Chapter 14: Under your bed

“You don’t have to.” She told him.

“I told you it’s not because I don’t want you to see it.”

She stared at him for some time before moving closer to the bed and getting in it. She moved behind him. A gasp escaped her mouth and then she placed a hand on his back.

He stiffened.

*

Joan’s fingers trailed down King’s back. So much bruises. There was the indentation of a fist at the upper part of his back, just on the slope of his back right under his neck. The person must have hit really hard.

He suffered too much, too much and yet he was always happy, that cheerfulness in him even when he was angry, hurt or sad was always there. She admired that.

If she had to be honest with herself, she would say she admired King, looked up to him. He was always full of surprises, charming her out of her wits. He wasn’t only a best friend to her, he was a brother; sometimes older, sometimes younger; he was a crush, in the sense that she admired him; even a father; when he went all responsible and