The Boy With the Bruise - benjey

18 - Exhaustion

Kaden left Jorge on the floor after he had finished, getting dressed and going out to likely buy some alcohol, but the frail boy made no attempts to move from his place on the floor when he heard the door close.

He laid there, unblinkingly. When his phone began to vibrate, Jorge could feel it move against his fingertips. The sensation caused his fingers to twitch, as if the small movement had stung him, and something about it shocked him out of his daze. His eyelashes fluttered. His fingers curled up as he slowly reached up to touch his face which had refused to stop oozing blood and tears. The carpet he and Kaden had spent hours trying to decide on when they had first fallen in love, when they had first moved into their small apartment, was now stained with Jorge's blood and tears - not to mention the countless stains of beer and cigarettes that had, over time, worsened in condition.

Jorge hadn't noticed how bad the house had gotten since Kaden had fallen back into his toxic state of mind, but the sudden realization didn't affect him much. 

He felt numb, as if all emotions had been sucked out of his body and dumped in a fire to burn. His body felt too heavy and he could practically feel him sinking in on himself, but he was too scared to move, too scared to even... breathe.

The phone didn't stop vibrating. For a second, it paused, but it began once again. This repeated about four times before the sudden bang of fists on a door caused Jorge to flinch. Both of his palms flew over his ears to block out the noise as it resonated throughout his hollowed mind, squeezing his eyes shut in desperate attempt to cease the sound.

The shock of what had just happened finally began to wear off as the banging began to grow louder, and Jorge found it in himself to push himself up on his elbows.

"Fuck off," he rasped, exhausted. "Please. Just... please, go away."

"Jorge? It's me," a familiar voice shouted through the closed door.

Confused, Jorge's eyes shifted to the front. "Syd?" His voice was raspy and disgusting, and it caused the young boy to cringe when he heard the word stumble out of his lips. 

"Yeah, it's Syd - can you please open the door? You're scaring me."

Jorge tried his best to flip over on his feet, but his arms gave out and he landed back on the floor, next to the bloodied glass.

"Can't," Jorge mumbled as loud as he could.

"What was that? Jorge? Hey, Jorge? Are you ok? Jorge? I'm going to go get your landlord for a key, I'll be right back, ok? Stay with me."

Syd's light footsteps echoed throughout the hallway, the subtle vibration finding its way to Jorge's place on the floor as he stared up at the ceiling.

What the fuck had just happened?

What the fuck had just happened? 

The jingle of keys rang out through the air, but Jorge was too tired to move.

"Jorge, are you - oh my... holy... holy shit..." Syd's soft voice led off, the patter of his shoes running up to his best friend echoing through Jorge's mind as he felt Syd's hands touch his chest. Immediately, Jorge flinched back, causing Syd to yank his hand back in surprise. "He did this to you?" Although he didn't answer, Syd knew. He knew that it had been the drunk his best friend had been putting up with for this whole time. 

When he didn't answer, Syd took out his phone again and dialed 911.

"Yes, hello - I'm calling for an ambulance... I think... I think my friend was raped."

...

His hands.

All Jorge could feel were his hands, roaming all over his body. The rough touch disgusted him.

"You're fucking lucky I don't enjoy non-consensual sex, baby, but maybe you can do something else for me."

The relief that had even dared to wash through him quickly retracted and was replaced with anxiety as Kaden's hand traveled up to his throat and clutched it, along with the one that was filled with searing-hot glass as it traveled down to his throat and opened new wounds.

"Be a good boy and open your mouth, Jorge."

Jorge awoke with a gasp, his hands flying up to his neck as he felt himself hyperventilating. Syd's contorted face quickly approached him, trying his best to mutter soothing words as he rubbed his best friend's back and softly tried to pry off Jorge's hands from his neck.

"Calm down, Jorge! Calm down! You're with me, you're at the hospital! You're safe!" Syd desperately said, but his voice was warped and terrifying to the frail boy. 

"Fuck," Jorge choked out as he felt new, hot tears streaming down his face. "Kaden... he... he..."

"I know," Syd whispered, leaning into the sobbing boy as Jorge clutched onto him for emotional support. "I know, you don't have to say it."

A nurse walked briskly into the room, giving Jorge and Syd a set of apologetic eyes as she intruded on their private moment.

"Excuse my interruption," she said with a thick Irish accent "but there's someone here asking for Jorge Garay." Her ginger curls bounced as she turned her head to look at something behind her, respectively stepping out of the way to let the boy rush through.

"Jeyjey," Benji breathed, surging forward as Syd backed away from his friend. The use of the soft nickname calmed the hysterical boy as he clung onto the older boy, who waited until he could breathe again before pulling away. The ginger-haired nurse moved forward, grabbing a few things from the cabinet. 

"I'm really sorry, but I need you guys to leave for a moment," she said as she tucked a hair behind her ear. "I'll call you back in as soon as I can, yeah?"

The pair reluctantly left, and Jorge was left to lay in the bed. For the first time he really felt the sting of his wounds in his cheek, and his fingers softly traveled over the bandage that had been placed over them.

As the nurse was doing her work, she softly said, "I know what you're going through." Jorge's eyes snapped up to the girl's tired eyes, listening intently. "It gets worse, y'know? You need to get out of it while you still can."

"What happened with you?" Jorge rasped, and the girl's hair fell in her eyes as she looked at him with a saddened look.

"It happens to a lot more people than society would like to admit," she admitted.

Jorge shook his head. "You didn't answer my question."

The nurse gave him another lingering look of sadness before she turned around, shifting around her cabinet to pull out a syringe. As she was fiddling with his IV, her sleeve slipped down to reveal a cluster of burn marks that were suspiciously close to what cigarette burn marks looked like. Instead of hiding them when she noticed Jorge had seen, she pulled her sleeve up further.

"Like yours," she whispered, pointing to Jorge's bandaged cheek as she peeled off her blue gloves and threw them in the trash. Jorge didn't answer as he watched her move to the doorway, where she paused and turned around. "Get out of it before it kills you, lad. It's worth the risk."

Her voice was the last echoing thing that entered Jorge's mind before he slipped back into unconsciousness, but when he felt the warm touch of someone on his uninjured cheek, he knew that he wasn't alone. 

"Por favor, no te vayas, Benji."

...

;-; i felt bad that i left yall on a cliffhanger,
so i put up another chapter
sorry for doing that to you and
sorry this chapter is bad lol im hecca sleep deprived
but issok
Dont Forget:
benjey is where it's at
kaden can go HECC himself
the only way from rock bottom is up.
good chapters are coming ur way soon my lovelies,
hang on ;-;
love you xx