*~Ambition and Love Wearing Boxing Gloves~*

~ T W E N T Y - T H R E E ~

Shell Shock

"Okay so if we have them all in one place, then surely we can eliminate them all. Like the play."
Michael was talking, staring at the school from his car.
The group was strategizing from his car.

"I mean... it's a shit load of kids but I think if we could organize something. Like maybe a dance or... or a..." He was starting to trail off, waiting for someone else to cut off his ranting.

No one did.
Christine was in the back by Jeremy, squeezing his hand.
It was clear that Jeremy was having all kinds of horrible memories. Terrible flashbacks.

"What if we-"
"There's nothing we can do!!" He screamed, frightening everyone in the car.

Y/n had subconsciously reached for the door handle, gripping it just in case.
"Huh?! Cause guess what's fucking happening!? We're all going to die, or worse, and there's no stopping them!!"

He ripped his hand away from Christine, pulling his knees up to his chest and squeezing his head with his hands.
"Jeremy," Christine frowned. "You stopped them before-"

"No we didn't! Cause they're still, fucking, HERE!"
He pulled away from Christine again, this time opening his door and jumping out.

Now all three of them were watching the boy with worry as he raced off across the parking lot.
"Jer?!"
"Jeremy!" Christine shouted, crawling across the back seat to jump out too.

Y/n watched him worriedly, but thinking it was better to let him have his feelings than try to stop him.
And once we have this one, we'll be unstoppable.

But Christine ran after him, slamming the car door and running down the sidewalk where he just fled.
"I should've seen this coming." Michael said.

His voice sounded calm, but when Y/n looked him he looked absolutely terrified.
He was gripping the steering wheel with both hands and his eyes were incredibly wide.

Y/n's eyes dropped from his face as her memories took over her rational thinking.
Michael's terrified face when he walked in.

His hand pressing her head into the ground.
The sound of her skull on the hard wood floor.
His hand around her throat.
'I just want this to stop' she thought.

"Should we go f-fi..." In the middle of his alarmingly calm sentence, he hunched over and began sobbing.
Y/n wasn't entirely sure what to do.

She probably should have been crying too.
Or at least cried at some point.
But she was still in a deep, long-lasting state of shock.

One she wasn't sure she'd ever get out of.
So she looked at him, and hesitantly raised a hand to put on his shoulder.

But then that felt weird, so she put it back down.
Instead she sat there, and listened to him cry.
That was all she could really do.

By the time his sobs has vanished into tiny sniffles, nearly 2 minutes had passed.
2 excruciatingly long minutes.

It was right about you.
"I...don't know... entirely what you're going through," she said, sounding quite blank. "But I find small things to cling to. It helps."

Her fallacious expression rendered Michael a little surprised.
"Like what?" His voice was somewhat weak as he dried his eyes with his hoodie sleeve.

Y/n stared impassively at the windshield.
"He said to me... he grabbed me and said, 'You will do as you told! I'm your father!'"

She glanced at Michael, who seemed a lot more concerned for her than himself at that moment.
"My uncle would never, ever say that. So I know that wasn't even a little bit of him that hurt me. Cause he'd never do that either."

Michael's heart hurt listening to this.
He heard her screams echoing in his head from the incident at her house.

One night Y/n had told him that it was allowed to be about him sometimes.
But he had done enough of that.

So he reached over the center console to hug her.
Instead of nervously flinching like she usually does, she stayed completely still.

Her arms were pinned at her sides and her face didn't change once.
"Please tell me how to help you."
It was really a last attempt for him.
He didn't know what to do now.

Michael let her go and rested his elbows on the console, scanning her face at a very close proximity.
She stared at him with colorless, emotionless eyes.

"You could stop crying so much, it makes me uncomfortable." She mumbled.
He blinked once. Then twice.
And startled grinning.

Which made her grin.
Both of their smiles grew until they were laughing heinously together, relieving heavy tension at last.
"I can't make any promises. I'm an emotional guy."

She shrugged.
"That's fine. Just don't expect me to act appropriately when you do."
"Deal."

He grinned and leaned over, holding her head and kissing her.
When he felt her instinctively flinch, he felt a lot better.

It meant she was more herself, but he also thought it was really cute.

~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Where have you been?"
Michael winced as he stepped through the front door.
"You didn't come home last night, we didn't know where you were!"

His moms were standing in the living room, one with a glass of Pinot, and the other with reading glasses and her phone.

Y/n, who was following behind him, watched him walk into the front hall from the dark front porch.

"I just, spend the night with my friends."
Michael walked into his mothers' line of sight.
Immediately they detected his guilt with their motherly laser eyes.

Y/n crept in and closed the door, keeping her back pressed flat against it.
She wasn't sure if they'd be upset to see her or not.

Part of her was worried but most of her didn't care, she was just so tired.
"Friends, plural?"

His eyes veered to the right, and landed on Y/n.
The second they did, he averted his eyes.
"Is it that girl you had over the other night?"

"The other night? What girl?" His mother sounded appalled that no one had informed her.
Now she was glaring at her wife, pulling her reading glasses down.

"I'm sorry, it was just a little secret."
She shrugged, and sipped her Pinot.
His mother sighed and turned back to him.

"Michael, you can't just take off for 2 days without telling us. Alright?" She said, stepping out of the living room into the hall.

She held his face and he smiled.
"Okay."
She kissed his forehead, and then glanced to the left, needing to do a double-take.

She squinted when her eyes landed on Y/n, awkwardly pressed up against the door.

There was a long moment where Y/n stared in embarrassment, Michael's face grew red and hotter, and his mother's eyes grew either more confused or angry.

"Is this the girl?"
"Yes that would be me." Y/n bumbled out for him.
She stepped away from the door, awkwardly sticking her hand out to his mother.

And she looked startled.
"Honey, what happened to you?"
Y/n had completely forgotten about her face, and when Ms.Mell brought her hand up to look at it, Y/n flinched away.

"I-I'm uh, I'm Y/n. L/n."
The woman nodded, still completely absorbed by the girl's wounds.
She turned to Michael. "¿Qué pasó?"
"Mamá-"

"Michael, ¿están ustedes dos en problemas? ¿Quien hizo esto?"
"I'm not getting into this again." Michael sighed, holding his mom by the shoulders.

"We're exhausted. I need to set up somewhere for
Y/n to sleep, but I promise we'll talk in the morning." He nodded.

Y/n watched, her eyebrows knit together in disarray.
"Is that okay?"
She sighed. "Alright honey. You two sleep well."

Michael nodded at her, starting towards the stairs and waving Y/n over to follow him.
She half-smiled, following close behind Michael.

His mom didn't fail to notice Michael grab Y/n's hand as they toiled upstairs.