Bellamy P.o.v.
I wake up to an array of soft, scattered knocks on my door. Can I not sleep through one night? I open the door and standing in front of me is Octavia. "O do you know how early it is? Why aren't you sleeping?" I ask in a whisper, rubbing my eyes. She just looks at me, and I can tell by the lines on her cheeks that she's been crying. "Okay, come on." I tell her, ushering her back to her room, closing the door behind her. "What's the matter?" I ask, sitting next to her on her bed.
She wipes her nose. "I'm scared." she chokes out quietly and I furrow my eyebrows.
"Scared of what?" I question. Why didn't she go to Mom or Dad about this?
I watch as she tries to steady her breathing. "I don't want Murphy to die." she admits, tears beginning to fall. I'm woken up fully with her words and I feel nervous.
"What are you talking about? Murphy's not dying." I laugh to calm her down. "Who told you that?" I ask, wondering where she had heard such a thing.
"Yesterday, I watched a show and a man said that he didn't want to live and then he shot himself." she explains between sobbing breaths. My eyes widen.
"What show were you watching?" I ask and she shrugs away the question.
"Murphy looks sad all the time now and he's always tired and yesterday, you and him were talking and he sounded like he didn't want to live anymore." she cries and I take a shaking deep breath.
"Where did you here that?"
"When you were in the hallway- I didn't mean to listen, it was just," she looks for words. "It's just that my door was open and then I just heard." she says to me and I sigh.
"Do you love Murphy?" I ask, resting my hand on her shoulder. "He's like my best friend." she nods largely. "Do you trust me?" I ask and she continues to nod. "I love Murphy too and trust me when I tell you that I would never let that happen. Okay?" I ask and she understands, but her crying is still quite explosive. She is still really young and I understand that the thought could be heart breaking. Hell, I'm eighteen, and I'm trying not to cry.
***
I lean against the counter, placing Advil in my mouth, tilting my head back and dry swallowing it. "That can burn your throat." I jolt at the sound of his voice. That almost being enough of a shock for the pill to come back up. I clear my throat, turning around. I glance at the digital clock behind him. It's already noon and I don't know where my parents are. "Hey," Murphy says after I dismiss his remark. "Thanks for yesterday- you know," he says, gesturing to his side like it's nothing.
"No problem." I reply, and he kisses me quickly. I scoff, pulling him back in, but the door unlocks and we pull away.
Mom and Dad walk in, seemingly exhausted. Mom looks about ready to throw herself in front of a bus and Dad drops a large duffle bag next to the coat rack. "Sorry we're back so late." Mom apologizes, dropping her purse onto the counter. All of a sudden, I see a fake blonde walk in behind her tall husband. Fuck. "Aunt Patty and Uncle Evan will be staying with us tonight." she smiles, but it's clearly fake. She loathes her sister.
"D-Does that mean Kyle will be," I cut myself off, watching him walk in through the door and I wonder if he's mistaken this for a country club.
"Yes." she smiles wearily. Dad leaves, going upstairs. I don't blame him. I would if I could.
Patty's heels click on the hardwood floor as she walks up to me. "Bellamy! Look how much you've grown!" she exclaims and I give her the reluctant hug she wants. She smells like a department store and too much makeup.
I pull away. "Nice to see you too." I say out of politeness and I glance at Kyle. Why the fuck are they even here? I thought Mom and Dad went to my grandmother's last night.
"Who're you?" Kyle asks and apparently that tone is not rude, because his parents don't change their cheeky grins. I looks back at Murphy, who looks amused with the whole situation. He's leaning on the counter with his arms crossed. He pushes himself up and shrugs.
"A friend." he says and I praise him for doing so. Maybe he saw the cross around Patty's neck. They don't help the 'all catholic people are homophobic' stereotype. Kyle looks Murphy up and down.
Murphy P.O.V.
Bellamy's cousin looks nothing like him with his blonde hair, blue eyes and golden tan. He looks like his father who looks to be about ten feet tall. Patty, on the other hand looks like she could be Susan's twin. I notice Kyle, analyzing me. "Something wrong?" I ask and Bellamy nudges me, probably because I sounded a bit ruder than I should have.
Kyle shakes his head. "No, you just look like someone I know." he mumbles, narrowing his eyes, walking up to me and I take a few steps back, heading upstairs. I have no interest in- Octavia walks out of her room, but when she sees me, she runs up and hugs me.
