Baby steps ∽『boy ✮ boy -EDITED

Twenty-eight 👣-edited

“You don’t have to go back there if you don’t want to.” I said and Carter considered the option before shaking his head.

     “I want to know why he is here. Plus, I want to make sure he doesn’t say anything weird to my parents.”

     I nodded and we slowly made our way out of the room. Carter’s father was waiting outside the door and together we entered the living room. However, Simon was still laying on the couch. He was shivering and sweating but he seemed completely separated from reality.

      “He fell asleep again.” Ivy explained as we entered the room, being sat on the edge of the couch with Simon’s head laid on his lap. He was playing with Simon’s fringes, his gaze fixed on the floor.

      Eric sighed, lifting his knees to his chest, looking at his brother from the chair he was sat on. He had finally calmed down and was able to talk again.

      “He’s been like this since I found him. He has kept on slipping out of consciousness for a few hours now.” The young boy said.

      “Why didn’t you take him to hospital then?” Carter asked and Eric turned towards us, explaining how Simon refused to be taken to hospital.

     “On the short moments he was still conscious he told me to take him to ‘Ivy’. I found Ivy’s contact in Simon’s phone but he wouldn’t respond to my calls or text so I searched his location on Simon’s Snapchat map. I didn’t know anyone else I could take Simon to so I decided to bring him here. Simon showed me the house.”

      Eric fumbled with his fingers and I could only guess how intimidated he felt being between so many strangers. Especially with his brother being in this state.

      “Do you know what’s wrong with my brother?” He asked after a while.

      Everyone kept silent. Then Ivy suddenly spoke up.

       “I think these are drug withdrawal symptoms.” He whispered and I looked at him in surprise. Not only did he know Simon, but he was so close to him that he knew about his drug addiction.

       “Simon did drugs?” Carter’s dad asked and Ivy nodded in response.

      “I don’t know much about it, only that he did drugs and lately he became very desperate to find any substances. He even asked me if I had any medication to give him. I think something happened with his dealer.”

      “He didn’t have a dealer.” The attention turned to Eric “My brother never took drugs willingly.”

       “What do you mean?” Carter asked. His parents were looking at him, more than surely wondering if their son knew this pretty big detail in his ex’s life.

        “There was this person, a boy from Ivy’s school. He would come to our house sometimes. It was odd because my brother never had friends over, but soon I realized his guy wasn’t his friend. Every time he came around, my brother would tell me to hide in my room and not come out until he called me. One day I didn’t listen. After this boy left, Simon would always act very strangely so I wanted to see what they did together. However, I didn’t expect to see this boy forcefully injecting a substance in Simon’s vein.”

          Eric drew his knees closer to his chest and everyone used these few moments of silence to let the information sink in.

       “I tried to stop him but all I succeeded to do was just to worsen the situation. The guy kept on coming to our house and every time my brother would lock me inside my room. I could hear the boy’s voice calling my name and telling me to come down to see what he did to my brother. Simon would scream over him, telling him to leave me out of it and go away. He didn’t stop though. He even started beating my brother.”

      Eric’s voice broke down and Ivy stretched his hand, placing it over the younger boy’s knee soothingly.

     “I tried to call the police, I did, but the guy was wealthy, his parents had connections. The cops would take him away only for him to come back the next day, being more violent and vengeful towards Simon. Once he even tried barging into my room saying that I am the one messing with his plans, my brother being smarter than trying to go against him. When he didn’t succeed though, he beat my brother to an inch of his life. He never hit him on visible places, but this time he made sure to break a few of his ribs. Simon had to call in sick from school.”

      “I remember when that happened. I wanted to come over to Simon’s house to see how bad his “flu” was, but he wouldn’t tell me his address. He never did.” Carter said and I turned to look at him, his body being visibly tensed.

      “He didn’t want you to see the kind of conditions we lived in. Our parents work abroad and don’t bother sending us too much money. Only enough to be able to survive.”

      A blanket of silence was laid over us. Then Eric mended his voice.

        “Anyway, after a while I think the boy started using me to threaten my brother because Simon wanted to send me away to our grandparents. I refused, not wanting to leave without him. Our relatives didn’t accept Simon for his sexuality so they broke all connections with us. They would accept to take me in, but not Simon...

      ...Then one day, the guy tried to turn his threats into actions. Simon was at a party and I was home alone. When someone rang the bell, I thought it was my brother so I opened the door without checking first. This was when the boy broke inside and yanked me after him. He-he had one of his syringes with him and used it on me then send pictures to Simon. Afterwards he... he started unbuttoning my shirt and threatening to-to do things to me if Simon didn’t do what he told him to. He-he said he wanted my brother to kill himself... himself and the boy he was dating.”

      Carter’s father gasped, looking at his son. His husband pulled him in his embrace.

      “Carter, why didn’t you tell us the truth?”

       Eric’s eyes widened and he turned to look at Carter.

       “You are Simon’s boyfriend?”

      “Used to be.” Was Carter’s simple response.

     Eric nodded, looking at the ground. Then he whispered softly.

      “My brother never meant for any of these to happen. After the accident, I asked Simon is he was really ready to put both of your lives on the line for me. He cried and told me that he couldn’t. That night, he sent an audio to the guy. It was a whisper and then a loud screech of wheels. He wanted to prove the guy that he tried to kill the two of you so that he would leave me alone. He hoped you would be able to redirect the wheel or crash into a tree without getting severely hurt. He knew the risks but he was panicked and couldn’t think of a better solution...

     ...You must understand that I am not trying to reason my brother’s actions. I just want to put everything out in the light because I know he would never do it himself.”

      “Why did he never tell anyone about what happened though? We could have helped him.” Ivy said and Eric played mindlessly with the hem of his shirt.

      “I think he was worried the guy would hurt you just like he threatened to hurt me.”

      Layers of silence were unfolding themselves. All these news were hard to digest.

      ”By any chance,” Carter started, looking towards Eric, “do you know the name of the guy who did all of these?”

      Eric scrunched his eyebrows, thinking for a moment.

      “I am not sure...Simon haven’t really used his name but I think I heard him call the guy Jason.”

       My eyes widened in surprise.

       “Tall and well-built with brown eyes and blond hair with a scar splitting one of his eyebrows?” I asked.

       “Yeah. So you know him?”

      I nodded.

      “He was in the same football team as me and Carter. Still is.”