(this chapter contains graphic depictions of abuse and mentions of sexual themes)

JD ran up the fire escape of the beige apartment building he now occupied. He landed with a hard thump in what was hopefully the window to his room, managing to nearly roll his ankle in the process. You'd think with all the windows he's climbed through, he would be able to effortlessly glide into any wood-framed gap like Batman with an extra dose of majesty. But, no. He had yet to conquer the conflict of his awkward lankieness accompanied by an even more awkward amount of weight in form of muscle, not to mention the thick death trap of a coat he used to hide everything.

Nevertheless, he was right about which window to take. He wasn't always that lucky, though.

He did manage to trip over a suitcase in the hall on the way to the kitchen, falling on his face and lifting up into push up position to be greeted by the toes of his father's dark brown boots, right in his face. He weakly got up onto his feet again, blood trickling down from his nose. He didn't bother to wipe it away.

His father stood stone cold like a rough estimation of what a human should be, as sculpted by a giant jellyfish.

A menacing - but more so down right disturbing - grin was pasted right onto his face, underneath a sagging image of what used to be two, perfect eyes with 20/20 vision, but now drawn over with years of grime and wear.

JD mockingly flashed his teeth in response, attempting to step out around his dad. This was stopped by an open palm being slammed into the wall in front of him, almost clotheslining him. He was used to noises like and similar to an angry palm on a wall, and one thing he knew by now, was that they didn't sound intimidating. Sure, with all senses activated they can endure a bit of shock, even after all that time, but the sound subtracted from the spookiness. The closest comparison would be the sound of a puny stack of papers being weakly slammed on a table.

He was metaphorically (but in some sense also literally) trapped. He could turn around, awkwardly limbo under the appendage, or face him "like a man".

While the first two sounded more appetizing, a severe lack of self control lead straight to option three.

"Move."

"I don't think so. I need to have a word with you. " a stone cold voice to match the stone cold face like a two-piece Gucci bathing suit.

"I don't want to talk to you." JD weakly murmured back.

"That's not an option young ma-"

"I'm almost 18, I'm not a young man anymore." JD stepped backward to reluctantly stand his ground, making eye contact.

"Excuse me? You don't have a choice. You live under MY roof, you live by MY rules, and I own you until I kick your ass to the curb. Got it?" He shook with anger.

"I'm not afraid of you. " He mumbled.

"what?"

"I said I'm not afraid of you!" He shouted now.

And with a wordless response, JD was struck with a closed fist, quickly cracking his bottom lip open like a snake bite piercing.

He fell with the hit, dropping to the floor like a bowling ball. He quickly stood back up and ran past his father, down the hall and out the front door, only stopping once he'd made it down the sidewalk and took three turns into a cemetery.

He calmed down and leaned up against the tombstone of some lucky bitch, sliding to sit down.

Suddenly, Deepthroat by Cupcakke was playing. JD's phone vibrated in his pocket. He retrieved it and answered before looking, as he already knew who it was.

"Well hello there" He said in a disturbingly calm voice.

On the other side was not as calm.

"O-Oh heeey... It's Jeremy from uh-um 7/11, earlier today? I-I don't know if you remember me or anything but I-"

"Yes, Jeremy. I remember you. Is this a scheduling call?" JD finally decided to cut off Jeremy's stammering and rescue him from the embarrassment. He smiled.

"Schedule? Ehewhuu... I wanted to hang out, if you're up to it, I mean?" Any fool could tell Jeremy was nervous.

"I'm at the cemetery on" He paused and looked around, "Pines. Come join me if you're brave enough. " You could hear the smile of both encouragement and reassurance as Jeremy scrambled to accept the offer. The phone clicked goodbye and JD threw his head back against the tombstone.

A deep sigh escaped his bloodied lips, leaving a temporary smoke trail in the cold air.

The moon reflected off the shiny tip of his black combat boots, giving little light in the otherwise pitch black lot. He waited patiently for his new fling, hoping the bleeding would stop soon. It had stopped by the time Jeremy arrived, now scabbed over.

Jeremy stepped out of his dads car and entered the cemetery. It was peaceful, which scared him more than the fact there were hundreds of bodies below his feet.

"Hi" Jeremy said with a synthetic sweetness.

"Greetings and salutations. Sit sit. " JD patted the ground beside him as Jeremy owed and sat beside him, only a half a foot apart.

"What happened to your mouth?" Jeremy had moved a bit to face JD.

"My dad. I'm fine" He lied.

"Shit, dude, are you okay? That's fucked up!" Jeremy leaned in a bit.

"Seriously, it's fine. I don't care anymore. "

"Anymore!?" Jeremy shrieked. "How long has he been hitting you?"

"It's not like I didn't deserve it-"

"are you kidding? Doesn't it hurt?"

"Of course it hurts, but it's not like I have people to kiss."

Jeremy became flustered.

"That's beside the point!"

