“Are you okay?” Kyle asked once he was beside Logan.

“I don’t know,” Logan said to Kyle. When Kyle looked at Logan he saw that his eyes were red and swollen. 

“We have to open,” Kyle said looking at the time. “Do you want to go home?” Kyle asked Logan to which he didn’t reply. “Logan?” Kyle asked again while putting a hand on his shoulder.

“No, it’s okay, I’m okay,” Logan said while standing up and drying with his hands the remnants of his last tears. “I’ll go put the sign,” Logan said but Kyle grabbed him from the arm stopping him before he could even get out of the space behind the counter. 

“Today you are not speaking with the public, you’ll do the coffees and you’ll give them to me, okay?” Kyle said to Logan. Logan hesitated for a couple of minutes but finally accepted. 

The morning went by without a lot of problems for Kyle but Logan occasionally, during the slow moments went back to his chair and started to cry softly while apologizing to Kyle. Kyle didn’t really care and tried to soothe him until another client needed them.

There was only an hour left before closing and nothing really happened, Kyle was glad that Logan at least didn’t cry anymore but he looked tired, defeated as if life was sucked out of him leaving just an empty case of bones and meat.

“I’m going to the back to grab the cleaning supplies,” Kyle said to Logan.

“Okay,” Logan answered faintly. Kyle turned around and smiled to himself although it’s just a word and he wasn’t as talkative as he usually is he couldn’t help but feel relieved that his friend was doing somehow better. 

As Kyle was gathering the cleaning supplies he heard the chime of the bell above the door indicating that a customer just came in. Kyle heard Logan talk to a client but he couldn’t really hear what they were saying but after a few minutes it started to sound like a heated argument. A couple of minutes later the bell chimed again and Kyle left the backroom with the supplies in his hands.

“Who was it?” Kyle asked Logan once he was in front of him.

“No one,” Logan quickly said as he stood up and grabbed a broom from Kyle’s hand. Before he turned around and started brooming Kyle was able to see a tear falling through Logan’s cheek.

As Kyle and Logan cleaned the coffee shop and attended to the few clients that came in, they didn't speak to each other, creating a tense atmosphere.

“Can you throw this away?” Kyle asked Logan, breaking the silence, while pointing to a trash bag.

Logan nodded and grabbed the bag before leaving the coffee shop from the back, their dumpsters were in an alley in the back. When Kyle finished cleaning he grabbed the keys from Logan’s bag and closed the door of the coffee shop. He went to the backroom to hand his apron and grab his things. When Kyle didn’t see Logan in the backroom he thought that he may be in the bathroom so he went to check but it was empty. 

“Logan?” Kyle shouted a bit worried. That’s when he remembered that he asked Logan to go outside to throw away the trash. Kyle rushed to the back alley and after a few seconds he saw him lying on the dirty floor with blood around him. 

“Logan?!” Kyle shouted at Logan worried and rushed towards him. “What happened?” Kyle said once he was beside Logan. His face looked like it had been punched several times, it was bruised and blood was coming from his mouth and nose, he had a couple of cuts in his forehead and his eyes were bruised and swollen.

Kyle could hear Logan’s heavy breathing. “At least he’s breathing,” he thought to himself as he tried to put Logan back on his feet but at the sound of Logan wincing he settled with just sitting him next to a smelly dumpster. Kyle sat next to Logan and saw him shed a few tears. Kyle dried them with his thumb, staining it with Logan’s blood.

After almost ten minutes of just sitting and drying Logan’s occasional tears Kyle decided to take Logan to his house. He knew that Logan cared about his grandmother and he probably wouldn’t want her to see him beaten that badly. Kyle went inside and grabbed Logan’s things too before coming outside again. 

“I’m taking you home,” he said before crouching in front of Logan. “Can you make the small effort of putting your arms around my neck?” Kyle said while looking back at Logan. After a few minutes Logan put his arms around Kyle’s neck, when Kyle stood up he grabbed Logan’s thighs and carried him in his back until they arrived to his motorbike.

“I’m going to put you down,” Kyle said to Logan as he helped him sit on his motorbike. “Grab tight, okay?” Kyle said once he was seated on the bike as well. He felt Logan’s arms wrap loosely around his waist and his head rest on his shoulder before they took off.

As Kyle drove, he noticed his t-shirt was getting damp where Logan rested his head. "I'm sorry for ruining your t-shirt," Logan said softly to Kyle.

"Don't worry," Kyle replied, his words lost in the wind and impossible for Logan to hear.

When they arrived at Kyle's home Kyle helped Logan walk and led him to his room. 

“Why don’t you take a shower and then I clean your cuts?” Kyle asked Logan, it was supposed to be a suggestion but it sounded more like an order.

“Okay,” Logan answered faintly.

“The bathroom is there, you can use whatever you want,” Kyle said while pointing to the door right next to his bedroom’s door. 

As Kyle waited for Logan to finish his shower he heard the sound of a phone that wasn’t his, he followed the sound and noticed that it was coming from Logan’s bag. He grabbed it and saw that his grandmother was calling him. 

“Hi?” Kyle said after he picked up the call.

“Logan?” he heard Logan’s grandmother say from the other side of the line.

“No, i’m Kyle. We work together,” Kyle said, he didn’t really know what to do.

“Where is Logan?” Logan’s grandmother asked. 

“He is shorting something out with the owner,” Kyle started to lie. “He’s training me so we’ll be staying until late today and he’ll sleep in my house to continue tomorrow too,” Kyle finished lying, trying to sound convincing. 

