j u l i a n *
When I walk into school this morning, everyone whips around and they gasp. My right eye is blackened, there's a gash on the left side my forehead and a bruise on my left cheek. I walk to my locker with my head down, just trying to make it through without drawing attention to myself.
"What happened to you?" I hear a voice ask from beside me once I reach my locker. I look up to find the voice to belong to Carrie, my best friend.
"I got beat up, can't you tell?" I snap. She winces. "I'm sorry, I just--"
"It's okay, Julian." She says. "Who did it?"
"Lucas,"
"Wellington? As in Asher's older brother? Why would he do that?"
"I don't know, Carrie, I really don't know."
I make it through all of my classes except for the last five minutes of my last class without gaining Asher's attention. I've kept my head down every time I'd seen him, but he leaves the room and when he comes back in, I make the mistake of looking up. His face tightens as he looks at me. As soon as the bell rings, I'm out of the classroom before anyone can even sneeze.
"Julian!" I hear a voice call my name as I reach my locker. I turn around and see Asher walking towards me. "What happened? Who did this to you?" he asks as he reaches me.
I don't know why he cares, or how he doesn't know it was his older brother, but I don't want to have to be the one who tells him it was his own blood that did this.
"It's nothing," I say. "I'll be fine," I wave a hand as if to brush it off, but accidentally scrape my bruise and wince.
"It doesn't look fine, Julian, who did this?"
"Why do you care?"
"Okay, listen, I know we haven't talked much, but I think we're friends. I care about you. I want to know because I like you,"
Does he mean 'like' as a friend or does he mean 'like' as in 'like-like'?
"I don't want to tell you because you won't believe me..." I admit softly.
"Why wouldn't I believe you?" he asks me.
"Because it was Lucas,"
His face hardens, and I think he's going to yell at me for telling him what he thinks to be a lie but is actually true.
"I'll kill him!" He mutters.
"No, please don't commit murder! I really should start walking home, though,"
"Come home with me, let me try to help you with homework, it would make me feel better. I can drive you home after."
"I appreciate the offer, Asher, but--"
"No, Julian, please? I'll talk to Lucas, but this will make me feel better. Please?"
"Okay,"
He smiles at once when I give in and waits for me to get my stuff, and then I follow him to his light blue two-door Jeep. He takes my bags and puts them in the backseat, and helps me get in. I feel very awkward, but don't say anything or object, because I know he'll just continue to insist.
We pull up to his house: a two-story, yellow-sided house with a garage. Asher comes around to help me with my stuff and then I follow him to the front door.
"Mom! I'm home, I have a friend with me," Asher calls when we walk in.
"Hi, sweetie, who is with you?" His mom asks as she comes around the corner, stopping dead in her tracks when she sees my face. "Did you do this to him, Asher?"
"No!" I say at the same time Asher says, "Lucas did."
"Lucas?" She asks, the anger rising in her voice. "ARTHUR LUCAS WELLINGTON GET DOWN HERE AT ONCE!"
Lucas comes down the stairs, his face falling when he sees me. "So, you ratted me out, huh?" He says, trying to jump at me, but I jump back at the same time Asher steps in front of me.
"Would you like to explain, Lucas?" Their mom asks as Asher steps aside from me.
"He's gay!" Is all Lucas says.
"So am I!" Asher blurts, as his mom says "SO?".
We all look at Asher, his mom comes forward. "Oh honey, I'm so proud of you for finally saying something! But I've known since you were eight."
Asher looks at his mom incredulously but decides it's best not to ask how at this exact moment.
"Asher, honey, you two go upstairs while I talk to your brother." his mom says. I know she's angrier than she can say, but she's trying to keep it down while I'm in front of her.
Asher leads me up the stairs to his bedroom, which has a bathroom connected to it. He leads me into his bathroom, where he sits me on the counter.
"I'm going to get you a washcloth for your bruise and eye," he says. "And I'm going to clean off your scratch, even though you probably already did." He turns around and gets two washcloths and a basket of first aid stuff from the cabinet against the wall, coming back towards me. He grabs a q-tip from their little section in the basket and puts some alcohol on it.
"This will probably sting," he forewarns me.
I nod, wincing when he puts the q-tip on the gash.
