The sound of thunder and rainfall was always Scott's favorite way to fall asleep. This night, however, was a different story. He found it hard to sleep knowing that Gene was in the living room more than likely a crying wreck curled up on the sofa as Scott was in Gene's bed, as per offered. The calls had been made by Gene to the rest of the Belcher family as well as Logan's. Scott lived with his mother, who loved him dearly, but unfortunately had such a busy schedule while being in the athletic career, therefore leaving Scott and his pet cockatoo Lemondrop to fend for themselves.
Scott had a mental battle with himself, trying to decide if he should get up and go comfort Gene or just stay in his bed. Before he could come to a decision, though, Scott heard the bedroom door creak open followed by sniffling noises.
"Hey, Scott, are you awake?" Gene hiccupped into the dark. Scott could just barely make out Gene's swollen eyes and tearstained cheeks. He smiled and whispered, "Yeah, c'mere." Rubbing his eyes, Gene gave a small grin before making his way into the bed, crawling next to the tall blonde. "Hey, you alright?" Scott cooed into Gene's ear. Trying not to cry, Gene simply clung to him, getting Scott's bare chest wet with the drying tearstains on his cheeks. Scott held him close and kissed the top of the dark brunette's head while rubbing his back. The two fell asleep in Gene's bed as the sky outside flashed with lightning.
Courtney pouted under her lavender raincoat's hood, holding her small purple umbrella as she walked alone in the rain. Her black rainboots were beat up and scuffed. Courtney had been walking to school for as long as she could remember. At least in high school, anyway. Her black nails were ruined with paint stains all over her hands, which she tended to cover up with arm warmers. She had been questioned a few times if she wore arm warmers because she cut herself, and she always thought it was ridiculous. She had enough problems without her blood all over the place.
Looking up ahead of her, she spotted someone down the sidewalk. A tall figure clad in only a black leather jacket over her usual attire, it took Courtney a few moments to figure out it was Alexis. She wasn't sure how to proceed; Louise had seemed unnaturally quiet about her new relationship with the grim redhead. Lost in her thoughts, Courtney didn't notice the jutted out edge of sidewalk in her path.
Scraping her chin and making a few skid marks on the arm of her raincoat, Courtney grunted in pain, then slowly started to lift herself back up with her arms, shaking. She had seen people do that in anime and movies and crap, but she never actually had dramatically picked herself up off the ground before. Before she knew it, Courtney was face to face with a pair of combat boots with chains scattered everywhere, a few resting on the wet ground.
Alexis picked up the purple umbrella then squatted on the ground, helping Courtney up. The smaller girl refused to look Alexis in the eyes. "Thanks," she muttered, in too much pain to be her usual naïve self. Courtney was the type who had never broken a bone, but with that came a penalty: she bruised easily. And the added fact she was clumsy didn't help at all. The natural blonde used the aforementioned arm warmers as well as leggings and fishnets, anything to help hide the bruises. Her dad wasn't abusive, in fact he was terrified when it came to violence, but Courtney knew that these days, everybody talks.
"Hey, aren't you Rabbit Ears's friend?"
Snapping back to reality, Courtney looked at her. It took her a moment to register that she meant Louise. "Uh, yeah, I am. Courtney Wheeler," she replied. Alexis let go of her, handed her her umbrella, and began walking away as if nothing had ever happened.
"Hey, wait up!" Courtney ran after the woman, not quite done with her yet. Alexis kept walking as the black haired girl caught up beside her. "Why doesn't Louise ever talk about you to me? Every time I ask, she-" "None of your business, babe," Alexis answered angrily. Courtney frowned. She may have been annoying, but Courtney knew something was bothering the redhead, and she wasn't about to give up.
"What's wrong?" she pleaded. Alexis looked down at the wet sidewalk ahead of her, eyes half lidded. This chick isn't going to leave, is she? But why…?
"Have you ever felt like a monster? Like you know you're hurting someone and you just don't care?" she said quietly into the air. Courtney looked at her, not saying a word. "Forget it," Alexis said, walking faster. She kept walking before she felt a hand slip into her own.
