'SON-IN-LAW' [LGBT+]

twentytwo

Aurora was looking at her hands in a daze. There were specks of blood on her palm. Blood in her fingernails. Her knuckles were split open, black and blue while blood seeped out of them. She could feel her gums bleeding. Taste the iron in her mouth. So much blood.

Even if this situation wasn't the first she got herself into, it still didn't make her get in any less trouble. She was afraid of going back home. She didn't want her parents to see her like this again. They worried about her enough.

Letting out a sigh, she wiped her nose. The back of her hand came out bloody. She felt the light throb of pain coming from her broken nose suddenly.

"Fuck." She hissed. Bringing the hem of the oversized t-shirt to her nose she kept trying to get rid of the blood. But all she ended up with was a bloody t-shirt. She stopped her fruitless attempts. The more she looked at her cloth the angrier she got.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck..." There's no way her parents wouldn't notice that. Not like they wouldn't figure it out just by seeing her battered face.

Aurora saw red. Her vision was getting hazy. This whole time she tried to reign in her anger but her control was slipping from her fingertips. She wanted to hit something. Break something. Destroy something. Cause chaos. Her breath was coming out ragged and her eyes were getting misty. Nothing ever goes her way. She tried so hard to not cause trouble but all she did was disappoint her parents at the end.

She brought her hands upwards then brought it down hard against the floor. She couldn't feel any pain, she couldn't even feel the hard cement rubbing her skin off. Worst of all she couldn't feel any satisfaction either. So, she did what made sense to her at that time. She kept hitting her hands on the pavement as hard and as many times as she could over and over and over again.

If anyone saw at her right now, they'd think she had gone mad. She felt crazy. But she didn't care. She wanted people to think she had gone nuts. She wanted to make a scene.

She was so far gone, she didn't even notice the person running towards her. Not until they slammed their body against her. Aurora yelled in surprise and fell sideways on the ground.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" Aurora didn't know if that came out of her mouth or someone else's. Her head was hurting and her hands her suddenly screaming in pain. She felt like shouting and couldn't figure out why she did this to herself in the first place. The pain made her question if it was worth it.

"Snap out of it!" Aurora blinked a few dozen times before she finally noticed the body on top of her.

"I did." She muttered.

"Good! Now get up!" Cathy yelled. "I'm taking you home."

Aurora shook her head and went limp on the floor. She could finally feel the exhaustion of the entire day crashing down on her entire body. She was tired. So, so tired. She couldn't move. She didn't even want to move.

"I can't." She grunted.

"Then come to my house. I'll call your mom and let her know you're spending the night with me."

Hearing that, she felt a little bit calmer and a portion of the heavyweight in her mind was gone. Aurora sighed in relief then coughed feeling the blood going down her throat.

"Thanks." She managed meekly.

"Shut up."

Looking down, Aurora marbled at the memories they had tied up in this place. It was everywhere, actually. They grew up here. Walked, ran and explored every inch of this town. Small memories were gathered and coiled in different places. But this pavement in particular somehow hit her with that particular memory pretty hard. Aurora looked back at her best friend. She really wanted to talk to her about it. Ask her if she remembered. But the stone cold expression made her cower. She forced herself to look up then start walking.

Cathy was walking close beside her best friend. She noticed how stiff she was and how she kept looking at her discreetly from time to time. But she kept ignoring and acting like she never noticed. It was a bit hard because Cathy just wanted to slap her across the face for being such a wuss. Aurora didn't talk about what she did wrong or anything at all the whole car ride. Cathy knew she had problems with confrontation but she had hoped Aurora would say something. Until she did Cathy decided to ignore her dumb ass.

It was when Cathy started noticing the coloured sidewalks that she realized she was close. A smile graced her lips. She tried to wipe it off but couldn't after noticing the variety and the sheer amount of drawings everywhere around her on the cement drawn with dry calks. Cathy stopped when she noticed a drawing of three monkeys. Each covering their eyes, ears and mouth respectively.

Aurora was sulking until she heard the familiar breathy chuckle. She whipped her head around and almost cried in joy seeing the bright smile and crinkled misty eyes of Cathy. It took her a moment to realize what made her like that.

"Ah," Aurora snickered.

"Boys did it yesterday, actually. They pulled me outside to show their masterpiece after they were done too." Aurora chuckled while looking at the red, blue and purple monkey. They were distorted, had ears the size of an Elephant's and tails springy like a Pig's.

"These are adorable." Cathy smiled at her for the first time the whole day. She took her phone out and silently took a picture. Her dad would go crazy when he'd see this, Cathy was sure.

"Where are my three musketeers?" Cathy asked her. Aurora noticed how she tried to reign in her excitement but failed. She was just happy to see Cathy in a better mood.

Aurora knew that she needed to apologize to her friend whose feeling she had surely hurt. She didn't want loose what they had. Cathy was the single most important person in her life and she'd make sure she always stays close to her forever.

With that thought, Aurora found the courage to step forward and close the distance between them. She hugged Cathy like she didn't plan to let go.

And she really didn't.