Hold Fast

Class was dragging on. Miss Berry had lectured for the majority of the class and then left us to work on homework for the last fifteen minutes. That entire time, Mike kept looking over at me, making sure that I was alright. I thought that he was being overly cautious, but I was grateful that he was there. In all honesty, if it weren’t for Mike, I probably would have ran home like last time.
As soon as class was over, Mike escorted me to our lockers. He didn’t say anything until we were at the lockers.
“So, you going to tell me what happened?” Mike leaned against the locker, watching me.
“Uh…” I really didn’t know how I was going to explain this without causing him to go nuts and go after Kyle. As I was about to continue, the rest of our group joined us.
“Hey Vic, Mike, what’s up?” Tony asked as they joined us.
“Not much, Vic was just about to tell me something.” It was apparent that Mike wasn’t going to let this go, even with our audience. They all looked at me, then Jaime’s eyes widened.
“Hey… uh Vic-“
“I was just asking him the same thing.” Mike crossed his arms and eyed me. Kellin gave them a confused look. That’s when he noticed the bruise.
“Vic, what happened?” He had a slightly confused look that was mixed with just a hint of hurt.
“Let me explain…” I sighed deeply and began to tell them what had happened before third period. I knew that telling them here at school would be a bad idea, but every time I tried to stop, Mike would urge me to continue. I felt my voice break as I looked at Kellin. The rage that I saw in his eyes was enough to scare even me. After I finished, a single tear fell down his cheek.
“Vic…” He stopped and a scowl crossed his face. I turned to see what he was looking at and saw Kyle standing down the hallway.
“Kellin?” Mike asked.
“Kellin… don’t.” I pleaded. He ignored me and walked swiftly down the hallway. I went to go after him, but Tony and Jaime stopped me. “Guys… he’s going to get hurt.”
“Vic, you have to let him take care of you.” Tony insisted. He had a point, but I didn’t want to see Kellin do something that would cause him harm. I watched helplessly as he approached Kyle. We couldn’t hear what he was saying from here, but you could tell that things were getting heated fast. I began to fidget nervously.
He seemed to be yelling now, faint pieces of their conversation making its way to us. Kyle was standing there as if nothing had happened and that Kellin was some crazy person who had lost his mind. I saw him roll his eyes and push Kellin backwards. I struggled against Tony and Jaime’s grasps on my arms, but they kept me back. Kellin wasn’t having any of Kyle’s shit today and he wound back and punched him square in the jaw.
Kyle seemed to be shocked by Kellin’s actions and he went to retaliate, but never got the chance. As he was about to collide with Kellin’s face, Miss Berry came running out of her office. She surveyed the situation before dragging both boys towards the Dean’s office.
“Shit.” Jaime let me go and I pulled from Tony’s grasp. I ran down the hallway towards the office and stopped right outside. I could hear voices inside.
“Mr. Quinn, I understand that you were trying to protect Mr. Fuentes, but this is not the way to do so.” It was Jaime’s dad talking.
“But Dean Preciado, he attacked Vic!”
“You can’t prove anything!” Kyle’s voice shouted back.
“He has the mark to prove it!” Kellin defended.
“Gentleman!” The Dean was trying to calm their yelling. “You both will be suspended for the remainder of the month. Since tomorrow starts Thanksgiving break, you both will return on December 1st. I will be sending your homework home to you and your parents will be contacted immediately.”
“Yes sir.” Kellin sounded defeated.
“Whatever.” Came Kyle’s response.
“Alright, now both of you go collect your things and meet me back here right after.” I heard the shuffling of feet and I moved so that I was out of sight. Kyle came out first, muttering something incoherent under his breath. A moment later I saw Kellin. I reached out and grabbed his arm and pulled him to me.
“Hey, what?” He relaxed once he realized that it was me. “Vic.” He hugged me close to him. “I’m so sorry.”
“What for?” I rubbed his back comfortingly.
“For being an idiot.” He chuckled as a tear fell from his eyes. I held him at arms length and wiped a tear from his face.
“You’re not an idiot, Kellin.” I gave him a comforting smile. “You made me really happy back there. I was surprised that you punched him though.”
“Well he called you a worthless piece of shit, what was I supposed to do?” I pulled him into a hug again.
“I love you.” I whispered into his ear. I felt him squeeze me tighter.
“I love you too.” He let me go and we began walking towards the lockers. We got there and the others were still standing around talking.
“Hey so what happened?” Mike asked. Kellin walked over to his locker and began getting his things together.
“I’m suspended.” He answered nonchalantly.
“For how long?” Jaime questioned.
“The rest of the month.” He had a silly grin on his face.
Mike wrapped Kellin into a big hug. “I know that we shouldn’t condone violence, but I’m pretty proud of you.” Kellin chuckled before shutting his locker. We all walked with him back to the office before the bell rang signaling the five minute warning till the next class. On the way back, we past Kyle in the hallway and our eyes met. He smirked and gave the slightest wink. It was almost as if he didn’t care that my friends knew what had happened. He was going to continue to deny it, and to be honest, it was his word against ours. I didn’t particularly care because the people who mattered knew the truth.

After I got home, Kellin called me to fill me in on how much trouble he had gotten into. I guess I’d have to say that I wasn’t surprised to find out that his mom had let him off fairly easy. Once Kellin explained what Kyle had said, any anger she may have had, disappeared. I was glad to know that she was very understanding about the whole thing.
Jaime’s dad called my parents that night, explaining everything that had happened. Between the text message that Mike had sent him and Kellin’s story, he suggested that they put me on independent study for the remainder of this semester. I was really against the idea, but my parents were seriously considering the idea.
What I didn’t get was why none of this was brought to Kyle’s parents. Everyone was so concerned with keeping me safe that they were neglecting the fact that Kyle had a serious problem that needed to be dealt with. I had a plan and I went to share it with my brother. There were two ways that this could pan out: one, he would be okay with the idea and help me, or two, he’d call me crazy and be against the whole thing. And I was seriously hoping for the first one.
Don’t get me wrong, Kyle’s a bastard, but he was also confused. I knew that his parents expected a lot from him and he took a majority of his frustration out on me because I was an easy target. I’m also fairly certain that he’s gay or at the very least bi, because let’s be honest, no one locks another guy in a locker room and violates them just for shits and giggles. I decided that waiting until after Thanksgiving this weekend would be the best time to bring up my idea to Mike and the guys.
I figured that I would mention it to Kellin beforehand and get his opinion. He was the one that I was the most worried about. As he proved today, he isn’t the shy, meek little boy that people make him out to be, and if I didn’t go about this properly, then there could be horrible consequences.
I sighed and lay in bed. This was going to be one interesting weekend.