Alex walked towards him, fists clenched, and veins bulging. Miguel realized that he was in serious shit now. He started backing up until his back hit the wall, “There is nowhere to run you shit, I am going to fucking kill you.”

At this Miguel turned to his left, and sprinted for the door. He narrowly made it out of the house, and Alex was close behind the whole way. Miguel ran into his car, revving up and peeling out, not caring about his car safety as long he got away from Alex.

Miguel sped down the block, waiting until he could no longer hear Alex’s profane shouting. He pulled over to the side of the road, putting his hazards on, and put on his seat belt.

He pulled out, and began to drive, no destination in mind.

Miguel came to his senses after who knows how long, finding himself a block away from Eric’s house.

‘Well where else am I going to go?’ Miguel thought, driving the rest of the way, trying to keep his thoughts at bay.

Next thing he knew he had knocked on the door and was facing John, Eric’s father.

“Miguel, are you okay?”

Miguel could feel his thoughts and feelings coming back, which meant he felt like he was about to cry, he needed to hit something, and collapse.

“I am okay, thank you sir! Is there anyway I could stay here tonight?”

“Miguel, you don’t need to be so formal, and of course! Sugar, you are welcome any time!”

“Thank you John!”

“No problem! I will go get Eric now, that little heck raiser.”

“Thank you, si-John,” Miguel said, shaken, his emotions now coming back to him like a dam that had just been unleashed.

Miguel stood awkwardly in the living room before hearing Eric’s voice yell, “Miguel! Get ya booty in here!”

Miguel went into Eric’s neat, simple, beige room. Eric was already in his full length PJs,sitting on the edge of his bed. “Hey Miguel.”

“Hi Eric.”

“You okay sharing a bed? I don’t feel like setting up the couch.”

“Yeah that is fine, thank you for being okay having me over!”

“Are you kidding? What else are friends for? Like seriously… you are my first,” Eric joked, trying to distract Miguel from whatever was bothering him.

“Still,” Miguel said, not quite getting the joke.

“Can I talk to you about what happened?” Miguel continued, he felt like he needed to have his friend understand what was happening.

“I would love to hear about it, if I do not reply a lot that is just because I am deep in thought about it, I promise.”

“Okay, my father’s body has always hosted two persons, Alex and Tom. Tom is the one whom my mom fell in love with, he is fun, kind, and supportive. Tom however is abusive, mentaly unsafe, and bipolar. When my mom was still alive my dad could keep Alex out of control. My mom died 3 years ago from lymphia, a cancer. Since then Alex has been in charge more and more. They have a job as a dry ice operator. They leave around 11 and get home around midnight. When Tom is in control of the body he will wake up early so we can talk in the morning, when Alex is incharge he sometimes wakes me up in the evening to yell at me. This was one of those nights, but this time he also was threatening me physically, sometimes he punches me in the gut, but he seemed more serious this time. I ran out and drove away,” Miguel said, his voice hollow and emotionless.

Eric didn’t know how to reply, to angry and upset to think, he pulled Miguel in for a tight hug, pulling the others head into his chest.

“Eri-”

“Shush, hug time.”

Eric moved his body horizontally, laying down on the bed, pulling Miguel with him. Not caring that Miguel was still in his clothes. Miguel let slip a few tears, comfortable snuggling into the smaller boy’s chest.

They slowly fell asleep, each boy comfortable so close to the other, feeling a need for the other’s warmth.