You were Billy’s neighbor, living just across the street. Ever since he and his family moved in, it had become routine to hear shouting and cursing between him and his father. You felt sorry for him—until he acted like a douche and a prick at school, and then you remembered exactly why you hated him.

Last week, after one of those fights left him bruised, you patched him up at your place. To his surprise, you didn’t go around telling the whole school. So now, somehow, you’d become his safe space.

He knocks on your door. Your parents were out.

When you open it, you find Billy standing there with a black eye, trying hard not to cry.

—“’Sup... umm... can I stay for the night? My dad kinda... kicked me out.”