Can't help falling in love with you

VII

They didn't talk about it the next day, until.

"Alexzander!" Yelled Arlo from the bedroom. "Come here please".

Alexzander walked in. "Where are you?" He asked, looking for his boy.

"Under the covers". He softly said. Alexzander immediately understood and crawled in with.

"Yes?" He asked softly, hoping he would get what he had hoped for the previous day.

"I wanna tell you more, is that okay?" Arlo hesitantly asked.

"Yea baby, of course you can. Tell me whatever you want", said Alexzander and Arlo started explaining.

He told Alexzander about the countless sobbing party's and the disgust he felt. And Alexzander listened to it. Day after day.

He learned about the day of the confession, the tears, the yelling, the name calling, the splitting, the bullying and beating. How his sister would draw little stars and planets on his bruises to make it look like galaxies and him using his mothers makeup to cover up his black eyes. He now knew that the reason Arlo sang himself to sleep was because his sister wasn't here to do it for him anymore and suddenly the softly sang melodies didn't sound beautiful anymore but more like a painful heartbreak and Alexzanders chest tightened.

He learned about the time Arlo thought about ending it all, about him hating himself, about when he thought about coming out and then later on mentally slapping himself cause he couldn't, it was wrong and unnatural and he shouldn't have had feelings for his best friend, he didn't deserve that.

He held his boy through the tears and the yelling, the heavy breathing and the days where it all became too much. He helped him through countless panic attacks and thoughts of suicide, he had to wake up at 4am some days because his boy had had a nasty dream again. It was tiring and at times Alexzander wondered if his boy could be fixed but he also decided that he would never give up and do anything he could.

He also learned about the days where Arlo realised that maybe it wasn't so wrong, that his so called friend was wrong and he had every right to love who he wanted to love, he learned about his first kiss, date, time. About his secret boyfriends and cover up girlfriends. He learned that Arlo never told the truth about the bullying. He said only his sister knew and that she would always calm him down.

He learned about the scar that he loved to trace, and that it was a mark from when he became mad and cut him with a broken beer bottle, Arlo made excuses. Saying he was drunk and didn't know what he was doing. Alexzander felt sick. The scar wasn't a small imperfection but a constant reminder of an abusive boy that touched his boyfriend because of some messed up beliefs.

It was hard on Alexzander, hearing the boy he loved with all his heart talking about the vile, disgusting things that happened to him. But he stayed strong, through all of it. He let his boy cry out, telling him everything without ever letting a single tear slip so his baby didn't have to worry about him. Because this was about Arlo, not him. He couldn't be selfish. He couldn't show his emotions during times like this.

[edited: 9th August 2016]