The Boy's of Westbrook

~Brave~ Chapter VIII

Chapter VIII

What? "What?"

Eric jerked his head, sickened, annoyed, angry, sad and hopeful. There was no danger of him drifting out past the safe zone. No danger that he was sinking. This wasn't the ocean so there was no shark.

Damien's hair was wet and slicked back, his eyes a dark wall of conflicted emotions.

"I said you misunderstood me." He didn't shout, not when he was inches away from Eric.

But Eric refused to be put under the same smell. He felt smug with himself, like he was now immune to the magic of loooove. Eric felt he was too strong for that. Like he was a warrior to the mundane human emotions. Like he could pick up any weapon in front of him and use it like an expert. He wasn't going to let that crippling hope, creep back through the cracks of the walls that guarded his heart.

He felt as if he had fallen, hard, and was just getting himself back up to dust himself off. Only his joints, bones and body would ache from the movement. The truth was like hydrogen peroxide, the start of the healing process so Eric could harden himself more than ever. Things like love were for other people. Not him.

Eric swore he still wouldn't let himself become like his great aunt. She never came to these gatherings anymore. Maybe Eric would stop coming too. There were too many painful memories here now.

"Not that," Eric scowled. "The part after."

This time he phrased it like a question. Like he'd been caught. "It's not that I don't want to be with you, because I do so much it hurts?"

Eric felt his eyes flash.

"Then prove it. Kiss me then." There it was, Eric being impulsive by offering the ultimatum. That would either scare Damien away meaning he was a weak choice and that Eric should have never bothered picking to fall for to begin with. Eric would be wiser next time, if there ever would be a next time.

A small part of him hoped he would stay, and kiss him anyway. Then Eric could fall back in love. No wait, Love wasn't like an on and off switch. He couldn't switch the emotion off that easily. No one could, even if they tried. They pretended to, but that wasn't really in their hearts.

Eric needed proof. Something real to hold on to.

"What?"

"Then," Eric began with a shrug about to swim away. "None of this was ever real. It was a silly childish game. Who plays games like truth or dare anymore anyway? It's stupid. We'll go our separate ways-"

Damien took a hold of Eric's shoulder before he could pass by. Eric almost shook him off but he was not immune to love. This went past being a silly crush. Last year when he...

"When I picked you up off the streets that one night. When your dad kicked you out of the house. You spent the week in my bed, I kept you warm with my body because my room was always the coldest room in the house." Damien was finishing Eric's train of thought. The week they spent together, last summer, in June. Heat rises and Damien's room was in the basement.

Eric felt himself melt. This was a memory, an event he kept selfishly to himself all this time. He never wanted the fairytale to end. If he pursued it, it would break, become unfixable.

"We would wake up, you were in my arms. I knew I was throwing mixed signals your way, all over the place. I'm sorry for that. I missed you when we went to school. You insisted on walking to school, always having your own way, so no one would notice. No one asked questions. No one knew you were homeless but me. I kept your secret. I'll always keep your secret.