bad boy [egobang]

03. The Blood

Disgustingly cute was the best way to describe Arin Hanson. He was grossly happy. A ray of sunshine. Arin had gone home a few hours ago and Dan was back to being alone. Arin had added his number into Dan's phone and left before anyone could realize he was missing. Dan laid on an old gray Dodge Stratus. He faced the bright blue sky and blew out puffs of smoke towards the sun. Dan felt a sudden vibration from his pocket.

"Hey."

"Hi, Arin," Dan whispered into his phone. He closed his eyes and blew smoke out of his system.

"What're you doing?"

"Laying on someone's car and smoking."

"Cool, I guess."

"Hey, what were you doing out so late last night? How did you find me?"

"I couldn't sleep so I went on a little walk." Dan just smiled and relaxed into Arin's voice.

"Hey, Dan!" A holler echoed off the sides of the building.

"Fuck," Dan muttered into the phone.

"Wha-" Dan ended the call and shoved his phone into his pocket.

"You fucking fucker!" Dan harshly spat out. He hopped off the beat up car and hustled towards the slender Australian boy.

"Dan, listen-" Dan didn't listen. He didn't care what Ross had to say, he was fucking pissed. The next thing that Dan knew, his fist was colliding with Ross's jaw. The rings on Dan's fingers left an imprint in the pale skin that quickly turned blood red. Ross's body smashed against the pavement.

"You're a fucking asshole, Ross!" Dan growled. Ross quickly stood back up and furrowed his brow.

"Listen, Dan. If you want to get your ass kicked again, that's fine with me. Just hear me out," Ross spoke carefully with his hands in front of his body, ready to defend if he needed to. Dan lowered his arms but kept his hands balled up.

"You know what? Tell me. Tell me why you weren't a total fucking cock last night!" Dan challenged.

"Hey, don't blame me! You're the one who made us follow her!" Ross yelled.

"It was your idea, you dumb fucking piece of shit!" Dan growled, and drew back his arm to punch him. Ross threw his body onto Dan's, crashing him into the ground. He trapped Dan's arms underneath his body and began punching Dan. He aimed for his left eye and his nose. Dan aggressively struggled underneath Ross's grasp, desperately attempting to dodge the attacks and free his arms. Ross punched Dan's upper lip, making his teeth dig into it. Immediately the metallic taste of blood filled his mouth. Dan wriggled his left arm out of Ross's trap. Quickly he punched Ross's jaw again, knocking him off balance. Dan took the opportunity to push Ross off of himself and trap him. He punched Ross's jaw over and over, drawing more blood. Dan punched his cheek, scarring that, too. Dan's bloody mouth began bugging him. He spat out a mixture of blood and saliva into Ross's hair.

"You're fucking dead, Avidan!" Ross screamed. The voice boomed off the walls and rung in the air for seconds too long. Curses they had previously thrown at each other. Quickly, the scream warped into total silence, then sirens. The two boys were pried apart and thrown into the back of a police car.

"Lay another hand on each other and you won't be released tonight!" The officer threatened. Dan just focused on the damage that was caused. His eye was swelling and his nose was bleeding slowly heavily. His mouth kept flooding with too much blood and he was forced to spit it into a styrofoam cup. His hands were covered in Ross's blood and his shirt was torn up from Ross mauling it. He looked over at the Ross who was holding his jaw. Dan's rings that were stained red was due to the blood that was gushing out of Ross's face. Dan was feeling quite woozy from the blood loss over the past twelve or so hours. The car began moving towards the police station and the two boys wafted in angry silence.

The boys were ushered into the building and given bandages and ice packs. They were ushered into the head chief's office. They sat in two chairs in front of the desk. The only difference between this room and their grade school principals office, which they spent way too much time in, were the cuffs that were only there to prohibit them from punching each other again. Dan and Ross sat in uncomfortable silence while taking in the room they'd been in thousands of times. The desk was littered with folders and loose papers with font too small to be read from where Dan was sitting. The desk was lined with video game toys and cat knick knacks. The desk had picture frames in the two back corners facing the opposite direction. Dan's cuffed hands moved from his lap to a frame. It was of a man with glasses and a hipster-looking hat, the chief officer, holding a black cat. He felt Ross's gaze drift from the posters on the wall to Dan reaching over and replacing the frame in his hand with another on the desk.

"What are you doing?" Ross mumbled.

"Looking at these photos," Dan spoke without looking away from the picture. The second picture was of the same man as the cat photo but had another man with him instead of a feline. The glassed man was holding hands with a black-haired, blue-eyed man. The two were holding hands and smiling, looking like they genuinely enjoyed life and the company they had at that specific moment. The door was opened making Dan's head snap towards the officer. Dan's eyes followed the officer until he plopped down in his chair. His eyes flicked back down to the picture.

"Me and my boyfriend," The officer pointed at the object in Dan's hands. "He's a lovely guy."

"You guys look happy," Dan commented before returning the photo. The officer nodded and quickly moved onto the actual conversation.

"The offense isn't terrible as both of you listened to police commands. However it will go on both of your record," Dan and Ross simultaneously rolled their eyes. "But, you guys know the drill. Since, this is not your first offense, neither of you can leave here without someone who has zero offenses taking you out," Officer Vernon, which Dan had recently learned the name of, finished his speech with. "You can use your cell phones to call someone, however, the call must be on speaker phone and it must be in this room." Immediately Ross  pulled out his phone and called Jack, the only member of their group to not have any offenses, somehow. He evilly smirked at Dan, as if he beat him in the race to call Jack. Dan waited for Ross to finish his call before slowly pulling his own phone out of his pocket.

"Hey, Arin," Dan spoke quietly, almost shamefully.

"Why'd you hang up on me earlier?" Arin instantly questioned.

"I'll tell you later," Dan paused, "just, can you please come to the west side police station so they can release me."

"What? Why are you in a police station?"

"I'll tell you later."

"Um, okay. I'll be there soon, I guess."

Dan ended the call and stuffed his phone back into his pocket.

"Who's Arin?" Ross asked. Dan ignored him, and reached out for Officer Vernon to unlock his cuffs. "Hey, Dan. I asked 'who's Arin?'"

"It's not important to you," Dan snapped. He didn't know why he was so sheepish talking to Arin on the phone, or why he was so protective of his name around Ross. Like he was scared of Ross taking Arin. Like he was scared of Arin being taken away from him. Hell, it wouldn't be the first thing Ross took from him.