"I'm sorry," he mutters softly. He leans back and throws that q-tip away, grabbing another one for Neosporin. That doesn't hurt too badly, but he looks up as if trying to see if he has a bandaid that would work for the thin, but long gash. Then, his lips are pressed against mine softly and withdrawn almost as quickly as the kiss happened and I feel saddened.
"I'm sorry," he murmurs, his cheeks reddening slightly.
"Why are you sorry?" I ask him, putting my hand on the back of his neck and pulling him into me for another kiss. I move my hand after it's certain he's going to kiss me and put both of them on his waist. He has one hand on the good side of my face and his other rests beside my thighs on the counter. He pulls away and looks at me, a smiling spreading across his face shyly.
Instead of working on homework, like we originally planned, Asher and I sat on his bed talking about anything and everything until I leaned over and pressed my lips against his again. He pulled me onto his lap and his fingers wandered up my back and then settled again on my waist. He pulls away and looks at me. "You should stay for dinner," he whispers.
"But what about--" I begin, but he cuts me off.
"Don't worry about Lucas," he whispers, pressing his lips to mine again.
"I'm Amber, by the way," Asher's mom introduces herself to me at the dinner table. "We didn't really have a proper introduction earlier."
"I'm Julian," I say smiling. I don't look at Lucas, but keep my eyes focused on this end of the table.
Lucas mutters something under his breath and Asher kicks him hard under the table, smiling innocently when Amber looks at him. After we've eaten, I mention that I should probably head home.
Asher pulls up in front of my house, where no lights are on and no cars are in the driveway.
"My parents aren't at home." I say bitterly.
Asher looks over at me.
"'Business trip' or so they say," I tell him.
"So you're alone?" he asks me.
"Yeah, I've gotten used to it. My sister, Kylie, left for college two years ago so it's mostly just been me."
"I could--I could stay with you i-if you want me too?"
"What about your mom? And Lucas? I don't want you to get hurt, too,"
"He won't hurt me, he's too scared of Mom. The only reason he was brave enough to do it yesterday was because he didn't think Mom would find out."
"But you don't have any clothes,"
"Fair point...I could go back home and get some."
"You don't have to do that for me..."
"I want to,"
I look at him and he leans in, pressing his lips against mine. I kiss him back softly, threading my fingers through his hair.
"You go inside, I'll be back," he whispers, leaning his head against mine.
I look at him and nod, pressing another kiss to his lips and grabbing my stuff, getting out of his car. I unlock the front door and let myself in, shutting the door behind me, and running upstairs to my bedroom to clean up.
After thirty minutes, Asher still isn't back.
An hour passes, and I begin to think I got played.
An hour and a half later, and there's a knock on the door. I go to the front door and answer it, wondering who would be coming by this late at night.
I open the door and Asher comes in, with a duffel bag and Target bags in his arms, pressing his lips against mine.
"I thought you weren't coming," I admit.
"No, I should've texted, I'm sorry, but my mom said that I could skip school tomorrow to be with you so I wanted to surprise you. I brought snacks and drinks and I have a Netflix account," he says.
I look into his eyes and smile, kissing him again.
"Come on, let's go upstairs," I say, grabbing his wrist and dragging him along behind me. He puts the Target bags on my dresser and drops his duffel bag in front of my dresser. I turn my bedroom light on, turning my TV on and opening Netflix.
"I have a Netflix account too," I say looking over at him.
"What do you want to watch?" he asks me. "I don't care,"
"I don't care either,"
We settle on watching Disney movies.
I lean over against Asher's chest, pulling him down to my lips, where I kiss him. He puts his arms around my waist and squeezes lightly, kissing me back softly. He moves one of his hands to grab my chin delicately and I scoot closer against his body. He grabs my hips and drags me onto his lap, scooting me forward so that I'm close to him. He breaks the kiss slightly, whispering the word 'baby' and kissing me again. It's me, I'm baby (hahaha another TikTok reference, I'm addicted).
I cuddle up against Asher's chest as his arms wrap around me.
"Goodnight, sleep good, my love," he whispers, pressing his lips to my forehead.
"I love you," I murmur softly.
He looks at me briefly and then whispers, "I love you too,"
I kiss his lips softly, pulling away and leaning my head against his chest again, falling asleep soon after, wrapped in Asher's embrace.
12/15/19
