Orphanage AU: Lams

Chapter 37: What's Going On?

Back to our main two...

---John's POV---

I took a deep breath in the mirror. Night time. I had kept my makeup on all day, but I wasn't about to got to bed with it. Leaving Alex to his computer, I wandered to the bathroom reluctantly to wash my face.

Streams of water cascaded down my face, cool and clean, slowly exposing the bruises beneath the makeup. When I finished, I stared at my dripping face in the mirror as I took in my reflection. My face was a mess. Makeup gone, it looked like I'd lost a boxing match with no gloves.

For the last week, I'd been free of these daily beatings, punch after punch hitting home, but now I'd gone and gotten myself hurt again.

As I showered and put on my pajamas- you are never to old for pajamas- I thought about that. My whole life I'd known that getting beaten wasn't right. That the purple and blue that bloomed on Mother's sides wasn't right. But I always thought about it as something set in stone, something that couldn't be changed, like the curl of my hair or the green of my eyes.

Now it finally occurred to me that it wasn't not right. It was wrong. It wasn't ok that Michael was being beat every day because he was gay, or that he wasn't only because he was pretending not to be.

That we were getting hurt was not a sad, unchanging truth. I wondered what I could do. I felt helpless. Mother, Michael and I were powerless. We were powerless.

Someone, somewhere, I knew there was someone who wasn't. Or something I could do to become more powerful.

Somehow, what was wrong would be fixed.

"John?" Alex's voice called to me, sounding muffled through the wood of the bathroom door.

I stepped out, my curls still hanging around my head, loose and wet. "Yeah?" This time, I was wearing long sleeves despite the hot night, except rolled up on my cast arm.

So was Alex.

"We have a problem," he told me. I raised my eyebrows. "You said I have to sleep..." he gestured to the couch, piled high with textbooks and papers. Binders and books from end to end, folders resting against the precarious stacks.

Oh. Right. We had one bed. Umm....

Alex cleared his throat. "Do you want to maybe... I mean..." he trailed off, bright red, and my color rose to the same shade.

Sleep together. Share the bed.

Actually I would have loved to. I just didn't really want to admit that.

"Yeah, uh, sure." I agreed uncertainly.

"O-ok."

Slipping between the sheets, I turned towards the wall and tried not to hyperventilate. 11:17. Alex was back my 11:32, only 15 minutes, but for me it felt like forever.

"I- uh.... Goodnight." Alex finally managed.

My face burning, I didn't even turn towards him, though I felt his body warm beside mine. "'Night."

---Alex's POV---

I woke up early as the streams of sunlight broke through the cracks between the curtains. Life in the mornings, I thought waking up without an alarm: Sunlight actually reached the window.

I yawned and stretched, wondering why I was squished up near the edge of the bed. I was a lie-on-your-back kind of sleeper, except when I was super tired, in which case I flopped on my stomach. Why was I curled on my side?