{Chapter Ten}
I walk Ian to the front door and feel a bit bad for dropping him off home at midnight. Though when he knocks on the door, apparently not having brought his keys, telling me his dad will still be up for another few hours, the guilt eases. As suspected his dad opens the door and smiles brightly at us.
“Hey boys, did you have a good time?” Mr. Kelly asks and Ian nods with a bright smile matching his dad's.
“Yep, it was great. Would it be okay if Levy stayed over? It's so late and I'm sure his parents are probably asleep. So, you know, it would be rude to wake them this late.” Ian adds and I roll my eyes. I know he's right about my parents but the fact is, I doubt he's worried about my parents. Though I don't mind because I suspected from some of his messages that he would want me to stay over, which is why I told my mom I would be staying with Lydia overnight when we were having dinner.
“That's fine with me, as long as Levy's parents are okay with it.” Mr. Kelly adds and I nod immediately. “That's great. Hey, Ian, why don't you go upstairs and get everything ready in the guest room.”
“Oh come on,” Ian whines but Mr. Kelly just arches a brow, challenging Ian to argue anymore. He sighs in defeat and gives me an apologetic glance before nodding. “Just don't twenty question him.” Ian mutters before walking into the house, past his dad.
After a minute or two I hear a door close and Mr. Kelly nods. He motions for me follow him into the house so I nervously come in and follow him through the hall. He leads me to the kitchen and stops to turn to me. His expression gives nothing away and after a few minutes I begin to fidget uncomfortably. Is he going to lecture me about dating his son? Tell me not to do anything inappropriate tonight? Oh no, is he going to go full on dad-mode and ask me what my intentions with my intentions are with his son?
“Look, I didn't want to say anything in front of Ian in case it brought up any painful memories, but you need to be careful with him. His last relationship lasted three years and it only ended six months ago. I know he's trying to get over it but if you end up hurting him it will devastate him.” He explains and I can't help but sigh because that just leaves me with more questions. Questions that I can't keep contained anymore.
“What happened?” I finally force myself to ask and Mr. Kelly sighs.
“It's not really my place to tell.” He replies. I open my mouth to continue prodding but he interrupts me. “Though I know Ian won't tell you the full story. His last boyfriend was someone he met at some kind of party, they started dancing and after that night they got to know each other. The guy was a year older than Ian and was by chance going to the same school Ian was. So after a while they got to know each other a bit more and began to date.” He sighs heavily, slumping his shoulders as if the words weigh heavily on him.
“What happened next?” I urge him to continue.
“It was unnoticeable at first, small things that would lead to bigger things.” He continues and I begin to understand what happened, though I let him continue. “The guy was abusing Ian, he forced himself on Ian before he began to mentally and physically abuse him. I didn't know about it until the guy broke up with him after cheating on him.” He finishes with pure rage present in his voice. It's so potent that I have to take a step back even though I'm already across the room from him.
“So I'll only say this once: I swear if you hurt him I will hurt you worse.” He growls and I nod quickly.
“Of course I won't hurt him.” I reply automatically. He doesn't look convinced but doesn't push it and instead just nods.
“Go on up, Ian is probably waiting for you. It's the second door on the right.” He adds before turning to open the fridge, obviously signaling that the conversation is over. I don't bother him with anymore questions and instead leave the room to head down the hall until I reach the set of stairs.
I go up and follow his directions into a nearly empty room. There's a plain bed, a dresser and a window. And Ian. I can't even be bothered to greet him, I just go over to the bed where he's sitting and hug him to me tightly.
“Wow, my dad really must have scared you.” He muses but I can't bring myself to laugh, I just want to hold him. Even though I don't love him, even only knowing him two weeks at most, I can't help but want to hold him until I stop thinking of what he went through. After a few more minutes I pull back and kiss him lightly on his cheek. He tilts his head to the side, an amused smile on his face but I can see the sad understanding in his eyes.
“I'm uh, going to go ahead and let you sleep. I mean, I'd stay, but I'm tired. I mean not tired of you, just in general. It was a long day, the day was great though. I'll just go now.” He mumbles but I still see that he's trying too hard, too hard to be the bubbly person he acts like. I don't pester him but instead nod and give him one last hug before he leaves the room, closing the door softly behind him.
I sigh and after I scroll through my phone for a bit, trying to get my mind off of everything Mr. Kelly told me, I finally succumb to sleeps call. I toss my phone on the bedside table and pull the covers up to my neck as I close my eyes to sleep.
I wake up to my phone going off beside me and I sigh. I open my eyes, ignoring the agitating burn and instead reach over to grab my yelping phone. I check it to see it's just a few new messages from my mom asking if everything is okay and when I'll be home. I notice it's only five in the morning and groan because I know I went to bed past midnight. I quickly tell her that I'll be home later in the day before I yawn.
I toss my phone back on the nightstand, hoping that if I don't look at it I can get back to sleep. I close my eyes and hope to get back to sleep because I doubt anyone is up right now. However, half an hour later I still can't sleep so I get out of bed.
