It Started With a Mark- Boyf Riends soulmate AU

Chapter 13

Abuse/Alcoholism t/w

  "Babe, you're drunk," Michael spat out, trying to remain calm as not to aggravate the man approaching him. This was the third time this week something like this had happened. "you should go to sleep..."

  "Shut up." He said. Michael felt his heart crack just a little more. Anthony wasn't always like this. When they first met, right out of college, he was sweet. He was a good person. But now? Though Michael didn't want to accept it, he had changed. On some days he was fine, almost the same as he was years ago. But every other day was this, he'd come home drunk, hit Michael around a bit, attempt to get in his pants, before Michael would drive away and sleep in his car somewhere. It wasn't exactly the life Michael asked for, but he was stuck there.

  "You need to sleep..." Michael said again. This worked last time, after just saying that a few times he went go to their room; he didn't even try to do anything. But apparently that wasn't working today.

  He hit Michael across the head.
 
  "I said shut up."
 
  Michael fell to his knees as Anthony walked away to the kitchen. It didn't hurt much physically, but he felt his heart aching. It was getting worse. He was always a mean drunk, but in these past few months he was a lot more violent than before. There was part of him that thought that maybe this would change, that it would go back to the way it was, but the bruises scattered across his body said otherwise. He could only hang onto that thread of hope for so long.

  Michael got up, and walked to his boyfriend. He didn't know what to do. The better part of him said to stay away, to just leave before things got bad, but he didn't listen.

  "Babe-"

  Anthony turned around, with his fist raised.

  "What did I say?!" He yelled. Michael slumped back, preparing himself for another blow, which came immediately after the sentence was finished. Michael rubbed at his shoulder, where he was hit, and backed away. Anthony marched towards him and hit him again, and again, backing him into the corner. A few punches landed on his arms, some on his chest, his stomach, and face. He turned to cover himself, but only exposed his back, which ended up receiving some blows.

  After a minute, maybe two, Michael didn't know how long exactly, Anthony stopped. Michael heard footsteps recede, then a door being opened followed by it being slammed shut. He looked up, and lowered his arms, retiring his defensive position. Anthony was gone. He didn't know where he went. Michael sighed, and locked the door. Anthony had left his keys on the counter, so he wouldn't be able to get back in. Michael was safe.
 
  He sat down on the couch and took in a deep breath, processing what had just happened. He was sick of this. The guessing game he would play every day waiting for Anthony to come home. Whether he'd be the kind man he fell in love with, or a drunken mess. He was mostly mad at himself for putting up with this. He should have left the first time this happened. Scratch that, he shouldn't have let this happen.

  Michael sighed, and stood up, feeling his body ache as he did so. He walked to the bathroom and flicked on the light to reveal himself in the mirror. His body was red from irritation, splotches of purple showed where the bruises were beginning to form, blood dripped from his lip and nose. But it was definitely him. He wiped away the blood and put some vaseline on the busted lip. Once he removed his shirt, it revealed more of the bruises; he knew that it would look even worse tomorrow.

  This wasn't the worst he had been hurt, but it was still pretty bad. He wanted to leave, but he felt like he was trapped. This relationship has lasted for so long, it felt wrong to leave it now. And it wasn't that bad, was it? Other people were a lot worse off...

  Michael sighed. He was done with this.

  He was done being treated like this, done telling himself that it isn't permanent, waiting for it to get better. He was going to stand up to himself, stop letting this happen to him. He was gonna break up with him. Kick him out. He wiped some tears from his eyes. With a sigh, he left the bathroom and went to the bedroom to pack up Anthony's things.

  He reached for one of Anthony's drawers, when he saw a familiar symbol on his wrist. The Pacman tattoo. Jeremy. He smiled. He hadn't called him in a week or so, maybe he should call him? So he decided he would. He went to the other room to retrieve his phone, and called him. After a few rings, he picked up.

  "Michael, hey!" He said, cheerfully.

  "Hey Jere." He said with a sniffle, still a little choked up.

  "Oh, Michael..." He must have noticed. "Are you okay? Is it Anthony?" The last few times he called, that was the reason why.

  "Yeah... It is." Michael's breath quivered. He put Jeremy on speaker and set the phone on top of the dresser, then began to empty Anthony's drawers.

  "Are you okay? How bad is it?"

  "It's not that bad-"

  "Don't lie to me."

  "It could've been worse..." He picked up the phone and headed to the kitchen, he needed a trash bag.

  "That doesn't matter, Michael. Him laying even a finger on you is too much. You can't let him keep doing this."

  "I know... So I'm not." He wiped his eyes and smiled.

  "...You're gonna dump him?"

  "I'm packing up his things now." He opened the cabinet under the sink, and retrieved a box of garbage bags. He took them back to his room.

  "Aww, Michael, good job!" Jeremy sounded happy. "I'm so proud of you. I know how hard that must've been."

  "Yeah..." He started to stuff one of the bags full of clothes. "I don't know where he would stay... Maybe I should wait a while? Let him figure out where he's gonna live?"

  "No, he doesn't deserve that. He can stay with a friend, or sleep at a motel if he has to, but that isn't your problem."

  Michael sighed. "I guess... Do you think I'll be able to afford the place on my own?"

  "You don't need to worry about that right now, you need to get rid of him. If worst comes to worst, I can send you some money."

  "No, you and April need the money-"

  "Your safety is more important than saving up for a wedding. It's okay."

  "I could always ask for more hours..."

  "If you really have to, that's fine. But he needs to go."
 
  He sighed again. Jeremy was right, he knew it. Looking down, he saw that the trash bag was full. So he tied if off, and began to fill a second one.

  "...I'm sorry for not listening to you the first time you told me to cut it off with him. You were right."

  "It's okay, you have your reasons."

  "What do you mean by that?" By now, he had stuffed all of Anthony's clothes into the bag. He went to the closet, and pulled out a large-ish box that he could put some more things in. His laptop, stuff that he was too nice to stuff into a trash bag.

  "Well, you've always been a little... Dependant." Michael sighed. He knew this already, he didn't need people pointing it out. He really was trying to fight that.

  "Yeah, I know..."

  "That's something you should work on."

  "I'm trying. I'm breaking up with Anthony, that's improvement!"

  "I know it is, and I'm really proud of you for doing that."

  Michael dragged the two bags and the box to the front door, and set them on the welcome mat. With a deep breath, he walked inside and closed the door behind him. And with that, he had finally overcome it. All those years, they were behind him now. He felt hundreds of pounds of baggage tumble of his shoulders. He really did it.

A/N: Hey guys! Sorry that it took me so long to update! To tell the truth, I'm not really in this fandom anymore. Or even this site anymore. But I'll try my best to get the last few chapters out! (And it won't take me half a year this time. Again, sorry about that.)

(Also, sorry bout huge timeskip! To clear that up, Michael's a few years out of college now. Anthony and April are both original characters, not references to anything else.)