"The first step in destroying that monster is admitting you have a problem…and I'm proud of you," Courtney smiled, squeezing Alexis's hand. The redhead blushed. Courtney was a looker for sure, but for most it was because of her purple tipped hair and hipster glasses. Alexis was confused, shouldn't she be giving off a scary demeanor with her countless tattoos? "Get lost, kid," Alexis snarled. Courtney just laughed. "We're the same age…" The redhead sighed, clearly annoyed.
"God, you're clingy," she groaned. Courtney's mind flashed back to her brief romance with Gene. Her eyes dulled as she sadly remembered the one sided relationship. Alexis took note of this. "What's up?" she asked, disgusted to realize there was a hint of worry in her own voice.
"Just thinking of the past," Courtney mumbled, the grip on her umbrella handle loosening, causing the umbrella to fall once more.
Picking up the open umbrella, Alexis stood close to the other girl, holding the umbrella under the two. They stayed this way in complete silence all the way to school.
Gene stirred a bit before waking up. It was midafternoon at this point. Sitting up in his bed, the larger man looked down at the sleeping blonde before him. Oh God, he even looks cute sleeping. Eyeing Scott's lips, the musician blushed. No, I shouldn't…but…he is asleep…he won't know, right? Yeah…
Leaning down, Gene felt his face heat up as his lips moved closer. What am I doing…? He sat back up. …Something I really want to do…so, it's okay, right? One kiss. He won't even know I ever kissed him.
Taking a deep breath, Gene leaned down somewhat fast, feeling his face heat up once more the moment their lips touched. His eyebrows furrowed in paranoia, just wanting to kiss him quickly and go. Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygo- Gene started to slowly lift his head back, almost parting his lips from Scott's before he felt a hand on the back of his head pushing him back in. Scott's cheeks flushed as he kissed Gene back softly. Gene just froze the entire time in shock and amazement. He still couldn't accept the fact this guy liked him, let alone was currently kissing him.
After what felt like ages but was only seconds, Scott took his hand away from the chocolate hair he had desperately wanted to run his fingers through. Gene exhaled, still blushing. "You're awake," he said nervously, moving his head away from Scott's. The blonde giggled, "Good morning." He smiled warmly.
"…Yes."
Scott sat up, looking at Gene. "Yes what?" he asked, confused and somewhat dazed from just waking up. The other man smiled, blushing.
"Yes, Scott, I'll go out with you," Gene whispered nervously, red as all holy hell. Scott grinned, his eyes brightening a tad. "R-Really?!" he beamed. The larger man nodded, smiling shyly. The dusty blonde leaned forward and kissed Gene on the forehead before getting up and picking up his dirty shirt from the floor. It was at that moment that Gene realized Scott had slept in his boxers. "Um, hey, Gene, could I…" Scott turned to him, Gene looking flustered, "…borrow a shirt?" As he finished the sentence he ended it with a chuckle. "Dude, I'm not like frickin' Jason Mewes over here; I mean, I'm not that good looking," he laughed. Gene smiled a bit. "You're right. You're better than him, Scott," he teased, getting up and started walking out the bedroom door. "I'm gonna go get a shirt from Logan's room," he said. Scott waited. "You know I meant Jason Mewes in the 90's, right?" Gene yelled after him. Scott just laughed, "Yes, Gene."
"Dammit, his room is locked," Gene groaned as he came back into the room moments later. Scott shrugged, "I don't mind, I mean, I guess I could wear a shirt of yours or something? Why is his room locked, anyway? We're on the second floor." Gene started going through his closet. "He's paranoid, it's a long story that's a lot more involved than you think and to be honest I forgot most of it. I was being mind numbed at the time by Jersey Shore, anyway. I wanted to see how bad it really was, and boy, it was worse than I thought," he said, pulling out a large red t-shirt. "No exotic guido dancers anywhere!" As he turned around, Gene slipped on a stack of old schoolwork papers he had carelessly thrown to the side. He fell into the closet, landing uncomfortably on a pile that was mostly garbage, shoes, and dirty clothes. Rushing over, Scott started to help Gene up. "Here, let me help you come out of the closet," he snickered before kissing Gene's cheek. Gene groaned, "Oh my Goddd, your jokes are terrible." The blonde laughed.
