SIX

Simon Minter was lying in a pool of his own blood. His father had slashes his belt across his back so hard he had started to bleed heavily. Simon couldn't do anything about it, he had to just lie on the kitchen floor, his blood pooling behind him while his father shouted at his mother. Simon was the youngest of three brothers, and his two brothers had fled the family home as soon as they could, for it used to be them bleeding onto the kitchen floor too.

"Get up," His father instructs.

Reluctantly Simon uses whatever strength he could muster to push himself into a stand, his back was burning with pain.

"Clean yourself up, you son of a bitch," His father says, glaring towards his youngest son.

Simon glances from his father to his mother. She had a bruise smacked across her right eye an over her cheek, he'd hit her again, and Simon was too weak to do anything about it.

Simon moves towards the stairs, his bleeding back causing his mother to wince.

"Please, let me help him with the cuts," She pleads and her husband smacks her across the face again, causing her to fall back against the sofa.

Simon halts, his body tensing at the sound of his mothers pain.

"Keep walking, boy," His father says and Simon shuts his eyes, he knew if he looked back he'd be in more trouble, so he kept walking, practically dragging himself up the stairs.

As soon as he reaches the bathroom he locks the door behind him and pulls down his trousers, they had blood stains, and they were his only good pair of school trousers left. He groans as he pulls back the glass door of the shower and flicks the button to turn on the water.

He glances over his shoulder at the mirror, seeing his wounds made his eyes fill with water. He knew that Josh would let him stay round his, but he also knew his father wouldn't let him leave easily.

He pulled off his boxers and socks before slowly moving into the shower. He lets the water wash over his neck and down his back, the blood mixing with water as it made its way down the drain. The pain was still there, but he felt a little better.

He stayed like that for another 10 minutes before slowly exiting the shower and picking up a towel. He wrapped it round himself before throwing his clothes into the wash basket and moving out the room towards his bedroom.

Once inside he checked himself in the mirror, seeing the bleeding had stopped for now. He needed someone to dress the wounds, and he knew his father would know to go to Josh's house. He had to think of an alternative. He couldn't go to any of his friends houses as they would all think of him as weak. He could only trust Josh, but Josh wasn't an option. He pulled on his clothes, gritting his teeth as his t-shirt rubbed against the wounds on his back. He pulled on a zip up hoodie and opened his bedroom window. He grabbed his backpack filled with everything he needed for an emergency escape like this one. He eased himself out of the window and onto the roof platform. He then slowly climbed down the wall, using the gaps in the bricks of the old building and the plants that grew up the wall to help him. Once down he pulled over his black hood and rushed for the back gate. He quietly opened it and then made off down the street. He had around 30 minutes to get somewhere safe before his father noticed he was gone.

• • • •

Cleo Lewis looked at her twin brother from across the table. Their parents hadn't spoken a word to either of them, they were both grounded, and Harry would not be allowed to see his friends at all during the week of exclusion he had. Cleo on the other hand was allowed most luxuries, she just wasn't allowed to go out and hang with friends.

Cleo and Harry glanced at each other and Harry jolted when his mother dropping something made him scared, he winced in pain, gripping at his ribs.

"Do you want me to take a look at that for you?" Cleo asks softly and Harry's eyes narrowed, before he slowly nodded.

Cleo stood up and walked round the table before kneeling in front of Harry. He lifted his shirt for her and she saw the brusing stretched right round from his chest, to his back. She slowly pressed her fingers along his ribs, making sure they weren't broken.

"Mom, have we got a first aid kit?" Cleo calls and after a few moments her mother brings in a first aid box. Cleo cleans the wounds much to Harry's displeasure and then badges him, wrapping the cotton round him to stop infection or bleeding.

"You need a few days rest, try not to stretch too much," Cleo says and Harry nods, slowly pulling down his shirt.

"Thank you," He says and his sister actually smiles at him.

"Dinner is ready," Their mother calls out and Cleo returns to her seat across from Harry and watches her mother bring in the spaghetti bolognese. Their father joins them then and they all eat in silence.

Afterwards Harry goes up to his room and locks the door behind him, seeing his phone lighting up with messages.

He checks it and sees its his girlfriend, Ana. She was messaging to say that she was dumping him. Harry just sighed and lay down on his bed, staring at the glow in the dark stars he'd had on his ceiling since being a little boy. Ana wasn't important to him anyway, she was just a bit of fun, another girl he'd had sex with, another girl who had given him her virginity.

Downstairs Cleo pulled on her coat, she was headed to work now.

"I'll be back at about 9:30 after the shops closed," Cleo calls and her mother mutters a goodbye and her father just nods.