I smile, hugging her back. "Hey," I tell her and she pulls away with a large smile, but she looks like she's been crying. I gesture downstairs. "You're Aunt and Uncle are here, so is Kyle." I tell her and she winces.
"Ew, really?" she asks and I scoff, nodding.
I grab the change on Bellamy's dresser. He won't miss it. I shove it into my back pocket. I walk back downstairs, seeing how everyone's migrated to the living room. I put on my shoes, not really caring to lace them up before walking outside, closing the door quietly. I don't need anyone to know that I'm leaving.
It's hot and the sky is very blue, which isn't common. I watch the heat waves rise from the pot-holed streets as I make my way to the 7/11. As I walk in, the bells chime and I glance at the security cameras that still haven't been fixed. Craig tenses in fear and I walk up. "Number 2." I say pulling out whatever money I have, taking a lighter. He looks reluctant to do so.
"I still have that video, and I can still show your wife." I tell him, in no mood to play around.
"I'll have you arrested." he mumbles, walking to the back, pulling out the pack and sliding it to me.
"Get some security and then we'll talk." I tell him, leaving. I pull out a cigarette-
"Hey!" I turn around at the sound of an excited female voice. I look at Raven with amusement. She hasn't ever talked to me in a kind way before.
"You coming to camp?" I give her a strange look.
"Sorry?"
"Ask Bellamy about it."
-
I walk in, going straight up to my room, closing the door. I pull off my shirt, looking for one that doesn't smell of smoke. I rummage through my drawer, wondering why I care so much about the one I want. The door opens and I turn around, seeing that California boy.
"Dude, ever heard of knocking?" I ask, pissed, throwing on a shirt.
"Sorry, I was told I was sleeping here tonight." he says, something sounding off in his voice. I close the drawer, grabbing my charger from the nightstand since I'm not staying here tonight, because apparently, Kyle is. "What happened?" he asks and I give him an odd look.
"What are you talking about?"
"Your body- did you get into a fight?" he asks and my jaw sets in embarrassment. I swallow hard, shoving past him.
"Something like that," I mutter, bumping into Bellamy, on the way to his room.
Bellamy P.O.V.
"Shit," he walks right into me and I laugh lightly, but he just keeps walking, seemingly pissed. Kyle smirks in his direction.
"What's his problem?" he asks under his breath and I watch Murphy close the door to my room. I shrug, wanting to go and ask out of curiosity. I ignore Kyle, gesturing to the room.
"So yeah, you can stay here." I tell him and he nods, inspecting it. Something feels weird, knowing that he's going to be sleeping where Murphy sleeps when he's not sleeping with me.
"Come set the table!" Mom yells and I hold in a groan, agreeing reluctantly. I get downstairs, furrowing my eyebrows at the silver hair. Octavia's talking to her and I wasn't aware of the family reunion.
"Bellamy!" she gasps and I accept her hug. She's not old enough to need a cane, but she's getting there.
"Hey, how are you?" I ask, somewhat happy to see her. "Didn't know you were coming, Grandma." I say and Mom smiles with bags under her eyes.
"Why not have the whole family over?" she asks, somewhat sarcastic.
-
"Where's John?" Evan asks and Mom looks at me. Why the fuck does Evan care about John?
"You can invite him down if you want." Mom offers, urging me to. I don't know how much he'll want.
"Uh, sure." I say and I watch Dad pull up a seat for him. I enter the cool house, walking upstairs. I walk in on Murphy with his head in his hand, painting. I look over his shoulder. I envy his ability greatly.
"That's really good." I tell him and he looks at me, sitting up and yawning. I get near him, and I smell the tobacco on him.
"Not really, I don't really know what I'm doing anymore." he laughs, placing his brush in water. "Something wrong?" he asks and I shake my head, remembering what I'm here for.
"Come down for lunch," I suggest and he sighs, rubbing his eyes.
Murphy P.O.V.
I'd really rather not eat with his family. I'd eat with his parents and sister, but not with the others. They're snobby and quite frankly rude. I step outside, the heat blasting me in the face. I grab a seat, not recognizing the old lady at the head of the picnic table.
"Hi," I say, sitting down.
"What's your name?" she asks. Geez. What's with this family and asking blunt questions. No wonder Octavia asks things the way she does.
"Uh, John Murphy."
"Hello, John, I'm Lucy." she says and I smile kindly-well, as kindly as I can.
"Are you a friend of Bellamy's?" she asks and I nod. I look at Octavia, who looks confused as she looks from both of us.