Slipping the red shirt on, it was a bit over sized for Scott, but it worked for now. "Eh, just throw your jacket over it," Gene said. Scott looked at him and smiled. The brunette looked at his now-boyfriend, blushing. "What is it?" Scott asked quietly, putting an arm around the musician, pulling him close. Gene just kept staring, his face turning crimson. "Gene, what's wrong, swee-" Scott was cut off as Gene wrapped his arms around him and kissed him slowly. The blonde blushed deeply as this was the first time they had kissed while he was completely awake. He shut his eyes and kissed back.
Louise rummaged through her locker hurriedly, her sister next to her. "C'mon Louise, Mom and Dad are waiting for us outside," Tina said as a friendly reminder. Unfortunately Louise took it as nagging and snapped at her. "I know, Tina, I'm not retarded! I mean it's not like he's gonna die if we don't show up right on time!" Tina grimaced, not expecting Louise to shout in her face. It surprisingly had been a while since Tina could last remember when Louise snapped at her in public like this. "Okay, Louise," she simply said, turning away.
"Calm your tits, Rabbit Ears," said a voice in front of Tina, startling the older but smaller female, causing her to fall backwards onto the hard floor. Sitting herself up, Tina rubbed her right arm in pain. "Hi, Alexis," she mumbled. The redhead scoffed and stepped back a bit, "You're her sister, right?" Tina nodded, not sure if she wanted to be here anymore. Louise helped her sister up with worried murmurs of "Are you okay?" before looking at her girlfriend. "Wh-What do you want, Alexis?" she said uneasily. "Just looking to see what you're up to is all," Alexis grinned before roughly grabbing Louise by the arm and kissing her. Oh Christ, she tastes like nicotine, Louise cried in her head. "Come over later. I need to do some stuff," Alexis whispered into her ear, "Oh, and if you don't show, I'll come after you, so don't bother trying to escape." Letting go of her, Alexis walked off down the hallway, walking into Courtney. "Watch where you're going, hot stuff," she said aggressively before disappearing around the corner.
Courtney walked up to the sisters, shuddering. "That girl gives me the creeps, she made me walk with her to school and it was all eerie and silent and stuff," she told them. "What exactly do you guys do together, Louise?" The girl with the bunny hat froze for a second. "They just hang out and do lesbian stuff," Tina blurted out, trying to protect her sister's friend from learning the truth. Louise glared at her, "Tina, first of all, I'm not a lesbian, I'm bisexual. NEWS FLASH: There is a difference. Secondly, Courtney, it's none of your business, alright?" Courtney frowned. "Alright, sorry. So, Tina, why are you here, anyway?"
Louise gathered up her belongings and shut her locker. "We're gonna go see Logan in the hospital," said Tina, who was adjusting her glasses on the bridge of her nose. Courtney blinked. "Wait, Logan's in the hospital? Why?" "We don't really know; Gene said it looked like someone had slit his arm with maybe a knife or something, but Logan won't tell anybody what actually happened. It's like he's shell shocked," Tina said, a hint of worry in her reply.
"Tina, let's go," Louise said, rubbing her eye. It was then that Tina realized her little sister looked completely exhausted. "I didn't get much sleep last night," Louise mumbled. The truth was she had been having nightmares ever since Alexis hit her at her apartment. "Hey, guys, can I join you?" Courtney smiled.
"Loooogan…wake uuup…"
"Lin, come on, we can just come back tomorrow. He doesn't really look like he should be woken up."
A pair of ocean blue eyes opened from slumber, meeting a pair of green eyes encased in red glasses. Logan groaned, pain striking through his arm. Linda smiled. "Hey Logan," she said cheerfully but softly. The blonde looked beyond Linda: Bob stood behind her, the couple on the right side of his bed. A worried Louise, Courtney, and Tina stood on the left side. Logan's face brightened as he saw Louise. The girl in the pink hat smiled. "Hey, loser," she teased.
"Ahh!"
Logan suddenly felt something cold and wet seeping in his blankets at the foot of the bed. A frazzled Tina frantically picked up the flowers scattered around the bed. "Way to go, Tina," Louise retorted, watching her sister gather up the now unassembled bouquet. Courtney picked up the vase that lay on the sheets, frowning. "Courtney, what sort of questionable things have you done with that vase?" The girl with the raccoon eyes looked up at the door.
