With Their Eyes Filled With Stars

.36.

It's 7pm when I finally come home from Hazel's, I hadn't even realised the time until Dodie pointed out she had to get home for her dinner. I realise as I step through the front door that I was supposed to meet Phil after his extra lesson but my phone has died and I may have forgotten.

"Oh, hey mum." I smile as I wander into the kitchen to grab myself an apple. She turns around from washing the pots and returns the smile, "Hello dear! Did you go to a friend's house afterschool? I tried texting you but it didn't send obviously!"

"Ah yeah my phone died." I say as I pick up the rosiest apple and spin it in my hand.
"Was Phil with you?" She says, turning back to the bubble-filled sink. I furrow my brow at her comment, "N-no...he had an extra class...why? Has he not come home?" I try to hide my panic so it doesn't seem obvious in my voice.

But when she shakes her head I practically slam the apple back into the fruit bowl before running as fast as I could up our steep staircase. I bolt across the landing and swing open my bedroom, she was right, Phil isn't here. My head begins to spin with the horrific panicked thoughts that something has happened to Phil.

Then I hear a crash.

A crash coming from the bathroom.

The door is locked.

"Ph-Phil?!" My voice is desperate as I knock on the door. In situations like this you would not expect anyone to get as scared as I am now but because of recent events and that constant fear in the back of my mind, I think of the worst thing first because then surely anything that has happened is better that.

"It's me! It's me! Oh please let me in!" I bang on the door and I hear the flick of the lock being undone. Swinging the door open, I half fall - half stumble into the room before instantly having Phil shove me out the way to slam the door behind me. A red handprint left on my arm where he touched.

"Phil...what happened..." My voice is now barely a whisper.

Phil turns to look at me and he is a mess. The fading bruises around his eye are still present from a few weeks ago. His nose is crushed and blood streamed down to his already bloodied mouth. His hands are battered and bloody upto his wrists. "It doesn't feel as bad as it looks!" He says, raising his hands to calm me down. He has visible hand shaped bruises just above his elbows.

"What happened?! Oh, Phil, I should have met you! I'm so sorry!" I splutter out, awkwardly trying to comfort him yet I don't know where I could touch where he doesn't hurt. "Is your nose broken? Aw, babe, I'm so sorry! Maybe we should go to the Emergency Room..." I muse.

Phil quickly goes back to the sink and picks up a damp flannel out of the water. "No. No, I'm fine. I just need to clean this blood up." He mumbles whilst dabbing at his mouth gently.

I chew my lip before relocking the door and heading to the bath. Slowly I turn on the water after putting the plug in. I look at Phil before taking off his bloody and dirt covered school tie. Carefully I unbutton his stained shirt and let it drop, suddenly exposing more bruises all over his upper body. My hands find his trouser zip and I pull them down with his boxers, Phil's eyes staring at me whilst the rest of him is coated in blood and dirt.

Leaning over, I turn the tap off and look up at him. "Do you need help getting in?" My voice interrupts the growing silence. Phil shakes his head everso slightly- flinching at his movement. Cautiously, he raises his leg and places into into the bath. It's then joint by the other one.
Carefully I place my hands on his hips to make sure he sits down safely into the warm bubbly water.

Once he is sat down, we both let out sighs and then giggle at our synchronicity. I reach over and grab the flannel he was using earlier, dunking it into the water. Slowly I take his hand into mine, starting to softly rub away the blood from the skin surface. He watches me in silence as I clean the flannel before moving to his second hand.