"Aren't you-"
"Yup- hey, O, why don't you tell Grandma about the beach with the dolphins we saw on our trip." Susan says and I'm not as relieved as Bellamy probably is. I honestly couldn't care less if she outed us. Not my family, I don't know or care about them, so why should I think about what they think about me? I'm also in the mood to argue, so that's not really helping.
Octavia ends up summarizing our entire trip. "And then, on the way back, Murphy made a really funny joke about kangaroos." she says and I chuckle to myself as little as I can, remembering how proud I was of that.
"You went on the trip too?" Patty asks and I nod.
"Of course he did, he's a part of,"
"Mom said I could bring a friend." Bellamy cuts his sister off. I don't think she's learned about discretion yet.
"Well, that must have been fun,"
"You look familiar." Kyle says.
I nod. "Yes, we've been over that." I speak to him as if he's slow and I don't think people catch on, so that just makes me smile a little more. "Are you related to Mark?" he asks and I scoff. I debate whether I should just be blunt with him and admit to not being related to anyone who's alive.
"You'll have to be a little more specific." I tell him and he narrows his eyes, shaking his head.
"Well, you look a lot like his Dad." he says and I give him a strange look.
"Wouldn't know." I say and he gasps.
"We were in New York for a while this year and I'm good friends with this kid, Mark and you look exactly like his dad." he says.
"Yeah, I got it." I tell him, starting to get frustrated with him repeating everything. Susan starts a conversation with her mom and I watch Patty and Evan talk to Jason. "Hey, Raven talked to me today." I turn to Bellamy. He raises his eyebrows.
"When?" he asks.
"I went out earlier-she said something about a camp?" I ask and his face grows upset.
He pushes his plate away from him and nods. "Yeah, I didn't get a chance to tell you, but Susan's making us go on this camp thing." I tell him and he looks like he was just assigned homework.
"What?"
"Yeah, it's twelve days and Raven's gonna be there. Apparently a few others from school too." He says and I make a face.
"Do I have to?"
"Yeah," he says.
"Bellamy?" he pulls his attention away from me and looks at his sister. "You wanna be a doctor when you're older, right?" I scoff for him and he raises an amused brow. He does?
"I do?"
"Yeah, you fixed Murphy last night." she says and I blush, my heart beating fast. Susan looks at me and then at Bellamy, who sighs, looking just about done.
"I fell and instead of worrying you, Bellamy fixed the very tiny injury." I tell her and she looks no more calm. "It's not bad and Bell did a pretty bang up job on it." I reassure.
"You gave him stitches." she states, trying to get it right. Bellamy nods and runs a hand through his hair. "With what?"
"We have supplies." he says as if it's no big deal and Susan, sits back in defeat. Jason just glares at Bellamy.
"I thought you got into a fight." Kyle says, shoving salad into his mouth. I glare at him. Lucy, looks at me, Patty looks at me, they all looks at me and I feel my anxiety biting at my limbs, telling me that this is one of those flight or fight situations. I should probably leave, no?
"Where's your family, Murphy?" Lucy asks kindly. The fuck kind of question is that?
Bellamy P.O.V.
I watch Murphy struggle to answer the question. "Business." he mumbles. She laughs to herself. "Bellamy, do you still talk to that friend of yours, what's her name- Alexa?" she asks and Bellamy shakes his head.
"Haven't spoken to her since grade school." I lie and I vaguely remember her. She was in a few of my classes.
"Well, did you hear that she was put into foster care?" she asks and I shake my head. "Unfit parents." she adds and I nod.
"Unfortunate." I remark and she nods.
"Very. Just goes to show what all that drinking and smoking can do." she points her finger. "Thank your lucky stars that your parents are who they are, kids." she says brightly and I glance at Murphy, forgetting his situation. He just seems disinterested in it all. "Now she's cleaning up, but she's probably not getting Alexa."
"Her mother's probably really nice when she's sober." Murphy speaks up quietly. Grandma looks at him in amusement. He looks up and shrugs. "I-I just think it's unfair to judge a person based on the mistakes they've made in the past." he says. "If her mom put in the effort to get better, then that means that she's trying to get better for her kid- it's unfair for her not to get a second chance." he stares at his glass as he speaks to it calmly. "Some parents don't even try." he concludes, looking tired.
