Mysterious Boy - McLennon

10.

Paul found it easier to wake Mike up the next morning, as the boy was still lay in bed beside Paul. The teenagers arm was wrapped around Mike's body in an overprotective way, as if somebody was going to snatch Mike from him.

As soon as Paul moved his arms away and began to sit up, he felt the figure on the side closest to the wall stir. Paul was glad. He hated waking Mike up himself and he knew they had to get up now to be able to leave the house without Jim noticing.

Paul had Mr Martin for Geography today, and he really did not want to have to deal with his father too...

"Mike..."

"Five more minutes, Paulie..." Mike whined, eyes still tightly closed.

Paul was about to say no, but he just couldn't. Mike's face looked so peaceful when he was sleeping... As if he was in peace..

"Just five more minutes..." The teenager nodded with a soft smile.

He took his phone off the side whilst his brother slept in, seeing the notifications from the previous night.

Yesterday
21:08
Snapchat: JLennon9 sent a message!

21:10
Snapchat: JLennon9 is typing...
Snapchat: JLennon9 sent a message!

Paul mentally cursed himself for leaving John on read... The boy was so sweet, and was unknowingly saving him a hell of a lot of beatings.

Yesterday
21:08
JLennon9 - You changing a song or something?
21:10
JLennon9 - Hello?
JLennon9 - Oh well, see you tomorrow! 😊

What a sweet boy...

Today
6:41
PrincessPaulie1 - I'm sorry about leaving you on delivered last night, had to help my brother sleep.
PrincessPaulie1 - He's a massive insomniac.

Paul waited for a few minutes, staring at the plain white screen and waiting for John's avatar to pop up in the bottom left. When it did not, Paul mentally sighed, assuming John was still asleep.

The teenager swiped onto the main Snapchat page, before switching his phone off. He looked back at Mike once more, and the boy was now sleeping once again.

The child's clothes were still in his own bedroom, and Paul mentally prepared himself for standing up to go and get them. He stretched slightly, where his bruised joints didn't ache for more reasons than lying on them oddly, before making his way to the hallway.

Paul tried to tiptoe through the hallway to Mike's room at the end of it, but it was no use. Jim must have fallen asleep at some point on the recliner watching football last night, and was only just coming up to his own bed. As soon as Paul heard the middle steps creak, he froze.

"Paul?!" Jim whisper shouted. Paul looked down over the banister, and sure enough, there was Jim.

The man was struggling to make his way up the stairs, his red and blue Liverpool F.C scarf wrapped around his neck loosely. His eyelids were fluttering, mouth wide open, and Paul could almost smell the alcohol on him.

"C'mere..." Paul uttered, before making his way down to his father. He pried the man's hands away from the banister, which he had been clutching onto like it was his life support.

"Hey!" Jim exclaimed, voice slurred.

"Daddy... I'm just gonna help you into bed..." Paul tried, but was roughly shrugged off.

"No..." Jim demanded, but Paul could tell Jim would hardly be able to make it without crawling up the last 9 steps.

"Daddy, please-" Paul tried to reach his arms out to help his father up, but this time Jim was even rougher.

"I said no!" The man roughly grabbed the exposed skin of Paul's upper arms, above his elbows where his black pyjama shirt had ridden up, and shoved him against the opposite wall. But he didn't let go, instead let his nails dig into Paul's skin.

"Ow..." Paul whined in pain.

"Do you ever stop...?!" Jim angrily slurred out, looking into Paul's terrified eyes.

"Daddy..." He seethed out, looking at Jim as if begging for mercy. "Please... Please let go..."

The frustration in Jim's drunken eyes seemed to die down, as his grip on Paul's slightly freckled arms loosened. The teenager could feel the nail marks stinging, but what hurt the most was the way Jim was looking at him.

He didn't look sad, he didn't look pitiful, sorrowful or even angry...

He just looked confused, and was looking at Paul as if he was just some stranger he'd gotten into a brawl with in the street...

Jim eventually muttered something incoherent under his breath, before grabbing onto the banister once again. The drunken man pulled himself up, taking around three seconds on each step, and happily left Paul's sight once he finally reached the top.

It was only when the man's bedroom door slammed shut that Paul felt he could move again.

His feet carried him back up the stairs and onto Mike's room.

-

Paul and Mike had just left McDonald's, both satisfied with the breakfast they'd just had. Mike was on Paul's shoulders as the two walked through the school gates once more.

"Halfway through the week, eh Mikey?" Paul chirped, taking in the sight of the blue sky with a slight addition of orange in places.

"Mhm! And at the weekend you can take me to Sefton Park again!"

"Sefton?" Paul questioned. "What's wrong with the local park?"

"I like the local park, Paulie... It's just the slide isn't as big, and only two swings work! But at Sefton, the slide is massive!" Mike spoke, his voice sounding amazed. "A-And the swings go higher!"

"Well..." Paul bit his lip, knowing they didn't have enough money for a bus ticket to Sefton Park at the moment. But Mike sounded like he was already looking forward to it. "Well, I'll see what I can do, hm?"

Mike gasped in excitement.

"Really?!" Paul chuckled, lifting him from his shoulders and placing him on the ground as the two reached the door to Mike's classroom.

"Yeah... Yeah I will, Mikey." Paul smiled at him.

The little boy looked into his eyes with a wide grin, before leaning forward and placing a kiss on Paul's cold cheek. After that he giggled, turning to run towards the door.

"Love you Paulie!" He called out as he ran in the opposite direction to Paul, and the teenager smiled.

"Love you too!" Paul shouted back.

Paul watched the younger boy wave at him, before he slipped through the white doors.

The teenager felt a notification go off on his phone. He began to make his way back out of the gates and towards The Liverpool Institute, pulling the device out of his pocket as he did so. Paul smoulder help but smile as he saw the words 'Snapchat' and 'JLennon9' displayed through the cracks.

He'd always loved school for being a distraction from home, but since John had started attending the school too, he felt it had began to become less of a distraction, and more of an experience to look forward too now.

In other words, he couldn't wait to get to school and see John.