A loud scream erupted from Bryce's lips as he sat up in a cold sweat, trail of tears run down his cheeks and he begins to shiver feverishly. It takes him a few, brief moments to realize where he was and even longer to calm down from the rush. He breathes in through his nose slowly and then letting it out in shaky breaths as he stared at the wooden texture in front of him He doesn't remember falling asleep on the cold, hard floor, but it must have been around the time that he started to blame himself for his current predicament. He rubbed his eyes to help take away the sleepy state he just came back from before attempting to stand.
Bryce managed to wobble up as he used his legs and got on top of the bed, just sitting there to catch his bearings. He blinked once, gathering up any strength and bared through the pain that the older man would leave him in every once in a while. Bryce felt a little better than yesterday as his back slowly stopped aching and his marks started to heal again. He couldn't go out in public like this, it was embarrassing when everyone turned to stare. His neighbors, he was sure, were already talking about him and about Ryan because Bryce knows when he is quiet and when he's not.
Bryce walked to the small, lilac colored bathroom with the intent to shower and turned briefly to look at himself in the mirror. He was a mess on two legs in comparison to his usual bubbly self and that would worry people close to him, well, almost all of them. He stared at the reflection with a look of pure hatred, his lithe, tall body would attract anyone, but not for the right reasons. He hated the way he looked because he thought it was the only reason that Ryan was still with him. Bryce felt tears building up again, but immediately shut them out before walking up to the shower and turning on the water.
A familiar ringtone caught Bryce's attention as he waited for the water warm up, but decided to ignore it until after his shower. He stuck his hand underneath the water from the shower head for a brief moment and decided it was warm enough. He stepped into the small space and the hot water burned him for a bit before it did wonders on his sore body. Letting out a sigh of content, Bryce stood underneath the water, just staring at the lilac ceiling up above. The one color that used to calm him, now triggers a deep, heart wrenching pain that shakes him to the core.
Bryce doesn't notice he's crying until he snaps out of his stupor and can't see anything due to the tears in his eyes. He lets out a quick sniffle before angrily wiping the tears off his eyes and began cleaning himself off. He scrubs angry red marks around his body to try and clean himself off of the dirtiness he feels, making his body complain in return. By the end of his cleansing process, he is bleeding from his arms and legs, but the anger is still there. Bryce finishes by scrubbing his hair off of any store brand shampoo and conditioner, making sure all of the water dripping turned clear.
Turning off the water, he steps out of the tub and walks back into his room, ignoring the water dropping in large amounts. Bryce grabs a clean towel and wraps his hair up, trying to keep dry long enough to be able to change. His phone goes off in a loud tone as a notification makes his screen light up showing four missing calls and two new messages. He glanced briefly at the notifications before walking casually up to his dresser and retrieved some boxers.
Bryce stared blankly at the underwear, mind thinking of nothing and everything all at once. But a new notification brought him back into reality and he put on his boxers with a heavy mind. He then walked off to his closet and picked out a dark blue t-shirt and light blue jeans, making it his outfit for the day. The cold air pricked at Bryce's naked skin and he lightly scratched at the red marks unconsciously as he placed the clothing down.
Bryce reached for his phone, but the blood on his scratches started to burn again, so he ran to the bathroom. Upon setting foot in the small lilac room, he was instantly reminded of everything that went wrong, but he chose to ignore it, grabbing the lotion from the cabinet. He sat himself on the toilet seat and opened the bottle, the light pink lotion refusing to fall into his palm. Bryce let out a frustrated sigh and shockingly, lightly tapped on the bottom end to try and get it to come out instead of throwing it against the wall like all the other times.
Seeing as it worked, Bryce applied the lotion all over his reddened skin and waited with patience as the itching faded away. His skin had soaked up the lotion like a sponge and he decided to finally change into the clothing awaiting him on his bed. Passing by the mirror on the way back, Bryce gave a quick glance towards his reflection and saw nothing but misery. He let out a choked laugh, not giving himself time to pity what the reflection showed and continued towards his clothes. He picked up the shirt and it resulted a grave mistake as a certain smell hit his nose instantly. It was Rosemary and a hint of black coffee.
Bryce's breath escaped his lungs as the scent overtook him, filling him with a deep, painful sorrow strong enough to make him cry again. It was Ryan's scent. No- it was the scent that had greeted him before this entire mess had come into light. It was Ohmwrecker's scent. Thinking back on it now, although both people shared the same body, they didn't share the same mind at this point. Ohm was kind and caring. He made sure that his voice was heard when someone he cared for was in need and would ignore any resistance from doing so. Meanwhile, Ryan is nothing but the aftermath of what was left behind after a long term relationship had ended, a shell, an empty container ready to be filled with whatever got to it first.
Focusing on those thoughts, Bryce wondered what would have happened if he gave Ryan love and support like a normal friend would have in his time of need, instead of offering up his body like some cheap, two-dollar whore. Would things be different if that had happened or would he have ended up in the same place? The dark thoughts made their way into his mind and webbed themselves there, entangling and trapping more optimistic thoughts even more. As this played off, Bryce convinced himself that he would never be able to obtain happiness due to all his mistakes in the past year.
Managing to grasp reality again, Bryce threw the shirt to the back of his closet and settled on a maroon shirt instead. He changed quickly into the clothes after air drying himself off and walked over to get his phone. There were more notifications than before and his eyes widened with surprise, he didn't expect more messages. They were all from Michelle, one of his closest friends. He gave out a small smile at the thought of his equally tall mother-friend. The messages showed how motherly she was of him; it started off with a question and was immediately pushed with worry right after.
