Hold Fast

The beginning of the next day was fairly uneventful. Kellin had greeted me in English, getting a few snickers from the rest of the class. He didn’t seem to mind it though as he proudly took his seat and got ready for class. The following two classes dragged on and it would be an understatement to say that I was happy when the bell for lunch rang. I practically jumped from me desk and bolted for the door. I waited for the rest of the guys to get to our spot before leaving.
“Where are you going?” Mike called after me.
“To get Kellin.” I continued walking.
“Oh, grab me a Gatorade while you’re down there!” He called back. Typical Mike, being a lazy ass. I just chuckled and looked around for a head of raven black hair. I finally spotted him walking out of the hallway, looking around before he spotted me. I waved at him and we headed towards each other.
“So are you accompanying me today again?” He asked, a small smile on his face.
“Actually I was hoping that you would come and join my friends and I up there.” I turned and pointed to where the other three were watching us from. They all waved awkwardly before starting up a conversation, most likely about me being a dork. I looked back to Kellin. He looked a little unsure.
“Are you sure they won’t mind?” He played with the end of his sleeve nervously.
“Yeah they’re cool with it.” I went to start walking back to them. “Oh wait. I need to grab something from inside. Come with me?” Kellin quirked an eyebrow but followed suit. We walked into the cafeteria towards the coolers. As I was grabbing a blue Gatorade from inside, I felt someone bump into me. I turned around, ready to say something, but stopped when I realized who it was.
“Watch where you’re standing faggot.” Kyle spat. “I don’t want to catch the gay virus from you.” He turned to Kellin, then back to me. “So I see that you have a little boyfriend now. Better keep your eye on him.” I glared up at Kyle, anger burning in my eyes. I hated the fact that there was nothing that I could do to stop him.
“Being gay isn’t a virus you nimrod, and if it were, you wouldn’t be cool enough to catch it anyway.” First mistake, talking. Second mistake, calling Kyle a name he couldn’t understand. He grabbed the collar of my shirt and pushed me against the cooler. Kellin jumped back in surprise, but didn’t leave.
“Watch your back Fuentes.” He shoved me back harder. “You’ll never know when I might decide to get you back.” With that he dropped me to the floor and stomped off. Kellin reached down and helped me to my feet.
“Are you ok?” His eyes held concern in them.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Kyle’s just an asshole homophobe.” I walked to the cashier and paid for Mike’s drink, which he owed me a lot for after that incident.
“Still, he shouldn’t be allowed to call you that.” Kellin knit his eyebrows together in a frown, it was one of the most adorable things I had ever seen. Considering he had the face of a twelve year old, he wasn’t very intimidating.
“Yeah, but I don’t care what people think about me, truth or not.” I knew that he wouldn’t really get what I meant. I was straight, or at least I thought I was until Kellin came yesterday. I wouldn’t tell him this, but he had been on my mind all night. But if I really thought about it, he had always been on my mind these last few years, but I never gave it much thought.
We finally made it back to where the guys were. I tossed Mike his drink and flopped down on the ground. Kellin sat awkwardly next to me.
“Kellin, this is Tony, my brother Mike and Jaime.” I introduced them.
“Hey.” Mike gave him a small nod.
“Nice to meet you.” Tony shook his hand.
“Sup.” Jaime smiled.
“It’s nice to meet you guys.” Kellin’s cheeks were turning a slight shade of red. He really got embarrassed easily.
“So what took you so long?” Mike questioned me. I shrugged my shoulders.
“Nothing.” Kellin turned to look at me. I gave him a pleading look, silently begging him to stay quiet.
“He had to use the bathroom.” Kellin added, looking back and forth between my brother and myself. I was grateful that he hadn’t mentioned the incident with Kyle in front of them. The last thing I needed was my little brother or one of my friends getting suspended for fighting. Yeah, being the oldest didn’t make me the strongest. Compared to the guys, I was the smallest, my own brother was almost a foot taller than I was and Jaime and Tony were pretty built despite their skinny frames. They would have done anything to make sure that I was okay.
