Hold Fast

The next week was by far the weirdest week of school. Kyle would walk by our lockers and nod to us, his friends questioning why he wasn’t making comments or threatening us. Once Kyle began to leave us alone, people started to actually acknowledge our existence. More than once, I had people walk up to Kellin and I and congratulate us on our relationship. People approached Mike and asked him for help with homework. Tony started getting noticed by some girls in our class and Jaime was beginning to lose the daddy’s boy image people had titled him with. It was weird, but not unwelcomed.
The Friday before winter break was a half day so after we dealt with the onslaught of comments and questions from our peers, we headed over to Jaime’s for much needed band practice. This was an exciting moment. We had gotten a call a few days earlier, asking our band to come play at a popular venue in the city. It was our first step in the direction that we wanted to go.
Kellin sat in the corner as we got everything ready. We were going to run through the majority of the stuff we had written so that we weren’t rusty for the show. Every so often, I would sneak a glance over at him and he had this cheeky smile. It gave me butterflies. I must be one of the luckiest people alive to have the opportunity to be with someone who made me this happy. Him being there made me want to sing my heart out more than ever, so it’s what I did. When we finished the set, everyone stood speechless for a few moments.
“Dude…” Tony breathed.
“You felt it too?” Jaime turned towards him, a shocked expression on his face.
“Yeah, I did too.” Mike added. The three of them looked at me.
“What?” I asked. I was lost and I didn’t like it. They looked at each other before turning to Kellin.
“Kell, did you feel that?” Mike asked, completely ignoring me. Kellin nodded, his mouth hanging open.
“Feel what?” I was getting agitated. Whatever it was that they were talking about, it was apparent that I was out of the loop.
“I can’t explain it.” Kellin ran a hand through his hair. “It was like…”
“Chills.” Tony finished.
“Yeah, but more electrifying.” Jaime added, setting his bass down.
“I’ve never gotten that feeling from you before.” Mike walked up to me. “It’s kind of scary.” The others nodded in agreement. I was still lost, but at least now I knew that it wasn’t something bad. I was afraid that I was going crazy… well crazier.
“I’m… sorry?” I scratched my head.
“No don’t apologize.” Kellin chuckled. “You need to do that every time you sing.”
“Yeah, Kellin’s right. People are going to go nuts if you perform like that every time we’re on stage.” Mike placed his hand on my shoulder.
“O… K” We went back to practicing, me trying to do what I had been doing before. It was easy enough since Kellin was still there to watch. Whatever had happened while I was singing was all because of him, and I wasn’t going to question it.
On the way home, I pulled him aside.
“Hey, you and your mom are still coming over for Christmas, right?” I asked, taking his hand in mine.
“Yup, she’s gotten gifts for all of you guys already.” He chuckled. See, after Kellin and I came out, our moms spent a lot of time together. It wasn’t unusual to find Ms. Bostwick at my house after school or vice versa with my mom. To be honest, it was pretty cool that they were such good friends.
“Awesome.” I kissed his cheek. “I have a surprise for you.” He gave me a quizzical look.
“What kind of surprise?”
“The secret kind.” He pouted and I just leaned forward and kissed his lips lightly. Pulling far enough away so that my lips were barely gracing his, I spoke again. “You’ll love it. I promise.”
I walked him to his house and kissed him goodbye, gave him my love, and turned to leave. It was a few days before Christmas and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to see him until then. He didn’t know it, but I was going to work for one of my neighbors in order to get him his gift. I wanted this to be special since he meant so much to me. When I returned home, my dad had a message for me.
“Mr. Walkins said to meet him at the office around one tomorrow.”
“Alright thanks dad.” I quickly headed up to my room. I was excited about these next few days. It had been a while since the last time I had done any type of work and I kind of missed it. Even though it was only for three days, it was going to be worth it.

The next day I went to Mr. Walkins’ office and helped him do some odd jobs. He had me file a large stack of paperwork, rearrange some of the desks, and help him clean out their wearhouse. All in all it was relatively easy work, but by the end of the day, I was pretty worn out. I really needed to be more active.
This continued for the next two days and at the end of the third day, he paid me for my help. I now had a few hundred dollars to spend and I was really excited. After he dropped me off at home, I ran up to Mike’s room.
“Mikey?” I asked as I walked in.
“Yeah?” he was lying on his bed reading a magazine.
“I need you to come with my into town for a little bit.” He lowered the magazine and raised an eyebrow at me. “Please, Mike. I need to get Kellin’s gift.”
“Alright, let me get some shoes on.” He tossed the magazine onto his bedside table and looked around for his shoes. Once located, he slid them on and joined me at the door.
We walked the short distance into the main part of town and began our search. To be honest, I really didn’t know what to get Kellin. I wanted something that was different, but something that would be special to him. We wandered around some of the small shops for a while before something finally caught my attention. In the window of this small jewelry shop hung a silver chain with a plain silver ring attached to it. It was perfect. I grabbed Mike by the arm and dragged him inside. I walked up to the clerk behind the counter.
“Hi, I was wondering how much the necklace in the window it? The one with the ring.” She looked up from her paperwork and smile at me.
“It’s two hundred dollars and comes with a free engraving as a Christmas special.” Perfect. I had enough money to get it.
“I’ll take it.” She nodded and walked over to the window, picking the necklace up from its stand. She walked back to the counter and set it down in front of me.
“What would you like the engraving to be?” I thought for a moment. I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to put inside. After a minute of trying to decide, Mike nudged me. I turned to him.
“Why not put the date and place where you guys met?” he suggested. My brother was truly a genius.
“That’s perfect.” I turned back to the clerk. “Can you engrave Cedar Bridge, August 15th 2010?”
“Sure, come back in a half hour to pick it up.” I nodded and thanked her before leaving the shop. I was so excited that I had found something that fit what I wanted. This was going to be the best Christmas ever.