Cleo heads to work then, walking into the town and passing by various people. When she arrives to work she takes over another girls shift, and starts stacking books onto the shelves downstairs, seeing the usual nerdy bunch playing Uno rather than chess today. Three girls were sat by the window on their phones talking about boys. And a man with a beard was sat in the corner on his laptop, he had headphones on and his glasses were falling down his nose every few minutes.

Cleo then checked upstairs and went to the quiet reading area, seeing a few regulars, some students from the local college were doing homework in their and finally she saw Vik, who was huddled in the corner, trying to keep warm against the radiator. Cleo gave the shorter boy a wide smile and he returned the gesture before becoming distracted by his laptop. Cleo knew what he was doing, he was talking to some friends he had from across the globe- an Australian named Lachlan, two Canadians called Rob and Mitch, and two Americans called Preston and Jerome. He loved talking about them to people, and Cleo was one of the few people who actually listened.

After making sure the book store was good and there was no trouble she returned to the counter downstairs and she remained their for most of the evening.

She watched people come and go, selling the occasional book here and there. By 9 o'clock which was closing time the place was deserted. Cleo pulled down the metal shutters, collected her belongings and set up the security system. It was dark outside when she exited through the back entrance and she turned the key in the door to lock it.

She headed out of the back car park and noticed someone sitting on a bench, she saw he had his hood pulled over his head and she saw he was watching her. She quickened her pace, heading towards her home. She stuck to main roads rather than taking a back alley. She didn't dare look over her shoulder as she turned the corner and suddenly a hand grabbed her shoulder. She twisted round and shoved the hand away, pushing the hooded figure against a the wall. He winced in pain as his back hit the bricks and a few curse words fell from his lips.

He looked up at her from under the hood and her eyes met the deep blue eyes she had come to recognise and hate.

"Simon?!" She asks, her eyes narrowing in the low light of the street.

"I-I'm sorry for scaring you," He whispers and she rolls her eyes.

"Go home, I'm fed up with your shit, fuck off and leave me alone," Cleo says and Simon shakes his head, grabbing her wrist when she turned away.

She twisted round as she did before, prepared to slap him when her eyes caught sight of his, they were filled with tears, his upper lip had a cut and his left eye was black from bruising.

"I need help, please, Cleo, you're all I have," Simon says, his lips trembled as he spoke.

"You have friends, Simon, go to them," Cleo says and Simon shakes his head, he was gripping his ribs.

"I can't, Cleo, I just can't, I can't go to them, he'll find me, he always does, I need somewhere to stay and all I can think of is you and Harry, he doesn't know about you and Harry, please, Cleo," Simon pleads and Cleo stares into his eyes, they were glistening with tears.

"Fine, but you can't come in the house, we have a shed I can maybe get you some of Harry's clothes and some bedding...And some food, but nothing much else,"

"That's all I need, thank you Cleo, thank you," Simon whispers and Cleo nods.

She leads him along the street, and she leads him round the back of her house. She uses the back gate and leads Simon to the shed. He steps inside and sees its practically empty apart from a few tools, a lawn mower and a work bench. He sits down at the table and places his backpack on the floor.

"I'll be right back," Cleo says and Simon nods.

She heads round the front of her house, so not to raise suspicion. She enters and sees her father is in his office and her mother wasn't downstairs at all.

She heads upstairs and knocks gently on Harry's door.

"Come in," He says and she steps inside and looks round the messy room.

"I need some clothes," Cleo says and Harry looks confused.

"Got a boyfriend I don't know about?" Harry asks and Cleo shakes her head.

"If he's anyones boyfriend, he's yours," Cleo says and Harry's eyebrows furrow.

"What?"

"Simon Minter is in our shed," Cleo says and Harry's lips part.

"Well tell him to come up here,"

"Mom and dad will kill you, so no, he needs clothes and bedding," Cleo says and Harry just nods. Harry finds some clothes while Cleo collects some blankets and pillows from her own bedroom. She takes the clothes off Harry and then makes her way downstairs. Her father was most likely very busy and according to Harry their mother was in the bath.

"Cleo? Is that you?" Her father calls and Cleo freezes.

"Yeah!" She calls.

"What're you doing?" He replies and Cleo shuts her eyes and tries to think.

"I'm just grabbing a snack," Cleo says, "And I'm gonna eat it in the garden, you know, watch the stars, we're meant to have a meteor show,"

"Okay, well make sure you put on a coat, I don't want you freezing to death," Her father says and Cleo breathes a sigh of relief before making her way into the kitchen.