"You're well spoken, but you should have seen the house." Grandma argues and Murphy looks at his lap. "A complete mess. The father went AWOL and her mother's no better, no matter how many AA chips she's got. Alexa's better off without them. She's a good kid, why have adults ruin it." I watch Murphy nod. "You kids be happy that you're growing up in two parent homes, with a Mom and Dad who love you." she says, tucking a strand of white hair behind her ear. Murphy looks like he's having a hard time. He rubs the back of his neck and slouches into the seat.
"My best friend's Mom and Dad got a divorce and she said she likes it better because she gets double the presents on her birthday and at Christmas." Octavia brings up and I smile at that, happy that she's lightening the mood.
"I'm not talking about divorce, sweetheart." Grandma says. I clench my jaw, watching Murphy.
"I'm just saying that you should be thankful to have parents who care about you." she says and as if on cue, Murphy stands up quietly. He tucks his chair in and walks to the door-
"May I be excused?" Kyle asks him and Murphy turns around and gives him an odd look.
"What?"
"You have to asked to be excused from the table," says Kyle snootily. Murphy doesn't look at him with any interest whatsoever. "Didn't your parents ever teach you manners?" he asks and Murphy shrugs with visible hostility.
"Wouldn't know," he says in amusement. I take a deep breath."I don't have parents. Dad died when I was a too young and Mom could've probably taught me dinner etiquette if she wasn't out most nights selling herself to earn money for drugs and alcohol." he almost looks happy while explaining. Kyle loses his smug grin. "May I be excused?" he asks one of my parents rudely. They both nod simultaneously, with eyes of shock. "Thank you." he says, leaving and slamming the door shut.
"I thought you said Murphy's mom was in the hospital!" Octavia exclaims in sheer shock and I look at her, not knowing how to tell her that I lied. I completely forgot that I told her that. I feel Dad's eyes on me. First we have to get through whatever camp we're signed up for, then Murphy'll have to have a talk with my Dad. That should be fun.
"I lied." I state point blank to her and she looks upset. "Sorry, but it's better than the truth." I say defensively. I didn't do anything wrong.
"You see? It's no wonder he turned out like that." Nana comments.
"Turned out like what? Murphy's a great guy." I say. Mom nudges me to keep quiet. No, I'm not going to sit here and have my rich family bash on my boyfriend's past.
"Foster kids are always tricky." she says.
"He is not a foster kid!" I exclaim, pissed. I can hear the front door slam shut from outside. God knows where he's going.
"Anthony Snyder's is a foster kid." Octavia talks about herself and her friends.
"If he lives in a group home, than he's a foster kid, dear." Grandma says condescendingly.
"Yeah, well, he lives here." I state, getting up and leaving the table. Fuck.
Murphy P.O.V.
I cough, chucking the cigarette bud onto the ground, not caring much about stomping it out. I hear footsteps behind me. I smirk, smelling his cologne. "You're grandmother's a dick, Bell, and you Ralph Lauren, bitch of a cousin's no better" I call and I hear him laugh from behind me. I look to my side when he catches up.
"Yeah, she's definitely old style." he admits, but he furrows his eyebrows before giving me a tired look. "Your smoking?" he asks, looking forwards. I would blush in embarrassment if I gave a shit. I gasp when I feel his hand in my back pocket.
"Hey!" I protest, seeing him take the lighter and pack. "I paid for it." I argue and he scoffs. Well, I did use his change, and I also didn't pay for it fully, I kind of stole it.
"Yeah right," he says to himself, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. "Smoking's bad for you." he says, laying it between his lips. "It can cause tooth decay," he lights it. "Lung cancer," he inhales. "Nicotine's highly addictive," he informs, blowing the smoke through his nose.
I watch him for a few more seconds. "You're a hypocrite." I admit and he narrows his eyes, looking up and shrugging.
He then smirks, sighing in an admiring tone. "No one's perfect, Murphy." he says and I shut my mouth at the way he says my name. It's been months and I still can't help but blush around him. "How's your side?" he asks and I shrug, pulling my shirt up and jutting my lower lip out.
"Not bad,"
"It should be better by camp." he says and my stomach and everything drop.
"I can't sing camp songs and make string bracelets, Bellamy- I will literally murder everyone." I tell him.
He lets out a laugh, dropping his cigarette on the ground. He doesn't stomp it out, so I watch the embers die. "I highly doubt that that's what we'll be doing- you know they don't even have a website? I tried looking them up earlier, it can't be found." he tells me and I sigh.
Well this should be a blast.
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