Scars Won't Tear Us Apart

The shrill ringing of his phone forced Owen awake and to open his eyes. Owen looked around, confused. He was still half asleep and Damon had already left for work. Feeling a bit like a zombie, Owen moved his hand around the bedside cabinet until he located his phone.

“Hello?” he said hoarsely.

“Sorry Owen, its Leana” the person on the other end answered. Owen sat up, worried, what had happened? Was there something wrong? “Can you take Harley to school? I've to to got to work and Jimmy hasn't come home yet” she continued.

“Yeah sure, I'll be there in a few minutes” Owen replied, hanging up the phone. With great difficulty, he managed to extract himself from the warm covers.

Once he was dressed and located his car keys (which were at the bottom of the hamper for some reason) he started to walk down the stairs, spinning the keys on his finger. He felt awesome until the key shot off, hitting the wall with a loud bang. One of their three cats, Nigel, gave him a disapproving look and walked off. He almost said sorry, but realised it was a cat and probably didn't care that much.

---

“So where's Dad?” Owen asked Leana as she made a last minute dash to find all her stuff she needed for work.

“He went out last night with Matt and Brian and hasn't come home yet” she said, picking up a heavy looking folder filled with paper. “Probably got drunk and passed out on the floor” she added bitterly but quietly.

Then she caught sight of Harley walking down the stairs with his laptop balanced in one hand, his eyes glued to the screen. “Harley, how many times have I told you to not play the computer walking down the stairs” Leana scolded.

“Sorry” Harley mumbled, barely listening.

“Your brother will be taking you to school in ten minutes, so make sure your ready” she continued, kissing him on the top of the head. “I love you” she called before closing the door.

“How have you been Harley?” Owen asked.

“Alright, I guess” Harley answered, glancing up from the screen. “They've been arguing again” he added quietly. Owen's heart sank, he knew that it upset Harley a lot when his parents argued. “I think it was my fault this time” Harley continued, turning off his computer.

“It would never be your fault Harley, sometimes people just argue” Owen said, trying to reassure his little brother.

Harley shook his head, his blonde hair flopping around. “I got in trouble in school again”

“What did you do then?” Owen asked, tying to not think of the last time when Harley had been in trouble for telling a teacher to 'shove that book up you ass' then adding 'but I bet you'd like that'. Dad had been very amused, Leana... not so much.

“”I hacked into the school computer system and put a picture of the principle in drag on all the monitors” he explained, shrugging his shoulders. Harley must have seen the poorly concealed smirk on Owen's face because he added “It took them three hours to take it off”

“How are you not suspended?” Owen asked, trying to distract himself.

Harley smirked, “I'm on final warning now”

Owen sighed, “C'mon then, lets get you to school”

---

When Harley was safely in school, Owen could finally go home and relax. He made himself a big mug of coffee and sat on the sofa. Oreo, a black and white long hair cat, sat next to him and started to purr. Owen absent mindedly stroked the top of his head whilst thinking about work.

He had a big photo-shoot tomorrow, and getting up at six O'clock wasn't going to make it any better. But at least he would be able to see Damon before he left, which was something that couldn't normally happen. Owen had discovered that he was not a morning person at all and was pretty much inhuman before ten O'clock; getting up early was unfair to both of them.

“I'm not looking forward to getting up tomorrow” he said to the cat, who seemed unconcerned as long as he was getting petted.

Owen didn't really like being in the house by himself, he usually ended up doing something out of impulse, like getting a tattoo or another cat. It seemed to confuse Damon when he came home to a little kitten running around or new ink to his boyfriends very tattooed body.

“I'm not leaving this house” Owen promised himself.

Somehow, he ended up spending three hundred dollars on new curtains. They needed new curtains, so he wasn't going completely crazy.