Kyle's POV

I explained all of the interaction between my mother and I fairly quickly since frankly, I didn't want to think about it any more than necessary right now. I surprised myself even at how emotionless I was while I told the story. After some internal debating I included the piece where I threw him right under the bus when I told Sheila that maybe he was gay. Now that I could actually think about it I realized how much I had just fucked him over because knowing my mother, she'll go running her mouth all over town now.

Stan listened intently, obviously concerned about me which warmed my pounding heart a little. The first thing Stan asked aside from some nodding was exclaiming, "Holy fuck!" when I told him how my mother grabbed my wrist and showed him the mark was,

"How are you doing?"

I didn't know how to answer so I just rubbed my hand down my face to my neck to buy some time to think before I shrugged.

"Fine I guess. I mean I may as well count diving for my bag and running away from home as good as just straight up coming out. I don't even know what a punishment would be though. Yeah I'd definitely be grounded for a bit and some general disapproval but what else could they do? They wouldn't kick me out because they know I have friends places I can stay for a while."

I was getting increasingly agitated and even though I knew that I had multiple reasons to, I still felt terrible for putting it all onto Stan at once and not even asking what his thoughts were. I stretched my hands out in front of me and groaned as I thought yet again how much trouble I was going to be in because sooner or later I would have to show up at my house.

I inhaled deeply yet to try to calm myself from the rising anxiety before I noticed I was shaking a slight bit. I almost laughed at that. All that adrenaline had numbed me but now everything was crashing down. Stan noticed this and instead of waiting for me to continue, he scooted over on the couch to sit parallel to me and wrap an arm over top of my shoulders.

It was comforting but at the same time I completely broke down for absolutely no reason other than the release of stress. I tucked my arms around his ribcage and held on for what felt like dear life. I pressed my head into the front of his shoulder and started to talk before discovering I just couldn't stop once I got going. I put in my two cents on pretty much every issue I'd had in the past four years, all while Stan sat there and muttered soothing things to me.

I chattered and sobbed about my parents, school, other people, how much I hated cleaning, how much I loved him, fuck pretty much any single thing I could think about and just got it all out. Eventually when I was done I still lay there for a minute with my head on his shoulder thinking of something to say. Eventually I pulled away from Stan slightly to look directly at his face and told him seriously,

"Y'know dude, I really trusted you right there. I hope you are able to do the same thing if you ever need it," I broke into a smile and laughed, "I actually feel a lot better. Thank you so much."

He grinned back at me so brightly I thought I might go blind for a second. He pulled me in close again and pressed his chin against the top of my head while saying,

"Anything, anytime for you dude."

I closed my eyes and readjusted so I was slightly more comfortable with my head against his neck and was only half aware Stan was absentmindedly playing with my hair after he had leaned forward and grabbed the TV remote off the table to flick through the channels. It sounded like he chose something on the discovery channel because he kept saying facts about different animals and before the program changed to one on cars.

I was awake and looking at the television but my thoughts were somewhere else, mostly on how glad I was to be sitting here. Soon I tuned back into reality and watched the TV more intently and listened to Stan relay more facts. Ordinarily I would have asked any other person to quit telling me them because I had literally just read or heard the exact same thing they just told me but since it was him, I really didn't mind.

Suddenly I sat upright and looked over my shoulder towards the dining room and kitchen, blushing madly. Stan jumped at the unexpected movement and worriedly asked , "Wow what was that?"

"Is your mom here? I sure as all hell hope she didn't hear everything I said!" I whispered. He simply laughed and shook his head.

"Once you started ranting she said that she was 'going to get some groceries' and left. You must have not heard her but I'm not too surprised."

I relaxed again and awkwardly laughed.

"That's good, I was so embarrassed for a moment when I thought of your mom just sitting there listening to me go nuts."

Stan chuckled and gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

"Nah, she's pretty cool like that most times."

I wiggled around to get settled back in against Stan's. At one point Stan had gotten a blanket and laid it over top of us while we ended up laying on the couch basically cuddling with me squished on my side between Stan and the couch until Sharon came home and, alas, she did have a bag of groceries in her arms.

Neither Stan nor I bothered to move except to call out 'hello' to which Sharon replied,

"Hey, since it's Friday night I thought you boys might want something to snack on. I bought a couple things I thought you might like."

I pushed myself up to gratefully accept the bag from her and dole out the food between Stan and I. We ended up choosing a superhero movie to watch instead, then another and another until I fell asleep. I imagined Stan would have drifted off sometime not too much later than I did because the last time I had checked my phone it was already 4:15 am.

Sharon had went to bed much eariler so when we chattered we were quiet to not wake her up. Stan's father hadn't come home but according to him it wasn't that new, particularly on weekends. Occasionally we laughed and kissed but overall it was one of the best nights I'd had in quite some time. Even the next morning when we were awoke by Randy slamming open the front door and demanding we get off of his couch, he was too wasted to even notice how tangled up we were while sleeping.

We simply laughed it off and headed upstairs to go back to sleep on Stan's bed once again tangled up. I was comforted by him and figured he likely was too by how deep and heavy his sleeping breaths were when I halfway woke up only to fall asleep until 1:30 the next day. I didn't bother to wake Stan up so I simply played on my phone for a bit, checked to make sure I wasn't being blown up by my mother and when I saw I wasn't I was immediately suspicious.

There was no way she would not have texted me at least once by now but I ignored the nagging feeling I had that she was planning something. I just snuggled closer to Stan in response to the feeling to squash it down. For the first time in a while, I felt fully secure, which was ironic seeing as how things were likely to turn bad the second I got involved with my mother yet again.

At that time I didn't give one rats ass about the future because I knew I had Sharon and Stan right behind me as well as others I knew. I felt I could take on the world until I heard from downstairs,

"Police, open up!"