It's Gonna Be My Year

Jack had given me my actual birthday present after we’d finished making out. It was a super-hot make-out too. And ‘cuz it was my birthday Mom said Jack could sleep in my room! Well as long as we kept our pants on. But whatever! She’s the best mom ever. Jack had gotten me a guitar pick with his name on it and I was confused until he had shown me his. It had my name on it. He said it was a way of keeping each other close. I honestly thought it was the cutest thing ever. I kissed him a lot after that.
Well, it was a Monday again I was super excited because it was only two weeks until Christmas break. I was really excited for the Christmas part and the break part. I’m actually looking forward to this car trip a little. I had stop picking fights with my Father and Tom just kinda avoided me so everything was looking up. This would also mean we’d made it half way through freshman year alive!
I still didn’t know where we would be going on this trip but I’d assume it would be New York and around there. That’s where we normally go for holidays. Jack said he didn’t care where we went because he’d never been out of state and he’s only once been out of Baltimore. I was a little shocked until I remembered he had the shittiest home life until he came to live with us. I’m just happy to see him smiling again.
Jack and I just made it out the door when Tom grabbed on to our shoulders and pulled us back. I could see Jack slowly starting to freak out so I reached out to grab his hand and turned to face my asshole brother.
“Tom let us go,” I said, annoyed. He was going to make us late for school and I don’t want to remember the amount of late slips I’ve gotten this month already. Tom let go of me but kept his hand on Jack.
“Tom let him go,” I said threateningly. What the hell was he doing?
“What are you gonna do if I don’t, little brother?” he sneered. This is not the Tom I remembered. What happened to my brother?
“You really wanna know?” I said coolly, even though on the inside I was panicking. Jack looked like he was starting to hyperventilate and Tom’s grip on his shoulder was white. I reached forward and before Tom realised pressed down hard on the pressure point on his wrist. He let go pretty fucking quickly. I then grabbed Jack and shoved him behind me.
“I was just going to say, you forgot your lunch,” he said. Then smirked and threw our sandwiches high into the air. Now I had to catch them. I caught Jack’s but mine fell to the snow. Whatever, it was wrapped in plastic anyway.
Tom went inside and I took Jack’s hand again, passing him his sandwich. He calmed down quickly but didn’t talk much the walk to school, so I was pretty quiet too.
What the fuck was that? And why did Jack react like that? It must just be because he was bullied so much in the past. We were soon at school and I forgot about it. But Jack was different all day, barely speaking. It was like he’d reverted back to when I first met him.

A WEEK LATER
Jack was beginning to act really weird. He had gone silent again and I couldn’t figure out why. And anytime I tried to ask him, he’d say he was fine, give me a small fake smile and then excuse himself to go to the bathroom.
Tom was acting smugger too. I had a feeling the two were connected but couldn’t fucking figure it out. God, I hate being fucking confused. Especially since Jack had retreated into himself. He had barely kissed me all week, just staying in his room. Mom had asked if we’d had a fight and I was so confused I just said I didn’t think so. Even Dad had asked if Jack was ok.
It was Sunday night and Jack came into my room, with tears in his eyes.
“Jack, baby, what’s wrong?” I asked concerned. He just shook his head and started crying for real.
I held out my arms, deciding not to interrogate him until he’d had a good cry and gotten it out of his system. Hugs were the best for that. He basically collapsed on me with his arms around my neck while we were still in the middle of the room. So I gathered my strength and picked him up behind his thighs taking him to the bed with me. Thank god it was only a few feet away.
It was a little difficult getting into position once on the bed but I managed and I was facing the door with Jack cuddled into me. I stroked one hand up and down his back and the other I carded through his hair. He was clutching my shirt with one hand and had the other looped around my neck, trying to bring me closer to him than was physically possible. It was then that I noticed he had a hand shaped bruise on his arm and I tightened my arms even further around him.
Who the fuck was leaving bruises on Jack’s arm?! I thought I’d made the message clear at school. But what if someone was doing it anyway? I was seriously going to fucking kill someone! I could tell he knew I was getting angry and probably thought it was with him, so I calmed my thoughts and relaxed my muscles.