Gene stood in the doorway of the room, staring at her. Courtney blushed as the Belcher parents greeted their son. "Hi, Gene," Courtney cooed. The man walked in and stood at the foot of the bed, a taller man trailing behind him. "Mom, Dad, Golden Girls: This is Scott, we're sorta thunder buddies now." Louise rolled her eyes. "Welcome to a new side of hell," she muttered to Scott. The said blonde looked at Logan while slipping his hand into Gene's, shrugging off Louise. "Hey, I saw you on stage last night, Logan. You were really good," he smiled. The older blonde smiled back. "Thanks, man." Louise felt her face heat up at the thought of last night. What the hell was that about, anyway? As stubborn as she was, Louise couldn't help but think it had been for her.
"So, Logan, what happened to you? I mean, why are you all wrapped up, anyway?" Courtney asked casually. Logan looked down at the blankets in front of him, nervous. I can't tell them Alexis did it, she'll probably find a way to kill me…shit. "I got knifed by some drunk hobo," he lied, smiling sheepishly. He hated to admit it, but he was actually sort of scared of that crazy bitch. Besides, Louise seems happy with her, right? …Right? Okay, he knew deep down Alexis was abusing her, but he couldn't bring himself to ask in fear of getting knifed again- or worse. He wondered if Tina or Courtney knew about it…
Linda looked at her phone. "Logan, you took so long to wake up that me and everyone else 'cept Louise gotta go," she said annoyed. "We do…?" Bob looked at his wife, confused. "Yes!" said Linda as she shooed out the older siblings and their friends along with her husband. Winking at Logan before she left, Linda rushed out. Logan blushed bright red. Goddammit…
Louise stared at the door, a puzzled look plastered on her face. "What…?" she spoke into the air quietly. Logan looked at the girl in the bunny hat, clearing his throat and speaking up, "Hey, about last night…"
She turned to Logan, smiling, a light blush creeping over her face. "You were awesome, Logan," she said in excitement. The blonde blushed and grinned. "Yeah, I am pretty awesome, aren't I?" Louise smirked then pulled up a chair next to the bed. "Seriously though, you were really good. Too bad you ran off before I could catch you, doofus," she playfully but gently hit his cheek with a fist. "Catch me? For what?" The ears on Louise's hat twitched a bit as she felt her face heat up. To ask if it was for me, idiot.
"To…tell you how awesome the performance was, idiot," she said, a bit of hesitation in her voice. Logan smiled. Not exactly the answer he had hoping for, but whatever. "Oh, thanks. So, uh, Louise…" Logan took a deep breath before biting the bullet. "How're things with Alexis?" he asked timidly. The girl's posture stiffened.
"Fine. Fine. We're doing good," she turned to the blonde with a fake smile. Her eyes telling a different story, Louise looked scared. Logan pursed his lips tightly before nodding. Usually she's better than this at lying. Shit, she probably does abuse Louise…
"How did you get knifed?" Louise looked at his bandaged arm worriedly. The man shifted his position. "Well, it happened after the show; I'm guessing he was some hobo that lived in the alleyway that I had been walking down to get to the car. I don't know what his deal was. He was really strong, though," Logan frowned, looking at his arm. Louise stood up. "E-Everybody's waiting for me, so…" She looked at the bed nervously before suddenly wrapping her arms around Logan. He blushed furiously. They had hugged many times before, but this one felt different than all the others. Logan smiled and hugged her back, wishing the moment would never end.
After a good 15 seconds, Louise pulled back, her cheek brushing against Logan's jaw, causing some of the makeup on her face to rub off onto him. She stood up, smiling, not noticing the fact a smudge of her black eye was showing. "Um, Louise, your face…what happened?" he spoke up, worried. Louise looked at him confused until she caught her reflection in a mirror on the wall. She quickly covered her eye, backing away. "Uh, nothing! Tina was clumsy again and slammed her elbow into my eye! Gotta go!" The pink bunny hat's ears bounced as the girl started to run out the door. "Feel better, Logan!" Logan watched her go, reaching his injured arm out. "Louise, wai- shit, my arm," he grunted in pain. He sighed and rubbed the makeup smudge off of his jaw. Louise…I can save you from all of this…
Looking down the hallway, Louise ran to her sister who then hurriedly helped escort her to the bathroom with her backpack. I'm sorry, Logan. I'll fix this on my own, I promise…
"Mom, I'm home," Louise said into the room, clutching the edge of her jacket. No one answered. Instead of coming into the house from the front of the restaurant, this time Louise slunk into the alley behind it and getting in from there. They're probably downstairs…Thank God. She slipped into the bathroom for a moment before retreating to her room.
