| Growing up together | Garrence |

| Visiting Garroth | Chapter 2 |

Laurence's P.O.V

I woke up to me sleeping in the same position I was in while I was crying. "I must've fell asleep.." I mumbled and wiped my face, feeling that the bandages got wet while I was crying. I sighed and got up, unwrapping the bandages to reveal, a nasty cut on my cheek, and a black a blue that got darker over night. I grabbed the roll of bandages I had and slicked my hair back again, wrapping new bandages around my face. I let the hair fall back onto my face and I looked at myself in the mirror, with my one eye that wasn't covered with bandages. I looked at the bandaged scratch marks I had gotten on my arms and sighed. I examined myself in the mirror one last time, until my mother called my name all the way from the kitchen. "Laurence! Get your ass over here!" She called for me. My head shot over to my room door and I let out a big breath shakily. "Coming Mom!" I yelled back, placing the roll of bandages back in the closet. I unlocked the door, and opened the door hesitantly. Once I saw no one was there I walked out of my room quietly, and made my way over to my mother. She looked down at me with a surprised but proud look. "Me and your father really beat your ass this time didn't we? Hmp..well good." She commented, and laughed a bit looking at my arms and my face. She then put her hand out to touch the bandages and I flinched as she did. I just let it happen, there was no use fighting back. She suddenly pressed down roughly on my bandaged eye and I yelped out loud stumbling back. "Be quiet will you?" She growled and I bit my tongue walking up to her again. "Well..any way getting to the point, Garroth woke up and is in the hospital. Garroth asked to see you, so his mother invited us all to see him. So go get dressed." My mother said plainly and turned away, washing the dishes. I nodded my head and turned, walking out the kitchen as quickly as possible. I made my way back to my room and I closed the door, not bothering to lock it. I went in my closet and tried my best to look for a nice outfit. I grabbed a light pink sweater and giggled a bit. "I like this color!" I then picked out a pair of black jeans and black shoes. I slipped my shirt and pants from the other day off, and put on the sweater and jeans I had picked out for today. I then grabbed some socks from my drawer and put them on, along with my black sneakers.

I then fixed my hair, trying my best to avoid the bandages that wrapped around my hair. I brushed my hair a bit more until it was free of knots and I placed the brush down, walking out my room. "Mom, I'm ready." I said quietly as I walked into the living room and saw both of my parents sitting on the couch. There eyes shot to my 8-year old body, and looked at my outfit, disgust appeared in there eyes. "What are you wearing? Most importantly, why are you wearing pink?" My father snapped, I flinched a bit and looked down at me feet, biting my lip. "You know pink is a girls color." He then continued, and stood up walking to me. "Go wear your other sweat shirt. The light brown one." I gulped nervously and nodded, running to me room. I quickly took off my pink sweatshirt and put on the light brown one he requested. I then walked out my room quickly and back into the living room, my mother and father giving approving looks. "See our little boy could get all the lady's, if he just didn't act like a faggot." My mom commented and said proudly, I smirked a bit and looked up at my parents. "Now smile, I heard that one of Garroth's friends are gonna be there, and there a girl~" I mother sung, I cleared my throat and smiled. We walked towards the door and I opened the door holding it for my parents. I closed the door to our apartment and my mother used her keys to lock it on the inside.