It took another ten minutes but Jack’s crying soon stopped and he fell asleep in my arms. I could tell he was exhausted by the bags under his eyes so I let him rest.
My Mom came in about an hour later, Jack was still asleep and she knocked on the door pretty loudly and called my name. I told her she could come in softly and brought my finger up to my lips, signalling quiet.
“Is he ok?” Mom mouthed at me.
“I think so. What’s up?” I mouthed back.
“Dinner.”
“Can we please eat it in here?” I asked softly. I didn’t really think she’d understand if I mouthed that. It was a bit of a mouthful. Ha. Get it?
“Sure thing, darling,” she whispered. She then held up her finger signalling one minute. True to her word she came back a minute later, a bowl of pumpkin soup in each hand. I was glad, I was so hungry and I loved Mom’s pumpkin soup.
She placed them on my desk and shut the door on her way out.
I gently shook Jack awake.
“Hey baby, it’s dinner time. You gotta wake up.”
I then started planted kisses all over his face, whispering his name in between kisses. I wanted to give him a gentle wake up because I had a feeling the conversation we were about to have was going to be brutal.
He groaned softly and his beautiful eyes fluttered open. I couldn’t help but smile looking into them. He starting smiling too. Then apparently he remembered something because he looked horrified. He started scrambling to get out of my arms. He fell to the floor next to the bed and was on his knees. It sounded like it hurt but he didn’t care. He looked up and was pleading with me.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Please don’t leave me Alex. Please don’t leave. I couldn’t handle it if you left me. I’m so sorry, please…”
“Jack what are you talking about?” I started whilst getting on the floor next to him. “I’m not going to leave you.”
He didn’t seem to hear me just kept apologising. I gently grabbed his arms and pulled him to my chest. He shook his head and started mumbling apologies frantically, still trying to escape. I soon realised that he didn’t want me to hold him.
“Jack. Jack! It’s fine ok? Come on Mom brought dinner. It’s over there,” I said, gesturing to the desk with my hand.
He stopped apologising and stood up slowly making his way over to the desk. He looked at me again, seemingly for permission so I nodded. He grabbed the soup and the spoon and started eating pretty quickly. I grabbed mine and basically devoured it too. He finished and stood up to leave, so I grabbed his wrist pretty quickly. He flinched and I remembered he had a bruise and it had to have gotten there somehow.
I let go and took the bowl from his hands, placing it back on the desk. I then gently took his hands and brought him to bed, sitting him door and sitting down opposite him.
“Ok Jack, I think we need to talk about the bruise on your wrist,” I said, as gently as I could. Unfortunately it still had a large impact and he visibly flinched. Shit. This was going to be harder than I thought.
He grabbed his sleeve and pulled it down his wrist so I couldn’t see it.
“I-I don’t, know what you’re um talking about,” he said nervously. Why was he lying to me even after I’d noticed something?
“Was it a kid from school?” I asked. He shook his head.
“Was it your dad? I mean did you go visit him or something?” He shook his head again but flinched a little at this one.
“I promise I won’t be mad if you did go see him,” I said, trying to figure out why he was apologising so profusely.
“It-It wasn’t my dad,” He said croakily.
“Who was it then baby?” I asked in the gentlest way possible. He started shaking and apologising again. Who was doing this?
“Baby, please, I don’t like seeing you like this. Please tell me, please.”
“You won’t believe me,” he moaned miserably.
“Of course I’ll believe you Jack. I trust you more than anyone else in the world,” I said with all the conviction I could. Which was a lot because I meant what I was saying. He seemed to believe what I was saying too because he slumped forward into my chest and mumbled something.
“Sorry baby I didn’t hear that,” I said.
“Tom,” he rasped out, as if he’d been crying again. “It was Tom.”
I thought back to the how Jack and Tom had been acting. I thought about Tom’s hand on Jack’s shoulder a week ago. I thought about how if Jack had come out of the kitchen with Tom alone he’d be more pale than usual. I felt the puzzle pieces sliding into place.
