FicWad

"Hey, are you okay?" Bill looked up at a vaguely familiar brunet from his English class. He was looking down at Bill with compassion in his dark eyes.

"'M fine." Bill furiously rubbed at his eyes with the cuffs of his sleeves.

"You sure?" The brunet sat beside Bill.

"Yes, go away."

"Nah, I kind of like sitting here." He was somewhat serious about it. Sitting on the floor in the bathroom, when it was clean like it was today, in the quiet, after cutting class, was nice at times.

"What do you want?"

"I wanna know what's wrong."

"Why?"

"Because I saw you crying and I thought you might need someone to talk to." He paused and then continued. "And I'm not going away until you tell me. I won't tell anyone, I promise."

"I don't even know your name." Bill snapped.

"My name's Jeff."

"Bill."

"Nice to meet you. You seem upset, what's wrong?"

"You're kind of stubborn aren't you?" Bill glared.

"Kinda'." Bill didn't say anything. "Did somebody say something mean?"

"Not really."

"Did someone say something mean that normally wouldn't have upset you but was the tipping point because you've got a lot of stuff built up?"

"Pretty much."

"Well, what did they say?"

"Um..." Bill turned a light pink.

"Something embarrassing?"

"Sort of..."

"What?"

"Um...it got around the other day that um..."

"What?"

"I've never done anything with a girl." Bill murmured quietly avoiding Jeff's eyes.

"They're just bein' assholes, there's nothing wrong with that." Bill looked at him, surprised.

"Really?"

"Yes." He smiled at Bill and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, pulling him to his side in a hug. Bill leaned into him. "You okay?" Bill nodded. He flinched when Jeff's hand began to run up and down his arm. "Sorry, do you not like that?"

"No, it's nice."

"Then what's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Then why'd you flinch?" Bill didn't say anything. "Bill?" Bill tried to squirm away, but Jeff held him. "Is your arm hurt or something?" Bill tried harder to escape, now almost to the point of hitting Jeff to get away, and that told Jeff all he needed to know. "Take off your shirt, lemme see your arm!"

"No, get away!" Bill screeched, trying to escape Jeff's hands, but Jeff was faster and grabbed his arms, pulling them into a stall to corner him, but also for privacy. "Lemme go!" he shouted as he fought with Jeff, trying to keep Jeff from removing his shirt, but he lost that struggle and Jeff gasped at what he saw. Bill sobbed, bringing his hands up to his face. All over his chest and arms were large green, blue and black bruises and when Jeff turned him around to look at his back, he was treated to the view of angry looking welts and cut.

"Oh Bill..." He whispered, taking the sobbing redhead into his arms and rocking him. Bill returned the embrace and cried, holding Jeff tightly, his tears sinking into his shirt. They stood like that for a long time, Bill crying and Jeff comforting him, making soothing noises and rocking him, occasionally petting his hair. Eventually, Bill's sobs quieted to hiccups and sniffles.

"I'm sorry..." he murmured against Jeff's shoulder.

"What? Why?"

"For crying like that..."

"Oh Bill, no, no, it's okay to cry you know, it's alright..." Jeff replied gently, still holding Bill close. Bill rested against him and Jeff rocked him. After a while, Jeff spoke again. "Feeling better?" Bill nodded but remained close, his face against Jeff's shoulder. "You wanna skip the rest of the day with me?"

"What?"

"It's okay if you'd rather go back to class but if you wanna just hang out or even just rest, you can skip with me and come back to my house, but if you don't want to that's really okay."

"No, I've just never skipped school before."

"Well, I'll help you through your first time." Jeff said, pulling away to check the bathroom for people while Bill put his shirt on. As Jeff helped him sneak out, he got the feeling Jeff would be helping him though many firsts.