“Collier Memphis Archer! Wake up already!”

                “Misha go away,” I groaned, rolling over and pulling a pillow over my head.

                Misha pulled the pillow away from my head and forced me to sit up. I forced my eyes open and glared at him sleepily.

                He chuckled and pulled me into a hug. “I’m sorry. But I don’t want you to be late to school. I’m bringing you and Emma.”

                He got up and pulled me with him. He handed me a pair of shorts and a hoodie. He dragged me into the bathroom.

                “Take a shower and put those clothes on. The shorts are probably going to be too big, but I didn’t think you would want to wear those same shorts,” he said, shutting the bathroom door and leaving me alone.

                I showered quickly and brushed my teeth. I pulled Misha’s clothes on, realizing that the hoodie also had his last name on it. I rolled my eyes.

                The sorts were pretty long on me. But they fit my waist perfectly, seeing as Misha was tall and thin.

                I left the bathroom and went back to Misha’s bedroom. He was dressed already, and he tossed me a comb for my hair.

                After fixing my hair, I followed him downstairs. We ate breakfast and waited for Emma to come bounding down the stairs.

                “Hi Collie. Hi Misha. How was your date?” she asked, grabbing a granola bar and opening it.

                “It was great!” Misha cried in excitement.

                I nodded and jerked my thumb at Misha. “What the dork said.”

                Misha pouted and playfully whacked me in the back of the head. “Hush up Collie. Now let’s get you little kids to school.”

                “Almost 20 and still living with mommy and daddy. Oh Misha,” I said, patting him on the head sympathetically.

                “Daddy doesn’t mind Misha living at home, as long as Misha doesn’t make his sister and boyfriend late to school,” Mr. Redner said, entering the kitchen dressed in nice-looking clothes for work.

                “I’m trying to speed them up!” Misha said, grabbing my hand and motioning at Emma to hurry up.

                We went out and got in the car together. Misha drove us to school in comfortable silence, pulling up to the curb and putting the car in park.

                I leaned over and pecked his lips, remembering what he had said to me last night before I had passed out. I’d have to talk to him about that later.

                “Bye Collie. Text me if you want,” he said, smiling when I pulled away from his lips.

                “Alright. I’ll see you when you get home,” I said, getting out of the car and waving to him.

                I followed Emma inside the school and we walked towards the senior hallway. Emma glanced at me and grinned.

                “You and Misha are so cute. Mom and I went to check on you guys last night to make sure you had come home, and saw you cuddling fast asleep on Misha’s bed,” she said. “Mom and dad are so happy for you guys! And me too!”

                “Thanks Emma,” I said, sighing and offering her a small smile.

                “COLLIE!”

                I spun around and let out a little yelp as Colin jumped at me, wrapping his arms around me. I caught him and stumbled back, nearly falling over. Ant’s best friend, Zane, steadied me before I could fall.

                “Colin!” I said in annoyance. “Don’t jump on me like that you idiot!”

                But I hugged him back anyways, feeling bad for leaving him by himself in that horrible home of ours. He was so reliant on me. Who knows what he’s been through without me there.

                “Sorry, sorry. I just…I hate when you’re not home,” he mumbled, releasing me and stepping back a little. “When are you coming back?”

                “Not soon,” I said flatly. “I need some time away. Some time with Misha.”

                “They’re starting to freak out, Collie. They didn’t mean to drive you away,” Colin said, his eyes honest. “They’ve been calling everyone they can think of to try and find you. And then they checked the attendance and saw that you weren’t in school yesterday. They’re both getting scared Collie.”

                “Well, that sucks for them,” I said with a shrug. Good. I hoped that they drove themselves crazy trying to find me.

                Ant stepped up next to Colin, taking his hand. “Collie, you know that if they physically go to Emma’s house and find you, they’re going to force you back home,” he said with a concerned frown.

                “They can try to. I won’t go back,” I said with an unconcerned shrug.

                “You should just move in with us. You can take the spare bedroom down the hall from mine and Misha’s rooms!” Emma said, laughing a little.

                “No. Collie, you wouldn’t ever really move out, right?” Colin asked nervously.

