His Sweetest Escape

05

It had been almost a week and River hasn't heard from Julio since their fight, the boy didn't even bother to show up at school and River's nerves seemed to escalate.

Which was why when the bell rang indicating that school was over he didn't hesitate to go straight to Julio's house. He needed to check if he was okay, if something bad happened to him he wouldn't be able to forgive himself.

On his way there his mind was swimming on a million 'what if's' and no matter how many times he tried to reassure himself that his best friend was okay, the voices in his head seemed to have different motives.

When he arrived infront of Julio's house, he was stood on the doorstep as he knocked multiple times with no response from either Julio or his father.

Instead he just opened the door and stepped inside by himself, hoping for the best.

He looked around the house and it was filled with beer bottles all over the floor and coffee table in the lounge.

River was surprised to see Julio's father; Mr Sanchez passed out on the living room floor with some blankets covering him. The house reeked of alcohol, fags and vomit. That wasn't a pleasant thing to witness nor smell.

So the boy decided to go to Julio's room to check if the boy was okay and breathing. He was surprised to see him curled up in his bed and covered by a bunch of blankets sleeping peacefully with light snores being heard.

River sat on his bed and brushed his face lightly with his hands to feel the boy's smooth skin. He longed to touch him and he was glad he was well and alive. He felt guilty that it took him that long to finally go see his friend. Staring at Julio's face he couldn't control the butterflies that were occupying his stomach, it was no doubt that the boy looked ethereal.

With his long thick and dark lashes, his rosey cheeks and pink tinted plump lips, River was no cannibal but he wanted to eat Julio without a doubt.

"Hey." Julio greeted, his voice was husky and irregular due to the fact that he had just woken up "how long have you been here?"

"Not long enough, are you okay?"

"Yeah, just tired."

"Hhmm," River hummed, continuing to caress Julio's face "I missed you."

"I missed you too. I'm very sorry Riri, I said something horrible to you and that's been eating at me for so long, I couldn't face you and trust me I was going to apologise at some point but i'm just tired. I hope you understand." He said, tears threatening to fall from his eyes.

"It's okay love," he responded hugging the boy tightly wishing to never let him go "I understand okay? It wasn't my place to tell you not to see your father, so I think I sort of deserved it."

"Ok now shut up and kiss me." Julio breathed heavily.

River didn't hesitate to grab the boys face and devour his mouth like there was no tomorrow, he tangled his fingers into his hair and kissed him hungrily, nothing else could be heard from Julio's room, just sloppy and wet kisses.

"God," Julio said as they broke apart from the kiss "I missed your stupid face."

"So do you go around kissing stupid faces?" River asked sheepishly.

Julio made a face as if he was thinking before he answered: "Yeah, I guess it's my thing."

Laughter erupted between the two boys and they just spent their afternoon catching up and cuddling with one another.

"He hasn't hit me yet." Julio randomly announced as they were sat on his bed while eating noodles.

"Yeah?"

"Yes," the boy nodded "I-I think he's trying to be better for me, he's just struggling River and he can't deal with this whole thing properly."

"I understand, I just didn't like the hitting part, it was a bit too much. Seeing you at school covered in all those bruises made me angry and I grew to despise him."

"He was sober a few days back." Julio said, ignoring what River had said "we talked and he asked about you."

"Me?" River's eyes widened in shock, he wasn't expecting Mr Sanchez to ask his son about him, not that the old men hated him or something but it has been a while since they had a proper encounter.

"Yeah, he saw you kissing me on the cheeks that other time we came to fetch some of my stuff, he was okay with it River," He cried out, as if he was in disbelief "he said that he's glad I have someone like you in my life. All these years I thought he would disown me for being gay but he's suprisingly very cool with it."

"That's a relief, i'm glad he isn't the person we thought he was. I think he just needs to work on the alcohol thing."

"Yeah, I think so too."

And they were okay.

That was all that mattered at that moment.

                              ____