17. Saturday

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Geoff had been upstairs arguing with his parents for over half an hour. What about? He couldn't be sure, but Awsten didn't think it was anything serious.

When the older boy finally returned to the room, he was grinning widely at the blonde. Awsten gave him a puzzled look before he responded to it, "we have the house to ourselves, tonight."

He was grateful for this. It meant that he may actually be able to leave the room and see the sun again, even though the candlelight was nice, it wasn't the same.

"My parents are taking my sister to some festival in town. DJ's and shit. I managed to convince them to let me stay here; that's why you heard me abusing them upstairs." Geoff had been smiling until he realised he probably shouldn't have made a joke about abuse, although Awsten laughed, which reassured him.

"Does that mean I'll finally be able to take a shower?" Awsten wasn't sure how long it would be before he would be able to freely leave the room he was cooped up in again, he wasn't going to waste this opportunity.

"Yes, Knight, it does."

"You're still really persisting with the whole 'Knight' thing, huh?" He laughed, the only time Geoff had called him by his first name was when Awsten was upset and he was worried about him; it gave the younger boy a clear indication as to how Geoff was feeling in the moment.

Geoff nodded and smirked. "You're going to have to try harder if you want to move to a first name basis."

"I'll figure out a way."

Geoff began to sort through his vinyls which he had been meaning to do while Awsten wandered around the room, they were going to have to keep themselves entertained for the next few hours until Geoff's family left the house. Gracie had already gone back home, as Geoff told him; although she would probably come back tomorrow. "Do you play?"

"Hm?" Awsten had been looking at Geoff's guitar and hadn't even been really paying attention. "Oh, no, not really."

Geoff didn't believe him but he dropped it, there was no point in pushing Awsten into doing something he didn't want to; he was trying to make him as comfortable as possible.

"Why do you want to spend your Saturday night with me, anyway? You're twenty-one. Why don't you go out, like, drinking or something that proper fucking adults do?" Awsten was smiling playfully, the thought of Geoff choosing to stay here with him made him feel warm.

"I don't really... drink. Or socialise, I avoid doing that, too."

"You're socialising now, technically."

"But, I actually like you." This made him scream on the inside. It was evident that Geoff didn't mean this in the way Awsten would have liked, based off of his tone; but it was a good enough start to make him feel genuinely happy.

"I like you, too."

They managed to talk about whatever came to mind as they found little ways to entertain themselves, Awsten talked about the poetry book and Geoff explained the meanings behind his favourite ones. He guessed that the older boy read a lot of poetry, only because almost everything Geoff said sounded poetic in his mind.

"We're going, Geoff! Don't let anyone over." They heard his mother yell from above the staircase.

"Okay!" The two boys exchanged a worried glance, please don't come down here, although they sighed with relief when they heard the faint sound of the front door closing and a car engine start up.

Geoff dramatically opened the door and gestured out, "you're free to leave, Knight." To which Awsten could only laugh in response, leaving the bedroom carefree for the first time in fifteen hours.

The first thing Awsten did was enter the bathroom, "I'm having that shower I was talking about," before Geoff gave him a clean towel and shut the bathroom door, leaving some of his own clothes on the counter because Awsten didn't have any.

He stripped out of his jeans and Geoff's sweater that he had fallen asleep in and had been wearing all day, looking at himself in the mirror. He hated his body. The way you could see his bones and joints through his skin was disgusting, and the bruises... they just really complimented his sickening frame.

The flow of water felt nice against his skin, the soap tingled as he began to feel clean again; clean of sweat and any blood that still stained his skin. he shut off the taps, wrapping himself in the soft towel before pulling on the clothes that Geoff had left for him. everything was much too big on him but he loved it, he felt comfortable under the sea of fabric and it warmed him; protected him from the cold weather.

He finally left the bathroom he returned to Geoff's bedroom to hang his wet towel over a chair, that way there would be no suspicion as to why there was an extra towel laying around. He wasn't in there, though, which caused Awsten to go up the staircase to try and find him.

The afternoon sun flowed through the windows, Awsten missed it a lot; he had gone for days in his own bedroom with his blinds closed to block out the sun, but it was different when he didn't have the choice.

He heard the boy in a small room detached from the main living space, and he entered to find Geoff soaking the blood out of his clothes from the previous night. "You don't have to do that."

He felt bad that Geoff was here cleaning his blood out of the fabric, he didn't want to be any more of a problem than he already had been. "It's all good, Knight, I want to."

He smiled back, gratefully. He was thankful that Geoff was patient and willing to look after him, he'd never experienced somebody do this for him, before.

"Let's get your pale skin into the sun, okay?"

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