Kris was panicking for the whole half hour that Paris was unresponsive, and he tried to keep himself occupied by listening to music, but he couldn't stop worrying. His phone buzzed and he quickly picked it up, letting out a sigh of relief to see that he finally responded.
you sure? i heard ur dad yelling and stuff
Yeah, sorry he's pretty loud aha
Paris drew in a few deep, wavering breaths. Thank god London's not here right now… He sighed, hoping that Kris wouldn't worry too much. He didn't want to have to explain all of this. The foster care system was absolutely awful, and there was a good chance that he and London would be separated. He definitely didn't want that.
Sorry for the late response, had to get ready for bed
Kris sighed, hoping he was telling the truth. He sat on his bed, his legs pulled up against his chest, his headphones blasting music into his ears. He had other homework to do, but he really didn't care. Not like he would understand it anyway. Plus, he had the whole weekend to put it off. He picked up his phone again and began typing.
ok then, its fine. sorry for getting u in trouble.
Yeah, no problem. He's always looking for something to get mad about anyway
Paris curled up into a tight ball on his bed, achy and uneasy. He could hear his dad moving around in the kitchen, but he knew that they didn't really have any food in there… He also heard a woman's voice, but it wasn't familiar. Not to mention, his mother had been dead or missing for years, so it definitely wasn't her.
im sorry you gotta deal with that, man. if you need an excuse to get away from him, you can always come over here
Kris heard the front door open, so he left his room and went to the top of the stairs to see who it was. Oh good, it was his mom. He went downstairs and hugged her as she came in.
"Hey, mom. How was work?"
"Alright. We were super busy, so I'm really fucking exhausted. Head hurts like hell."
Kris grabbed his mom a bottle of water from the fridge.
"I'm heading to bed," his mom stated, taking the water bottle from him and heading into her room. "Don't bother me, hun. Love you."
"Love you too."
She shut her door and Kris sighed. This was the only time he ever really got to interact with his mom. He wished she wasn't always exhausted or sick or at work. He loved her a lot, but she was always so distant. It really hurt. He went back upstairs and shut himself in his room again.
Thanks… I should probably go to bed now. See you at school
Paris turned off his phone and took a few minutes to compose himself before he closed his eyes. As usual, it took him a while to fall asleep, and it was pretty fitful when he managed it, but it was better than nothing.
(Feel free to skip to whenever aha. Since it's Friday, you could theoretically text him on Saturday, or just skip to Monday-)
(oki! i'll just skip to monday then :>)
seeya :)
He didn't go to bed immediately. It was actually about 1 or 2 am before he finally managed to pass out.
The weekend passed (unfortunately) and Kris was soon back at school. At lunch, he looked around for Paris, and eventually found him sitting alone. He smiled when he saw him and headed right over to him.
"Hey dude, whats up?" Kris asked with a smile as he sat down across from Paris, an energy drink in his hand. He usually didn't eat lunch, and if he did, it was something light. Usually he just had an energy drink, though, since he was usually exhausted from staying up late.
Paris looked exhausted, and a bit of a bruise was visible on his cheek where he'd tried to cover it up with makeup. He was quietly eating a sandwich he'd gotten from the cafeteria, looking pretty out of it. He looked up when Kris approached and smiled weakly. "Hm? Oh, hi… did you have a good weekend?" He asked quietly. Hopefully he brought the project… we left it at his house.
He shrugged. "Eh, it was alright. Kinda uneventful." He ran his fingers through his hair, having a bit more energy now that he had some caffeine in him. "How was yours?"
Paris shrugged and took another bite of his sandwich. "About the same… I didn't really do much of anything. Had to walk my sister to the middle school earlier, so I had to wake up earlier…" He yawned and sighed. "Didn't get much sleep…"
"Damn- I didn't sleep much either. That's sweet of you to walk your sister to school though." He paused for a moment. "You want some of this?" He gestured to his drink. "I stayed up late, so it's my own fault that I'm tired- you need it more than I do."
Paris held his hand up and shook his head. "No, I'm alright… probably just hungry or dehydrated or something. I'll just drink some water and I'm sure I'll perk up soon, yeah?" He sipped at his water bottle and sighed.
He shrugged. "Alright then." Kris took another sip when he noticed the partially visible bruise on his cheek. "Hey, whats that on your cheek?" He asked, hoping he wasn't making him uncomfortable with this question.
"Hm?" Paris glanced up and touched his cheek with one hand, his heart racing when he realized that the bruise must have been visible. "O-Oh, uh… it's nothing. Just fell again. I'm really clumsy." He laughed nervously and drank some more water as an excuse to not talk.
