Chapter Text
Glam sits in his room. Ow. He holds his arm. It burns so bad. He just found out that he's out of bandages so he's putting pressure on it with toilet paper. It hurts and he wants it to stop bleeding. He waits for it to stop bleeding and he throws away the toilet paper. He takes a quick 2 hour rest.
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Now he climbs down the rope and scrambles off to grab his guitar and Ches.
Glam puls back the fake bricks and gets his guitar. Ches startles him.
"Gah!" Glam yelps and jumps back.
"Ha! Gotcha!" Ches giggles in the bubbly moonlight. The two run off to Lordy's house.
They set up in his garage and the band jams together as they tune and get ready.
"Hey, can we run Melody of Rain?" Bob asks. I don't think I'm getting the pre chorus stuff."
"Alright," ches responds and the band begins to play it. The song is so powerful and meaningful to Ches and Glam. The two both wrote that song together.
The band practices a couple more songs. It feels like a blur to Glam. He's feeling really exhausted. He gets home and crashes quickly. In the morning he eats his oatmeal and studies music. And studies music. And studies music. Then he screws up. He winces and pulls out his arm.
SLAP!
SLAP!
SLAP.
That last one was different. It hurt a lot more. There's more blood. Scars on top of scars. Glam whimpers as the slaps continue. What the hell happened to "we're not gonna take it?" Why is he paralyzed in fear? What's even the point, standing up for himself wouldn't work against Gustav.
"From the top, Sebastian!" His father growls.
Glam starts the song again. WRONG.
Hit again.
He starts again. WRONG
That night, he is about to go to practice with Ches, but Ches stops him.
"Dude, practice has been canceled today. Lordy got scheduled an extra shift at work so we can't use his garage," Ches informs Glam.
"Okay, what now?" Glam asks, his usual smile filling his whole face.
"My place?" Ches suggests.
"Okay!" Glam chirps. He and his friend head to the trailer.
Something makes a noise in the darkness of the night. Glam flinches. It's a large dog. Ches grabs his friend by the wrist and pulls him out of the way. The animal is on a leash so about 20 feet away, the boys are safe.
Ches laughs with relief, "Holy shit, that scared me so bad!" He giggles. He looks over to Glam to see how he is. He's not laughing. He's holding his wrist and wincing. His eyes are wide. Glam is in pain. A lot more than usual.
"Glam..?" Ches tries to get a better look. From the faint light, he sees that Glam is bleeding. "Glam! Oh my god are you okay? Did I do that..?"
"No!" Glam blurts. "It wasn't you! Uh.." he doesn't know where to go with this.
"Did you..?"
"No!"
"What happened! Just talk to me!" Ches begs.
Glam feels terrified. He can never talk about this. He's always known that. "U-uh.." the kid looks at his friend and seems to forget all language.
"Okay, let's get you fixed up..." Ches mumbles as he drabs Glam into the trailer. The two sneak past Ches's mother. "Sit on my bed." Glam sits down on Ches's bed. He's trembling and staring at the wounds. He hates his father. Ches grabs the first aid kit and kneels in front of Glam.
"Roll up your sleeve," Ches instructs quietly.
Glam does as he's told. His own eyes widen at the reopened cuts from the day. Ow. There are scabs under them, and fading scars under those, and even more faded scars under those.
"Jesus Glam, what's going on?" Ches inspects the wounds. "This is gonna hurt..." He whispers before cleaning Glams forearm with rubbing alcohol.
Glam winces and closes his eyes.
Ches gets the bandages ready.
"Glam, I'm really worried about you."
"Sorry.."
"No! Don't apologize!"
It gets quiet again. Glam feels his heart flutter as his friend bandages the wound. It's nice to have somebody care about him. Glam has had friends before.. kinda. He hung out with people at school sometimes... But he never really had a friend like this before. Many people were creeped out by him at school, but Ches isn't like that. Ches is just as creepy. Glam loves his new friend. Well.. maybe he just loves having friends. Because that's not what friends really think about each other.
"Okay, it's all done," ches mumbles and finishes bandaging his Glam. "You gonna talk to me yet?"