"Jeremy calm down its fine, I just-"

"No! It's not fine! That's seriously fucked up! If he really hits you that just makes him weak and pathetic. For whatever reason he's doing it, it's not good enough. He obviously just hates himself and takes it out on you! Why haven't you called CPS or something-"

That made his heart stop. He wanted Jeremy to stop talking, so in the moment of desperation, he risked the pain and kissed him lazily. Once he pulled away, Jeremy was even more flustered, and strangely comfortable.

Jeremy hesitantly kissed him back, softly as to not hurt his already bruised lip.

JD was into the kiss but he didn't know why. But what do you do when you taste something delicious? You keep tasting it until you can't anymore. He moved in and put a hand on the side of Jeremy's face, kissing him slowly. After a few seconds, JD pulled away and moved to kiss Jeremy's neck, earning a soft noise from him.

"Th-that tickles" he whispered, but didn't stop him.

JD moved quicker, sucking a light mark into Jeremy's neck.

This earned a much greater response, as Jeremy hummed out a whiny moan.

JD smiled rather innocently, running his hand up Jeremy's thigh. Jeremy caught his breath.

"I-Ive never really done this"

"What is it you think we're doing?"

"Um... It"

"Would you like that?" JD teased, going back to sucking light marks on Jeremy's neck.

"I'm not really sure" Jeremy whispered.

JD paused, pulling away to look at Jeremy. "We don't have to do anything, you know" he reassured.

Jeremy nodded, a small smile. "I haven't even really kissed a guy before, until now... I kinda would want my literal first time to be with somebody... Special. I know that sounds cheesy, but-"

"No, I get it. You don't have to give me a reason. " JD smiled.

"Well... C-could we still kiss, maybe..? " Jeremy was still flustered, but more comfortable knowing he didn't have to do anything too much.

JD responded with another kiss, sweet and slow. It was actually peaceful. JD wasn't used to just taking things slow and steady. He only had about 6 weeks in each town, so he was used to a quick fuck and leaving without a goodbye. He may not have been head over heels, but it felt good to be able to kiss somebody in the middle of the night at a cemetery.

Jeremy usually cared about romance, at least to an extent, but he felt comfortable even making out 6 feet above a corpse. JD was charming, and obviously bent, and for some reason Jeremy felt really cool around him. He didn't feel special or different, but he felt like he might just be cool enough to smoked a blunt with Michael later and not instantly choke and die.

Then, like a bean from the heavens, but actually just a (light) beam from a flashlight slightly above them. They both jumped and scooted away to be greeted by a cackling nerd.

Standing there was none other than Jared Kleinman, laughing his ass off.

"Who are you?!" JD interrogated.

Jeremy pinched the bridge of his nose. "My friend Jared"

Jared wheezed. "YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN YOUR FACES! PRICELESS, MAN!"

"ITS NOT FUNNY, YOU SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF US!" JD retorted.

"How did you know we were here?" Jeremy pondered.

"I live like a block down. I saw you drive by and thought I'd humor myself. I've been standing here for like 5 minutes" Jared punctuated with another laugh.

"That's creepy Jared. Like, even for you." Jeremy sighed

The comment bothered Jared, but he hid it with his shit eating grin.

"So when did you start dating this Goth twink?" Jared attempted a better insult but failed.

"We're not dating" Jeremy was quick to respond. A bit too quick.

Jared fake gasped. "Is Jere-Bear sleeping around?"

Jeremy grimaced. "Shut up Jared. And don't call me that"

"Whatever. Michael probably won't be happy to hear the news."

Before Jeremy could defend himself, Jared was walking off. He sighed and apologized to JD.

"He's an asshole and not in the good way" JD's face felt flat.

"I don't know why he's being such a dick, he's usually only tastefully douchey."

JD decided to let it roll off his back. "It's fine."

"Are you sure?"

"yeah" JD smiled sincerely at Jeremy.

There was a silence.

JD wanted to ask about Michael but knew that it would just make things tense again.

"Hey, wanna see something cool?" JD stood up and held out a hand for Jeremy.

"Oh, sure" Jeremy took JD's hand and stood up, but JD didn't let go of his hand. Jeremy didn't let go either. Cool.

JD led them both to an old, gross cube building with a ladder on the side. JD thew his arm put towards the ladder. "M'lady"

Jeremy laughed. He took the invitation, climbing up. JD followed, enjoying the view.

Once they both got the the mossy roof, JD plopped down on his back and looked at the sky. Jeremy questioned the cleanliness of this, but laid down anyways.

JD pointed up towards the sky. "See that cluster of stars right there?"

"yeah"

"What does it look like to you?"

"Um... A pair of scissors?" He guessed. "What is it supposed to be?"

"I have no fuckin clue" JD laughed and Jeremy facepalmed.

Jeremy scooted a bit closer to JD. Their hands brushed together and JD moved his hand onto his chest. Jeremy boldly grabbed his hand and set it between them without a word. JD smiled.