Hold Fast

I was literally counting down the seconds until Math was over. After this I would have Economics with Kellin and it was also the last class of the day. I had to stop myself from running from the class as the bell rang, not wanting to leave Jaime behind. We headed to our lockers to switch out our books before heading to our respective classes. I walked into the econ room and took my usual spot in the back. Kellin joined me a few moments later. We chatted about how much we hated math and how this class was going to probably suck because it was math based.
I really didn’t pay close attention to anything that our teacher was talking about. He was rambling about stocks and I kinda just tuned him out. I have ADD so concentrating was not going to happen. I kept glancing around the room, mindlessly writing down some notes here and there to make it look like I was paying attention. A few times, I could’ve sworn that Kellin was looking at me, but I brushed it off as a figment of my imagination. I almost didn’t hear the bell ringing.
“Vic?” Kellin asked as he packed up his things.
“What’s up?” I shoved my notebook into my bag and slung it over my shoulder.
“What are you guys doing this weekend?” We headed over to where my locker was.
“Um, I don’t know. Probably nothing. Why?”
“Just wanted to know if you wanted to hang out or something?” From the corner of my eye, I could see a slightly embarrassed look of his face. It was adorable, like most of the other faces he made.
“Yeah sure. You wanna come over?” I asked. “I live just down the street from you I think.”
“Really? Alright.” He gave me a big grin as we got to the lockers. The other three were standing there waiting for us. I quickly changed out my books for the ones I needed for that night’s homework before we began to leave.
“So Kellin,” Jaime started, “you live down this way?”
“Yeah I live over on Sycamore.”
“That’s the street we live on.” Mike commented. “Let me guess, 2416?”
“Yep.” There was a quite silence for a moment before Tony broke it.
“That’s cool. Jaime and I live about two blocks over from you guys.”
“Really? That’s one of the nice things about living in a smaller town. I use to hate driving across the city to visit my friends.” Kellin laughed. We all laughed with him. We chatted about music and sports until we got to the spot where we split up and said good bye to Tony and Jaime. Mike, Kellin and I kept walking until we reached Kellin’s house. Mike and I waved goodbye to him and continued home. Once we got upstairs, Mike followed me to my room, shutting the door behind us. I knew what he was going to ask, and I wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. I sighed before sitting on my bed. He took a seat at my desk, looking at me expectantly.
“Alright, now that we’re alone, what really happened at lunch today?” I looked at the ground, trying not to look at my brother. When I didn’t answer, he moved to the bed, sitting next to me. “Vic, come on, you know you can tell me anything.” He was right. I knew that Mike would never judge me. He was always there for me and had been since we were kids. Sometimes I felt like the younger brother.
“It was Kyle.” I felt Mike tense next to me. Out of everybody in our group, Mike hated Kyle the most.
“What happened?” He asked through gritted teeth. I knew that he was trying to stay as calm as possible for my sake. After all, this wasn’t the first problem I had had with the stupid jock.
“Nothing really. He just shoved me into the soda cooler and called me a stupid name.” I still wasn’t looking at him and I knew that he would pick up on me not being completely honest. He knew me better than anyone else.
“What did he call you?” Mike stared at me until I looked up at him. His eyes held nothing except concern. All he wanted was my honesty.
“He called me a fag, claiming that Kellin was my new boyfriend and that I should watch over him. Then I called him a nimrod and he told me to watch my back.” Anger flared through my brother’s eyes. I wasn’t really scared of anything, but the look on my brother’s face was enough to make me flinch.
“I’m going to kill that punk.” He went to stand and I grabbed him by the arm.
“No Mike, it doesn’t matter.” He spun around and looked at me.
“What do you mean it doesn’t matter? Vic he can’t just harass you like that and get away with it.”
“Yeah, but if you do something to him, then you’re going to get into trouble. And I doubt the fact that you’re the smartest kid in school will help much.”
“But Jaime’s dad knows how much of a douche Kyle is. He’s been tormenting us since sixth grade.”
“Yeah, but Kyle’s dad is a lawyer and just because you’re sixteen won’t mean anything.” He groaned and flopped down onto my bed. I patted his shoulder reassuringly. “But I appreciate it Mike, I really do.”
“Did you really call him a nimrod?” Mike looked up at me.
“Yeah, and I told him he wasn’t cool enough to be gay.” Mike laughed at that.
“You know that that implied that you might be gay right?” He gave me a questioning look. I didn’t respond. “Vic?” He sat up. “Are you?”
“No!” He quirked an eyebrow. “At least I wasn’t.” I sighed. “I don’t know anymore Mike.” I put my head in my hands and groaned. I felt him rub my back.
“Hey don’t worry about it.” I looked over at him. “Besides, you know Jaime and Tony won’t care.”
“How do you know Tony won’t?” I was curious. We all knew that Jaime was straight, but very for gay rights, but Tony never talked about his views. I saw the small blush that crept onto my brother’s face before he looked away.
“I-I just do.” I moved, trying to look at my brother in the eyes.
“Mike are you not telling me something?”
“N-no.” He tried pushing me away from him.
“Michael Christopher Fuentes, what are you not telling me now?” he turned back to me, slightly surprised that I used his full name.
“Nothing Victor.” I cringed. I hated when people called me Victor. It made me feel old. “Fine, I’ll just call Tony.” I went to pull my phone out.
“No!” Mike lunged for it, knocking it to the ground. I moved so that he fell to the floor and I pinned him down. (Hey, I may be small but that doesn’t make me that weak.) He glared up at me, before sighing.
“Fine…Tony and I…kinda…um…hooked up after Alissa’s party.” I blinked, completely caught off guard. Mike’s face had turned a bright shade of red and he was avoiding my eyes.
“Ooooh…that explains a lot actually.” I moved off of him and he sat up. “I wondered where you guys had gone off to.” He just nodded.
“You tell anyone and I swear I will kill you.” He pointed a finger at me.
“I swear.” He eyed me for a moment before nodding and standing up. “Alright, we’ll I have homework to do and uh…other stuff.” He hurried from my room before I could tease him some more. To be honest, I didn’t care that Mike was with Tony. I just needed him to know that I would kill him if he hurt my brother. I figured that that would be a conversation for a later date. Probably after I sorted out my own feelings. I laughed to myself before starting on my homework.