Content warning: Sexual abuse, trafficking, gaslighting, slurs, homophobia, fatphobia, misogony
jesus christ
Word Count 7,203
“You’re not very cute when you cry, you know.”
Cheren scoffed as he turned away from Lucas, leaning further over the bed to light his cigarette. Lucas laid there sniffling lightly, his vision blurry from the tears that leaked down his cheeks. He rose arm up to wipe them off but it was such a waste since they simply smeared across his face. Growing flustered and frustrated, he rolled over and shoved his face into the pillow and sputtered deeper into his wails, hoping the pillow would mute them. He couldn’t bring himself to look at Cheren right now, or anyone of the matter. He really missed having the viaduct to run to when he felt like this.
After being told his mother wasn’t answering his calls, and after physically attempting to call her, getting no response from any of his family and with Cheren’s added comments on why it was happening, he was convinced him that no one wanted him back home and he was stuck living with his mentor forever. He didn’t want to believe it, but after the things Cheren told him that his mother would say and bringing up how his father hated gay people like him, he had no other choice than to accept the truth that they let him be sent away because they no longer loved him. He was draining money from his mother and was a brat, and his father was obviously disappointed in the fact his son was like this. It wasn’t like he had friends back at home either other than Ariana and Barry, and they were barely friends considering they were being forced to hang out with him.
That should have been enough to convince Lucas that staying at Cheren’s was the best for him, but being with Cheren wasn’t necessarily fun anymore. His mentor was extremely rough with everything they did and no longer responded to him when he’d tell him he was uncomfortable or hurting, leaving Lucas feeling miserable and exhausted. Things were getting so bad to the point he had to use his inhaler constantly due to his asthma acting up. He began spending his days laying around, passing out with the hopes of waking up to a call from his mother that it was all a misunderstanding and he’d be going home. But a call never came in and he’d wake up to another day of roaming the quiet, empty house alone.
Cheren had taken Kayden to the mysterious Nat’s house and he’d been gone for an entire week. Dean was barely around since he took on longer shifts and when he was around, he never spoke to Lucas and ignored the boy’s presence. It was worse than how Kayden treated him since Dean was a grown man with good social skills; he was clearly ignoring Lucas’s predicament and wanted nothing to do with him.
No one wanted anything to do with him, other than Cheren.
Lucas’s entire chest ached as he sobbed, trying his hardest to hold in how loud he became. He tensed upon feeling Cheren’s hand on his bare back, causing him to shiver slightly.
“Lucas, did I hurt you or something?”
Lucas shook his head in the pillow, taking in terribly shaky breaths, refusing to look Cheren in the eye.
“...Hey. Talk to me.”
He hissed as Cheren pulled him up from the pillow, lifting him into a sitting position so they could look eye to eye. He wiped his face quickly, trying to settle his breathing.
“Dude, what’s wrong with you?”
“N-Nothing.”
“It doesn’t seem like it’s nothing. Is this about your mom again?”
Lucas frowned, staring down at the bed without responding.
Obviously it is.
“...We already talked about that. You’re okay living here, I’m not angry at you for having to stay, you know? I love you alot and I’m really glad you’re staying with me. You can’t cry about this forever.”
Lucas shook his head, feeling himself get choked up again. Cheren didn’t get it. He wouldn’t be able to either. He groaned, covering his face with his hands.
Cheren let out a sigh before getting off the bed, leaving Lucas sitting there alone as his mentor left the room. He weakly grabbed for the blanket to cover his bare body and curled into it. It would be best for him to just try to sleep this off. He didn’t want to keep crying, it was merely tiring him out and trying to tell Cheren what was wrong felt like talking to a brick wall. As we went to close his eyes, he looked up as Cheren walked back into the room who stared blankly down at.
“I’m going to go pick up Kayden. Do you want to ride with me?”
He’s tired of dealing with my shit.
“S-Sure.”
--------------------------------------
The car ride to Nat’s was silent, other than Cheren making comments about how much he hated what was on the radio and trying to make small talk with Lucas. Lucas responded to nothing as he stared out the window blankly, wondering what everyone was doing back at home. Cheren even stopped by McDonalds to buy him food but Lucas only ate a few fries before letting himself doze off in the passenger seat.
He woke up after realizing Cheren was carrying him into the new house. Growing irritated, he squirmed out of his mentor’s arms and insisted he could walk the rest of the way and Cheren allowed him to, leading him up the flight of the apartment’s stairs.
Once they reached the door after passing by plenty of similar ones, Cheren searched his keys as Lucas let himself lean against the wall, still a bit droswy from his nap in the car earlier. They had to have driven for a long time, or he must have simply slept that hard.
He opened the door after a second of searching and walked in, taking Lucas’s hand and bringing him inside too so he could shut it behind them.
