Popstar- Vikklan [The Pack Ships]

●☆Chapter 21☆●

That question ran through my head for days, even as my life ran in what felt like fast-forwards. Things were going so fast, Lachlan was physically recovering and before I knew it he was up and walking, not steadily but he was walking, and the doctors were telling us that we could go home.

Our living arrangements were the biggest problem in terms of going home, obviously I lived alone and my parents had no idea what happened, I hadn't talked to them in months, and Lachlan lived with his parents and they wanted him to go back with him. But the only problem was, he didn't want to go back.

He told me the day before we were supposed to be released that he didn't want to go back with them, they didn't understand what he was going through like I did. He said it very sheepishly while rubbing his arm, clearly uncomfortable about talking down about his parents, but I knew why he told me.

"Do you want to come and stay with me?" I finally said to him, probably far too late considering we were going home the next day, and he nodded.

"Please." He whispered. "I'll be able to pitch in but I just don't want to go back with them... they don't know what's going on in my head." I smiled and let him lay back, his head on my chest, his eyes closing. "They don't understand."

There was nothing I regretted about allowing him to move in with me, nothing at all. In fact, the second I agreed to it and I was sure that Lachlan wasn't looking at me, I grinned like an idiot. I was so happy that he was going to move in with me, for exactly what reason I didn't know. I was just happy, which was new.

I ran my hand through his hair as the two of us curled up together, one of his hands actually tucked underneath my t-shirt, resting on my stomach. It was comforting, him being so close and the two of us having skin to skin contact, especially considering neither of us wanted contact with anyone else. Anytime some else tried to touch me it sent me right back to that room with Dylan's scent everywhere.

So it was decided, he would move in with me. As much as his parents didn't want that he wanted the opposite and there was nothing they could really do to oppose him, especially as they didn't have much of an idea how to look after him or how to deal with everything. But somehow, I did.

-------------------------------------------------------

"Ready to go?" I held out my hand for Lachlan to take and he did, slipping his fingers between mine as we looked at the hospital bed that had been ours for almost 2 weeks. It seemed weird, being in hospital for that long, but the doctor insisted until we were sure that both Dylan and Simon were going to be charged.

They were a jail somewhere on the outskirts of the city, waiting until the court date sometime which would undoubtedly be a few months away. Their bails were set at something ridiculous, a couple of hundred thousand, so I was reassured that neither of them would be able to get out.

Obviously both Lachlan and I would have to testify but from what we had been told, only answering the basic questions like was it this person who attacked you, how do you know them, blah, blah, blah. Nothing intrusive, nothing sensitive. They already had enough evidence to cover that.

"Yeah." He mumbled, glancing around the room. We hadn't really left it for those 2 weeks so it was strange walking out into the world again but I liked it. It was refreshing feeling the wind on my face and the smell of something other than antiseptic in my nose.

We were getting a taxi home, neither of us owned cars because it wasn't necessary to get to school, we could walk, but now I found myself a little annoyed and unsettled. I didn't want to be in a strange car with a random cab driver, but with Lachlan beside me I was a bit more relaxed than maybe I should have been.

That was one of the other things that had changed about me. Before I was able to relax, laugh and joke with friends, and although I was often on alert at school because of the bullying, now I was on full alert all the time. I was almost expecting Dylan or Simon to jump at me from around the corner when logically I knew they couldn't, both of them were in jail. But with paranoia, all logic might as well be thrown out of the window.

The second the two of us and our stuff were out of the car and it was off down the driveway I heard Lachlan's tiny sigh of relief, telling me he was just as stressed and paranoid as I was. I was glad to know that I wasn't alone in my feelings but I also felt like shit because I didn't want him to feel like me, sad and terrified and paranoid and untrusting, cause that all sucked.

"Here." I said, pulling a little on Lachlan's hand to guide him up the stairs. "We're in here but you can put your stuff in the room next door if you want to, there isn't much room in here."

Lachlan scanned my room, the curtains still drawn from when I was last here, clothes on the floor, books, games and games consoles everywhere, posters and photos all over my wall. In the walk in closet you could just see the edges of my recording studio, soundproofed, with a microphone in the centre. He smiled.

"I like it in here." He turned to me. "It's homely. Like a home should be."

--------------------------------------------------

The two of us spent the rest of the day curled up on my bed either playing video games or watching movies. To my surprise I also found out that Lachlan also loved video games, most of the same ones that I liked, which I was shocked that I hadn't picked up on it before then.

Because of that we had a lot of fun, racing each other, killing each other or just being idiots playing Minecraft because honestly, that's the best part of it. I tried to sort all of my home life out, everything had stacked up while I was away, mail, bills and payments that I had to make.

Lachlan dropped off just after dinner, his chin on his chest as another movie played on the television. I smiled and gently moved him into a more comfortable position, curled up on his side like a cat, underneath a thick duvet so he didn't get cold.

"Night Lachy." I mumbled to myself, slipping under the covers beside him after checking that all of the doors and windows were locked and shut and the television was off. "I'm glad things are getting a little better."