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“Hey,” Daniel said, holding his phone to his ear. “What’s up?”
It wasn’t very often that Chris called him since they lived right next door to each other. But hey, Daniel was always in the mood for chatting.
“Daniel!” Chris’s voice came through oddly relieved and a little strained. He sounded kinda different. “You— uh, are you home right now?”
Maybe he was nervous. Or stressed. It was definitely something.
“Yeah, man, I’m here.” He was gonna make some semi-sarcastic, ‘Where else would I be?’ comment, but it didn’t really feel like a great time for jokes.
“Cool, good. Could— could you come sneak me in?”
“Sneak you in?” Daniel asked, incredulous even though he knew by now that something was up. “Why? You know my grandparents don’t mind having you,” he said, but he was already on his way.
Chris let out a little sigh. “I—I know. But they—they can’t see me right now. Just trust me.”
It wasn’t at all like Chris to hide things. He really liked Claire and Stephen, as far as Daniel could tell. At the very least, he told Daniel everything. Why was he suddenly being so weird now?
“Okay, okay. I’m coming. You're in the back?”
“Yeah.”
Daniel nodded, halfway down the steps already. “Alright. See you in a second.”
It was usually easy to tell if his grandparents were downstairs. They always seemed to be making noise in some way—dishes, muttering to themselves, coughing. Still, he glanced around just to make sure they weren’t lurking about before he went to go open the back door.
Chris stood a few feet away, just out of sight from inside of the house. He stepped forward when Daniel came out, and suddenly some of the weirdness made a bit more sense.
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” he said quickly.
But it, of course, he was referring to his nose. For lack of a better way to put it, he looked like someone who’d gotten punched in the face. His nose was bloody and swollen, his eyes revealing some of the pain he was probably feeling.
Daniel stood speechless for a moment until he could finally form words again. “What happened to you?”
Teenage boys getting hurt wasn’t anything usual, and maybe Daniel wouldn’t have been worried about it if Chris didn’t look so shaken. He didn’t look like someone who just slipped and fell down; he looked like someone who just went through some shit.
Chris glanced inside the house, eyes scanning around.
“They’re upstairs,” Daniel said before he could ask, pulling Chris inside. He led him to the kitchen quietly, fishing a washcloth from one of the drawers and running it under some water. “Are you okay?”
Chris nodded, messing with his hands. “Yeah.”
It wasn’t that convincing, but Daniel decided not to push yet. Chris got like this sometimes when he had anxiety attacks. Daniel still wasn’t great at helping with them, but he was pretty sure pressing him right now wouldn’t help.
He wrung the cloth out and handed it to Chris. “Is it bad?”
“I don’t think it’s too bad.” Chris cringed a bit as he cleaned his face off. It looked like he wasn’t bleeding anymore, so that was a plus.
Daniel leaned back against the counter. “So are you gonna tell me what happened?”
Chris looked down. “It’s nothing,” he murmured, walking over to the sink.
It was really almost sad how bad Chris could be at lying. “Dude,” Daniel said.
Chris rinsed the cloth out, probably more thoroughly than necessary, not looking up. “I can’t really talk about it, Danny.”
“Oh, please.” Daniel crossed his arms. “Tell me.”
Chris didn’t answer immediately. He turned the water off, staring intently at the rag and turning it around in his hands. He seemed to realize he couldn’t play silent forever. He glanced around the room before looking at Daniel momentarily and frowning. “Daniel… Just let it go man. You don’t wanna know, trust me.”
That didn’t help him stop worrying. The fact that Chris was hiding anything at all was anxiety-inducing itself.
Still, he did choose to come here for whatever reason, so Daniel guessed he would stay a while. They might as well go talk somewhere more private.
“Let’s go to Grandpa’s workshop. We can talk there.” That way they wouldn’t have to worry about his grandparents coming in suddenly. He suspected Chris was just hiding from them so they wouldn’t see he was hurt—but what reason did he have for hiding that he was hurt?
