𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 • 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯

twenty one

"Grayson?"

His eyes flutter open as him mom shakes his shoulder waking him up. His blurred vision focuses on the sight in front of him, staring out of the car window he realizes, they're in front of his old house.

He's home.

It's snowing, which also means it's bitterly cold and for once he actually misses the sunshine and blazing heat of California. He misses the comfort it brought him, the warmth it gave his skin, the same skin that was so used to being numb from the inside out.

He misses Ethan. He misses his smile, his face, his voice. He misses his dark locks he would run his fingers through whenever they kissed or whenever they made love. Before he left Ethan vowed to call and text him everyday, they were dedicated to making this long-distance relationship work.

It'll all work out.

But as time went on the memories he had of him start to get fuzzy. Ethan's nightly calls that calm him to sleep stop, along with his daily I love you texts. His life gets stressful once more as he returns to school, the same bullies terrorize him as if he never left. His fading cuts reemerge into deep gashes, his gleaming smiles turn into frowns with quivering lips that drip with tears. Warm arms around his body turn into hard hits, soft lips against his cheeks turn into taunting grins, kind eyes looking at him with adoration turn into disgusted glares.

His own self love turns into self hate.

"Hey Grayson." One of the school jocks say as he walks past him.

"Where do you think your going?" He adds moving in front of him blocking his path.

"Home." Grayson sighs.

It's the end of school where else would I be going?

He pushes by only for the jock to move in front of him again.

"Why? It's not like you actually have friends to go hang out with, it's not like you have anything to look forward to." He grins looking around as his amused entourage crowd around them.

"Do you remember that farewell gift we sent you off to sunny California with? I gave you a black eye remember?"

"Right there." He points out poking Grayson's cheek.

"How about we give you a welcome back present?" He smirks.

"I'm going home." Grayson says with boredom In his voice walking past him again.

"Why go home when you can you just stay and be our entertainment?" He laughs hooking his hands around Grayson's shoulders and pushing him to the floor. Almost on cue fists crash onto his body, he feels numb once again as they litter his skin with bruises.

His old life is back like it never left and he's already used to it.

He comes home after another shitty day, his face swollen from the punches he received on the school yard. He looks at the cuts and hisses in pain when he touches his cheeks and busted lip. He's sure they're gonna bruise, in fact with his experience he knows they're gonna bruise. Dropping his hands from his face he sighs before grabbing his phone and dialing Ethan's number. A picture of them cuddling together pops up on his screen while he waits for him to answer.

Of course, he never does.

Grayson feels delusional, Ethan's obviously gotten over him. He's no longer apart of his life anymore. He's quite sure Ethan has found a new boyfriend to love, to hold, to kiss... to heal. Just the way he healed him, and fixed him when he most needed a friend, when he most needed love, his love.