Hold Fast

By the time Monday rolled around, I was a nervous wreck. Mike didn’t get home until late Sunday night so I didn’t even have the chance to actually talk with him about what had happened on Saturday. I had planned on talking to him this morning on the way to school, but Kellin had decided to meet up at our house early and walk with us to school. We awkwardly said hello, each of us avoiding direct eye contact, causing Mike to give us both an odd look. He quirked an eyebrow at me and I mouthed “later” to him. He gave a slight nod before starting up a conversation with Kellin. I wasn’t paying much attention to them for the rest of the walk, and by the time I was aware enough of our surroundings, Jaime and Tony had joined us. I said hello to both of them before disappearing into lala land again.
Throughout all of my morning classes, I was distracted. I couldn’t tell you a single thing about any of them. Kellin had asked me what was up after English and I had just shrugged it off as nothing. I didn’t want to have this talk just yet, especially not at school. He didn’t look convinced, but, to my surprise, he let it go without a second thought.
Around the time lunch was starting, I was finally coming out of my stuper. Oddly enough, I was the last one to make it to our lunch spot. I took a seat between Jaime and my brother. They had been in the middle of a heated discussion about some band.
“Dude, they totally suck.” Jaime argued. “Their bassist has absolutely no rythym.”
“Have you even seen them live?” Mike retorted. “I mean come on, their drummer is nearly as good as I am.”
“Oh, I seriously doubt that.” Tony piped in. Mike gave him a warm smile.
“Guys, really?” Jaime interrupted their bromantic moment.
“Who are you guys even talking about?” Kellin interjected.
“This new band from Colorado Springs that started up recently.” Jaime explained.
“Oh.” Kellin seemed a little confused as to why they were arguing over something like that. “Wait you guys play instruments?” He looked at the other three.
“Yeah, didn’t Vic tell you?” Jaime looked over to me.
“Huh?” I hadn’t really been listening.
“You didn’t tell Kellin we were a band?” Mike added.
“No, I guess I forgot to mention it.” I answered sheepishly.
“How do you forget that?” Tony asked.
“I don’t know…it just didn’t come up I guess.” Crap, now we were going to have to bring up this weekend. My brain wasn’t ready for this.
“Yeah, he played my guitar a little on Saturday, but we didn’t really talk about that stuff. We got distracted.” A slight pink color tinged his ears. Luckily, he could have blamed that on the cold air. The guys all gave me a disbelieving look before filling Kellin in on our band. We hadn’t played very much in the area, people around here didn’t really appreciate our sound. I excused myself, claiming that I needed to use the restroom, and walked towards the school building.
I walked through the hallways aimlessly. I had this nagging feeling that Kellin and I needed to talk about this weekend, but I was scared of what might happen. I mean, I’ve known this kid for all of a week and already I have these weird feelings towards him. It was kind of creepy, at least it was to me. I must not have been paying attention again because I stumbled upon Kyle and his jock friends standing in a group at the end of the hallway.
“Well, well, well, look who it is boys, it’s the little princess Fuentes.” Kyle mocked. “Now what could he possibly be doing over here all by himself.” I stopped moving, suddenly scared of the situation. I tried to turn around and go the opposite direction, but more of his friends had come up behind me.
“What should we do with him, Kyle?” Another large guy, I think his name was Andrew, stepped closer to me. I backed up until I felt the lockers behind me.
“I still owe him something for calling me some stupid name the other day.” Kyle walked up, pinning me to the locker, closing off any chance I had of escaping. I was shaking on the inside, but outwardly, I looked like this wasn’t fazing me at all. I was silently praying that someone would walk into the hallway and catch them. Kyle lifted his fist and punched the locker next to my head, causing me to flinch involuntarily.
“Come on Fuentes, I know your faggy ass can put up more of a fight than that.” I wanted to hit him. I really did, but I knew that it was his word against mine and there was no way for me to get away with it. So I stayed where I was, rooted to the floor with defiance in my eyes. This seemed to make him really angry and he grabbed me by my shirt forcing me forward before shoving me into the locker. The pain that shot through my shoulder was almost enough to make me cry out, but stubbornness kept any noise from escaping my lips.
“Come on, Kyle. Just hit the poor kid so we can get the fuck out of here. I can’t risk getting caught.” Andrew whined. That’s right. His dad was running for Mayor next year. Wouldn’t want to tarnish his good name by outing his son as a bully now would we? These people made me sick.