Lucas looked around, seeing how bare and shitty the apartment building looked. It was quite small and shabby, not even the comfortable type of shabby that Ariana’s house was. He squinted at the sight of trash laying around and rolled his eyes.
Nat’s a fucking bum.
Lucas had no idea a house could look so terrible. It was on the level of how bad his room looked after he’d throw fits and toss everything all over the place. Especially for a woman. Lucas thought all girls were clean.
Cheren seemed to be scanning the trash before scratching his head, walking over to glance down the hallway.
“Nat? Kay? Where are you two?” Cheren called out, walking down the little hallway, urging Lucas to follow him. The two of them peeked around before footsteps from behind approached them. Lucas flinched and turned his head as he realized someone was behind him.
“Why are you in my house?”
A young girl the same height as him with dirty blonde hair met his eye, her stare whafting annoyance and disgust. She wore a gray jacket, over her loose tanktop and shorts; atleast they fit her unlike the way Kayden’s clothes fit him. Lucas, startled, could only bring himself to step back to Cheren’s side.
“Oh, there you are. Leave him alone, Nat. This is Lucas.” Cheren butted in after realizing the girl was in his presence. “Where’s Kayden?”
Nat looked glanced at Lucas before looking up to Cheren, her green eyes stale in the dimmed light. “He’s in the back sleepin’.”
“Has he been sleeping the entire time?” Cheren ran his hand over his head as he paced to the opposite side of the house, opening one of the doors before walking into the room.
“No, he’s been awake. He just laid down to take a nap before you got here. We’ve been waiting for Cody to come back.”
Cheren poked his head back out of the room with a scowl.
“How long has he been gone?!”
“...only since this morning. He only went to drop off the tapes and pick up the money. He said he was gonna come and drop it off at your house.”
“Oh. Have you guys eaten?”
“Yeah. I warmed up the pizza from last night. Kayden ate a whole bunch of it.”
Cheren’s face softened as he let out a sigh. He went back into the room and there were simply Kayden’s protest as Cheren went to wake him up. Lucas glanced at the wall, uncomfortable to be in the stranger’s house. Nat definitely wasn’t who he expected her to be, she had to be about the same age as him or Kayden. Definitely not as young as Ariana since she actually had a body, so she was older. Just not old enough for her relationship with Cheren to make sense. He flushed lightly at the thought, causing him to stare down at the ground and avoid eye contact with the girl. He could tell she was staring at him and wasn’t sure what to say back.
Nat must have noticed him becoming timid in her presence since she approached him to fuel his discomfort.
“So you’re the little gay boy Cheren’s keeping now, right?”
Lucas looked up and met her eye, his face growing warm. She had no concept of personal space.
“Um...I’m just staying with him until my mom comes and get me.”
“Pfft. Whatever. I guess you are kinda cute. Kayden didn’t tell me you were this fat though.”
“I’m not fat.” Lucas looked away.
“You are, and you’re super short. It’s super funny.”
Lucas held his tongue from snapping at the girl since Cheren walked out of the room with Kayden. Lucas looked at him, quite shocked to see that the boy actually looked presentable. His hair was brushed out of his face and he had on clothes that fit his body. Kayden met his eye and gave him a weird expression along the lines of a smile.
“Nat, do you want to come over to my house since Cody’s gone? I don’t want to leave you here by yourself.” Cheren mumbled as he rummaged through the drawers in the apartment’s kitchen. “He can pick you up once he brings me the money.”
“You’re taking Kay?”
“Yes. Cody recorded everything he needed, right?”
“...well, yeah but…”
“If you want to see Kayden, you can just come to my house. You guy’s house fucking sucks and it’s never clean. I’m not leaving him here in this.”
Nat scowled, looking away from Cheren has he headed to the door.
“Are you coming or not?”
“Yeah. Let me get my shoes.” Nat walked off into the room, grumbling under her breath. Lucas watched her go before looking to Cheren who was pacing a bit before he finally headed to the front door.
“Lucas, Kayden. Come on, we’re leaving. Nat, just lock the door and come to the car, okay?”
Lucas frowned, following behind his mentor as Kayden trailed behind them. This was certainly an awkward situation. Lucas wasn’t really sure what was happening.
----------------------------------------------------
Once they got back to Cheren’s, his mentor had the three kids sit in the basement once he left out again, leaving Lucas staring at the Nat and Kayden stupidly with irritation. Granted, the basement was pretty decent and comfortable and had a bed and a TV, but it was lousy to be locked down there with them.
Nat was weird and obnoxiously touchy; She barely gave Lucas space until he ended up screeching in her face to get her to back off. He quickly became annoyed with her presence and sat underneath the basement steps, trying to hold himself from bursting in tears. He couldn’t believe he was in a position like this, being locked in a basement with two weird kids who barely knew him. Burying his face into his knees, he sat there hoping he’d wake up to see his mother’s face or anyone he actually knew in front of him.
