Glacial Love (boyxboy)

Chapter 3 - Unfinished Business

The light shines in from the window. A new day in this house. Great.

I sit up in my bed and stretch. A loud knock at the door suddenly appears.

"Come in!"

The door opens and Hannah appears with Owen. They smile at me. "Hey Baby face!" She cheekily says, making my face flush a little. "Owen wanted to say something to you." She shoves him forward and he stumbles to my side.

"Uh.. hey. I-I wanted to apologize for my actions yesterday.. and thank you for cleaning up after me." His face turns bright red. I stand up and put my hand on his shoulder as my glance shifts towards Hannah.

"He's fine Hannah. He doesn't need to apologize. He's our friend now, so it's what I'm here for." I give her smile, hoping she understands. She just returns it and walks away. I turn my attention back to Owen. I didn't realize how tall he was until now.

"Seriously though.. thanks."

"You're welcome!" I give him a small smile. "Still no smoking in the house." I grunt and he gives a quiet chuckle.

"I can manage that, even if it's fucking freezing outside." He grins as he runs a hand through my hair. I swear everyone does that.

"Well, I gotta bounce." He ruffles my hair one last time as he walks away. I give him a small wave.

Today might be good.

••••

I finish drying off and put on my briefs. I manage to trip and fall over my shorts, causing a ruckus. My mom and dad are at the door surprisingly quickly.

"Are you okay dear?!" Their voices alining with each other.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I grumble as I groan in agony. I push myself off the ground and continue getting dressed.

I walk downstairs into the dining room and sit down next to Hannah. We talk for awhile before mom presents us with lunch. I quickly finish my meal and take the dishes to the kitchen.

"Not so fast Brooks." My mom says and points her finger at me. "I'll take care of that. I need you to go wake up the boys, tell them to get dressed, and take them on an errand to the store with you this morning." She gives me a warm smile as I hiss in disgust. Finally, I agree, trailing upstairs towards the bedroom the 3 of them are sharing. I knock on the door and patiently wait. A shirtless Mateo opens the door and looks down at me with tired eyes.

"Hello?" He grunts at me, narrowing his eyes. His defined abs and V-line catch my attention, along with his ripped biceps. He catches me staring at him. "Ugh, dude. It's cool to dream about what you wish you looked like, but stop staring, it's weird. Now what do you want." He throws me a glare as my attention breaks away and I growl back at him.

"My mom is forcing me to take you guys to the store." I hiss at him, staring past him into the room. He shortly cuts off my line of sight. Can this dude get anymore annoying?

"Yeah, not happening. I don't do 'errands'" He scrunches his nose at the word and turns to leave. I grab his arm, tightening my grip around his biceps and push past him.

"It wasn't an offer." I groan in his direction and walk over to the other two to wake them up.

••••

I stand in the shopping aisle and reach for the peppers. A bunch come falling down onto me. I groan in annoyance as Mateo laughs in amazement. I pick up the peppers and put the ones I need into the basket. I start to walk away as Mateo trails behind me, eyes glued to his phone. Andrew and Owen went to go get some stuff from the list. The least he could do is help too. Without thinking, I turn around, take his phone and shove it into my pocket. His brows furrow and he grabs my arm and pulls me close to him roughly. I wince and fly towards him, almost dropping the basket. He realizes we're in public and lets go, pushing me away.

"I'll deal with you later." I gulp and continue to walk, head down.

We finish and check out. The cashier wouldn't stop checking out Mateo and flirting with him. He'd return the favor and flirt back. I bit my bottom lip and swallowed back a laugh at how painful this was to watch. She gives him her number and he nods, but as soon as we get outside, he trashes the number. A snort escapes me and the 3 of them look my way. My face turns red and I look away from embarrassment. I feel a little bad for the girl. He lead her on by flirting back, just to ditch it all and play her.

We walk through the park. Our town is rather small, plus in the middle of nowhere, along with our house. The store is only about a 20 minute walk away from our house, so it isn't far. Silence falls between all of us, even between Andrew and Owen. They seem to be quite close and all, so it's kinda surprising.

We walk into the driveway to see Hannah and Aubree sitting on the porch talking. I haven't talked or introduced myself to Aubree yet. I'm not sure if I want to. I see her around and all she does is snarl at me. We pass them and wave. Hannah waves back and flashes a smile. Aubree ignores me and starts talking to the others. I take the bags and walk inside. I put everything away and head upstairs to read. Before I can walk upstairs, a huge body blocks my path. I don't even want to imagine what happens next, even though I can picture it in my head.

"I thought I told you earlier that I would finish business when we got home." His knuckles cracked and I jumped slightly. I'm not scared of Mateo, but I haven't practically been beat up before him. I get bullied for being gay, but never punched or beaten. Words hurt just as much if you ask me. Mateo's grip on my shirt causes me to flash back to reality as he throws me on the floor. He kicks me in my stomach as I wince in pain. Ouch. I push up on the floor with my arms, but another kick causes me to collapse again.

"Don't." Kick "Ever." Kick "Take." Kick "My." Kick "Shit." Kick "Again." He finished with one last kick to the stomach that I seem to not notice. I lay on the ground and bury my face into the floor as his eyes scan me. It takes me a minute, but with the couch and table as support, I lift myself up off the floor. I whimper in so much pain, I throw myself onto the couch and tears fill my eyes. My head rolls back and the tears fall from my face onto the back of the couch. Blood starts to fall from my mouth. I wipe it and stand up hesitantly. I walk up to Mateo and stare into his cold eyes.

"You can hurt me as much as you want. It won't effect me." I spit as his feet and walk away.

I lay in bed and pant in pain. It won't effect me mentally, but definitely physically. I groan and turn onto my back again. I can't sleep. Tomorrow is Monday, meaning we have school. Our community college and high school are both combined considering our town is small. Even the middle school and elementary school are combined. High school has been terrible for me. School has really been terrible since 7th grade, when I officially came out as gay and everyone bitched and gossiped about it. It hurt for awhile until I finally got used to it.

I toss and turn in pain until I finally fall asleep. I hate these roommates.