Hold Fast

Normally when one meets a new person for the first time, they don’t really assume that that person will become a big part of their life. That’s what I thought the day I met him. Kellin Quinn was definitely not one of those people that I meet and go “hmm he’ll be my best friend” or “maybe we’ll become more than friends.” Let me explain what I mean.

On the day we met, he was standing on the ledge of a bridge, a single red rose clutched in his hand and the wind blowing through his medium length black hair. His blue eyes were swollen and red; he had been crying. He was wearing a pair of black skinny jeans, a white button down, and some out-of-place Toms, but that wasn’t why I stopped. What made me freeze in my movements and stare at him was his smile. Bright and happy, completely contrasting with the look of complete sorrow that his eyes held.
Fear passed through me and I ran towards him, grasping his wrist and pulling him back to the solid surface of the bridge. He turned to me, confusion written on his features. He turned his eyes to me, the same sad look still lingered in their depths. All at once, he burst into tears and sank to the ground. Not knowing what else to do, I wrapped my arms around him and tried to calm him down as he began shaking from his sobs. It took a while for his crying to lessen, a few ragged breaths and sniffles still escaping here and there. Once I felt that he was alright enough for me to let go, I did. He looked up at me, smiling that bright, happy smile that I had seen earlier.
“Thank you.” It was so simple sounding. “I was about to make the biggest mistake of my life, but you’ve given me hope.” With that he stood, handed me the rose that he had still been holding, and walked away. I was too stunned to really say anything back to him, so I just watched him leave. Once he was out of site, I continued on my way.
I didn’t care that I was late coming home. I knew my parents were going to be out late, and I seriously doubted that they would be mad at me for possibly, well no, literally saving someone’s life. After realizing that my brother wasn’t home, I went to my room and tacked the rose to my wall. I was unsure as to why, but I felt that I needed to keep it for as long as I could. It was a reminder of something that would eventually change my life forever.

Even now, two years later, the rose still hangs in the same spot, hung upside down in the middle of my wall. I see it every day that I enter my room and I’ve never once thought of taking it down. Some people think that I’m weird, but I feel that it makes me a better person, remembering that day. I haven’t seen him since that day, but there’s something that tells me that he’s alive and living out his life. I’m not sure if I’ll ever see him again, but I know that I can’t, no matter how much time passes, forget about him.
I grabbed my backpack off of my floor and slung it over my shoulder. Today was the first day of my senior year of high school, and to be honest, I’m not looking forward to it. You see, even with the few friends that I’ve managed to accumulate over the years I’ve been around, I’m still the enigma of my home town. I’m the only person I know that has been to a live concert for a real band, and I look fairly different from most people.
For example, my clothes. I live on band tees and skinny jeans, and I never leave the house without my Vans on. Even graduation. I wear thick rubber bracelets with song lyrics or band names on them, and I have this little scar on my hand from where I tried to give myself a tattoo at sixteen. (Yeah, looking back, it was stupid, I know.) I’m way to skinny for a normal teenage guy, and I have longer, dark brown hair that falls in my face all the time. People think I’m “emo” but I’m really not. I just enjoy harder music and tighter clothes. But that’s what happens when you live in the mountains in Colorado. People look at you and automatically think something of you because you’re different. And to make matters worse, there wasn’t just me, but also my younger brother Mike, but I’ll get to him.
Anyway, back to my original rant. School. I have a heaping total of three friends (one of those being my brother) and we are probably the only outcasts in our grade. (Did I mention that Mike’s advanced? No…oh well now you know.) As long as I can remember, we’ve been picked on. Jaime, people don’t like him because he has no problem speaking his mind. Once, this bully named Kyle shoved him into a locker and broke the dial off. It took us four hours to get him out, and he still wanted to give Kyle a piece of his mind. Next, there’s Tony. He’s the quiet one in our group, rarely will he talk to anyone outside of our circle. I distinctly remember him saying all of four words to me when we met. Moving on, there’s Mike, my brother. I guess you could call him the trouble maker. We live with our mom and dad on the edge of town and most people think that he’s trying to build explosives in our basement. I’m not saying he hasn’t tried, but believe it or not, this kid’s a genius. He just doesn’t have a better outlet for his creativity other than tinkering with random stuff that he finds.
Then there’s me, but I’ve already told you about me. Wait? I didn’t tell you my name? Oh, I’m sorry. I’m Vic, the oldest and probably the most boring of our group. Aside from my obvious appearance, I’m really not much different from the other three. We all share similar taste in music, and for the most part we do everything together. I guess it could be worse. I mean, I could not have these guys. But I digress. Where was I? Oh, that’s right, I’m on my way to school.
“Vic! Wait up.” Jaime came running up the sidewalk next to me, hunching over and trying to catch his breath. “Where’s the fire man?”
“My bad, I guess my nerves are getting to me.” I pat his back before we kept walking.
“Where’s Mike?”
“Left early. I guess he forgot something in his locker that was due today.” I pulled my backpack higher onto my should as we walked.
“That’s rare.” He has a confused look on his face. It really wasn’t like Mike to forget about homework, and I think he just wanted to get out of the house. He enjoyed having time to himself to think.
“So did you hear the news?” He asked as we rounded the corner of the street where our school was. I gave him a confused look. “I guess not…we have a transfer student this year.”
“A transfer? What grade?” This was really big news. We hadn’t had anyone move to our town in probably ten years.
“Um, I think he’s in our grade.”
“He?” This was normally something I wouldn’t care about, but I was secretly hoping that he wasn’t anything like the guys we already had here. I’d had enough of stuck up, rich jocks to last me ten life times.
“Yeah, I don’t know much else. My mom wouldn’t say anything else.” Oh, I forgot to mention that Jaime’s parents are the Dean and Nurse for the school. Yeah, getting into trouble was not an option for him.
“Well I guess we’ll find out.” We continued up to the building, meeting Tony and Mike outside. We all headed to our lockers, which were conveniently all in a row thanks to Jaime’s dad, and got ready for the first period. As we walked, Jaime shared his news with the other two and they added their thoughts. Neither one seemed to be particularly happy about it, but not really bothered by the idea either. I walked to my desk in the back of the class, Jaime sitting in front of me, Mike to his left, and Tony behind him to my left in the corner. Ironically, we had the same seats in every class that we shared together as a group since becoming friends. Another only of Jaime’s requests probably, but none of us bothered to ask. I pulled out my book and some note paper, waiting for our English teacher to walk in.
“Good morning, class.” Ms. Burns walked in, greeting us in her usual chipper manner. There was a quiet chorus of hellos in response. “So I’m sure some of you have heard by now that we’ll be having a new student. He’s moved here from Oregon and I want all of you to make him feel welcomed. Come on in.” At this point, it would be normal to look up and see who was walking in, but I had forgotten something in my bag and was currently looking for it.
“Hello, my name is Kellin.”