“Alright.” Kyle returned his gaze to me before grinning evilly. “I know just what to do.” I struggled to get out of his grip, but he was too strong. He pulled me along with him towards the locker room. I was beginning to really panic at this point. I tugged and pulled, trying to free my shirt from his grasp. (What shirt am I even wearing? Thank god…it’s plain.)
I took a quick glance behind me, noticing that everyone was either next to us or in front. This was my chance. As quickly as I could, I reached down and pulled my shirt from my body. As soon as it was over my head, I turned and bolted down the opposite end of the hallway.
“Hey! Get back here!” I could hear footsteps running behind me. All I had to do was make it to the end of the hall and out the side exit, then I was free. I could hear them getting closer. The exit was only like fifteen feet ahead of me. Just as I was about to reach the door, I was knocked to the ground. Kyle wasn’t the running back for no reason. He was just too quick.
“Thought you could get away? Fat chance.” He flipped me over so that he had me pinned to the ground. Where the fuck are the teachers? Was this seriously about to happen? He raised his fist to throw the first blow. I closed my eyes and waited for the inevitable…
“Hey! What the fuck do you think you’re doing!?” It was Jaime. I felt Kyle get pulled off of me forcefully. “You better stay the hell away from him, Winters or I’ll make sure that scholarship of yours mysteriously goes missing.”
“You okay Vic?” Tony was at my side, lifting me to my feet, Kellin helping from the other side.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I looked up, seeing Mike and Jaime standing between Kyle and me. The rest of his goons apparently hadn’t joined his sprint to catch me.
“You guys are going to pay for this.” Kyle tried to be threatening.
“Yeah, and what’s your punk ass going to do about it.” Mike mocked. There are few things in this world that scare me, but the one at the top of my list is definitely a pissed of Mike Fuentes. My brother was the scariest thing in the world when he was this mad. Kyle may be standing tall, but you could see the fear in his eyes. He turned to glare at me.
“You got lucky, Fuentes. Next time, I’ll make sure your bodyguards aren’t able to help you.” With that said, Kyle turned and walked away. After making sure that he was away from earshot, Jaime and Mike turned back to me.
“What the hell happened, Vic?” Mike wanted answers. I looked at my friends, trying to gauge the situation. “Where the hell is your shirt?”
“I don’t even know…but I was just walking in the hall when I stumbled across them. I didn’t do anything to them.” I hugged myself, the cold air hitting my bare skin.
“Here.” Kellin took off his hoodie and handed it to me.
“Thanks.” I got butterflies in my stomach as I put it on. Instantly his scent found its way to my noise, clouding my senses a little. I went to continue. “Kyle was probably getting back at me for the other day.” Jaime and Tony looked lost.
“What do you mean the other day?” Tony asked.
“The day he introduced me,” Kellin began. “Kyle shoved him against the cooler in the cafeteria and said some pretty harsh stuff to him.” I could feel the heat rise to my face. I wasn’t going to lie, this was embarrassing. Here I was, an eighteen year old senior in high school, and I was getting pushed around by some stupid football head. This couldn’t get much worse.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Jaime gave me a hurt expression. “I could have told my dad.”
“Jaime, you and I both know that you would have marched after him to beat his ass without a second thought if I had told you.” He went to argue, but decided against it. He knew that I was right. “Look guys. I’m fine. Thanks to you, he didn’t get to do anything.”
“But, Vic…” Kellin put his hand on my arm. “This has to stop.” His face had so much concern in it. Was this really the same kid that I had saved from jumping off of a bridge? He seemed so steadfast and rooted that it was hard to believe that he had ever been to that point. I suddenly felt useless.
“I said I’m fine.” Anger welled inside of me. I pushed past my friends and walked down the hallway. They called after me, but I was too upset to care. As soon as I was a safe enough distance from them, I ran. I didn’t care about staying for class. I just needed to leave. I kept running until I got home. I walked inside and closed the door, my mom was home, but that wasn’t going to change my decision. I ignored her calling my name and locked myself in my room.
I could feel my phone vibrating in my pocket, probably Mike, but I didn’t care. I reached for it, ignoring the call, and turning it off. I didn’t want to talk. Not to Mike, not to anyone. I was tired of being the weakling, the one that always needed to rely on others. I looked up at my wall. I felt some of my anger ebb away almost instantly.
There it was. The single reminder of hope. The rose that Kellin had given me was still hanging in its spot on my wall. Even though it was dried, you could still see some of the crimson that it use to be. I don’t know how long I stared at it, or how long my mom knocked on my door, but soon I found myself falling asleep. I knew that I would have to explain this to my parents later, but right now, I was too tired. It could wait. Everything could wait right now…