Stay for Me (Hold Me Close Prequel)

Chapter Twenty: Forte

-=Sam=-

I was in a mixture of pain and shock. My lip was busted and I had a long gash down my cheek, never mind the countless bruises, so many I can't even tell where one starts and one ends. Evan was a bit worse. His right eye was black and swollen, and a lot of his fur was shiny and damp with his own blood. Before either of us had the chance to talk to one another, the door handle shook a little bit. Evan and I both immediately jumped to our paws, taking a defensive stance. As if the fur outside knew that we did that, he chuckled.

"It's okay boys, it's just me." Mr. P said as he unlocked the door. He walked in quickly and shut the door behind him. "Are any of you seriously injured?" He asked us, putting up a concerned face. We both shook our heads signifying no. At least we thought so. "Good. Well I know for a fact that neither of you want to stay around here and you'd probably rather leave, so I put it in my report that I didn't catch the identifications of the victims before they ran off. You two are free to go." We both sighed in relief. He was correct in saying that we didn't want to be here.

"So what's happening to them?" Evan asked, obviously referring to Elliot and his gang.

"Them? Oh, they're all sitting in the SRO's office. No I'd suggest you leave, and quickly before someone comes and realizes I lied a little bit." He laughed. Deciding that was definitely our cue to leave, we both thanked him one last time and ran out the door.

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-=Evan=-

We both ran to the park nearby, and the both of us, well out of breath by now, walked over to the nearest bench and sat down, and I was panting a little bit.

"Well that was eventful." I sighed, throwing my head back and shutting my eyes, happy to be out of there.

"Tell me about it." Sam said, leaning forward and laughing a bit in relief.

"So uh...Sam?" I asked, wanting to get this off of my chest.

"Hm?" He replied, looking into my eyes.

"Well...uh...let's see-oh what the hell, let me cut to the chase. What do I call you now?" I asked him, giving up on trying to sugarcoat it. He didn't get mad, upset, or even put on an uncomfortable face for the matter, he just laughed.

"I have no idea yet. Just keep calling me Sam I guess, I don't really want to come out until after we graduate." He said.

"Oh okay. So uh, how do you think your parents are going to react?" I questioned, getting vivid flashbacks on how my father was just thrilled about me.

"Them? I've already told them haha. They don't care. All they told me is that they can't really afford to get me a sex change opperation, and to be honest I don't think I want one until technology is a little bit more advanced anyways. Plus, I want a kid." He added.

"Ah kids. I've always wanted two, a boy and a girl." I sighed, looking up at the clouds lazily floating across the never ending sky.

"Yeah? With Hunnnnterrr?" He cooed, prodding me in the shoulder. I snapped my head to look at him.

"Shu-shut up!" I stammered. Good job Evan, way to play it cool.

"Ha! You do! And you're blushing like crazy!" He cackled. "But hey man, I'm not gonna judge. He's hot as fuck." He must have seen the look on my face. "Oh calm yourself I'm not going to try and steal him from under you." He said, rolling his eyes at me.

"Yeah yeah. Anyways, I have to go. My dad is going to kill me if I'm not home on time." I said reluctantly, standing up.

"Won't he be curious about why you look all beaten up?" He asked concernidly, also standing up to meet my gaze.

"On the off chance that he even bothers to look at me, he's gotten used to me looking like this and will probably just make a remark about 'oh you weak fuck' or something like that." I noted in an annoyed tone. "What about yours?"

"Oh sweet Jesus. My mom will flip the fuck out, and my dad will gives me pointers on how to kill them the next time." He thought outloud.

"Well, good luck then, not much I can do."

"Me neither, well, thanks for semi-saving me." Sam said, pulling me into a hug.

"Any time." I hugged back. After waving our final goodbyes, we headed off in opposite directions. Fuck, I have to walk.

I started walking in the direction of my house, getting weird looks from drivers and people outside their homes. Well, I mean I can't blame them. I am bleeding from everywhere. Then a car pulled up alongside me.

"Get in loser, we're going shopping!" Hunter said, using his best Barbie accent. Which, was actually not half bad.

"And where the hell have you been?" I asked, relieved to have an air conditioned car to get into.

"Doctor's appointment, couldn't really make it into school today." He replied.

"Could have at least texted me." I said under my breath, buckling my seat belt.

"Forgot my phone." He responded, kind of in an avoiding way, starting to drive towards my house.

"Okaaay then. And what are the sunglasses for, you never wear them." I asked, noticing that he was wearing a pair of shades.

"I feel like I should be doing the interrogating, not you. What the hell happened." Hunter asked, his non-seeable eyes filled with worry.

"Elliot and his buddies, but it's fine now. They got caught." I tried to reassure him.

"And I'm assuming 'perfectly fine' also means so...damp with blood that now it's literally dripping off of you?" Clearly he wasn't buying it.

"Well, not much I can do about it. So uh, I thought you hated sunglasses." I said, distinctly recalling a conversation about him ranting about how they impair driving. Not thinking it a big deal whatsoever, I pulled them off of his eyes and put them on. "How do I look?" I asked in a fake seductive voice swinging my head over to the side to look at him.

"HOLY SHIT!!" I yelled. His right eye was literally red. Not like his iris, but his entire eyeball. "PUT THEM ON! PUT THEM ON!" I commanded, shoving the glasses back at him and averting my gaze. He gingerly took them out of my paw and put them back on his face.

"I fell and hit my head." He said quietly, focusing on the road a lot more than he needed to.

"Now you're the one bullshitting me!" I said angrily.

"Listen, it's a really long story and I do not want to have to go through it right now." He said, shutting his eyes for a second but still keeping control over the car.

"Is it drugs?" I asked quietly. He spun his head to look at me, a little angrily.

"No way in hell I would ever do drugs." He said through gritted teeth.

"Well then what else could it be?" I exclaimed throwing my paws up in the air in distain.

"LOOK I SAID I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT!!" He yelled. And that shut me the fuck up. He's never yelled at me before, and well, I don't think I've really seen him yell like that, ever. It hurt. Not that he did anything wrong, but because I was an insensitive asshole like usual.

"H-Hunter I'm so s-sorr-"

"Don't." He cut in.