With him hiding, Nat got annoyed with the silence of the room and began rambling to Kayden.
“Is he shy or something? He’s literally hiding from us under the stairs like he’s a cat.”
“H-He might be scared.”
“Seriously? Am I scary, Kaykay?”
“No.”
“You were supposed to say yes, dummy.”
Kayden went silent before letting out a noise. Lucas listened as the girl came over to approach him from under the steps, kneeling down to meet his eye.
“You gonna hide under there the whole time until Cheren gets back?” She smirked, scanning Lucas once more, causing him to tense up.
“Go away.”
“What, are you scared of me or something? You think girls have cooties?”
“No, but I want to go home.”
“You’ll get over it.”
Lucas squinted and scowled, facing away from the girl.
I don’t have to get over shit. I don’t even know you.
“So, your name is Lucas, right?”
Lucas groaned. “Yeah. Now go away.”
“I just want to get to know you, jackass. Don’t be a bitch. We’re gonna to have to deal with each other a lot, so you gotta learn to like me sooner or later. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”
Lucas stared at her, his heart sinking at her words before she put out her hand. Upon looking down, he could see a few bruises along her arm.
“I’m Natalie. Are you going to shake my hand or are you gonna keep looking at me with that dumb face?”
“I’m not shaking your hand. Fuck off.”
“...Jeez.” The girl stood up and walked off out of his view. He could hear her talking poorly about him to Kayden, causing his body to grow heavy, similar to how he felt with Cheren.
I can’t stand being here.
“Is Cheren gonna make me fuck him too? He’s an asshole, Kay. It seems like he’ll hurt me.”
“I-I don’t know. I don’t th-think so. Cheren keeps hi-him to himself.”
“I sure hope that’s the case. Because, ew. Ugh. He looks nice but that’s not what I’m getting from him! Do you still have all your snacks down here or did they go bad? I’m kinda hungry.”
Lucas could hear Kayden get up and begin shuffling through something, the familiar crinkle of a chip bag filling his ears. His mouth watered involuntarily at the thought of eating chips. He hadn’t eaten in days and the few fries he managed to get down did nothing to fill him up. He regretted rejecting the food with how bad his stomach grumbled. He groaned, laying his head back miserably.
“Oh! My favorite! Did you save these for me?”
“Y-Yeah.”
“Aww, thank you Kay!”
Lucas remained under the steps for another 10 minutes before he finally, but shakily crawled from underneath and faced Kayden and Nat. The two kids looked at him blankly, fingers coated in cheese dust.
“The fatty finally came out. I think he’s hungry, Kay.” Nat giggled to Kayden as she laid back onto the small mattress, watching as Lucas paced over to the bathroom. He slammed the door as hard as he could and walked to the sink, shutting it on to scald his hands. The rush of the water soothed him, much more than anything had the entire day. He stared down at the drain as the water rushed in, causing him to groan as he glanced up into the mirror.
He looked no better from the last time he saw himself. Atleast the last time his face wasn’t red from crying. His hair was matted and greasy, considering it’d been a while since he washed it. It’d been a while since he did anything. Everything seemed so far off in the distance, his thoughts mushed and patched together poorly as he squinted.
After washing his face, he headed to the toilet to do his business before the door opened, causing him to squeak and look over his shoulder. He met Kayden’s eye and grimaced.
“Don’t you know how to knock?” He spat, growing irritated with the lack of privacy. He couldn’t do anything without anyone barging in on him.
Kayden flinched, looking away before muttering something.
“I can’t hear you.”
“W-We saved you chips. A-And can you help us turn t-the TV on?”
“I can’t really do that while peeing. Can you get out?”
“S-Sorry.” The boy closed the door quickly, leaving Lucas standing there stupidly.
He stared off at the wall before closing his eyes sadly.
Mom, please come and get me.
--------------------------------------------------------------
“How the hell didn’t you guys know there’s buttons on the side of the TV?” Lucas gaped, as he stepped back from the decently sized TV, watching as the screen lit up. Kayden and Nat sat there, their eyes twinkling at the screen.
“Well, Cheren said the TV could only be turned on with a remote, so we didn’t think it could be turned on a different way.”
Lucas squinted at the girl and grinned goofily.
“It’s...common sense.”
“For you it is. Don’t make Kayden feel bad, jackass.”
“I’m not trying to make him feel bad. I’m just saying that it was common sense.”
Lucas stared at the TV and frowned, seeing it wasn’t connected to the cable. It was a waste to even turn it on since they were greeted with static.
“I-Is it broken?” Kayden squeaked, catching Lucas’s attention.
“It has no connection to anything, so kinda. We can’t really use it. Are we seriously stuck down here?”
Nat and Kayden looked to each other and nodded.
“Cheren locks the door everytime ever since Kaykay tried to run off one day.