None of this felt very good.
Daniel ushered him into the room, flicking on the lights and closing the door behind them with his power.
He didn’t want to be too nosy and persistent, but not knowing what happened was starting to really make him uneasy. “I’m going to keep asking about it until you tell me,” he blurted out, looking at Chris.
Chris didn’t seem too surprised by it. He just sunk down against the wall until he was sitting. “It would just upset you,” he murmured.
“Dude, not knowing is upsetting me!” Every part of this was upsetting. It didn’t feel right. Seeing Chris this way just felt bad. Daniel frowned and sat down next to him. “Come on, you’re worrying me.”
“I—” Chris’s voice cracked, and he drew in a sharp breath, going quiet for a few seconds. “You’re gonna freak out,” he murmured.
I’m already freaking out! “Just tell me, Chris,” Daniel pleaded.
Yeah, he wasn’t great at this. Dealing with anxious Chris could be tricky. He did come here, so he probably didn’t want to be alone right now. But maybe he needed a minute or two to calm down.
Giving up on trying to find the right words to say, Daniel just wrapped an arm around Chris and hoped it was some degree of comforting. It seemed to be, based on the way Chris shuffled closer to him.
Daniel tried to ignore his growing need to know what happened as he let Chris collect himself in silence.
Eventually, Chris spoke again. “If I tell you, you can’t get mad.” He glanced up briefly and rubbed his arm.
“I’ll try,” Daniel said, because he didn’t want to make a promise he wasn’t positive he could keep if he didn’t have to.
Chris hesitated, but he nodded. “You know how my dad drinks sometimes?” he asked slowly, like it really took a lot of work to form each word.
“Yeah,” Daniel said, not liking where this was headed.
“And how he can sorta lash out?”
Obviously. Daniel was around enough to see that for himself. Charles definitely had a temper, especially when he drank. Normally it was just him yelling, sometimes knocking stuff over. But that was all.
Right?
“You’re not saying he did this?” Daniel said, feeling kinda sick.
Chris curled his knees to his chest without replying. Giving him time to calm down was significantly harder when Daniel also wasn’t calm.
“Chris, did he hit you?” he asked, trying to tilt his head to catch Chris’s eye.
“He— he didn’t hit me,” Chris said, taking in a steadying breath. His hands were shaking where they fidgeted in his lap. “He wasn’t trying to— to hurt me, he just… pushed me and I hit the table.” His breathing sounded unsteady again. “He did—didn’t mean to.”
“Didn’t mean to?” Daniel echoed, crossing his arms. He paused and tried to calm himself down before he continued, not wanting to make Chris’s mental state worse. “Has he done this before?” He bit the inside of his cheek, forcing his voice to sound calm.
Chris sniffed. “I—I dunno. Kinda. A few times.”
This was horrible. Daniel wanted to make him feel better, but he already knew there wasn’t a lot he could do. “Is he gonna get upset that you’re gone? Is he gonna come looking for you?” he asked.
“No. He doesn’t usually follow me when— when this stuff happens. I normally just go to the shed, so I think he’s fine with just giving me space for a while.”
Daniel tried hard not to think too much about Chris dealing with this same thing on his own, alone in a cold shed, hiding from his own dad.
“Why did you come here this time?” he asked.
Chris shrugged. “Scared, I guess.”
As a fourteen year old, probably overprotective teenage boy with supernatural powers, it was hard to think completely rationally. But Daniel could feel his blood boiling with rage, and he wanted nothing more than to use them to get a little revenge on Charles.
“Is he still at home?”
Maybe the ingenuity of his unaffected tone was starting to show through, or maybe Chris just knew him too well, but he turned to Daniel instantly, eyes wide.
“Don’t,” he said seriously. “You can’t go over there.” He put his hands on Daniel’s shoulders, like he was ready to stop him if he tried to leave.