Bryce started to go through all of the messages, trying to get his notifications to stop going insane so they would not kill his phone. It started off, "Good Morning Bryce! 3" and switched to another tone of "Bryce, how are you, you haven't responded to anyone's messages for ages now." Bryce chuckled when he read the first five messages that showed Michelle going into protective mother status, "Bryce please answer, you're making me worry." Or "Bryce, I'm not going to wait any longer, I'm coming over right now."
An eerie feeling settled itself into Bryce's bones as he stayed quiet long enough to hear his cat, Ellie, meowing by the window in the other room. He jumped at the impact between the hard wood and a hand knocking at the door. Bryce stood still, as if his actions would help him hide his position, hopefully Michelle might leave if she didn't find him, but he failed as he let out a loud shriek. He heard Michelle go from knocking at his door to pounding at his door while screaming, "Bryce, I will break this fucking door down if you don't open it in the next five seconds!" He made sure he was dressed before rushing over to the door, already hearing the pounding die down to a weak knock.
Upon opening the door, Bryce was attacked with a strong bear hug from Michelle, taking out all the air out of his lungs and diaphragm. She held onto him as if he would disappear again once she let go, but she knew better than that. Catching her breath and making sure he wouldn't disappear again, she slowly let go of Bryce, hoping he wouldn't break or anything. It was one thing to match his height of over six feet, but it was another to match strength with one another. Bryce slowly moved his body away from her as the aching intensified and he felt his body go up flames. It must have shown because the look on his face was a mix between pain and shock after the hug attack.
His body tensed up right after the sudden contact as if he was uncomfortable with what had just happened. His glassy, baby-blue orbs lit up with an unknown emotion as they widened even more, jolting him awake. His shiny white teeth had exposed themselves as a hiss left his mouth in a low, immediate reaction. His deathly pale skin only worked to concern his motherly friend more as if he had refused any food from the last time she saw him. Although, it did seem like Bryce had grown a good bit in the past two months that she didn't see him.
She showed concern in her eyes and through her voice as she said, "Bryce? I texted you last week if you would like to come over today, but you never replied. When you didn't reply to the texts and the calls I sent you today, I got worried about your safety. You always answer my calls, so, I'm sorry Bryce." Bryce made sure to let her finish before explaining what he was actually doing. He did his best to calm the her as he gently laid his hand on her shoulder and made her focus on his eyes. "Michelle, please calm down, I wasn't doing anything bad while you texted me. I was actually taking a shower, so I could get ready for the day."
Michelle stared at him for a good while before deciding that what he was saying was the truth. She looked around his home and saw that the mess present was worse than anything Bryce was capable of by himself. "Bryce what the hell happened to your house!?" She stepped in and took a look around finding the kitchen nearly spotless, save for the dust gathering up everywhere. Bryce immediately panicked and started running after the tall brunette trying to get her to stop what she was doing. "Minxy! What are you doing!? Leave my house alone! I was going to cleanup soon anyways, just please stop!" The fear of her snooping around made his nickname for her slip out, but neither noticed as they continued what they were doing.
Eventually, Bryce caught her going to his room as he made a beeline to the destination before her. Just as she arrived to the door, he was already there, ready to block her path towards the entrance of the room. "Michelle, what do you think you're doing?" Michelle paused and looked at Bryce in the eye, immediately noticing the pale, frightened expression on the younger man's face. They stood there for what seemed like forever before the earsplitting ringtone, Michelle had set as a default, rang throughout the hallway. Staring at Bryce a little longer, Michelle answered her phone, "Hello?... Oh! Yes, yes, I found him at his apartment…"
Michelle stayed quiet for a while, her smile dropping from her face and her eyes traveling from the ceiling to Bryce himself. Bryce felt her gaze pierced through him and he shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably, waiting for her to finish. Bryce bit his lip a little before looking anywhere but his friend who stood in front of him. Michelle hummed softly every once in a while, an indication that she was responding to whoever was talking with her. Letting out a sigh, she said goodbye and hung up, "Bryce come on, Krism wants to see you too, so let's go meet her okay?"
The car parked into the driveway of a nice lavender painted house with a large, white-stone fence. The uneasiness in Bryce's stomach did not settle down on the ride here, and the fact that Michelle hadn't stopped staring at him since she hung up, only heightened his anxiety. As he unbuckled his seatbelt slowly, he could see her from the corner of his eye, just staring at him with questioning gaze. His throat ran dry and he felt the cold winter wind penetrate his thin jacket as he swallowed the lump in his throat. The dark thoughts were back in his head, as if the wind had invited them in through his skin.
Bryce shakes his head to clear his mind off of any thoughts and closes the car door behind him before heading towards the porch. As he went up the steps, he felt a sudden weight settle onto his shoulders and he let out a soft exhale. Bryce heard Krism more than actually saw the smaller girl as she ran at him then latched herself onto him. The lines of reality and memory fade a little more in Bryce's mind as he cautiously wraps his arms around her.
Michelle's voice sounded distant to Bryce as she called his name from across the room various times. Bryce barely got a chance to turn around and land his eyes on her before feeling the cold ground beneath him. His mind blanked as things sped by in a blink of an eye, everything seemed to happen so fast to him. The only things he hears is the sound of sirens and the voices of the only two people who would worry about him. A slight smile decorates his face as the cold stops bothering him.
It's when he hears the doors close and a slight gasp that he remembers the marks on his skin. The warmth seeps into his bare torso and he starts shivering at the change in temperature. The cold is the last thing he remembers as everything fades to black.