“Tom?” I asked coldly. I was very distant from my feelings. All I could think about was how Tom had touched my boyfriend. My Jack. Had probably told him lies too, trying to get him to leave me.
“I knew you wouldn’t believe me,” Jack said as he started to cry again.
“Oh no, don’t worry baby, I believe you. I believe you,” I said as I took him in my arms and started rocking him a little. After about ten minutes of that I leaned back and smiled at him.
“Hey baby, why don’t you go have a shower ok? Get cleaned up,” I suggested. Jack agreed and got up and went to his room. I waited until I heard the water running for the shower, then I stood up, and knocked on somebody’s door I haven’t knocked on for years.
The door opened and I looked up.
“Hey big bro, can I come in?” I asked.
“Uh sure,” he said, stepping aside. He shut the door and started to turn back, asking:
“What did you want?”
I just stepped forward and punched him as hard as I could on the cheek. I doubt I did any real damage though. Tom just smirked down at me.
“So the little fag told did he? I’m not surprised. He can only rely on you. You should hear the stuff he writes about you. ‘Oh Alex is so beautiful and handsome. He will break up with me sooner or later.’ ‘Oh I can’t believe I get to live with Alex. He’s the greatest thing that ever happened to me.’ ‘Oh Alex is the best, Alex is the greatest. Alex SAVED ME.’ What kind of a wimpy kid is this? You saved him? He’s like 15, his life isn’t that hard.”
I lunged again, this time hitting him square in the nose. I heard bone breaking a felt a sick satisfaction. I can’t believe I’m related to THAT!
He yelled in pain so I kicked him in the stomach. But apparently he could still see and he was pretty fast himself. He grabbed my leg and swung me around into a lamp. I smashed my head on the wall then I fell to the floor, bringing the lamp with me and breaking it along with my left wrist as I held it in front of my body to stop my head from hitting the floor as well.
And that fucking hurt. It’s been awhile since I broke a bone. At least it was my left wrist.
“You shouldn’t have hurt him you sick fuck!” I yelled as I ran at him. He was concentrating on his nose so he didn’t realise when I shoulder barged him and then leapt on top of him. I started punching him hard in the face, once, twice, more than twice.
“You. Will. Never. Touch. Him. Again.” I growled.
“ALEX! ALEX!” I became aware of someone yelling my name so I stopped punching. I felt someone touch my shoulder and realised it was Jack. I stood up off Tom and turned around to face Jack. I saw his eyes widen and realised too late that Tom hadn’t been knocked unconscious. I felt something hit my head hard, and the last thing I heard was Jack crying out my name.

JACK’S POV
I was trying to not have an anxiety attack in the shower when I heard glass smashing. I quickly turned the water off and heard a bunch of thumps and a pained scream. I felt my eyes widen when I realised I had been really dumb. Fuck, fucking hell. Alex why are you such an idiot? I wrapped a towel around my waist and ran to Tom’s room, where I could hear flesh hitting flesh.
I rushed in, yelling Alex’s name. He was on top of Tom, smashing his face in by the looks of it. He was cradling his left arm to his chest and then I realised he had blood dripping down the side of his head. Oh God.
“ALEX! ALEX!” I yelled, trying to get his attention. He stopped punching so I ran forward and touched his shoulder. He turned around and got off Tom. His shirt was stained with blood. I glanced at Tom on the floor and say he was in a much worse condition than Alex was. I was just relieved Alex was ok. Tom then stood up and grabbed a book off his desk. I felt my eyes widen and I opened my mouth to warn Alex but it was too late, and he was hit on the head with a book of serious thickness. He dropped like a sack of potatoes and I feel to my knees next to him.
I remembered what they said in first aid class and didn’t move or touch him, even though I really wanted to. I debated for about a second before realising holding his unbroken hand couldn’t hurt. I then glanced up and saw Tom towering over me, shadows over half his face.
“Looks like you dobbed didn’t you little Jacky?”