Indifference (boyxboy)

24. Red

A/N - There's a lot of anger in this chapter so lots of swearing too. Just put your hands over your ears if that offends you.........oh wait.....

Ryan

I woke up with a banging headache. Not surprising considering I hadn't drunk anything else after the beer.

I dragged myself out of bed and down to the kitchen and downed two glasses of water.

"Rough night?"

I turned round and glared at my dad. I still wasn't talking to him after he paid Nate to distract me during my fight.

"Every night is rough in this family," I said before walking out and back up into my room.

I flopped back onto my bed and immediately fell back to sleep.

It was mid afternoon by the time I woke back up again and that was only because Eddie barged into my room.

"Urrgh! Go away!" I said, pulling the duvet over my head.

"Shit, no, I need your help," he said, and I noticed straight away that something was off with his tone.

I pulled my head out from under my duvet and looked at him. His face was paler than usual, and his eyes were red, like he'd been crying.

I immediately sat up straight.

"Shit Eddie, what happened?"

He sat down on Nate's bed, which was a little strange in itself, but I didn't say anything. He ran his hand through his hair, looking like he was struggling with what to say. He looked like he was about to burst into tears at any second, and I hadn't seen Eddie cry since he was about five and someone broke his toy helicopter.

"Hey, it's ok," I said, "whatever it is we'll fix it ok?"

He shook his head and laughed sadly.

"I'm afraid we can't fix this one."

I looked at him in concern. He'd never really been one for getting in trouble, but then he did know a lot of people who had a habit of dragging others into trouble with them.

"Promise me you won't hate me," he said, tearing up.

"Of course I won't!" I said.

"You don't know that," he replied.

I thought about it for a few seconds.

I couldn't think of a single thing that Eddie could have done that would make me hate him. Honestly, he was my favourite person in the world.

"Yes I do," I said firmly.

I saw the hint of a smile and felt strangely satisfied.

"Ok, I'm gonna hold you to that," he said.

He took a few deep breaths, and without looking at me, blurted out,

"I was caught doing stuff with another boy, and my dad found out and he's kinda mad."

He said it so quickly that I had to replay it a couple of times in my head to try to make sense of it.

"What stuff?" I asked.

He flopped back on Nate's bed and put his hands over his face.

"You know, kissing and stuff."

"WHAT?!!" I said jumping up on my feet.

"Hey, you promised! You promised!" he said scooting backwards like a crab, looking suddenly terrified.

I frowned at his reaction.