Shinigami Haken High School (Black Butler)

Chapter Twenty Two: Grounded!

"Mom!" I groaned, throwing my hands out in exasperation, "two months?"

Mom scoffed and glared at me. "You left your innocent cousins all alone! And James got a sugar crash! And they tore up my living room, all because you were irresponsible and didn't stay home to watch them!"

My dad sighed and walked into the lviging room, taking place behind my mom and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Marta, don't you think you're being a bit harsh on him? I mean, two months?" he asked, concerned.

"Jim," she stated, turning her head to face my dad, "the boy will never learn his lesson if he doesn't face some form of consequence. I want him to grow up to be a responsible and respectable young man, and he won't if he doesn't learn discipline," she retorted.

My dad shook his head and backed away. "Alright, if that's what you believe." He turned to face Ethan, "Ethan, it's really late. I think you should head to bed now."

Ethan nodded as he stood up and walked over to my dad, wrapping his arms around my dad and giving him a hug. "Okay, goodnight, Uncle Jim." he proceeded over to my mom, "Goodnight, Aunt Marta." he came up to me next. He looked me up and down, frowning. "William," he muttered as he walked out of the living room and down the stairs to the guest bedroom. My uncle followed into the room and picked James up from the couch, following Ethan into the basement. My aunt followed him, failing something about 'my baby'.

My mom turned to me again. "I am so, so disappointed to you. Tomorrow, first thing in the morning, you are starting the clean-up process of this room, and you will not stop until it's back in its original state, understood?"

"Understood," I nodded, looking down at my feet. I almost would have preferred to have gotten yelled at, the disappointment speech was always the worst.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see my mom. She had lost her she-devil approach and he now had a sad smile on her face. "It's late. I think you should go to bed."

"I will," I agreed. "I'm sorry."

She sighed, "I suppose I can forgive you. I just expect better behavior out of you, okay?"

"Okay, goodnight."

"Goodnight, I love you."

"Mom!"

-

I groaned and rolled over, rubbing the sleep away from my eyes. I groaned and covered my face with my hands upon remembering I had cleanup duty. I slipped my legs out from underneath my covers and stretched, emitting a yawn. I was halfway down the stairs when I heard something.

Knock-knock-knock-knock-knock

I cocked my head to the side, massaging my neck with my hand. I knew that someone was at the door, but I was not in the mood to deal with people. Still, I didn't want to be rude or leave them waiting out there forever, so I went to the door and opened it up anyway. I blinked a couple of times, and instantly I regretted not putting my glasses on; everything was blurry. But thanks to the large blob of red, I had a suspicion of who it was. "Grell?" I asked groggily.

"Hi, Will," she greeted, letting me know that it was indeed my red-haired friend. "You're, um, ah-"

"Missing my glasses?"

"Well, yeah."

"I kind of knew that, thanks."

"I'm surprised you didn't fall down the stairs."

"Hey," I scolded, pointing in her direction. But from what I could make out of her expression, I wasn't exactly on target, "you remember what happened last time someone fell down the stairs. Don't mention that again, that was awkward for the both of us."

"Yeah, you're right. Sorry," she apologized. I could hear her tapping her foot. From the sound of the rythmic clicking, I was sure she was wearing the new heels that Sebastian got her on Christmas Eve. "Can I come in?"

"Oh," I said, snapping back to reality. "Yeah, uh, sure. Come on in," I said, stepping out of the way to let her inside. I held the door open, making sure not to close the door on her.

She tilted her head to the side, looking at me with concern. "I'm just gonna go ahead into the living room, why don't you go get your glasses and then we can talk."

"Sounds good," I said as I started up the stairs. I fumbled around in my room a bit, having trouble finding my glasses. Eventually, I was able to locate them. I headed back downstairs to the living room, everything clearer now. Grell sat down on the couch and she patted the seat next to her, motioning for me to sit down, to which I happily obliged.

"So," she started, tensing up, "your mom came into the karaoke bar and took you home, huh?"

"Yeah," I nodded.

She chuckled, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "What happened after that?"

I sighed and shook my head, "Like she said while we were there, I got grounded. And now," I gestured to the still disarranged room, "I've got to spend the whole day cleaning this up."

"Wow," Grell gasped, "that's a bit harsh."

"Yeah," I trailed off, "so what happened after I left?"

"Well, Ronald, Ashlyn, and Alan left right after your parents took you home. They said they didn't wanna stick around if you weren't there to have fun with them. Then, Sebastian started acting really weird. Like, he was really concerned about where Claude was and what he was doing and whatever. He wouldn't even look at me, he was glued to his phone, waiting for a response from Claude. Then, he left. He just left! He was my ride there and was supposed to be my ride home, but he left without me! I didn't have my car, so I had to hitch a ride with Hannah! And she played some really creepy music," she shuddered.

Grell continued talking on and on about her night's problems, and somehow I found myself smiling. I missed how she would come to me with all of her issues and pour out her heart and soul to me. She rambled on and on, making wild gestures with her hands and arms. I was finally brought back to realtiy with a certain statement. "You know, I'm starting to think Ronnie was right."

"Huh?" I asked, "Right about what?"

"About... y'know..." Grell looked around nervously, as if there was someone nearby who would overhear. She held her hand up to her mouth to exaggerate her announcement even more. "The possibility of Sebastian and Claude... y'know, being gay for each other, for lack of a better way to explain it."

I chuckled and leaned back on the couch, "Well," I started, stopping myself from continuing by laughing, "it's highly possible."

"I know," I was surprised to hear her agree with me, "the way they look at each other just tells me that he cares about Clude more than he cares about me." Her lip quivered and she shook her head, I knew that the tears were coming up.

"Hey," I said, trying to sound comforting. I scooted closer to her, wrapping an arm around her. "I'm sure he loves you."

A single tear rolled down her cheek and she looked into my eyes. "I'm not so sure about it anymore." she chocked out. WIth the last word, her voice cracked, and so did her ability to keep from crying. She started wailing and threw herself forward to me, tears seeping through my shirt. Her hands gripped my shirt, her nails almost clawing into my chest.

Awkwardly, not knowing how else to comfort her, I stroked her hair. It was sleek and silky and smelled faintly of strawberries. I pursed my lip, I couldn't let her cry like this forever. I picked her up off of my chest and sat her back up. She allowed me to, her body limp like a rag doll. Her bottom lip stuck out in a pout and her eyes were red from crying. I reached forward and wiped away a few left over tears on her cheeks. "We need to find you a distraction, something that will get your mind off of this whole 'boyfriend cheating on you with another boy', and fast."

She sniffed and shook her head. "Like what?"

I looked around, my eyes darting around the living room. "How about helping me clean the living room?"

-Oli