Chapter 14

Dougie's P.O.V

I ran out of Danny's house faster than I had ever ran before, the pain from my nose which was probably broken was causing my head to spin. I can't believe he punched me, I know I had been shouting at him but that was no excuse, I really can't believe Danny, of all people, was the one to do that.

I'd been walking for what felt like hours when I came across a small coffee shop, I reached in my pocket and found a £2 coin, just enough to buy a nice hot latte. I sat in the booth by the window after I had ordered my drink and waited for the waiter to pass it to me. "Here's your drink." A small man with jet black hair handed me my drink and went to walk away before turning back to me. "Do you want a tissue of something for your nose?" I had completely forgotten it was bleeding and nodded my head gratefully. The man reached his hand in to his pocket and gave me a tissue to clear up my nose. "It looks like it might be broken. You should go to a hospital or something." I looked up at him and his eyes were a deep blue, just like Danny's so I looked away, I didn't want to see anything to do with Danny again. "I will, thanks. How much is the latte?" The man smiled slightly and then shook his head. "It's on the house." I was about to say thanks but he walked away, humming a tune that I had heard before but I couldn't quite remember what it was.

When I had finished my drink, I walked out of the coffee shop and tried to remember where dad lived because London looks really different in the dark. I carried on walking forward untill I found a street that I regonised, I was just around the corner from dad's house so I turned the corner and slowly walked up to the front door. I knocked really quietly, secretly hoping that he wouldn't hear me and I wouldn't have to go in but the door swung wide open almost a second later and there he was, the man who I ran away from only to come back so I had somewhere to go. "Where the fuck have you been for the past week?" My dad growled at me. "I was planning to break your nose when you came back but I see someone's already done that. I'll figure out something later. Upstairs now!" I ran past him and up to my room with no hesitation and crouched down on the mattress. The pain from my nose was becoming unbearable and I could feel myself slowly loosing conciousness. Everything suddenly went all blurry and I fainted. I wasn't scared or anything though because I was glad to finally be able to rest after walking for hours. Sleep was something I had begun to love more than anything else (apart from playing music) since I met Danny because I no longer had nightmares, he had saved me from that but I had a feeling that tonight, the dreams would come flooding back since I didn't have Danny there to protect me anymore.

Danny's P.O.V

My mind was still unable to register what had just happened properly. Images kept flashing in my eyes of Dougie's bleeding nose, his eyes full of fear, the way he cowered away from me when I reached to comfort him. I had been the worst friend ever. To start with, I had told my best friend's secrets to my other best friends when he didn't want me to and I had broken his nose when he was telling me how he felt about it. Oh, did I forget to mention that I had caused his to run back to his dad who beats him up? I didn't? Sorry. Must have slipped my mind.

I knew that I wasn't going to get to sleep that night and to be honest I wasn't really planning on it, I was busy waiting for my mobile phone to ring and Dougie being on the other side, letting me know that he was coming back even though I knew the chances of that are really slim. I thought about calling him but decided against it because I'm pretty certain that he won't want to talk to me and even if he does his dad might hear it and take it away, destroying any way of contact we might have if he ever needed help.

I went to join my mum, dad and Vicky for dinner when mum called me but when I sat at the dining table everyone was looking at me with confused expressions. "Where's Dougie?" Dad asked me. "Erm... he went back home." I was quite nervous because I thought everyone was going to ask me for reasons why but they just nodded and started to eat their dinner. It was really quiet at the dinner table that evening because it was strange that Dougie wasn't there, everyone had gotten really attached to him and we always had a good laugh when he was there. Me and Vicky always used kick each other under the table but Vicky always ended up kicking Dougie as well so he kicked her back and it ended up a big war thing, causing us all to burst out laughing. Even though he had only been here for a week he really did feel like part of the family and now that he wasn't here, there was kind of space and think everyone else felt it too. "Do you want me to eat Dougie's food?" I felt glad that I had broken the awkward silence that had settled over the table. "If you want." My mum replied. I ate it and then headed back up to my room only to fall asleep right when my head hit the pillow despite what I had thought earlier about not being able to get to sleep, I guess dinner with the Jones' really is tiring.