Under The Moonlight

Chapter 21 ( Part 2)

I was tending to Raven's bleeding knuckles which seemed borderline fractured. He hissed in pain when the tincture-dipped cotton swept across and I lightly punched him in the stomach. If he could bear the pain of punching a wall, then this must be nothing.Given he was on adrenaline when he first punched the wall, he was still stupid to follow through with it. 

 I narrowed my eyes when he tried to pry his hand away.

"Stop moving your hand." I said, slightly applying more pressure than necessary and he groaned. 

As I continued to patch him up, my mind went back to the events that occurred prior to this predicament.

--

We were cuddling in bed after a crying fest that I had started, leading to him crying about how he hated that Mia happened and how he was partly responsible for the pain I was feeling, to which I gently told him that it wasn't the case. It was also partly during the said crying fest that shouts were heard from the living room.

Jotting it down to my dad burning food again, we decided to continue being in each other's embrace. Our lips met soon after and it was bliss. That was until the shouts of a woman became louder and it did not resemble the voice of my mom. 

With mild annoyance, we strutted to the living room to meet four equally livid adults. I had never seen my parents as angry as they were before but after looking at who the other party was, the anger was justified.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith stood there, shouting slurs at my parents and it took me all my will power to not smack them in the face with my fist. 

"What are you doing here?" Raven all but shouted and the two despicable people turned their attention to him.

"So this is where you've been hiding. Come home now." Raven's dad said in an icy tone which implicated pain if his order wasn't complied. Raven froze next to me, his hand skimming lightly over a scar on his forearm. As much as Raven hated his 'parents', he was also terrified of what they could do. 

When Raven refused to move from my side and instead shifted closer to me, his dad's eyes narrowed and then became fixated on me. 

"So is this the fag that got your attention? Who converted you?" 

I flinched at the slur, wanting to punch his throat for even uttering that. 

"Get out this instant. We don't allow such derogatory terms in this household." My mom angrily exclaimed, staring the man down. When Raven's dad approached me in order to hit me instead of listening to my mom, he was thrown back the sheer force of my dad's punch. 

"You lay a hand on either of them and you'll be sent straight to jail." 

Mr. Smith finally backed away uttering multiple slurs like a broken tape-recorder and Mrs. Smith followed him out the door but before she could go, she turned to Raven, a sad look on her face and I felt pity for her for having a monster of a husband.

"Raven, come home. I miss you."

"Mom, I can't. Not after what happened." 

"Raven, I looked up some wonderful psychiatrists who could help you out of this madness. I even found a camp that could help. If you go through them, I'll allow you to be my son again." She exclaimed and at that I walked up the front door, pushing her out and slammed the door on her face. 

And boy, did that feel good.

-- 

My parents were by Raven's side within seconds after that, asking him if he was okay and to my surprise, he did seem fine. He nodded and gave a small smile and when my parents deemed it okay to let him be, they gave me a look and headed in to make dinner. 

I heard my phone chime as well, to see texts from the trio on our group chat stating they had all reached home. The sleepover had been cut short when they noticed my ashen expression as soon as I entered the hall with Raven in tow. They hugged the both of us as they said goodbye, slightly curious as to why we appeared jittery but they kept silent. I knew that I needed to have a talk with them as well and that scared me. Still, I would rather they knew about us. It was getting harder to hide our relationship in school. 

Sending a text that I wanted to talk to them about something, I placed the phone back in my pocket and when I entered my room, there he was, punching the wall in fury. Taking long strides to reach him, I held him off from causing any more damage to his hands. He considered his hands to be sacred seeing how painting was the love of his life. 

I pushed him down on the bed, caging him from doing anything more reckless. He looked up at me and sighed, melting into the bed.

"I hate them. The only thing I'm angry about now is how I lost my little brother. Caleb deserves better."

"I know, love."

He smiled at my endearment and that was a win for me. It calmed his raging self down and for now, that was enough.

"I love you, Raven. Things will be alright, I promise. Also we could always kidnap Caleb. He'd gladly come anyway if we offer him candy." I joked, and he smiled as he reached out, pulling me flush into his chest.

"I love you too Seb." 

After a few minutes of enjoying our confessions, my mind wandered to my parents. It seemed like I needed to talk to them about our relationship. With one last kiss, I wandered to the kitchen where my parents awaited.