~'~ At the hospital ~'~

As we arrived to the hospital, I gulped nervously. "Hope Garroth's alright.." I dared to say to my parents as we were walking through the hospital doors. My father looked at me and sighed a bit. "Just focus on looking pretty, and making a good impression on Garroth's friend." My father said and looked away from me, asked for which room Garroth Ro'Maeve is in. Once I heard the employee say the room number and dashed over to the elevator, a real smile on my face. I then pressed the button and the elevator doors opened, my parents made it inside the elevator just in time, and we all made our way to the second floor where Garroth was at. As the elevator doors opened I walked out the elevator, trying to calm myself and followed my parents to Garroth's room. We opened the room where Garroth was at and we saw Garroth's family, and the girls family inside the room all talking. The girl sat in a seat and they had raven black hair and amber eyes, my eyes widened as I remembered who it was. "Your the girl that made Garroth fall off the swing!" I said, sprinting up to her. "I-i didn't mean to.." She gulped and looked away. I yelped as my mother grabbed me by the hair, and pulled me back. "Laurence, she didn't do anything. It's your fault." She said to me, not caring who was watching. She then pressed on my bandaged eye roughly and I yelped again, pulling away from her. "Now apologized. Stop trying to blame your actions on others." She said plainly, as everyone in the room stared, but didn't try to stop what was happening. I whined a bit more and fixed my hair a bit, I then walked back up to the girl. "I'm sorry." I said, no real emotion in my tone. My mom slapped me in the back of my head roughly and I grunted a bit. "That's not how you say sorry to a lady." She growled, and pushed me closer to the raven haired girl. Tears whelmed up in my eyes, and I looked at the ground trying to remember the words my parents told me to rehearse, until they were stuck in my brain. "I am t-terribly s-sorry for my actions, m'lady...could you e-ever forgive me..?" I said as I held back tears and bowed a bit, just like my mother and father taught me. The little girl looked shocked, everyone in this room did, but despite the shock she was going through, the little girl nodded. I took a deep breath and blinked away the tears I held back. I looked over to Garroth's bed, and I saw him flutter his eyes awake. I smiled a bit and I rushed over to him, ignoring everything else. "G-Garroth!" I said as cheerfully as I could, Garroth sat up and a big smile appeared on his face, along with a thin coat of blush. "Laurence your here! Yay!" Garroth giggled happily and hugged me with his good arm. He suddenly pressed his face against my bandaged black and blue, and I yelped a bit jumping back. My hands quickly rose up to my bandaged eye and I took a deep breath. "Oh! I'm sorry Lauren-" My father interpreted Garroth, and walked over to me. "No need to apologize Garroth, Laurence is just acting dramatic." He said and smacked my hands away from my eye. I bit my tongue and before my father walked back over to my mother he mouthed, "smile". A smile quickly appeared on my face. "No need to be sorry Garroth!" I laughed a bit, and looked at him. Garroth blinked a bit and surprise and smiled back, shrugging it off. We continued to talk about some things we didn't get to talk about, because of the incident that happened.

Suddenly, my mother walked over to me and looked at me. I turned over to my mother and she pulled me over to my father. "What did I say? I said talk to the little girl, not Garroth. Are you gay or something?" My father growled to me in a tone, only my mother and I could hear. "But, I wanna talk to Garroth.." I mumbled, to my parents and they rolled there eyes. "Then bring the girl into the conversation. She's pretty, and I'll be damned if you miss the chance to find a future girlfriend." My mother said and pushed my away, I made my way back to Garroth and grunted under my breath a bit. "So..my parents told me you guys were friends, how did you guys meet..?" The raven haired girl shrugged. "I-it just h-happened I g-guess" Garroth stuttered, I laughed a bit and blushed a light pink. I covered my face with my hands for a second then uncovered them, my face being a normal color again. "So, what's your name?" I forced a smile, looking at the amber eyed girl. "My names Aphmau." She said plainly and looked away, but before she looked away I saw her face turn light pink. I moved my hair out of my only uncovered eye and started a conversation with Garroth, we both laughed. "Uhm...what do you think Aphmau?" I tried bringing her into the conversation so I wouldn't get in trouble. All the girl did was shrug and laugh a tiny bit, I sighed and looked back to Garroth. "How's your arm?" I asked him, talking fluently. I felt much more comfortable around him, once I got to know him better, "f-fine! The doctor said I'll be able to go home tonight!" He said happily. He then adverted his gaze to my bandaged face and asked a question I didn't wanna answer.

"....Laurence, what happened to your face...?"