One of the Boys.

Brendon and I had decided to go look for apartments today, as graduation was looming and we needed to find a place relatively soon. I still had a place, my parents weren’t aware I was leaving yet, and I doubt they’d be happy that I was leaving – but I’d be with Brendon. We’ve taken care of each other all our lives, now is no exception.
“Hey.” whispered Brendon, knocking on my door lightly. I smiled and sat up, yawning, pushing the covers down to my waist.
“It’s safe.”
The door swung open and in bounded Brendon, shutting it behind him and sitting down next to me on the bed. My mom had stopped us from sleeping in the same bed, because we’d been together for a while now, and she was worried we would go that little bit too far. Which is fair enough, I suppose – as long as Brendon doesn’t have to sleep in his car.
He got under the sheets and cuddled in to me, still half asleep.
“Have you told her yet?” he asked.
“Who about what?”
“Your mom about your dad beating you. I said I wouldn’t look at anywhere else until you said something, remember?”
“Bren.” I sighed. “He’s fine now, he hasn’t touched me since, there’s no need to tell her.”
“Yes, yes there is. I’ll tell her if you don’t. In fact, I’ll tell her right now. Mrs. G!” he called and I covered his mouth with my hands.
“Shut up, okay? You’re being so immature about this and-”
The door opened again, and there stood my mom. I quickly dropped my hands from Brendon’s mouth and wiped them on the covers.
“Yes, Mr. U?” she smiled, hand on hip.
“I, uh.” he blushed, scratching the back of his neck. “Emma has something to tell you.”
I glared at him, squeezing his hand forcefully under the sheets, hoping to put him in pain.
“Ezme...? Is something wrong? Oh my goodness, are you pregnant? Brendon, you better not have got her pregnant.” she said sternly.
“No, I’m not pregnant.” I sighed. “Is dad home?”
“He’s on call right now, some riot out of town.” she nodded, sitting on the edge of the bed. “What is it, Ezme?”
“When, uh, when you were gone for a few weeks, I got really ill, and, um.” I gulped, and he rubbed my hand with his thumb delicately. He picked it up out of the covers and kissed it once, a look of pure worry spread across her face.
“Dad got angry at me because I’m, I mean, he thought I was a waste of space, a ‘pointless whore’, and he hit me. But it wasn’t just the once, he did it every night, and then I just stopped eating. The goof beside me saved me from it all, and when Dad had a really beat up face, it wasn’t because of a police fight, it was because Dad tried to hit me again and Brendon beat him to a pulp.” I confessed, holding his hand so tightly, but not wanting to cause pain anymore. My eyes had glazed over and tears threatened to spill, but they didn’t, because his arm slithered around my waist and pulled me close.
“Ezme, a-are you sure?” she asked quietly.
“You know I wouldn’t lie about something like this. I probably still have a few scars somewhere. He hasn’t done it in a while! It’s just, he, um, he might do it again and so I’m going to move out after this year.”
“Get out of bed and stand up.” she said quietly, getting off the bed. I did as she said and walked over to her, half expecting her to shout, but instead, she wrapped her arms around me. “Brendon, come join in too.” she sniffed and he nodded, hugging me from behind, all three of us in an embrace.
“Darling I’m so sorry I let him do that to you. When work gets really quite stressful, he gets... violent. He’s only hit me once and I’ve forgiven him, but I never thought it would happen again, especially not to our own children.” she whispered, tears, falling down her cheeks.
“I should have got there sooner, I should have paid more attention.” he mumbled into my neck.
“I love you.” they said in unison.
“I love you too, Bren, mom. It’s fine, there’s nothing to worry about, really.”
“You’re moving out, Ezme! That’s something to worry about! You’re my baby, you can’t just leave. Brendon, you’re almost like my son, you can’t leave either.” she sniffed but laughed quietly. “I guess you’re growing up, and you’ll be heading off to college, so I’ll have to let you go. At least I have a few months warning.”
He slowly let go, so I could escape from the embrace too.
“I’ll talk to your dad later, when he’s in a really good mood, and the two of you are out of the house. Thank you for telling me darling.” she nodded, kissing my forehead, then leaving the room.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Brendon.” I smiled as he wrapped his arms around my waist from behind, resting his chin on my shoulder. We were in the last of the apartments we’d looked at, and it was amongst student housing, so was just about affordable.
“This one.” he hummed. “I like this one.”
It was $450 a month, had one bedroom, one bathroom and one ‘other’ room. We could afford it with his job, as he wouldn’t be going to college, and my job after college. It was lucky I’d been accepted into the local one, otherwise I would have had to move pretty far away.
Then we had to buy everything to kit it out, and then there’d be the bills too, for water, for electricity, for gas for his car, for groceries. It all added up and it’d be pretty tight until we’d settled into steady jobs and I was out of college.
The area wasn’t too bad, either.
“Me too.”
“So I guess when it goes up for rent in July, we start paying, and hey presto, we have an apartment.”
“It’s scary, isn’t it?”
“A little bit. But I’m looking forward to it.” he said, taking a grip on my hips and spinning me around to face him. I pressed my lips to his once, then hugged him.
“I was really proud of you earlier.” he whispered. “I told you your mom would be supportive.”
“Yeah, she was great about it. I’m a little worried how she handled it with my dad but she’s strong, she’ll be able to handle it.”
“Mmm, your mom is kick ass like that.” he laughed and gave me a squeeze and loosened the hug, holding my hands in front of us, swaying them from side to side delicately.
“And, uh, you know how your family is going up to your grandma’s this week-end?”
I nodded and grinned. “It’s also your birthday on the Saturday, the big one-eight!” I chimed and he nodded excitedly, that goofy grin of his on his face.
“I was wondering, if for my birthday, I could get a present that was a little, uh, different.”
“Different?” I asked, raising an eyebrow, and he blushed.
“N-never mind.” he stuttered.
“Oh! Something sexual!” I said, suddenly cottoning on to what he was on about, and he blushed an even deeper red. When we were doing anything intimate, he was the dominant one, and there was a whole new look in his eye, but when we talked about it freely, and he wasn’t in that kind of mood, he became very embarrassed.
“I kind of wanted to have sex.” he said incredibly quiet, looking straight into my eyes. He was so quiet I had to rely on my lip-reading skills and not my ears.
“You don’t get much more sexual than that.” I smiled and he smiled a little too.
“It’s been just over four and a half months together, and nearly thirteen years since I fell in love with you.”
“Jesus Bren, way to get all gushy. I think someone needs a good, strong dose of testosterone and skate park.” I said and he laughed. “And I love you too.”