                I turned and grabbed Colin’s hand, pulling him away from Ant and out of earshot of everyone. Ant, Zane, and Emma were watching us curiously, but none of them followed us.

                “Colin, Misha is getting an apartment soon. And, well, he wants me to move in with him,” I explained.

                Colin gripped my arm tightly. “You would really move out, Collie?” he asked.

                “I’m not happy at home,” I said, praying he would understand. “I don’t get along with mom and dad. It’s not like I’m ditching you. My plans for college haven’t changed, and I’d still be at school with you.”

                “I…I think you should live with him. You’d be happy,” he said, trying to sound casual. But I could see the terror and hurt in his eyes. He didn’t want me to leave him.

                I mentally sighed. This was probably my own fault. I had never left Colin before. He relied on me, and I let him. I never thought about how much of a problem it was going to cause as we got older.

                “You can’t be with me forever Colin. We’re gay, but we’re not into that whole twincest thing. I’d rather not have people writing fanfiction about us,” I said, putting my hand on his shoulder. “Everything will be fine, alright? I promise.”

                “I hate this. I hate how mom and dad are acting,” he said miserably.

                I pulled him into a hug. He was too nice to ever say he hated mom and dad, but I wasn’t. I released Colin.

                “Now come on. Enough of this sweet brother shit. You have a boyfriend, and he can comfort you. I need to go to my locker. I’ll meet up with you guys in a few minutes,” I said.

                He nodded and I watched as he made his way back over to Ant, Zane, and Emma. Ant hugged him and kissed his cheek.

                I turned and made my way down to the senior hallway. I stopped at my locker and put in my combination, pulling the locker open. I exchanged my books and shut my locker.

                I started back towards my friends, wondering if I should text Misha. I knew he had class, and I didn’t want to distract him. But maybe I coul-

                “Hey!” I cried as someone grabbed my arm and yanked me into the auditorium, slamming the door.

                It took my eyes a second to adjust, but when they did, I glared at Vance. He released my arm and grinned, taking a step back so that he was even with Jake and Drew.

                “We saw you giving your brother that affectionate hug out there. Into incest now, huh?” Drew asked.

                I rubbed my temples. “Yes. I have wet dreams about my own brother. How have you not noticed before?”

                “My dad knows your dad, Collie. And word on the street is that you ran away from home, and they had no idea where you were,” Jake said.

                “Did your dad name you after my dad? Because I’m really starting to hate everybody named Jacob,” I said, glaring at him. Go figure my homophobic bully would have the same name as my father.

                “You’ve been staying with Emma,” Jake continued, ignoring my comment. “Haven’t you?”

                “No,” I lied easily. “Contrary to popular belief, I do have friends to stay with.”

                “I saw you getting out of Emma’s car. Her brother is a faggot, isn’t he?” Jake asked.

                “I don’t know. Why don’t you say that to Emma’s face?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him. Emma would murder anyone who called her big brother a faggot. Despite their playful arguments, they were actually very protective of each other.

                “Bet Collie turned him too,” Drew said, nudging Jake and snickering.

                “Misha’s been openly gay for the past 6 years. But he’s known he was gay for 8 years now,” I said, rolling my eyes at their stupidity. “But yes, clearly I turned Misha gay.”

                Vance grabbed me by the shirt, and dragged me over to his friends. “Shut up faggot,” he said, releasing my shirt. “We warned you to get the hell away from Colin. I guess we need to teach you what’s going to happen if you don’t.”

                I opened my mouth to spit out a sarcastic comment, and instead found myself spitting out blood a few seconds after Vance’s fist collided with my mouth. I turned away from him, wiping at my now split lip.

                Vance grabbed my bad hand, twisting it until I whimpered. Drew kicked me in the knee and it gave out, dropping me onto the knee he hadn’t kicked.

                Jake kneed me in the chin and I fell over sideway, clutching my chin. My teeth had snapped shut on my tongue, and I could taste more blood in my mouth.

                They dragged me back to my feet, and Drew held my hands behind my back tightly. I tried to struggle away from him, but Jake came over and helped Drew keep his hold on me.

                Vance approached me and nailed me in the stomach several times. I gagged and tried to curl in on myself, but Jake and Drew held me up.