I leave the room, trying to recall where Ian's room is. In this hall alone there's five doors and another turn that I assume leads to another hall. I glance at the door directly in front of me, it looks kind of old and beat up, like the room may belong to a teenager. I only hope I'm right as I knock softly. When there's no answer I try the handle, finding it unlocked I push it open and sigh in relief when I see Ian at his computer with headphones in.
I slip into the room and quietly shut the door before I walk over to him. He doesn't seem to notice me until I tap him on the shoulder. He all but jumps out of his skin in surprise, speaking before even figuring out who tapped him.
“I'm not doing anything, I swear!” he whisper yells as he rips his headphones out of his ears and turns to me. Relief floods through his eyes when he sees it's just me, which makes me wonder what he was doing but I don't ask because from what I can tell from his computer screen he just has a word document open.
“You scared me.” He states in a sigh, closing his eyes briefly to calm himself.
“I'm sorry, I didn't intend to. I just woke up and couldn't get back to sleep so I figured I might as well come see you as I would be bored otherwise.” I explain with a shrug. His lips twitch in a smile and he shakes his head, glancing back at his computer.
“You can go ahead and hang out here, I don't really get much sleep so it'll be fine with me. I have a ton of books if you like to read. Or we could talk.” He adds while turning in his chair to better face me. I tilt my head to the side in curiosity, wondering why he can't get much sleep.
“Why do you have trouble sleeping?” I question and take a seat in a pale blue armchair across from him. His eyes dart away from mine and he sighs, looking intently at the floor.
“It's complicated. I just have sleep issues, it started when...” he trails and I understand immediately. I know I don't know the whole story, but I do understand the gist. So I also get what he's saying, he can't sleep because of what happened. It pulls at my heart to know what happened to him, even if it's not the full story, it still makes me sad, even angry, that someone could do something like that to him.
“What are you doing on your computer anyway?” I ask to change the subject and I can tell he knows what I'm doing. He doesn't object though and bites his lip.
“I'm just writing. It's stupid.” He replies with a shrug. I tilt my head to the side in disbelief, arching a brow.
“I doubt it's stupid. What are you writing about?” I ask.
“Nothing, it's just a romance. These two guys meet at a college in the seventies and after a party and some drama they find out they have feelings for one another. They try not to let it show but one person finds out and it's a domino effect. It's just a really rough draft though.” He explains and I nod with a smile.
“I'm not the big on reading or books but that sounds pretty cool in my opinion.” I assure and though he doesn't look convinced he does seem to appreciate my words. We don't say anything for a while, Ian just stares at his lap while I think over the past half hour we spent talking. At last I glance at him, catching his eyes and smile a bit.
“C'mere.” I urge and extend my arms. He bites his lip but after clicking a few keys on his computer and closing it he comes over to me. I glance around his room and stand quickly. “Wait, wait.” I lick my lips and drag the arm chair the small ways to his window and open the curtain. It's still dark out so I take my seat, making sure to have a good view of the night from the current position of the chair.
“Alright, come here, babe.” I motion with my arms and he rolls his eyes but comes over. He sits down on my lap and after getting comfortable his head rests against my shoulder. I smile and kiss his forhead lightly.
“Go to sleep.” I whisper and he sighs.
“I don't know,” he trails as if uneasy but I don't blame him.
“I'll wake you up in,” I glance at the clock on his wall. “an hour.” I add.
He still seems reluctant but his eyes close and soon his breathing evens out. His body relaxes into mine and I smile, closing my eyes for a moment to soak in this moment. I sigh in content and begin rubbing circles slowly on his thigh. After half an hour he moans once but he doesn't seem distressed so I let him sleep because I get the feeling he gets little to no sleep. Though after the hour is up, when the sun begins to rise over the mountains, I do as I said I would and wake him up.
“Ian,” I murmur softly in his ear, shaking him a bit to wake him. He bites into his lip hard and his body tenses.
“No,” he moans out and my heart clenches.
“Babe, it's me. Wake up.” I coax, pulling his body closer to mine in case he starts to move to escape. Though I don't mind him getting out of my lap, I do know that when I had nightmares as a kid I would flail and hurt my parents. So I don't exactly want to be hit or kicked as it would hurt and I'm sure Ian would feel bad.
“Stop,” he gasps out in pain and I bite my lip.
“Ian,” I shake him a bit more and his eyes fly open in alarm. He glances back at me and relief goes through his eyes when he registers who I am.
“Oh hey,” he mutters, looking away to take in our current position on the armchair. My arms are wrapped around his while he somehow wrapped his legs around mine. An adorable pink blush tints his cheeks that makes me smile.
“How did you sleep?” I question and he yawns with a shrug.
“Good, actually.” He replies. I nod and fall silent so we can watch the sun come up over the horizon.
I may not love him, we may just be two kids but right now I can forget all that and enjoy this moment. This moment with someone I like, watching the sun come up as the new day begins.
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