“Okay, tell him to not forget dinner,” Logan’s grandmother said after a few seconds of silence.

“Will do, goodbye,” Kyle said before hanging up quickly.

When Kyle hung up he could still hear the sound of the water running. “Logan is still not finished,” he thought to himself as he sat in his bed. As he waited for Logan to finish his own phone started to ring. When he looked he saw that it was Max.

“Hey,” Kyle said to Max. “What do you want?” he asked him.

“I was calling to know how Loganis feeling,” Max asked worriedly.

Kyle didn’t know what to say, he had to decide if he was going to tell him about Logan’s current state or not. “During the shift he was mainly okay, he cried a bit too,” Kyle started saying. “But at the end when we were preparing to close he was beaten up by someone,” Kyle decided to say, he’ll probably find out sooner or later. 

“What?!” Max exclaimed worriedly. “How is he? Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” Max started to ramble worried thoughts. 

“He’s okay now, we are at my house and you can see him tomorrow if he wants to, okay?” Kyle said, interrupting Max.

“Okay, but if something else happens tell me immediately.” Max said.

“Okay, goodbye,” Kyle said before hanging up. As he hung up the sound of the water stopped and a few seconds later Logan came out of the bathroom with only a towel tied on his waist. His hair was wet and dropping droplets in the floor, a few drops were running through Logan’s torso and arms and his face was clean of blood making more visible the purple and yellow colors from the bruises. But what was more noticeable were the big bruises along his torso, he probably was kicked repeatedly in those areas.

“I don’t have anything to put on,” Logan said to Kyle in a monotone and emotionless tone of voice when he saw that Kyle was looking at his bruises.

“Give me a second,” Kyle said as he went to his closet and looked for something for Logan to wear. After rummaging through his closet for a couple of minutes he found a pair of old sweatpants that would probably fit Logan and a white t-shirt. “Here you got,” Kyle said to Logan as he handed him the clothes. 

“Thanks,” Logan said faintly before going back to the bathroom. When he came out again he had the towel this time on his head while he was drying his hair and he had put on Kyle’s clothes, they looked a bit big on him.

“Come here,” Kyle gestured to Logan to sit next to him on the bed. “I’ll cure your cuts, don’t move.” Kyle said to Logan once he was sat next to him. Logan watched Kyle go into the bathroom and come out a few seconds later with different supplies to clean his cuts.

Kyle tried to clean Logan’s cut as carefully as possible but it was quite difficult because Logan was falling asleep. 

“I’m done,” Kyle said, by that point Logan had already snoozed off. 

Kyle went to the bathroom to have a shower of his own, when he was about to go into the shower he noticed the droplets of blood that stained the white tiles. He didn’t know how had beaten Logan up and he knew it would be no use asking him, he wouldn’t tell him. That was another thing that Kyle noticed about Logan, he was always ready to help someone but he never asked for help. 

When Kyle was done with his shower he went back to his room and changed, he didn’t care that Logan was there, he was sleeping anyway. He thought of sleeping on the couch and let Logan on his bed but he also didn’t want to leave him alone. At the end he decided to sleep on the floor beside Logan just in case something happened.

Before he knew it he was already sleeping.

***

When Kyle woke up, it was already midday. He stood up from the floor and searched for Logan, but he wasn't in bed. Kyle looked around the room, and his things were still there. He checked the bathroom and kitchen, but Logan was nowhere to be found. 

He then went to the living room where he found his father. “Dad?” Kyle asked, confused, he was on a fishing trip with his friends until Monday or Tuesday. “What are you doing here?” Kyle questioned his father who was reeking alcohol. “How much have you been drinking?” Kyle said annoyed, he could smell it clearly without having to get too close to him.

“Just a couple of beers,” his father said, slurring his words. 

Kyle rolled his eyes, he knew it was more than a couple of beers but he didn’t question his father. “Have you seen someone in the house?” Kyle asked him, he still needed to find Logan.

“Yeah, a while ago I saw a boy in your bed,” Kyle’s father started to say with difficulty. “I kicked him out,” he finished saying before he started to laugh. 

“You did what?” Kyle said, raising the voice to his father before going outside to look for Logan. 

Kyle stepped outside and saw Logan lying in the grass. As he got closer, he noticed that Logan had glass shards in his hair and on his head, indicating that someone had hit him with a bottle. Kyle gently placed Logan's head on his lap and tried to wake him up. However, Logan didn't respond, and Kyle soon noticed that he had cuts on his arms and torso as well.

"Logan?" Kyle said, shaking him gently. But Logan remained unresponsive. Tears welled up in Kyle's eyes as he realized that Logan was no longer breathing. He muttered a broken apology to Logan and sat there, feeling helpless.

"Why did you do that?" Kyle shouted at his father, who was sitting inside the house, drinking beer. His father simply looked at him and opened another can.

"Answer me, damn it!" Kyle yelled, hitting the wall in frustration.

“Don’t raise your voice at me, boy,” Kyle’s father said as he picked up a glass bottle from the floor and pointed Kyle with it. 

In a moment of complete anger Kyle picked another glass bottle from one of the corners of the room and hitted his father with all of his strength in the face with it making him fall to the floor. 

Kyle, still enraged with his father, started kicking him on the face and torso until he stopped moving. When he finally stopped, he brought his hands to his face and started to cry as if he had never cried in his life. He fell to the floor on his knees next to the bloodied and immobile body of his father.

“Kyle, Kyle, Kyle,” he heard a faint voice calling him. He opened his eyes to see where it was coming from but everything around him was pitch black.

***

"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants."

Psalm 116:15