your beauty never ever scared me.

chapter eleven

vance's pov

the rest of the evening was slow. my mom spent most of her time on the couch and making calls to numerous people trying to figure out where my dad was. we don't know where he went or if he's coming back and my mom is worried about it but me , i couldn't care less. i can take care of myself and my mom perfectly fine and even when my dad was here he didn't do anything other than mess things up. he goes to a nearby bar a lot so he's probably dead in their back alleyway or ran away with his drinking buddies to find a new wife and kid.

" momma , he's not coming back okay? just put the phone down and i'll make some food. what do you want mama? " i asked my mom who was visibly worried and also annoyed at the current situation. " no no i- i'm not hungry baby okay? i need to find where your father is. " she responded , stumbling over her own words. i sighed and gently grabbed the phone from her and putting it down. " mama he's a bad person. a bad husband and a bad father. we don't need him momma i can take care of you. " i get in front of her and kneel down to where she's sitting on the couch. my mom can function on her own but she suffers from depression and anxiety , most of it from my dad since they've been married for over 10 years. she has panic attacks and gets emotional over the small things , she sleeps most days but i have to be here for her.

my parents didn't get married over love either. i was an accident , conceived on prom night by a one night stand under the influence. they were both 18 and living with their parents but my mom was excited anyways , she's always wanted to be a mom. my dad wasn't as thrilled as my mom was but he stayed anyways because he found my mom " attractive ". he's always been shitty like that , i grew up living with my mom and my grandparents in the same house in a small town in texas until my dad bought a house and we moved in. since then it's just been living hell , from the age of 4 i was already being yelled at by my drunken father and having to be defended by my fragile mother. they didn't get married until i was 6 and that's when he started hitting me and my mom. ever since then it was just me learning how to defend myself and my mother since she was already in a deep rabbit-hole of her depression. i learned how to speak up and throw a fist , i learned how to barricade a door with a chair and a belt , i learned how to sneak out , i learned how to steal , and i learned how to keep my composure until the last second. but i've never learned or felt the affection of someone else- at least not since i was a toddler. my mom tries her very hardest and i admire and understand her , but i've never had somebody really take care of me the way i take care of myself.

she stumbles over her words trying to speak and i frown slightly , he doesn't deserve her. " are you sure you're not hungry mama? do you want to sleep instead? " i ask her , helping her up. " i'm okay honey , thank you. i just need some sleep. " she responds , smiling at me. i nod and walk her to her bedroom , setting her down to sit on her bed. she waits as i bring over her pills and grab the half full glass of water off of her bedside table. " here you go , momma. " i give her the pills and the water , she lies down after and i put the glass back on the table.

" goodnight mama. " i kiss her on her forehead and exit the room quietly , sighing. i go into the kitchen and grab an apple , deciding that'll be the only thing i eat tonight. i walk into the bathroom next to my room and look in the mirror for a moment. my bruised face has practically healed apart from some partial purple coloring under my eye and on the bridge of my nose. my hand healed completely though so i take off the bandage that bruce put on and i think back to that evening.

it was odd for me to experience someone comforting me after a fight. at least that's what it felt like , bruce is very comforting. he seems so collected and sure in himself , he can speak his mind and do what he wants and doesn't get any shit for it. i think we balance each other out pretty well , i'm a reckless mess and he's just charming and perfect. at least he is in my opinion that is. i don't know anyone who doesn't like bruce but if i were to come across anyone that did , there'd definitely be more bandages wrapped around my hand.

i throw the bandage along with the apple in the trash can and walk into my room. i say down on my bed and turn the lamp that was on my bedside table off before going to sleep.

bruce's pov

today is wednesday and that means baseball practice after school. i've been looking forward to this season since we had a really good summer season when i brought home the big win. mine and finney's team usually end up playing against each other and it's fun sure but finney is a very good player. his arm is (mint) very strong and he gets good throws so it's almost impossible for me to get a good swing every time.

we're good sports about it though , and since we're friends we actually talk about baseball quite a bit including giving each other tips. finney is sweet and he says a lot when we talk to each other but he's generally a very quiet and reserved person. rumors go around as they always do and people , especially boys , love to pick on finney for whatever reason they can find. i'm not a very good fighter with my fist but i can speak pretty sternly and stand up for people. i'm glad robin is usually around , he can scare anyone off along with vance.

now that i think about it , robin and vance are very similar in some ways. you wouldn't take them for the very talkative type unless you've met them and they can both fight pretty good. they'll stand up for themselves and the people they care about and they don't mind making their point. i think that's what i like about the two of them , they aren't school bullies but the bullies of the school bullies , yeah?

most of the day went on with me talking with finney about the baseball season and vance talking to me like how he does normally. i have to resist the urge to kiss him every time i see him but i want to so badly , i know he wants it to. any chance i get i'd kiss him , but at school it's just fighting fire with fire. i asked him if he'd come to practice today and of course he said yes and even though i saw it coming , it still made me blush.

practice was an after school event so the players all went to the locker room to change and the people who were staying to watch went out to the bleachers. me , finney , and all our teammates got changed quickly in the locker room and got our gear to bring out to the field. finney always feels uncomfortable in the locker room so i go with him to one of the bathroom stalls and wait outside the door for him.

" boys! let's go! " i hear my coach yell at the remaining players in the locker room. finney comes out of the stall then and grabs his stuff before we walk out together into the gym and outside to the field. we go our separate ways to our separate teams and i see vance and robin sitting next to each other on the bleachers along with some other people that were there too.

( i don't know much about baseball i'm sorry LMAO )
i'm my team's batter so naturally i grab my bat and head out to my spot , followed by the catcher on finney's team. we take our places and finney walks out holding the ball , standing on pitchers mound (changed it thanks guys) , 60 feet 6 inches away from where me and his team's catcher is. finney gets in his position , stepping up with his non-dominant leg and turns out , following through , and throws the ball with full force.

i swing in the correct position but still miss anyways , just by a second. i nod at finney and swing my bat around again , winding my arm back and bending my knees. finney repeats his same action and throws the ball with a strong arm , but i swing stronger. i hit the ball and drop my bat , running to 1st base as the ball goes past the foul line , becoming a dead ball.

the practice went on like that until our teams came to a tie. each team lined up and bid a good game on each player , i talked to finney afterwards and congratulated him on his good game. he did the same and we both looked over to vance and robin talking with each other on the bleachers.