And Daniel really did think he might try. He crossed his arms. “Why not, dude? Are you telling me he doesn’t deserve it?”
“He’s my dad!” Chris said defensively.
That was a stupid argument, and Daniel knew it. That didn’t make him a better person. But it was really hard to ignore the desperation in Chris’s eyes.
Daniel shook his head. “Your dad who hurts you, Chris.”
“He didn’t mean to! It’s not that bad, Danny. It’s not like this happens all the time.”
“It shouldn’t happen at all!”
How could Chris possibly be arguing about this?
“I—I know,” Chris agreed, nodding slowly. He relaxed slightly, shoulders losing tension. “But going over there won’t solve anything.”
Daniel let out a sigh, leaning back against the wall. He was right, but it sucked. All of this sucked. Who was Charles to do stuff like that? And get away with it? “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.
“Because I didn’t want you to know.” Chris crossed his arms. “It’s fine, Danny. I can handle it.”
“He hurt you,” Daniel reminded, a little sharply.
“He’s trying, okay?” Chris said weakly.
Daniel shook his head. “How can you defend him?!”
“Because he’s my dad!” Chris stared at him sadly. “And I really believe he’s a good person.”
Fuck all of this. Daniel thought for a moment. “We should at least tell my grandma.”
“No,” Chris said, shaking his head hastily. “It’s not worth it, Dan. Seriously. Just— just think about it for a second. It wouldn’t help. I would probably just get taken away. Then I wouldn’t have you, or my dad, or any friends or anything.”
Daniel looked away. Maybe that was true. “You’d be safer.”
“I’d be miserable,” Chris argued. “Danny, please. I know my dad has issues, but he’s the only close family I have.”
He wasn’t sure if Chris said that because he knew Daniel could relate, or if it just came up. But it did remind him of his mom, of wanting to see her even though she abandoned him. It wasn’t quite the same degree, he thought, but he… did get it.
He ran a hand through his hair. “Are you really trying to guilt trip me for wanting to help you?”
“I’m just trying to get you to think about it. It’s not a simple as it sounds.” Chris swallowed. “I still care about him. He still plays video games with me and takes me out for food and stuff. We still make jokes and watch movies. If I was miserable, I would have told someone already. It’s not like that.”
That wasn’t completely reassuring. It helped knowing Chris wasn’t totally miserable, but he was so… loyal. Charles didn’t deserve a son as good as Chris.
“I’ll be safe,” Chris promised. “If he gets angry, I’ll just avoid him or come to your house. I’ll be fine.”
Would he be?
Daniel’s fists clenched. “If he hurts you, I’ll—”
“You’ll do nothing,” Chris interrupted, grabbing his arm. “He loves me, Dan. He wouldn’t do anything too severe. He always feels bad. It’s okay. You don’t need to protect me.”
Daniel liked to think his powers had a lot of potential for doing good in the world, and he tried to use them that way. But was he really helping anything? He couldn’t even protect his own best friend.
“This is so fucked.” He put his head in his hands.
“I know. I’m sorry.” Chris scooted over to him again, sitting right next to him. “You can’t tell anyone.”
“Right.”
“Seriously, Danny. You have to promise.”
Now it just felt demeaning. ‘I promise I’ll let you stay in an abusive household and do absolutely nothing about it because you asked so nicely.’ There was so much he could do, if only Chris would let him.
Chris sighed at his hesitance. “Come on, dude, don’t you trust me?”
“That’s not fair,” Daniel said, looking up.
“None of this is fair.” Chris frowned. “Do you?”
Generally, of course. But did he trust Chris to make logical decisions for his own well-being and safety?
Shit, he hated this. But, if he really had to, he could always break a promise later. “Okay, fine. I trust you, Chris.” He felt like probably the second worst human on earth at the moment.
“Thank you. I know what I’m doing, I promise.”
Daniel nodded. “You’d better.”