if you look at him, he'll kill you!

8: over

tw: homophobic slur, violence and abuse

just to avoid confusion: i mention pleasure pier which is an amusement park in galveston and the strand which is a series of stores and boutiques and stuff. google them if you need to.

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tyler wanted it to be over.

he didn't want to be in this stupid town with all of these stupid people.

he just wanted it all to end.

he thought about running away but where would he go? live with mr. johnson, the homeless man who played drums on a bucket down by pleasure pier? stay with sage jeffreys, the woman who lived in front of hendley market on the strand?

tyler didn't want to do that.

he could join jim henderson's little street band on the seawall but that would mean having to sleep on the seawall and... no thanks.

so he guessed he'd have to stay here in this house where he's not welcome. where he gets beat everyday just for something he can't control. where his siblings cower in fear every time he goes near them because they're scared their parents are going to beat them too.

he finally got home, the kids throwing rocks finally all dispersed and left him. he half expected that josh kid to continue following him and throwing rocks but when tyler turned around he wasn't there. weird. maybe he went home with one of his asshole friends.

tyler walked up the steps to his house, slowly pushing open the door and trying not to make too much noise. he didn't want his parents knowing he was home. he was already in so much pain from the beating he recieved yesterday, he didn't want to add on to that.

if he just stayed out of his parents way and made it to his bedroom, it would all be okay.

"tyler robert joseph!"

fucking hell. can't they give him one day to rest?

tyler slowly turned around, looking straight into the eyes of his father.

"yes sir?"

"why'd it take you so long to get home?" his father demanded, his fists clenching at his sides.

"i had to walk, sir. it takes a while to get here." tyler did his best to keep his voice steady, he didn't want his father to point out his stutter and use it against him.

"it doesn't take thirty minutes!"

tyler wanted to cry. he really couldn't deal with this today.

"i'm sorry, sir. it won't happen again. i'll make sure to get here faster tomorrow." he knew his voice had quivered while he spoke and that terrified him. he knew his father fed off of his weaknesses.

"fucking faggot can't even speak without crying, can you?"

"i-i'm sorry, dad."

"i'm not your father anymore. i will not be the father to a fag. so don't call me that."

tyler felt tears welling up in his eyes. up until this point he hadn't been officially disowned yet. abused and neglected, sure. but his parents never outright told him he wasn't their son anymore.

"i'm not even kidding tyler, at the exact moment that you turn eighteen years old, if you aren't out of this fucking house you're going to regret it." the man spoke, his voice stern and extremely angry.

"y-yes, sir. i'll be out by then."

"i wish i could kick you out right now. you realize that, right? but too bad i cant until you're eighteen. you've ruined my life."

and then a hand harshly moved across tyler's cheek, a fist went straight into his gut, a steel toed boot crashed into his knee and tyler finally let the tears spill.

normally, he tried harder to keep his emotions in. he didn't want his father to know he had won. he didn't want his mother to know that he was vulnerable and weak.

he soon heard the sound of his father's belt being pulled from the loops.

tyler was utterly terrified.

sure, his father had used fists and feet and elbows and knees and various household products to hurt the boy but he'd never, ever used any sort of belt or whip like mechanism on him before.

the only time tyler had ever experienced a belt was when he was 6 and he had accidentally thrown a baseball directly into the new tv in the living room and broke it. his father wasn't very happy.

but when tyler was 6 his father was still his dad. he wasn't just the man who tyler lived with. he was the man tyler looked up to, who tyler loved. now, he didn't see the same person who he knew so well 10 years ago.

when the belt cracked down onto tyler's torso the first time, he wanted to scream. it felt like he had just been stabbed, stung, and burned all at once. it came down again, but this time onto the boy's left arm, immediately leaving behind an entirely too visible bright red welp.

the man brought the belt down onto tyler's curled up body about four more times before kicking him in the head once more and walking away.

tyler just wanted everything to be over.

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856 words

published on august 2, 2019