Blue Coffee Mugs and the Agoraphobic [boyxboy] ✔

Illegal

TWENTY NINE

[i stg this is gonna be one long-ass story and will probably have a sequel, too]

Austin's POV

I go to Alan's house to drop off a book of his I forgot to give him back. The front door is unlocked, so I go inside slowly when nobody answers after a few times of knocking and ringing the doorbell. I can hear strange sounds coming from upstairs.

"Alan?" I knock on his bedroom door but there's no answer and it sounds like he's in pain. "I'm coming in, okay?" I push the door open and what I see breaks my heart. Alan is sitting on the floor, his back to his bed, crying. And not normal crying, he is literally sobbing, so that it's borderline hysterical.

He's wearing sweatpants that are way too big for him and an old shirt of mine that has a bunch of holes in it and almost looks like a dress on him. I rush over to him and kneel down in front of him.

"What's wrong?", I ask Alan and he just shakes his head, pushing me away weakly.
I can't just sit here and watch him cry like that. I make him look up at me and brush away the wetness on his cheeks with my thumbs, "God, please stop crying.", I beg him, tearing up myself. "I- I... No, Au- stin- A-Austin, please... Please don't-", he struggles to form a coherent sentence in between his sobs. "Shh, calm down. It's okay. Come here."

He won't really let me hug him, though, just continues crying and trying to push me away.

Not wanting him to feel uncomfortable, I give him some space, "Babe, you gotta tell me what's wrong."

He shakes his head. I feel helpless, and I hate it because I can't handle him being hurt. I don't know how to react to it.

After quite a while, he's finally calmed down, so I ask him to explain again. He finally gives in,

"So, my siblings know about us, right? And my parents don't, because... I wasn't sure what they'd say and I didn't want any stress. Well, my sister accidentally told them and my dad freaked out for some reason. He- he told me that he hadn't raised me to be like this and- and that he was ashamed and I was no real man and I... I don't know what to do. My mom is fine with it, and she's been yelling at my dad and now everyone's upset, and it's all my fault."

I pull him into my lap, wrapping my arms around him tightly, "Look, your dad might be surprised or overwhelmed or something right now, but he'll come around. You're his son, and I'm sure your mom will be able to slap some sense into him. It's all going to be okay. I know that your family loves you, try not to worry too much, okay?"

He nods, half-heartedly against my chest. I press a light kiss to his messy hair, loving the way he was so comfortable around me.

We don't move, until Alan says that he's feeling better (but hungry) and get up to go into the kitchen.

I'm absolutely content with watching Alan, who is currently clumsily eating cereal. He has some milk running down his chin but doesn't even stop to wipe it away. He is the cutest.

"What are you looking at?", he asks, his mouth full of cereal. I smile, "Just you being adorable, as always."

He rolls his eyes, but I can see a little blush forming on his cheeks. After he's finished, he goes upstairs while I use the bathroom.

When I go back into his room, I don't see Alan immediately. Then I realize, that he's sitting in the far right corner, under his windowsill, his fluffy ginger cat Mittens at his feet, sorting books into two enormous piles.

"What are you doing?", I ask him, smiling.
"I need to organize my bookshelf. So I'm sorting the books into read and unread."

I nod in understanding and sit down in front of him. I look around, noticing that it's snowing.