forum "I feel a little safer when I'm with you..." / oxo / closed!

Started June 24, 2021 by @red-the-tired-gay

tune

"Yeah! I'm fine, I'm fine. Don't worry about me. Worry about yourself right now." Paris gently massaged his chest with his eyes closed, looking uneasy. "You're hurt. We should get you cleaned up."

Kris nodded, still a little concerned for his friend, but deciding to listen to him. "Alright. Yeah, we should." He got to his feet, a little shaky since he had been sitting there for a while, and then reached out a hand to pull Paris up too. He wasn't sure why he did this every time. Maybe he just liked the few seconds of touch? Was he really that touch starved? Nevertheless, he helped his friend up anyway, and began carefully descending the ladder and heading towards his house.

Paris accepted the help, biting back a wince as he tugged on his shoulder. He followed Kris down the ladder carefully and followed him over to the house, hesitating for a second before going through the door. He headed over to the kitchen and started rummaging through the cabinets for medicine. "Do you guys have any bruise cream or anything? That should help with the swelling and stuff. A cold rag could also help reduce swelling." He explained, seeming pretty experienced in the area of treating minor wounds.

"Probably not. We don't really have very much first-aid stuff." Kris went to the sink and started washing some of the dried blood off of his face. He realized his elbow was kind of banged up too, from falling on it, so he rolled up his sleeve and put that under the running water too. Afterwards, he went and grabbed a rag and got it wet with cold water, like Paris said, and put it on the areas where it started to swell.

"Well, at least you've got some painkillers in your system…" Paris sighed softly and leaned against the counter, watching Kris quietly for a bit. "It'll take a while for the bruises to fully fade, but they'll at least feel better if you take down some of the swelling."

"Yeah…hopefully they'll start to kick in a little more later." Kris reached up into a cabinet and pulled out a couple bandaids. There was only a few- like he said, there was barely any first-aid stuff in the house. He didn't have anything to clean it up with either, other than water, but he decided that would have to do for now. He carefully applied the bandaids to his elbow and in any other places he was bleeding, then threw away the wrappers. "There we go." He was definitely looking a lot better now. He smiled down at Paris. "Hey, thank you dude. I- I should have come here by myself and done this earlier but uh- I was kind of out of it- thank you." Honestly, if Paris weren't there, he probably would have let his wounds go untreated. Like he did before he had a friend.

"Don't mention it." Paris smiled weakly. "Hopefully you won't get hurt like this again. Try and keep out of fights, yeah? You'll never gain anything from that." He sighed and swallowed a couple more painkillers, ignoring the recommended dose. "How are you feeling now that you've cleaned yourself up?" He asked.

"I try my best to. It just- it pisses me off so much when people say shit like that." He sighed, hoping that freshman was okay. "I feel a lot better. Still kinda hurts, but I can deal with it." He smiled softly at Paris.

Paris nodded and shuddered as he swallowed the pills. God, these better kick in soon… "Yeah, I get that… picking on people like that is so stupid. I've gotten into a fair few fights. At least you're feeling better…"

"Yeah. People are stupid." Kris sighed and ran his hands through his hair a couple times. "Hey, try not to take so much in such a short time. It could hurt you." He assumed that Paris already knew this, but he just wanted to make sure he didn't take way more than he was supposed to, especially with his body weight. He saw Paris take the pills up in the tree house, and in here, and he knew that was definitely more than he should.

"I'm sure I'll be fine." Paris massaged his throat a bit after swallowing the pills, looking a bit pale. "Six painkillers aren't enough to kill me or anything. I don't think they're all that potent." He shrugged a s shoved the bottle back in his bag. He'd already taken two before he came here, and now he'd taken four more.

Kris shrugged. "True." Still, he couldn't help but be protective of his friend. It was his only friend after all. "Hey, uh, if you're down, we can still hang out a little. Theres still a little time before your curfew."

"Yeah, sure… what do you want to do?" Paris asked softly. "I guess we could continue our get to know you thing and hope it goes better this time." He shrugged and sighed, drinking a bit more water as he leaned against the counter.

Kris nodded and smiled. "Sure, that sounds good. Cmon, let's go up to my room, instead of hanging around in the kitchen." He chuckled softly, turning and leading the way upstairs. He definitely felt a lot better now, and having Paris around to talk to definitely kept his mind off of things. He just hoped that he wouldn't notice that his dad was never home…

"Alright, sure…" Paris followed Kris upstairs, limping and looking a little dizzy. London is at a friend's house again today, so I have nothing to worry about… even if it hurts me, she's going to be perfectly fine. He headed into Kris' bedroom and sat down on the floor.

Kris couldn't help but laugh a little when Paris sat down. "You don't gotta sit on the floor, dude. Come on over here." He sat down on his bed and indicated for Paris to do the same, taking his shoes off so he could sit with his legs crossed. "I just realized, I never asked you this: where do you work?" He asked curiously.

"Oh, okay…" Paris took off his own shoes and hesitated before joining Kris on the bed. He looked up at the taller boy at the question. "Oh, I just in a restaurant… it's nothing special, and I kinda hate it, but I need the money."

"Oh, cool. My mom works at a restaurant too. Two of 'em, actually." Kris's mom took on two jobs after his dad stopped working and refused to get a job, instead resorting to drinking all day with the money his mom worked hard to earn. He felt really bad for her, but there wasn't much he could do about it. "I should probably get a job, and, you know, save up for whatever the hell I'm gonna do after high school, but my parents want me to focus on school." If he did end up getting a job, most of his money would just end up going towards his family's bills and food anyway. He probably wouldn't be able to save much for himself.

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I kinda have to work, though… I help pay the rent and buy food and stuff. I have to try and save some for myself too, though, because I want to move out as soon as I can." He sighed and winced as he shifted a bit.

Kris nodded. "Yeah…I get that. That's cool of you to, like, provide for your family and stuff. I bet you're a good big brother." He smiled softly, his cheeks going the slightest bit pink as he realized how close the two of them were. They weren't that much closer to each other than they were when they sat in the treehouse, but sitting on the bed together felt a little more intimate. It felt nice, to be honest.

Paris smiled softly as well. "Thanks… I try my best to protect London. She's at a friend's house right now." He toyed with his hands and his sleeves, a couple locks of his hair tumbling over his face. "She's almost in high school… god, it worries me… but I really want her to be happy."

"I'm sure she'll be fine. Whatever happens, you'll be there for her." Without thinking, he leaned forward and gently moved Paris's hair out of his face. As soon as he realized what he was doing, he blushed and moved back. Fuck! "Ah- sorry!" He exclaimed apologetically, looking away.