Amongst the worst

His story

"It was my father" I blurt out "H-he did...this" I stutter
His expression turns dangerous in a matter of seconds, he looked as if he was out to kill something. His eyes only radiated pure anger.

"Tell me his name" he demands

What the hell do I say? I stay silent, thinking about the best possible lie I could make but I look at him to see him closely examining my face. "Chris Angelo" I finally say

He looks extremely unconvinced, he just glares at me while clenching his jaw "Don't fucking lie to me Rose"

"I'm not lying" I argue,  not even convincing myself

Instead of responding he quickly pulls out his phone and starts doing god knows what.

"What are you doing?" I ask hesitantly

"Texting someone I think you would appreciate being here more than me. Maybe you'll even tell him the truth" he sighs

I instantly knew who he was talking about. Sam.

"Sam has his swimming trials" I say

He groans "Oh yeah I forgot about that"

I roll my eyes

"Rose" his eyes snap back to mine

"Hm" is all I managed to say

"Please can you tell me" surprisingly he said this without demand, without anger. He was calm when he said this, gentle.

"He-" I pause "He hits me, well he used to"

I see his tongue roll against the side of his cheek, he looks down at the flow now completely avoiding my gaze.

"I really can't say more, not that I don't want to...it's complicated"

He finally looks up at me "It's okay, I understand" he smiles slightly.

"Y-you do?" I ask genuinely shocked

"Of course I do, I know not to push answers out of someone when they ask not to" he looked at me with a sense of understanding. What was he hiding?

"I know how you feel, more than you know" he takes a deep breath "My real parents are dead so I've moved round to different families most of my life"

"One of my so called fathers" he clears his throat "he was abusive, it got so bad that I lost the will to live soon enough" He frowns

"He would make me do all types of different things, punch through solid rock with my fist then my foot, he would make me fight him until I was knocked out"

"When training he would even break my stronger hand to that I could only use the weaker one"

his knuckles had turned white.

Without thinking twice I placed my hand on top of his clenched fist and I saw his body tense. I instantly moved away, regretting my decision.

At least he looked calmer now.

"He taught me all different types of fighting styles until I had mastered them. He would even make me"
he stops in his tracks as if he was ashamed of what he has to say

"What is it?" I ask

"He made me kill." I see water gathering in his eye lids as he looks away. I turn his face back to mine "It's okay" I whisper "It really is"

I pull my arms out, gesturing a hug. He shakes his head "I don't do hugs" he scoffs

"Why the hell not"

"Because they were reserved only for my mother and we'll she's dead"

"Okay fine" I say in retreat, I try to stand up but the pain strikes through me again and I fall back down.

I try again, same thing. "I can't keep watching this" he lifts me up despite my protests and carries me somewhere until he sits me down quickly.

As if he was afraid to hold me for any longer.

He  reaches for something in his pocket. He takes out his phone again and starts dialling someone's number.

"Now who is it?" I ask annoyingly

"As I said before it's someone who you would much rather have here instead of me" he says again

I don't protest this time and we both sat together in an awkward silence "he says he'll be here in 3 minutes" I just nod in agreement and the silence returns.

"There you are I was so worried" Sam appeared and was now running towards me, he was about to hug me when someone stops him "Be gentle" Tyler snapped from next to me. "What happened?" Sam asks

"I fell" I say trying to sound as believable as possible

"Oh? How did that happen? What did you do?" he actually sounded convinced.

Guess I was a better liar than I thought. Should I really be lying to him though? He is my boyfriend.

"Stairs, I was going upstairs to look for some swords in the shop but I fell quite badly" he just stared at me  "Clumsy me" I added

I was about to stand up but Sam was now helping me  up. "Thank you" I say

"No problem" he smiles and picks up the blanket that Tyler gave me. "Who gave you this?"

"Tyler did" I say, I see him roll his eyes "Why did you call him and not me?" for the first time in a while he actually looked annoyed. Like really annoyed. What is he so worried about?

"Sam I promise you there's nothing to worry about let's go" he stays put

"Sam" I say more seriously "let's go"

"Where did he go?" Sam asks, and I turn round to see that Tyler had already left.

"I don't know but we should probably go too" he scoffs

"Why do you care so much he hates me" I state the obvious

"Because I see the way he looks at you"
"And I hate it" his face hardens

"What do you mean the way he looks at me?"

What is he talking about?

"Think Rose just think. If he hated you why would he come? Why would he comfort you? Why would he stay? He never does that." he avoids eye contact with me so he looks down at the floor.

"He didn't stay, he left." I gesture towards the now empty shop entrance.

"He's a mystery that boy is, no one can quite figure him out"

And he was back to his usual cheery self.

Well that was weird....