                “You should really learn to listen to us, faggot. It’s three against one. Do you really think you’ll ever beat us?” Vance asked, punching me in the face, hard.

                He started punching me, again and again, harder and harder. I felt blood gushing out of my nose, and my stomach hurt so bad I was positive I was going to throw up if he hit it one more time.

                But he stopped, stepping back. Drew and Jake released my arms, and I slumped forward to the ground, landing on my hands and knees and dry heaving as I clutched at my stomach.

                Vance kicked me in the side as hard as he could, sending me rolling over on my back. He smirked down at me as his friends laughed.

                “That was just a little warning. We’re not done with you yet, Collie. So you might want to stay away from your brother, and get him away from Ant,” he said before they stalked out of the auditorium.

                I laid there, clutching my stomach and desperately trying to fight off the pain. I rolled over and sat up slowly, looking down at Misha’s hoodie and paling. My nose and lip were bleeding so badly that the blood had dripped down all over the front of Misha’s hoodie.

                “Wonderful, Collie. Everyone loves it when their boyfriend gets blood on their hoodie,” I grumbled, getting to my feet once the pain in my stomach had eased a little.

                I pulled a mini pack of tissues out of my backpack and held one under my nose, pressing another to my lip. I winced as my lip flared in pain.

                It was about a half hour before the bleeding had finally stopped. I stood up and threw out several bloodied tissues, slinging my back over my shoulder and limping out of the auditorium, my knee in a ton of pain.

                I limped out of the school and started towards the Redner’s house. I would have to try to wash Misha’s hoodie before he saw all the blood on it.

                After about two hours of me limping, and occasionally resting my injured knee, I made it to the Redner’s house. My lip and nose had both started to bleed again.

                Using the spare key they hid under a bench on the front porch, I let myself into the house. I went upstairs and into the bathroom, sighing as I checked my reflection.

                There was dried blood all the way from my nose to my lip, and from my lower lip all down to my chin. Misha’s hoodie was a bloody mess down the front. My face was covered in various bruises and scratches.

                I left the bathroom and made my way downstairs to the laundry room. I dug around, trying to find something to get the blood stains out of Misha’s hoodie.

                I froze as I heard the front door open. I cursed under my breath and quietly left the laundry room, dashing upstairs and into Misha’s room.

                Please be Mr. and Mrs. Redner. Oh god, please let it be one of Misha’s parents. I could just hide under Misha’s bed and they would never even know I had been he-

                Misha started whistling as he walked up the stairs. I cursed and contemplating hiding under his bed anyways.

                “Collie?”

                I turned on his bed so that he couldn’t see the front side of me. I heard the sound of him dropping his bag to the floor.

                “Collie, Emma told me you left school. We’ve all been trying to text and call you. What happened? Did you feel sick? Was it something to do with Colin?” he asked in concern, placing a hand on my shoulder. “Baby, please talk to me.”

                He turned me around so that I was facing him and his face instantly drained of all color. His mouth dropped open as he stared at me in horror.

                “What the fuck? Who did this to you Collie?” he whispered shakily.

                “I’m sorry about your hoodie,” I said, looking down at it. “I thought it was a bit boring, and I wanted to spruce it up with some red. Red’s my favorite color, you know.”

                “Stop trying to make a joke out of it! Who hurt you?” he demanded.

                “If I say I ran into a door, would you believe me?”

                “I mean it Collie! Who hurt you?!”

                “I’ll take that as a no. Well, it’s none of your business,” I said with a shrug.

                He ground his teeth together. “Someone hurt my boyfriend. Of course it’s my business,” he hissed through his teeth.

                “You told me you loved me last night. Did you mean it?” I asked.

                He blushed. “Yes, I did mean it. Which is why I’m so pissed off right now. Who hurt you?”

                He sat next to me, putting his arm around me and inspecting my injuries closely. I rolled my eyes and leaned forward, kissing him. I winced as that made my split lip hurt.

                Misha gripped my shoulder tighter. “Who did this to you? Quit your shit and tell me.”

