Beautiful Pain

3

Leo wakes up to the sound of a door slamming. Before he can move, his uncle strides into the kitchen with some other men following him. Leo barely breaths as his uncle approaches him.

"This is the fucking waste of space my bastard of a brother left me with," his uncle growls, and cuffs Leo hard enough that he falls off the chair.

"Have you decorated him yet?" One of the men asks.

Decorated him? Leo trembles at the thought of what it could mean.

"Not yet, he's too banged up right now. If I do something more it'll be noticed and I'll go to jail. Then they'll be no one to run the business," his uncle answers, grabbing a fistful of Leo's dark hair and yanking him up, "Unless he doesn't go to school tomorrow."

His uncle's friends laugh and approach a vulnerable Leo. Leo swallows hard at the malice on their faces.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Leo isn't in school for three days. Anna feels weird without him there, it hadn't been long but she had gotten used to his presence.

"Don't forget class, the test on chapter one is tomorrow," The history teacher Mrs. Sanhana announces as the bell chimes.

A test? Leo instantly pops into Anna's mind. If he came back tomorrow, would he be ready? She sighs and pulls out her notes. She was really thorough, she could drop them off at his house so he could use them to study... no, that was crazy. She didn't even know where he lived.

Anna groans as she finds herself walking to the front office.

'This is crazy, he will hate you for this!'

'I can't just let him fail! He's the first person besides Grandfather who's spoken to me without any sarcasm or rudeness since mum and dad died.'

"Can I help you dear?" The secretary asks.

"I'm wondering about a new student?" She says softly.

"Which one?"

"Leo, I don't remember his last name," Anna whispers, embarassed.

"Oh, you must mean Leo Jung, what about him?" The woman says in a nervous voice.

"I need to know his address so I can drop off some schoolwork he missed," Anna explains softly.

"Oh, um, how about you let me fax that to his uncle, I'm sure he'll be glad to give it to him," the secretary holds our her hand.

"If you don't mind, I would like to give it to him in person. I'll need to explain what some of the words say, my handwriting is horrible," Anna says. It wasn't totally a lie, when the first wrote the notes she couldn't read them. Then she might've rewritten them neatly, but this lady didn't need to know that.

The woman sighs in defeat and writes down an address on a small sheet of paper. Her hand is shaking as she hands it over. Just before Anna leaves, the woman calls out one last thing.

"Be careful Annette!"

'What is with people and getting my name wrong?'

Anna sighs and sets off, using her phones GPS to guide her. After walking for about twenty minutes and getting lost twice, she stops in front of a mansion.

"No way," she breaths, and rings the doorbell.

"Who is it?" A gruff voice calls. Just the sound of it makes Anna's stomach turn.

She takes a deep breath and calls back, "Anna, Leo's classmate!"

A shuffling is heard inside and the door swings open, revealing a tall, well built, handsome man.

"A friend of Leo's?"

She shakes her head slightly, "More of an aquantence sir."

"Then why are you here?" He asks, she can't help but flinch even though his voice was no longer scary.

"W-we have a t-test tomorrow and I thought he'd appreciate if I let him borrow my notes," she stutters.

The man looks her up and down, then holds out his hand, "Give them to me, I'll pass them on."

"No disrespect sir, but my handwriting is kinda bad and I will probably need to explain some of the words," Anna answers.

Anna sees a bit of malice in the man's eyes as he smiles, "Of course, come inside."

She warily steps into the large house, the door closing loudly behind her.

"I'll go get Leo for you," the man says, leaving her alone.

As soon as he's gone, she wrinkles her nose in disgust. The house looked pretty, but inside smelled like tobacco, cleaner fluid, and other things she couldn't name. And the man who answered the door, there was something off about him.

"Anna?" A husky voice asks, snapping her out of her thoughts. She looks up and sees Leo. He looked like he just woke up, he was wearing sweats and his hair was a mess.

"What are you doing here?" He inquires, walking down the stairs.

"I didn't know if you had your history book and we have a test tomorrow so I came to lend you my notes," her words come out in a jumble, her head was starting to spin. She reaches in her bag, pulls out her notebook, and hands it to him. Her arms are shaking.

"You shouldn't have come here," Leo says, but his words are spinning around her head, if that was even possible.

"Sorry, I should... go..." she reaches for the door handle and misses. Her world goes dark.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
*A few moments earlier*

"Get up you pathetic flea," his uncle growls and kicks Leo in the stomach. Leo groans and struggles to stand up. His body hurt like hell.

"Some girl named Anna is here to give you something."

Leo rises quickly, "Anna's here?!"

His uncle backhands him. "Don't ever raise your voice at me," he growls, "She's quiting downstairs. Put these on."

His uncle shoves a pair of sweats into Leo's arms and leaves. Leo dresses quickly, ruffles his hair so he looks like he just woke up, and rushes to the stairs.

"Anna?" He asks upon seeing her. She looks funny, almost... Leo sniffs the air and immediately knows why. The air is filled with the stench of inhalants.

"What are you doing here?" He asks, coming down the stairs. She starts saying something, but her words are too slurred to understand. She hands him a notebook.

"You shouldn't have come here," Leo warns. She was already high, she couldn't leave yet.

"Sorry, I should go..." she collapses. Had he not caught her, she would've hit the ground hard.

Leo hates what he has to do, but he has no choice.

"Uncle, Anna's too high to leave!" He calls, uncle storms in furiously.

"The bitch shouldn't have come here in the first place," he barks.

"Uncle please, allow me to take her home," Leo begs, his uncle shakes his head.

"No, put her upstairs and watch her until she wakes up. If she can walk straight, send her home. If she can't, call me and I'll take care of it."