Louise shut the door, leaning against the wood and sinking to the floor. She slipped off the jacket and tossed it aside, blood on the inside of the right sleeve and her phone sliding across the carpet. Bringing her knees up to her chest, the girl put her head down and held her legs. Her hands tensed up, looking like she was going to rip her own legs off. Fucking Alexis… Louise slowly sat back up, shakily unfolding her right arm, which she had wrapped sloppily with toilet paper that was covered in blood. No one could see this. No one.
"Alexis, what the fuck are you doing?!" screamed Louise as her mentally unstable girlfriend laughed while using a toothpick to etch something into the tied up girl's arm. "Just making sure little Logan can get the message," she smiled, ignoring the blood seeping out of the younger girl's arm. Admiring her handiwork, Alexis stood up after what felt like hours of painful scraping against skin. "Yeah, I think this'll do," she said in approval. Louise struggled in the chair she was tied to. "Why do you hate Logan so much?!" she yelled in pain, fighting back tears. "None of your business, squirt, now smile for mommy, 'my slut'," Alexis grinned before pulling out a Polaroid camera and taking a picture of Louise's arm.
"I like to keep pictures of my girls," she cooed as she pulled out the picture from the camera and shook it gently. She walked to the darkened side of the room and flipped on a light. Louise bit her lip, trying not to scream as she saw a wall plastered in hundreds of Polaroid photos of female arms with the words 'My Slut' etched into them. The wall and the photos had blood on them here and there. "You're the 59th on my wall, Louise," Alexis smiled while tacking the photo on the wall. Louise angrily looked at Alexis and cried, "Why are you so fucked up?! I mean what the fuck did you-" Feeling the sting of the redhead's hand across her cheek, it only aggravated Louise more, causing the dark brunette to start screaming for help. Alexis smirked and watched her scream, crossing her arms. "The walls are sound proof, just so you know. It cost a lot to install, but damn was it worth it," she laughed. Louise kept screaming, but after a while she tired herself out, hanging her head.
Snapping back to reality, Louise realized she had started to cry. She didn't know why but she didn't care. She began to wail before holding her knees to her chest and putting her head down.
When I when I saw you,
Louise opened her eyes at the noise, head still down.
I could see.
The girl looked up slowly, trembling. Logan's ringtone…
I wanna wanna have you
Louise squeezed her eyes shut and ignored the call. The ringtone seeped into her head as she started to imagine Logan sitting on a 3-legged stool with a guitar in his hand. He looked up at her in the crowd and smiled.
lying next to me.
"I wish that I could take it back, put you on my favorite track," the blonde belted out. "Play you on repeat!"
His eyes met with those of the girl in the pink bunny hat.
"And every day since then is incomplete." He continued to sing, looking ahead of himself.
It's like Twisted Sister,
Meets Mr. Mister.
It's like a rolling thunder meets a careless whisper.
It's like Fleetwood Mac, Biggie and 2-pac in a game of Twister.
It's like boy meets girl.
Logan looked at Louise again.
"It's like boy meets girl."
He smiled.
"It's like you and me, girl."
And then…
"You'll always be my girl."
Logan blushed.
Louise got up unsteadily, picking up her phone and flopping onto her bed, lying on her side. She ripped the toilet paper off of her arm, most of the blood gone by now. A lot of it had gotten on the toilet paper and her jacket. Louise looked at her phone and pulled up Logan's contact info, staring at it. Her thumb hovered over the call button.
Why the fuck can't I just tell someone about this crazy bitch? It's not even that fucking hard…
This is stupid, why am I letting her do this…?
Louise sighed before putting her phone on the bed stand, starting to fall asleep.
Logan, save me…