When I'm Down~

My alarm clock blared from my nightstand causing me to groan. “It’s to early for life.” I whined to myself as I rolled out of bed and onto my feet. I yawned as I made my way across the hall to the small bathroom, attempting to rub the sleep out of my eyes. I looked in the mirror frowned at my reflection, almost starring myself down. My big brown eyes were tired, my thin framed hunched over. I ran a shaky through my curly brown hair, too lazy to straighten it this early in the morning. I shrugged to myself as I heard a loud knock on the bathroom door, tearing me away from my thoughts. “I have to use the bathroom, get your ass out here Vic!” I heard my younger brother call from outside the door. I would have called him out on being rude, but I figured he probably had a hangover from some party he went to last night. “Give me a minute!” I called back as I brushed my teeth, trying to hurry up for his sake.

I ran to my room after mumbling a quiet good morning to Mike. As I entered my small room, I picked up my favorite t-shirt, slipping it over my head. When I was finished getting ready, I grabbed a sweatshirt and went downstairs rolling me eyes at myself when I almost fell on the last step. I heard Mike laugh at my clumsiness from the table. “Oh what are you laughing at?” I asked jokingly, opening the fridge looking for the bottle of water I had put to cool overnight. I didn’t bother eating anything, much to the dismay of my mother. “Mike, where’s mom?” I called out behind me, still searching for that goddamn water bottle. “Um, there was a note on the counter this morning. It said she went to work early or something.” I nodded knowing that was probably all I was going to get out of him. When I found what I needed from the fridge put on my jumper and got my keys out of my back pocket jingling them in the air to get Mike’s attention. “Need a ride?” I asked with a small smile on my face already knowing the answer. He nodded, downing the rest of his cereal and running out the door to my car. I followed after him, grabbing my backpack before I walked out the door.

———

I walked up the steps of the familiar high school building. I sighed and looked around for Tony and Jaime. Sure enough they were there, waiting by the lockers for me to finally show for school. I smiled as I went to greet them. “Hey Vic!” I heard Jaime almost scream. I laughed as I walked a few steps to my locker and started exchanging my books for 1st period English class. Tony just smiled, giving me a little nod. He never said much, while Jaime couldn’t keep his mouth shut for more than like two fucking seconds. I mean, we love him anyway, and he’s been one of my best friends for years. They balanced each other out and it always brought a smile to my face. I stuffed my Ipod into my back pocket not wanting to lose it in the shit-storm that was my locker. I sighed as I finally closed the locker and faced my two best friends.

“So, how was you’re weekend?” Tony asked, wanting to keep this conversation alive. Jaime immediately started rambling on about going to his grandfather’s house and how he went to the pool or something. I tried to keep up, but it was proving difficult so early in the morning. When the bell rang, I gave them both a smile and a wave as I departed from the group and made my way through the crowded hallways. I made it to the classroom just in time and took my usual seat in back of the class, next to the giant bookcase that dominated most of the back wall. I sighed as Ms. Lowy started to drown on about some partner-Essay do in a week, I sighed once more as my mind wandered to God knows where. That was when there was a light knock on the door, followed by a young boy -about the same age as us-walking into the room. He looked around nervously before looking down and shoving his hands in his pants pockets. He stood at the front of the class, Ms. Lowy hovering next to him, a bright smile plastered on her small face. “Hello class!” she said trying to get everyone’s attention. Not like she needed to, everyone’s eyes were glued to new kid. “So, as you can see we have a new student! His name is Kellin,” She said motioning to the boy. This time I looked over at him. He lifted hi face up, revealing bright blue eyes hidden behind thick raven colored hair. He had light freckles on his pale cheeks and was wearing jean and a sweatshirt, same as me. He was really cute, and-even though I wouldn’t admit it- he gave me some serious butterflies. When he looked around the classroom, our eyes met for a split second, but it was enough to make his pale cheeks flush with color, along with mine. “Okay Kellin,” She took one last glance around the room and spotted the empty chair next to me. “Vic Fuentes will be showing you around the school, okay? He can catch you up on some of the work if you feel ready for that. Vic please raise your hand!” I lifted my hand into the air, shrugging as I did so. Kellin nodded in my direction, quickly running to take the seat next to me. He sunk down in the chair and mumbled to himself. I turned towards him and stuck out my hand. “Hey man, I’m Vic.” A shy smile spread across his face as he took my hand. “I’m Kellin, um Kellin Quinn.” I nodded, smiling in return. “I can show you around after lunch if you want?” I offered. He nodded the shy smile never leaving his face. “Yeah, just sit with me at lunch, ok?” Again I got nod in response. I guess just didn’t talk very much. “Thanks.” He said to me, his voice barley above a whisper. I turned my attention to the bored, trying to sneak glances at Kellin for the rest of the lesson. The entire class he was writing something down in a small, brown notebook a look of concentration in his eyes. I left myself a mental note to ask him what he was writing, later.

———

The rest of the day passed in a blur. I didn’t have any more classes with Kellin, so I spent the rest of my lessons up until lunch waiting to see him again. I ran out of 4th period and made my way to the lunchroom as fast as I could. Tony and Jaime were already at our usual table, off to the side of the huge cafeteria. After I sat down, I looked around the loud lunchroom for Kellin but he was nowhere to be found. Tony must have noticed how distracted I was because he started asking me questions. “You okay?” I heard Tony ask from next to me. When I turned to face him, he looked concerned. I shrugged before answering the question half-heartedly. “It’s nothing. You know the new kid Kellin?” He nodded, “Yeah, we had Science together.” I continued speaking, noticing that Jaime was now into the conversation. “It’s just, he was supposed to sit with us for lunch and I haven’t seen him.” Jaime frowned, taking a few moments before he spoke. “So, what should we do?” Tony shrugged before realization struck his eyes. “Fuck…what if he ran into Dan?” My eyes widened in fear. Dan was a jackass to say the least. Whenever he saw someone who couldn’t fight back, he’d throw the first punch. As cute as Kellin was, he wasn’t very tall, and was actually quit thin. I took a second to think, trying to figure out what we-really I-should do. “Um, I think I should just go look for him. Maybe he got lost?” I offered optimistically. “I doubt it, but if you need back-up we’re here.” Tony replied, while Jaime nodded furiously in agreement. With that I took off, turning the corner to go up the stairs. Shit, what if he HAD run into Dan? I wasn’t the strongest person so there probably wasn’t much I could do if Kellin had gotten himself into a situation like that. I was on the second floor when I turned and began walking down the hallway, peaking into the empty classrooms of teachers on their lunch break. I was about to walk up the stairs on the other side of the hallway when I heard a blood-curdling scream come from above me. “Fuck.” I heard somebody whisper, sprinting away before I could see whom it was. I ran up the stairs to the third floor, where I saw a shaking body leaning against the bright blue door in front of me. “Fuck, Kellin are you okay?” All I got was a loud groan in response. I balanced on my knees in front of him so I could get a better look at the damage. I pushed aside his dark hair and was immediately horrified at the sight. “C’mon Kellin. You can’t stay here like this, we have to go.” He nodded before closing his eyes, loosing all strength in his body to move by himself.