Kris frowned, not really believing him this time. "Really? You managed to fall on your cheek like that?" He questioned. He then checked the time and it was almost time to go to class. The bell sounded overhead. "Nevermind, we can talk about it later. If you don't have work after school, wanna come over to my place? There's something I wanna show you."
"Um… yeah…" Paris replied quietly, avoiding eye contact with Kris. He breathed a soft sigh of relief when the bell rang. Great, I can leave now… hopefully he'll forget about it by the afternoon. "Sure, I can come over… I probably shouldn't stay as late as I did on Friday, though."
"Yeah, of course. I don't want your dad to be mad at you like that again." He stood up and gave Paris a little smile. "See you then!" He grabbed his stuff and left, giving Paris a quick, slightly worried glance before leaving the lunchroom. He said he was clumsy but…he never gets hurt when I'm around…I cant help but worry…
"Yeah, see you then…" Paris waved goodbye and left the lunchroom to go to the rest of his classes. He was a bit out of it all day, but managed to focus enough to take notes. (And I'll just time skip lol)
After school, Paris headed over to Kris' house and knocked on the door. He'd fixed up the makeup on his cheek so that the bruise wasn't visible anymore.
Kris smiled as he heard the Paris knocking on the door. He quickly got up to answer it. "Hey!" He greeted the smaller boy with a smile. "Come on, follow me." Without thinking, he gently took hold of Paris's hand, leading him through the house and out the back door. Their back yard was relatively small, and the grass grew wild and untrimmed. Past this, though, was a forest, with tall, sturdy oak trees and lush greenery.
Paris flushed a bit when Kris took his hand, but he didn't pull away, just allowing the other boy to pull him along. He looked around curiously at the greenery around him, his eyes lighting up a bit. His backyard didn't have much in it, and there wasn't much in the way of wildlife. Getting to be in a nice, natural area with fresh air was definitely nice.
They walked trekked through the woods, on a little makeshift "path", where there was enough space to walk without trampling a bunch of twigs and moss. "Isn't it pretty?" He asked with a smile. He definitely seemed to be in his element when he was out here in the woods. Pretty soon, they made it to a particularly large oak tree, with a ladder built into it. Looking up, you could see what it leads too: a decently sized treehouse. "Hope you're not scared of heights," he remarked as he briefly let go of Paris's hand and began climbing up the ladder.
"Yeah, it is…" Paris kept looking around at the gorgeous scenery. 'Pretty' didn't even begin to describe it in his mind. He was drawn out of his thoughts when Kris let go of his hand, turning his attention to the tree house. "Nah, heights don't bother me." He replied as he carefully climbed up the ladder behind his friend.
Kris made it to the top and entered the treehouse, waiting for Paris to follow behind him. The treehouse wasn't small, but it wasn't huge either, it was just about the right size to comfortably fit a couple people. Strung on the walls were battery-powered LED lights, which didn't need to be turned on right now, but when they were on they would glow a gold-tinted white. Pinned to the walls were some drawings that Kris had made, as well as multiple stickers that he had found and collected gradually, including a couple pride stickers. There was unfinished homework in a corner, since Kris usually came up here to do homework (and failed miserably). A blue beanbag chair sat in the corner, where Kris would often sit in for hours and just unwind up here. If you looked out the window, you could see a beautiful view of a river that ran through the forest. He grinned over at Paris. "Welcome to my treehouse. I come up here a lot for alone time, and its actually really peaceful. Pretty cool, huh?"
Paris curiously examined everything that he could in the treehouse, taking particular notice of the pride stickers. Considering that it seemed like Kris was the only one who came here, he could only assume that the stickers were his. He smiled softly; genuinely. Sexuality was a strange and uncomfortable thing to talk about, but it was nice to know that he wasn't alone. He looked over at Kris when he spoke, still smiling. "Yeah, it's cool. I'd love to have a place like this. A little secret hideout of my own." A place to hide from my dad when he gets bad. His smile fell a bit at the thoughts, but he was still in a pretty good mood.
(100th post ayyy :D)
Kris didn't really care if Paris saw his pride stickers. Even though they haven't known each other for the longest time, he felt like he could trust Paris. "Well, even though you don't live super close like I do, you can come here whenever you want. It can be our place." He smiled warmly, sitting down on the ground so he could let Paris sit on the beanbag. He made a mental note to get another chair of some sort so that they could both sit comfortably. He patted the beanbag chair, indicating for the smaller boy to sit down.