She grabs some biscuits and grabs some left over spaghetti bolognese from the fridge. She grabs some cutlery and a few bottles of water and then some orange juice. Cleo then takes the food out to Simon first and he thanks her before she leaves. She gathers the blankets and pillows and then notices the first aid kit. She grabs that too before heading down to Simon again. She makes him up a bed as best she can and then lights some candles that were sitting on a shelf in the shed. Simon sits down on the blankets and they keep the lights underneath the little windows. Cleo waits for Simon to eat and have a drink before she opens up the first aid kit.

"Let me help you," Cleo says and Simon nods. He pulls off his zip up jacket and Cleo watches as he struggles with the t-shirt.

"Need some help there?" Cleo asks and Simon nods. She crawls towards him and slowly lifts the shirt over his head, seeing the bruising that was scattered over his ribs, the cut above his lip and the blackness of his eye and cheek.

She pulls the first aid kit towards them and slowly works away at his eye and cheek, then she puts a bit of cream on his lip before looking at his rib.

"Do you have anything on your back?" She asks and Simon shakes his head, she could tell he was lying from his eyes.

"Don't lie, I don't want you getting an infection," Cleo says and reluctantly Simon turns around and Cleo's eyes widen at the sight.

10 deep slash wounds were scattered across his back, and there were about 15 other smaller ones that looked more like carpet burns than cuts.

"Holy shi-"

"Don't question me about it, please," Simon says, his voice was raspy and he sounds like he was in pain.

"Simon this is serious, how did you get these?"

"I said no questions," His voice is firmer this time.

"Okay, okay, but I just...I'm trying to help, I'm just trying to understand what the hell happened," Cleo says and Simon's head slumps.

"If you must know, my dad did it, when I got home, he...He does it often," Simon says, his voice breaking as he speaks softly.

Cleo could tell he was holding back tears even without seeing his face. He was broken, and Cleo wanted to mend him.

She gently rubs cotton wool balls soaked in rubbing alcohol across the wounds to stop infection, Simon bites his lip as the pain radiates each time she cleans a wound. She then rubs some ointment across the burn like wounds and then she wraps bandage after bandage around his body, using blasters where she could.

"That should be okay for awhile, but you'll need someone to change them after a day or so," Cleo says and Simon nods, turning back around.

"Here, Harry gave you some clothes to put on," Cleo says and she watched as Simon stands up and pulls down his jeans.

Cleo blinks and looks away her cheeks flushing red at the sight of him standing in only his boxer briefs.

"You can look if you want," Simon says, his voice wearing a suggestive tone.

"At least I know you're still an arrogant arsehole," Cleo says, forcing herself not to look as he pulls on the joggers that Harry gave her. They were we little short on the leg but he didn't care. He looked at the t-shirt and sighed.

"I hate to ask for another favour, but would you mind helping with the shirt again?" Simon asks and Cleo nods. She pulls the shirt slowly over his arms and then over his head and she pulls it down gently over his torso. He pulls his zip-up hoodie back on and gives Cleo a warm smile.

"Thank you, Cleo, thank you for everything," He says, gesturing to the surroundings.

"Its okay, will you be okay in here? I know it not very warm, but the blankets are quite thick," She says and Simon nods.

"Its okay, thank you," Simon says and he curls up under the blankets, sitting up to look at Cleo.

"I didn't realise you had such a shit life at home," Cleo says and Simon just looks away, "I'm sorry, I won't mention it again,"

"No, no its fine...Its just that...No one but Josh knows about it, thats one of the reasons I didn't want to go anywhere else, and my dad knows Josh is one of my friends, so I couldn't go to him," Simon explains and Cleo nods, "You were only person I could think of to go to, I'm sorry for being a burden,"

"You're not a burden, I'm happy to help, even though you're not exactly my favourite person after what you did earlier today," Cleo says and Simon looks away, he was embarrassed and angry about his actions.

"I didn't want it to go that far, but as soon as JJ started mouthing off- I just, I saw red, I couldn't stop myself....But you made me stop, you helped me stop," He says and Cleo looks up from her fumbling hands to his eyes.

She crawls a bit more forwards and leans closer to him. He freezes, he doesn't know how to react to her being so close, the girl he shoved against a wall in the alley all those years ago, the girl who he'd defended when his friends laughed at her or called her ugly or a slut, the girl who stopped him from carrying out what could have been a lethal act earlier today. Cleo leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek, watching his face glow red as he looked into her eyes. She moved back and looked at the boy who had been called notorious, she looked at the broken boy who was sitting in her shed, his eyes were hollow and his back was torn to shreds.

She wondered, how could someone
so lethal, be so loveable.

________________

Holy shit, that was one long ass chapter!

3024 words!

I hope you enjoyed the extra detail and conversation and I hope you enjoyed the character development and backstory we saw here.

Thank you for the continued support

~KatnissBajanCanadian❤