I Don't Mind If You're Overrated

The rest of break passed quicker than I would have liked. Kellin and I continued along the same path, doing the same sorts of things. But in addition to that, we also formulated a plan. Friday night we stayed up all night, trying to think of some way that we could get Kellin to stay. I guess we’d worry about the summer when it got here, because even if Kellin stayed at the school, we’d be separated come June. Mr. Bren had given up on our curfews, seeing as we had two days before classes resumed.

Finally Sunday rolled around. I was woken up by Jesse shaking me at around 11 am.

“Hey!” He yelled, pulling me out of bed to give me a hug that I groggily attempted to return. As usual, he was much too energetic for the morning. I missed him though, so I tried to reciprocate his enthusiasm. “How was break? More importantly though- how’s Kellin?” He asked with a giggle, dragging out his name. I felt my cheeks starting to heat up. Jesse grabbed my arm. “You’re blushing!” He gasped.

“Calm down Jess, I’ll tell you later.” I promised with a laugh. “How was your break at home?”

“Oh, ya know. I played a lot of xbox, hung out with some old friends, Tyler, Ben, and Cory. I missed them, they’re chill dudes. Ben and Cory dropped out of school this semester.” He added. They sounded like burnouts to me. We were interrupted by a knock at the door. Jesse ran to it, pulling Jenna into a hug as he opened the door. I guess he was expecting her. We caught up for a few more minutes before the three of us headed down to the dining hall.

Gabe and Matty were already waiting, sitting and raving about the senior trip. I’m sure they were fucked up the entire time, I was surprised they remembered it at all. We sat down, and it wasn’t long before Kellin joined us. The second he came, all eyes were on the two of us. Obviously we hadn’t said anything about what had happened, but I knew they had all expected something. I just laughed to break the awkward silence, causing Kellin to crack a smile. This evening during dinner hour, we were going to gather the rest of the group; we needed their help for the plan to keep Kellin at school.
“Guys, huddle up.” Kellin whispered. They looked confused, but kind of scooted closer. “We need your help with something. You won’t get into trouble, if anything, we will. But we’ll explain tonight. Come to Vic’s room during dinner hour, we bought you some food yesterday.”

Our friends looked around at each other with confused expressions, but ultimately, they agreed.
“Only tell us what we need to know, though. The more we’re in on your motives, the more we’ll get in trouble if you get caught.” Matty said in a cautious voice. Jenna and Gabe agreed quickly, although Jesse just kind of looked down at his food. I knew the type of guy he was; he’d want to know everything, no matter what the consequences.

We hadn’t had morning classes our first day back, but we did have all our after lunch courses. It was hard to focus, but I had blown off all my work over break, so I had to at least act like I was trying. School wasn’t ever on my mind anymore, Kellin took up too much space. Music theory was the only thing that was interesting to me, because we had a project announced. We had to make an original composition, on our own. I saw the panic in Kellin’s eyes; he didn’t play an instrument, and I knew he wouldn’t want to sing acappela. I wouldn’t either.

The rest of the day passed slowly. We needed to get our friends on this plan quickly, which was stressing me out. I sat on my bed after classes, going over it in my notebook. It was intricate; hopefully we’d be able to pull it off. I needed Kellin here, with me. I sat in the room with Jesse, both of us doing homework absentmindedly.

“Tell me the plan.” He demanded suddenly. I gritted my teeth, leaning forward.
“Fine, come here.” I told him the whole plan, even the stuff we knew we weren’t going to tell the others. Jesse sat in silence, contemplating it.

“I’m in.” He decided. His phone buzzed; it was Jenna looking for him.

I laid back on my bed, wondering if this was the right thing to do. Maybe Kellin’s dad really wanted to apologize. My thoughts were interrupted by a knock. Our room seemed to be the popular place to be today. I opened my door to reveal Kellin. He walked past me and sat on my bed without waiting for me to invite him in. I smiled and shrugged, turning to face him.

“Teach me the basics of guitar. I need to do something for this project.” He asked, leaning back against the wall. It was due after he was supposed to leave, but assuming our plan was going to work, he’d still be here.

“Okay, come over here.” I told him, grabbing my guitar from where it lay by the closet. He got up and walked over. “I’ll teach you like four chords, that’s all you really need.” I explained. I put my fingers down for C and then started to play a few simple things, sneaking a peak at Kellin as I did so. His big eyes followed my fingers as they danced across the strings, watching with wonder.

“How long have you been doing guitar?” He asked. I stopped playing and shrugged.

“My dad started teaching both Mike and I when we were little kids. Mike likes drums better, but I think it’s harder to express yourself without notes, ya know?” I mused. Kellin just nodded. I handed him the guitar. “Here, you try.” I told him. I put down his fingers for C. He strummed it a few times, looking quite pleased with himself. I showed him D and E and concluded that was all he really needed for his music theory song. By the time we were finished, it was almost dinner. I got nervous, realizing that the others may not be up for what we wanted to do. But then again, they’d probably be on board once Kellin told them about his dad.

We sat on my bed and waited. Jesse was the first back, accompanied by Jenna. Then came Matty, then Gabe. We gave them all the pizza we’d stocked up on, and they seemed to like it, even though it was room temperature. We all sat around talking like normal until Kellin kind of cleared his throat.
“So, guys. We have a favor to ask you.” He said in a small voice. He glanced at me before continuing. “Um, I don’t know if I’ve told you this, but basically my dad skipped out a few years ago, and my mom is dead.” He paused for a moment to let that sink in. Besides Jesse, who already knew, the rest of our friends looked mortified. “Either way, now he’s coming back to get me, on April 30th. But I’m not leaving. Vic and I have a plan, whether you’d like to know the details or not-“ Kellin was cut off by Gabe shaking his head violently. I knew he couldn’t afford to get in trouble. “Alright, then. So basically, we need you guys to be a distraction. Bren and three security guards walk around at night. We need each of you to take one and distract them.” He explained, turning to me and nodding. I reached behind me to grab the diagram we’d drawn out, showing where the guards walked. We’d done some experiments and research regarding it over break.

“Jenna, you take Mr. Bren.” I told her. He was always nicer on the girls, and also having a foreign student was good for the school. He wouldn’t bust her. We assigned each of them a guard, and gave them the details.

“Okay, I’m curious.” Jenna said. “Why do we need to do this?” Gabe got up and walked into the bathroom so he wouldn’t hear, but the rest of them stayed; their curiosity having gotten the better of them.

“We’re… running away. Not permanently, but as long as we need to as far as getting away from Kellin’s dad, I guess.” I explained. They nodded slowly.

“I’ll do it.” Jenna decided. Matty and Jesse just nodded. We called Gabe out, who agreed also. We all grabbed a slice of pizza, even Kellin.

“Cheers.”