The guys all gave me a suspicious look, Mike’s silently telling me that he was going to get the truth from me later, before they turned back to Kellin.
“So Kellin, tell us about yourself.” Jaime crossed his legs and folded his hands in his lap. He reminded me of a kindergartner about to hear a story before naptime.
“Uh…like what?” Kellin looked nervous.
“What kind of music do you like?” Mike asked. Kellin paused for a moment.
“Stuff like Blink 182 and Sum 41 I guess.” There was a nod of approval throughout the four of us. That was the jist of what we all listened to at the moment.
“What’s your favorite movie series?” Tony questioned next. I knew where this was headed and from the look on Jaime’s face so did he. We both rolled our eyes. If Kellin gave the wrong answer to this question, Mike and Tony would have a field day.
“That’s a hard one…” Kellin scratched his head, thinking hard about the answer. “I guess I’d say that it’s a tie between Harry Potter and the original Star Wars.”
“A tie?” Jaime just about doubled over in a fit of laughter.
“Dude, you should have just said Lord of the Rings or something.” I shook my head. He gave me a really confused look before Mike and Tony started the battle I knew had been coming.
“No way! Star Wars is way better.”
“No it’s not Tony. Harry Potter kicks way more ass and you know it!” Kellin looked over at me, and I just shook my head. There was no stopping them now.
“No, Luke could kick Harry’s ass any day of the week.” Tony retorted.
“Yeah right. All Harry would have to do is use the killing curse and Luke would be toast.” Mike argued back.
“Luke has the force. He doesn’t even need to speak in order to kill Potter’s sorry ass.” They glared at each other, ready to fight forever over this.
“Actually guys,” I glanced at Kellin. “You’re both wrong.” What was this crazy kid thinking?
“Uh…Kellin.” Jaime started. Too late. Both Tony and Mike looked ready to pounce the poor boy. He held up his hands in a defensive manner.
“Woah, let me explain. Mike, you know Harry would never use the killing curse. He didn’t even use it on Voldemort. And Tony, Luke doesn’t go to the darkside in the movies, so technically he wouldn’t kill Harry either.” They both looked like they had been dowsed in cold water. Kellin paused before continuing. “So technically, you’re at a stalemate.”
“Dude, you’ve got guts.” Jaime laughed while clapping him on the shoulder.
“Yeah, I agree.” I was trying really hard not to laugh at my friend and my brother’s shocked expressions. Before either of them could even come up with a response, the bell rang signaling the five minute warning before class. “Alright guys, we better get going.” I stood and grabbed my stuff.
“Man, I don’t wanna go to math.” Kellin whined.
“Hey, it’s better than AP government.” Mike commented.
“Touché.” Kellin laughed.
“Oh don’t even.” Tony argued as we started walking. “You volunteered for that class.”
“Yeah, Mr. 4.3 grade point average.” Jaime added, ruffling Mike’s already messy hair.
“4.3? Is that even possible?” Kellin looked to me.
“For Mike…anything is possible.” Kellin still looked really surprised. “Alright, so I’ll see you in Econ?” I asked as Kellin headed towards Math.
“Yep.” He smiled before waving and walking away.
“He’s pretty cool.” Jaime commented as we walked to our own Math class.
“Yeah.” I was staring off into space, not really paying attention. I could feel Jaime looking at me, but I was afraid to meet his eyes. Afraid that he might see something in them that I wasn’t quite ready to realize yet. As hard as I was trying to tell myself otherwise, I had this feeling that Kellin was special to me. I mentally smacked myself. I was getting ahead of myself again. I needed to just remember that every day was a new day, which meant that anything could happen. But still, it was hard not to find Kellin mesmerizing. I wasn’t quite sure just yet, but something about him just felt right. I chuckled to myself as we turned into our classroom, Jaime just giving me a confused look. He probably thought I was going crazy, and for all I know, he could be right.