Steam Punk Goggles and Ink Stained Hands

DREW’S POV

~

“Ba-Barrone?” I stuttered out in disbelief; not because I didn’t think it was him though, but because I couldn’t believe that what I was seeing was happening to him. I automatically took a step forward towards him, making him in turn step backwards so that his lower back came into contact with the edge of the dirty sink counter. He stared at me, his chocolate eyes wide and glazed with fear.

“Drew-w?” he mumbled, gripping the counter being him tightly.

“Barrone, what happened” of course, I stupidly reached my hand up to touch his cheek causing him to flinch and try to squirm away from me. Panic clouded his vision as he stood there feeling trapped.
“Barrone, B, it’s okay. Shoosh I’m not going to hurt you” I spoke softly and calmly in an attempt to settle him down, like you would to a distressed puppy or something.

He stopped his anxious shuffling around at just looked at me for a second before allowing a stone mask to set over his face. That wasn’t good…

“Okay, Drew” he nodded, his eyes set on mine.

“Did someone hit you, Barrone? What happened to your face?” I questioned, anxious for him to tell me what caused the black-blue mark across his jaw.

“It doesn’t matter” he replied, refusing to give me an actual answer.

How could he think it doesn’t matter?! He’s hurt and I want to know why!

The way he’d flinched away from my touch a minute ago made me more confident in the thought that someone had hurt him rather than it being an accident. I wanted the name of this bastard so I could put them in their place!

“Of course it matters, Barrone!” I said allowing strands of exasperation to creep into my voice.

“No, it doesn’t. And it’s none of your business, Drew, anyway” I’m not going to lie, his response hurt me a bit.

“But Barron-“ I started only to be cut off.

“I said, it’s none of your business” Barrone sounded angry now. He sounded annoyed that I had dared to question his wellbeing.

Well, if that’s the way he wants to play it then I’ll act like I don’t care!

Except, I can’t do that, can I? I know before I even try that I wouldn’t be able to do that to the goggled boy.

I tried one more time, desperate for an answer.

“Please, Barrone… Who hurt you? Please tell me what happened?” I know my voice was significantly softer now – less demanding and more pleading.

“No.”

Barrone’s answer was short, sharp and final sounding. With that he pushed past me and out onto the busy streets of Suffolk again, leaving me standing here feeling confused and worried.

What happened to Barrone? Why won’t he tell me?

Tired of running after the sandy haired boy I traipsed out the bathroom at a slow pace, not really focusing on what went on around me anymore. As suspected Barrone was nowhere in sight when I looked up.

I felt my mobile phone start to vibrate lightly in my pocket and my ringtone start blaring out a Green Day song through tinny, shitty speakers. The caller i.d flashed up onto the screen showing Laurence’s name and a picture of him hugging a toy panda. I accepted the call and started walking back down the now emptying streets. After rush hour it was reasonably calm again, well, as calm as you can get for Suffolk; the streets slowly emptied of men and women on the way back from their jobs and started to refill with teenagers ready for a night out.

“Hey, Drew! Where the hell are you man?!” Laurence’s voice blared in low quality from my phone.

“There was an… incident but don’t worry about it. I’m on my way back to the arcade” As soon as Laurence started questioning me about what happened I interrupted him. This was a conversation I needed to have with Barrone, not Laurence. “Let’s just say I’m so done with public bathrooms…”.