my turn to be honest with him.

"They're for my... my anxiety and p-panic attacks."

"Ah" he said. Maybe my stuttering made a little more sense now. Yes, part of it was because I like doing him and found it hard to talk to him.but part of it was anxiety. It was one of the reasons why I had put off talking to him for so long.

He leaned against the counter, eating, while I finished putting stuff away. "Thank you." He said after a moment.

"For what?" I replied.

"For what? For being the on,t person who's shown me any... kindness, in years. You don't talk behind my back, you gave me a place to stay. So... thank you, Lewis." For a few minutes I couldn't say anythiny. I m ew I was blushing but I made no attempt to hide it. I looked up at him and for a brief moment, we - semi-consciously - locked eyes. I looked away, realising what I was doing.

"I'll... umm... show you where you're sleeping."

"Yeah, ok." He nodded looking sway from me. I led him out of the kitchen and up the stairs. The spare room was the first door on the right, opposite mine. It belonged to my older brother beforehand he moved out earlier in the year. His bed, wardrobe, desk and some other stuff was still there.

"Here you go. It's n-not much but you can do whatever you want with it."

"Thank you. Have you told you parents I'm staying over?"

"Not yet, I will though. They are going to be away for a while so it really won't matter. But I'll let them know."

Rhys walked over to the bed and put his bag down. He didn't have much on him. Maybe he'd go back home and grab some more stuff after school before coming back here. "I'm going to get some rest, I feel exhausted." It was only the evening but I think I'd want some alone time to rest if I'd had a day like he had."

"Ok, that's fine. Hey, it's F-friday tomorrow, then we have the weekend to chill out."

"Yeah, it'll be cool." He forced a weak smile. I turned to go, but as I was shutting the door he called my name. I stuck my head back round the door. "Thank you." He said. I just smiled and shut the door. I let out a sigh.