Bonded by Blood

T W E N T Y

"What do you mean?" I interrupted, wholeheartedly confused.

"I-I don't know, I just remember him realizing that he was wrong so h-he apologized, and then all of a sudden Hudson and Eric came out of nowhere to mess with us and then they ruined my sketchbook, and then the boy hurt Hudson in his arm-I-I don't know, it was-it was horrible." I immediately brought Leone right back into my chest for a warm embrace, in attempts to calm down his panic-stricken rant.

"Who is this boy?" I asked, gently running my hand down behind his tense back.

"He's just some quiet kid in my art class named, Nikolai." He breathed out as my whole entire body immediately froze at sound of that name.

"Did you just say Nikolai?" I breathed out, audibly unnerved as I was unable to keep myself from widening my mouth and eyes in complete disbelief.

He rid his face from any tears with a sniffle, biting over his plump bottom lip as he nodded up at me.

I gulped down and looked up to process the unexpected turn of events. Above us were dark ominous clouds beginning to shift and band together to take the sun hostage, taking all of its light with it just to envelop the land and sky with a sullen ambience. My unbridled rage  suddenly cleared my mind of all other thoughts, allowing me to focus entirely on what needed to be done which was to make Nikolai pay for thinking he could put his hands on Leone.

"Come on, get on." I eventually broke through the silence, turning my back around towards the small boy. "I'll carry you." He obliged as he was clearly burdened with way too much emotions to resist out of kindness.

His gaunt arms and tiny fingers circled around my neck, his nimble body feeling almost weightless against my back as we continued our gloomy journey back home.

"I'm sorry." He lowly hummed out in a shameful tone.

"For what?" I glanced at him with furrowed brows.

"For letting you down." Leone brokenly let out right behind my neck. "All I wanted was to come back and show you what I had drawn and-and I-I couldn't even do that."

"Hey, stop." I quickly resisted on letting him shift the blame upon himself. "That wasn't your fault, alright?"

"There where so many drawings I wanted to share with you." Leone was audibly suffocated by the weight of his own existence, devoid from any sense of hope and happiness, a state that I wished I had the ability to revert. "Even a drawing of you."

My face subtly lit up at the thought of Leone even taking the time to do that. "A drawing of me?" An appreciative exhale left me as I felt a fluttery feeling in my stomach.

"Yeah." He solemnly whispered.

I glanced back at him with a growing smirk in attempts to uplift his mood. "Well you can always draw me again, and this time you're more than welcome to get as close and personal as you want with me." I winked, successfully making him smile back at me as a flustered pink went across his cheeks.

"I wish I was tougher, Dydan." He let out in deep thought. "If I was, then maybe things wouldn't have happened the way they did. Maybe those boys would just leave me alone, and my dad-maybe he'll finally love me more." 

"Hey, didn't I tell you to stop blaming yourself?" I reminded as the rain began to go along with my voice. "Those guys are clearly just miserable with their lives so they have to drag you down along with them, your dad too. You're perfect just the way you are Leone, don't ever feel the need to change yourself for anyone, you understand?"

"Yeah." He adorably grumbled out into the air.

"What about the place?" I brought up in attempts to deter his mind off from his troubles. "Was Cloud Lake nice at least?"