Shadows Fading (BxB)

~14~

~Collin POV~

Kyle was crying... I was so confused. What could've happened, that he had disappeared for four days and come back like this? He looked like total crap. And what could possibly make him cry and break down like this..? I'd never seen anybody appear as broken than this... Whatever happened, I couldn't stand to see him in this state. I carefully wrapped my arms around him, pulling him towards me. I could feel his muscles flinch at my touch, but he followed my movements, even crying into me as my hand began rubbing his back lightly.

After a while, he calmed, just laying quietly in my lap. We stayed like that for several more minutes before I softly questioned, "What happened..?" When he hesitated, I added, "You don't have to tell me, but if you want to talk about it, I'm here."

It almost seemed like he wouldn't respond, but then he started talking so quietly that I had to strain to hear it. I could barely decipher his vague mumble. "Threatened to kill me... throat... again... they know what happened before, and... they know it's my trigger, but... she did it anyway..."

Threatened to kill him? How could anybody do that? I was so angry at whoever dared to do that to him, and from the sound of it, it wasn't the first time. My arms tightened around him a little, a strange protective feeling welling up inside me. I didn't want anybody to hurt him again. "Who was it?" My tone of voice surprised even me with the protectiveness that was threaded throughout it. Kyle shook his head, but I wasn't going to let this go. I needed to know. If it was about anything else, I wouldn't have pressured him to answer, but this was different. "Who?" I repeated.

"My-..." He paused for a moment, then continued, quieter this time as if he were paranoid that someone was listening in. "My asshole adoptive mom."

What?! How could an adoptive parent do that? Wait, adopted... "You're adopted?" It was a stupid question, but I asked it anyway. He just nodded. "What happened to your... your real family?"

"My mother died when I was a baby. Don't want to fucking talk about my damn pathetic excuse of a fucking father. And my ass of an older brother doesn't do jack shit."

The hatred in his voice toward his father was startling, raising a million questions in my mind. A little bit of it carried over when he mentioned his brother, but it still wasn't as intense. What happened to him..? "Oh..." was all I could say.

We stayed there together in the ensuing silence until the bell to signal the end of school rang. Had it been that long? After the clamour of students rushing out faded, Kyle pulled away and started to stand.

"What are you doing?" I asked, standing with him once he was completely up.

"Gotta go back to that fucking hellhole," he answered in a blank but hard tone. "They won't keep me like that again, though," he reassured, much to my relief. "Thank this hellhole. Called saying I have too many fucking absences. If they hadn't, I'd probably still be fucking trapped there. Never thought this damn place would be my fucking saving grace."

I hadn't expected him to say nearly as much as he did, but I wasn't complaining. What was going on was upsetting, though. "Why are you going back, if they did that to you..?" It confused me to no end, and I wouldn't be surprised if it leaked into my voice.

"Blame the damn pills," was his curt explanation. It didn't seem like he was going to go more in-depth.

I wish I knew more about the pills. All I knew was that he had to take them for his throat, and it seemed to really affect him if he didn't take them for too long... I wish I knew why he had to take them, and how serious his condition was. I hoped it wasn't life-threatening...