                “Are you getting mad at me?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

                “No. No, I’m not mad at you,” he said, the anger deflating out of his and sadness entering his eyes. “I’m scared, Collie. This isn’t good. Your face and hoodie are covered with blood!”

                “It’s actually your hoodie that’s covered in blood,” I reminded with an innocent smile.

                “That’s not the point. The point is that I don’t want to see you hurt like this. People can’t do this to you Collie!” he cried.

                He pulled me in for a tight hug, burying his face against my neck. “I love you Collie. I meant it when I said it last night. I really love you. I know you don’t feel the same, and that’s alright. But seeing you hurt like this…it kills me. I just want to know who did this to you,” he mumbled against my neck, his breath making me shiver a little.

                “I can handle it,” I said softly. “I’m fine Misha. Don’t worry about it. I was caught off guard. That was all. It won’t happen again. Besides, what did you plan to do? Scare them away with your penguin boxers?”

                Despite the joking tone of my voice, he looked up at me with hurt shining in his eyes. He slowly released me.

                “You think I can’t protect you?” he asked, honestly offended.

                I reached out, gently stroking his cheek. “I know you could protect me, Misha. But I also know that you don’t need to. I can handle myself. In case you haven’t noticed yet, I’m not exactly a damsel in distress.”

                “I know. But I hate to see you go through things on your own. I wish you would trust me more,” he said, reaching up and taking my hand in his.

                I stood up, pulling his hoodie off. “I need to wash my face,” I said with a sigh.

                Misha got up and grabbed my arm gently, pulling me into the bathroom. He motioned at me to sit on the counter, and I did.

                He wet a washcloth and placed his hand on the back of my neck as he dabbed at the blood on my chin. I watched him, remaining silent.

                “Did they do it because you’re gay?” he asked, breaking the silence after a few minutes.

                I shrugged. “Homophobes are everywhere.”

                I didn’t want to throw in the fact that they were mostly doing it because they had the same foolish believe as my parents. They actually thought I had turned my brother, a god in their eyes, gay.

                Misha pressed his lips into a thin, tight line. “Collie, I will find out. I hope you know that,” he said firmly. “You might as well tell me now and save me the trouble. Because I don’t care how mad you get at me. I’ll use Emma, Colin, and anyone else I have to.”

                “No!” I said, alarm going through me. “Don’t tell Colin! He can’t know!”

                Colin would figure it out if anyone even mentioned it to him. He knew that Vance, Drew, and Jake had threatened me before.

                “I don’t care how mad you get at me,” he repeated, an obstinate look in his eyes.

                “You could put him in danger!” I snapped, pushing his hand away from my face. “I’m not going to let you put Colin in danger!”

                What if Vance, Drew, and Jake attacked him? They were right; it was three versus one. They could easily overpower Colin and beat the shit out of him.

                “Calm down,” Misha said gently. “I won’t put Colin in danger. I would never do that, Collie.”

                Feeling the delayed reaction of terror from today creeping up on me, I jumped up. “Yea right Misha. Go ahead. Tell him and watch him get the shit kicked out of him,” I cried furiously. But my fury was just masking my fear.

                I turned to storm out, but Misha grabbed my arm. He pulled me back, hugging me tightly. I opened my mouth to protest but before I got the chance, he had started kissing me passionately.

                Feeling helpless and afraid, I kissed him back. I gripped his shirt, pulling his body closer to mine and letting his tongue explore my mouth.

                He pulled away from me, stroking my hair as I rested my head on his chest. He pecked my lips and sighed sadly.

                “I won’t let you go through this alone Collie,” he promised quietly. “Even if you won’t tell me who did this to you. I can see it in your eyes. You’re afraid. Terrified, even. So stop lying and pretending that you’re okay. I just want to help you. I love you. I love you so much, you stubborn, sarcastic boyfriend of mine.”

                “You’re such a dork,” I mumbled, kissing the side of his neck.

                I had to make sure that no one found out who was doing this to me. It would put Colin, and possibly Misha, in danger.

                I looked up into Misha’s eyes and saw the concern in them. But there was another look, one I couldn’t quite identify. I just prayed that Misha was thinking of doing anything stupid that would get him hurt by Vance, Drew, and Jake.