His sobs had gradually turned into sniffles, his eyes red and face puffy from all the crying. Somewhere through the entirety of this mess, our limbs had gotten intertwined and I hated that this was all I could offer him, my body heat and a supposedly consoling hand playing with his hair. I wanted to tell him that it was alright but I couldn't when it was quite the opposite. The words sounded extremely fake in my head as well.

So I kept hugging him through the night, feeling distressed every time a muffled whimper escaped his mouth.

"Do you want to take the day off tomorrow? I'll stay back with you as well."

"I can't take any more holidays, Seb. I have missed out on seven days worth of work." He groans, finally removing himself from my body and straight away I miss his warmth. Goosebumps start to arise from the sudden loss of heat and I snuggle deeper into the blanket.

"We need to figure out what to do. You can stay here. So that's one aspect you do not need to worry about."

I grimaced when the chilly air hit my face. You could cut glass with my nipples, that's how cold it was. Turning onto my side, I stare into the abyss of darkness blowing warm air into my frosty palms.

"Cold?"

"Yeah.Let's get back to the topic." My voice trailed off when I felt his arm snake around my abdomen, my body humming in delight at the warmth. Any other day, I would have rambled and made a bigger fool out myself but not today. I let him spoon me, heat seeping into every pore of my body.

"I'll need to get school stuff and my painting set from home."

"We can just get them through your window. If it's not locked. Or we can walk in through the front door and pack everything in a jiffy and leave."

I seemed pleased with the latter option. It showed that Raven was stronger than whatever his parents were putting him through. But with the way his hold around my body tightened, I knew it was a long shot.

"Or you could temporarily borrow my uniform and books you need until we figure something out. Most of our school stuff is in our lockers. Also, where is your phone?"

Silence and then a soft snore. I chuckled to myself. The dude had not slept for ages and it was showing now. Well whatever. We could deal with this in the morning.

--

I could hear a boisterous laugh along with the voices of my parents invade my senses as I came to consciousness. Bleary eyed, I noticed a flash in the corner followed by another laugh and I curled upon myself, groaning at the hardness of my bed.

My bed was not hard though and I shot my eyes open, sitting up with my body aching in protest at the sudden movement.

"His majesty awakens. Do you want ice for that bruise?"

What the hell was my dad talking about? What bruise?

"Ow!" I nearly screamed at the feel of the damn blue-black mark on my thigh. It was also only then that I realized that I was no more on my bed.

"Can you please stop taking photos and help me up?"

Laughs followed. Wow, fun at my misery. My legs were insanely tangled in the bed sheet, one of my legs still against the bed frame, the other on the floor. I was stuck in a pose that gymnasts would be proud of but this was nothing but humiliating. I was stuck and I knew that I would tear a ligament if I moved my body.

Taking pity at my plight, my mom finally helped me up. It was a wonder how I ended up in that position in the first place. When we had finally gone to sleep, I was on the side towards the wall so I must have rolled over Raven and landed myself in this predicament.

"As fun as this was, I need you to freshen up. We're going out."