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Felix sat before the window, head resting on his arms that were crossed atop the windowsill. The night air was still as he watched the empty road in front of his house, the slight breeze a gentle warmth wrapping around him. It was serene, tranquil. Unlike how it was until recently. At least, not at his house.
Actually, he wasn't sure if it was all that recent ago. It happened so often, it was so normalised to him, that he no longer counted the minutes, the seconds, the hours. He couldn't remember the last time there was peace at home for longer than 5 minutes when both his parents were awake and home.
All he was sure of, was that the night wasn't young, evident from the fact that the road before his house was empty. This was the suburbs, of course the road tended to be quiet after 8pm, when most people arrived back home from work. But there were a few other teens and young adults in his neighbourhood, and they usually came home later than the older ones. The only time the road was this quiet, was when it was properly late at night. Late enough that even his parents gave it a rest.
Felix closed his eyes, simply just enjoying the quiet air around him. He missed this. Missed the quiet in his own home.
It wasn’t always like this. He still remembers a time, seemingly a lifetime ago, when they had been happy. Or at least, he thought they were.
But suddenly his father started seeing alcohol, and his mother started seeing other men. And then Felix started seeing the noise and heavy hands.
He doesn’t know how it all started. It almost gave him whiplash every time he thought about it. One day, they were a happy family and the next, they were broken. He doesn’t remember any build up, any big eruption. It just – happened. It snuck up on him and gripped him in its sharp talons without any warning.
Felix didn't know why they didn’t just separate after the fifth consecutive night of shouting. Felix didn't know why hedidn't just run after he saw his parents' violent anger the second time.
Suddenly, he heard an engine and tires rolling on the asphalt. It wasn’t too terribly loud, not enough to rouse the sleepy neighbourhood. But in the dead of the night, Felix heard it all.
He shot up, eyes wide open, looking for the source. And there, rolling to a stop in front of his house, a familiar old, red pickup truck. Its headlights had been turned off so as to not shine light into the house. It was only illuminated by the moonlight and the sparse streetlights along the road.
Felix perked up, hurriedly gathering the two duffel bags in his arms and throwing the backpack he set right beside the window over his shoulder. He threw the two stuffed duffel bags out of the window with two huffs, one for each, and a soft, muted thud came from them as they hit the grass below. It was a heavier, slightly louder sound since his room was on the second floor, but it shouldn’t be loud enough to raise any suspicions. He had spent the last two months slowly, very slowly, taking and stuffing everything he needed for this piece by piece into the bags. He went slow because he needed to minimise his parents’ suspicions of him.
They weren’t very suspicious of him in the first place. They didn’t pay attention to him enough to see the signs, thankfully.
The only times they would pay him any attention was when they couldn’t take out their anger on each other or other things anymore. Thankfully, it didn’t happen all too often. That was the only thing he was thankful for to his parents.
He closed his window silently and, as silent as a mouse, he opened the door to his room and exited, closing the door quietly. He creeped past his father’s room and then down the stairs. This was practiced movement by now, with how many times he had snuck out the past few years. He even has memorised which steps creaked even with the slightest weight, so he skipped those. The last step creaked the loudest, and he was about to skip over it, when he saw the shards of glass at the bottom of the steps. It was a vase.
Huh.
So that’s the crash Felix had heard earlier in the night.
His mother must have thrown it at his father as he went up to retire to bed.
His parents started sleeping in separate rooms after a few months of constant fighting. His mother overtook the guest bedroom on the first floor, because it was easier for her to sneak men in and out that way.
Which reminded him, he might have successfully snuck past his father’s room, but he couldn’t be careless. His mother’s room was across the stairs, and he had to pass by it if he wanted to get to the front door.
Using the banister, Felix pushed himself up and over the last, creaky, step and landed right over the glass shards. Carefully, he tiptoed past his mother’s room, heart beating fast. The house seemingly creaked just as he passed by his mother’s door, and he froze for a few seconds. When nothing happened, he resumed and hastened his pace, but still he was slow and careful. The second he put his hand on the doorknob, though, the house seemed to creak again, and he froze again, heart at his throat. Again, nothing happened.
He didn’t allow himself to heave a sigh of relief just yet. He hastily opened the door, but still so quiet, and closed and locked the door once he was out. He then turned and made his way down the porch steps quietly, and then looked at where he had thrown his bags down. They weren’t there. Chan must have taken them.
Seeing as that he was finally in the all clear, Felix made a break for the truck. Throwing his backpack haphazardly into the back with his duffle bags, he threw the already unlocked door open and climbed in hastily, closing and locking it. He then turned to face the driver, and his heart blossomed as he was met with Chan’s gentle smiling face.
Heart racing wildly, Felix felt tears well up in eyes, and he threw himself onto Chan. Chan wrapped two, strong, warm arms around him tightly, comfortingly, as they both laughed gleefully. Chan twisted their bodies, pulling Felix into his lap. Felix buried his face into the crook of Chan’s neck and shoulder, shedding his tears, while Chan placed butterfly kisses on Felix’s neck and shoulder.
Felix pulled himself from Chan’s neck, looking into Chan’s warm eyes as tears ran down his cheeks while a huge smile stretched across his face, huffing out laughs of glee. Chan cupped his face gently, wiping away the tears with his thumbs.
Felix couldn’t help it. He surged forward, capturing Chan’s mouth in a deep, open-mouth kiss. Emotions surged between them as Chan kissed back, their tongues immediately meeting. Felix couldn’t help but moan at the contact and the absolute pure love he was experiencing, as what he always felt when he was around Chan.
They did nothing but kiss and savour the love between them for the next handful of minutes, but a lack of air forced them apart, lips red.
“Are you ready to leave all this behind, my love?” Chan asked, turning the ignition and starting the truck again, all while still looking deeply into Felix’s eyes, gentle smile gracing his lips.
Felix smiled back, making no move to get off of Chan. Instead, he hugged Chan again, pressing their chests flush together and resting his chin on Chan’s shoulder. “Take me away and into the night, my love.”
He felt Chan smile and place one last kiss to Felix’s neck before he felt the truck surge forward, finally taking him away from it all and into the serene night air, into Chan’s loving arms.
Felix had never felt happier.