Nico Pov

I decided to take my sweet time going back to the deep dark pit of the despair that is my house. By the time I rounded the corner to my block It was half four in the afternoon, two hours after school ended,I'm late. I don't seem to care. I blankley stare ahead and let all thoughts leave my mind, only listening to the sound of the electricity buzzing in the air. Before I know it I'm at my house. The homey looking exterior fools the rest of the inhabitants of the neighborhood. All white two story building with a tall white picket fence. I gingerly open the door only to be tackled down as soon as my left for crosses the threshold. The tongue lashing begins. I can't hear anything he says or feel the pain of the whip that is being brought down across my raw back. I'm numb to everything.

Something cracks and immediately all the air is knocked out of my lungs. I'm hacking up blood and I'm struggling for breath. I try to move but that only makes something else break. I see black dots and swirling in my vision. I feel the hot tears flowing in pools down my face. I feel blood flowing down my abdomen. I think that's it's over and I'm finally dying and before I completely pass out I hear sirens. The darkness consumes me.

I woke up with tremors running through my body, a cold sweat sending shivers throughout my spine, breathing frantically. I looked at my clock, it flashed 1:00. I took deep breaths, trying to calm my wildly beating heart. I got up from my bed and made my way to the bathroom. I turned on the cold water and splashed my feverish feeling face, the coolness calming my rattled nerves. I looked into the mirror. There were deep, bruise looking bags underneath my eyes, my cheeks were sunken and hollow. My lips were dry and cracked to the point of bleeding and my eyes were red and teary. My hair was wet with sweat and it framed my haggard looking face. All in all I looked atrocious.

This wasn't the first time I had this dream. In fact I have been having them for the past two weeks since I left Leo staring after me in the library. Ever since that day I had an eerie feeling that something was off. I still got the daily beatings from my father, and he never got any kinder but it never made me feel like running. I always used to accept my fate and go on as normal but every since Leo offered to be my friend I felt as though I had a place to go where I could be safe. I've never had such a surge of blind hope ever since mammina and sorellina... I stopped myself right there, refusing to even let my thoughts wander into that treacherous territory of the past.

I let myself sink to the floor, my back pressing against the cabinet below the sink, my head in my hands, I rock back and forth slowly. This was my daily routine and it work as much as water washing away oil. But this left me more rattled than usual, leaving me to do the one thing that i haven't done since the funeral. I sobbed myself to sleep.

The next time I woke up it was five am, time to start to get ready for school. My bones popped as I rose from my fetal position against the bathroom cabinet. I stripped my clothes and stepped into the cold shower. I let the cool water loosen my muscles, and run through my scalp. I take a quick shower and then step out. I hastily make my way to my room. BY the times I was finished gathering my stuff it was six. I quietly made my way down the stairs, hoping not to wake my father up. I was lucky, he was passed out on the couch bottles of beer and whisky surrounding him. I opened the door and left.

To say that the school day sucked is an understatement. So first off it was raining and everytime a car passed I got soaked to the bone, I was freezing, and to top it all off I arrived late and got a late slip and my house will be called. I had no change of clothes so I had to stay in soaking wet clothes all day in hour long classes. My first class today was Math with Mrs Dodds, or Alecto the fury as I like to call her. She had wrinkly skin and sharp claw like nails. She always wore a black leather jacket that looked like it was made out of bat wings.

"Mr. DiAngelo Your Late!" the obnoxious lady screeched like a harpy, "DETENTION!" I cast my eyes downwards and scurried towards my seat in the back row, trying to ignore the billions of eyes staring up at me. I felt like hitting my head repeatedly against the desk. I always tried to get to class on time to avoid this fate, but alas sometimes I fail miserably a this task and give my father one more reason to pummel me. It wasn't always like this though. There was a time where I used to smile and laugh and play. I was a small innocent child back then without a care in the world. But as soon as that car came around, with its fancy rims and lightning bolt silver coating, everything went to shit.

I felt the tears silently roll down my cheeks. I don't know why I decided that now was the right time to deal with what happened what seems like years ago, but lately I feel like I can never keep my emotions in check. I feel like the beatings are becoming a little to much to bare and someday very soon I'm going to snap and the end results won't be pretty.

I felt a hand tapping my shoulder lightly, My head snapped up to face tender, warm, brown eyes. I knew from the moment I saw them who the owner of the hand was.

"What's wrong Nico?" Leo said, he tenderly stroked away the tears that fell on my cheeks.

"Nothing," I said brushing him off and looking the other direction, "Just leave me alone okay.I don't need your pity.

"That's not what I'm trying to give you. Just the friendship I think you might need."

"Look I-" "No, stop," he cut me off. "You clearly have things that you need to deal with, and I know that you don't want to talk about it with someone you just met. Believe me I know, but all I'm offering you is a chance to at least let someone care." He said with a smile. "Let me be there for you, Please?" Leo covered my hand with his and grabbed my face to make me face him.

"What makes you think that you know shit about what I'm going through." I whispered.

"Because I see that look in your eyes. That look of raw anguish,that only loss and suffering can portray. I've seen that look in the mirror. I know how it feels and I've gone through it alone." He cast me a look of understanding, his grip on my hand tightened every so slightly. " I don't want to see that happen to you, not if I can do something about it." Leo pleaded with my with his eyes, "Please, let me be there to lessen that pain."

I was out of words. I couldn't even begin to comprehend how such a carefree looking guy could understand what I was going through, but somehow I knew he was telling the truth and knew I could trust him with my life just by that look in his eyes. It took me a while to respond but after a minute of complete silence I looked at him a nodded.

A/N: Sorry for such the late update. This is not the end of the chapter, just piece of it. The rest will be uploaded soon. Thanks for the views and support guys. Reviews make me update faster if you know what I mean. Please I need the critiques. Have a lovely day lovies.