Their Marred Boy

Chapter 7

Little droplets of salty liquid leaked from his red-rimmed eyes, slowly trekking down his cheeks, some pooling in the dents that the deep scars were embedded in. Sniffling tiredly he tried to flex his fingers once again. Though seemingly such an easy task, it was vastly pushing Harper towards a breakdown.

The weather was cold. The kind of cold that felt hot and made your fingers stiff, still unpleasant no matter how warm you were dressed.

Harper's left hand was mostly composed of scar tissues, the bones supporting it were broken more than he could count and had been denied proper treatment. So now, his small hand lay with unsettling hues of purple from lack of enough blood flow, with deep scars that ran along each inch of it, fingers crooked to where they were as good as useless.

The frustrated boy was perched on a bench in Central Park, with his tote bag next to him and a book he'd borrowed from the library. God how he wished he hadn't left his home today. And all for the stupid, poorly treated book. His tears fell harder at the thought of making himself hot chocolate and watching reruns of Gumball with his fluffy blanket draped over him.

His mind had gone numb to where he couldn't think of ways to get back home. So in his state of panic, the boy quickly retrieved his phone from his bag, dialing a number he now knew by heart. After the second ring, an elated voice greeted him.

"Harp-"

"Sky." Harper lost his composure and burst into a sob.

Skyler started panicking quickly, with not knowing what had happened or whether his mate was safe or not, his legs started to feel weak.

"What's- what's... wrong?"

"I- it... my" Harper let out a shuddering breath before continuing, "It hurts so much, Sky."

"Are you safe?" Amber eyes had widened in fear, helplessly staring at the onyx ones before him.

Skyler's friend from uni, Orion, was eyeing him curiously. Their friend's expression had dropped so quickly that they became worried as well.

"Y-yes... Can you pick me up?"

Skyler's tense shoulders relaxed just a bit knowing his mate wasn't in immediate danger, now with a calmer voice he asked, "Where are you?"

"C-Central Park."

"Can you send me your location, love?

Harper had begun nodding before he realized that Skyler couldn't see him, so croaking out a "yes", he sent him his live location.

After brief assurances, they hung up the phone and Skyler bolted from his seat, Orion following shortly.

Raising a dark, sculpted eyebrow, the tall were questioned as they placed their textbook and pencil case neatly in their bag, "Is everything okay?"

The amber-eyed boy raised his slender shoulders in a shrug and sighed, "Yes- no... I don't know."

"Who was it?"

"Harper."

Orion's full lips formed an oh in recognition. They, of course, knew who Harper was as Skyler was their best friend and trusted them with most things, including the existence of his fourth mate. Orion had yet to meet the male, however, had seen all of the endearing pictures that Skyler had taken of him.

Orion had to admit that knowing about Harper long before the boy's mates knew, was odd yet honorable.

"He needs me to pick him up."

"Want me to come with?"

The shorter male hesitated a bit before unsurely nodding, "Yeah... Yeah, I'd appreciate that."