About a Boy

Kellin spent the next week and a half not talking to anyone, and generally avoiding any human interaction. His friends questioned his change in demeanor, but he quickly brushed them off, ignoring them to the point that they simply gave up, letting him get over whatever it was that was upsetting him. His schoolwork, however, had improved dramatically. It seemed that when he wasn’t near stalking Vic, and he wasn’t speaking to his friends, he could actually concentrate on work, resulting in a few commendations in assembly for a ‘great improvement’ in school.
There was also that Christmas concert that his mother had proudly attended, dragging a bored Heather along with her. He hadn’t told them that he wasn’t doing the solo this year, but his mother seemed happy enough to see that Kellin’s new friend was doing it, and clapped happily when he joined in with the rest of the chorus. Just seeing Vic for two hours longer than he had to made him even more upset, so much so that he had asked to go to the bathroom for the last song just so he didn’t have to watch the other boy.
He was ignoring his family too. Heather would simply flick her hair and flounce off whenever he refused to talk to her, but his mother had persisted until he gave her a simple ‘friend problem’ and had left before she could say anything else.
Thursday night (the penultimate day of term) left Kellin still moping in his bedroom, lying on his stomach with his face buried in the pillow, willing himself to fall asleep. He had finally managed to stop himself from crying every night, settling on screaming into his pillow instead. Because he missed Vic so much it physically hurt, and he knew for a fact that this wasn’t anything like any of his other (few though they may be) break ups, because Vic had already started to mean so much more to him than any of the others ever had.
He sighed when he heard his phone alert him to a text message, thinking it was Jesse or someone telling him that there was some stupid party he just had to be at. When he saw who it was from, however, he eagerly opened the message.
From Vic: I think I overreacted.
Kellin stared at the message for about five minutes with bated breath, unsure whether to believe it. Finally, Kellin replied with a simple What? and waited, hopeful, for a reply.
From Vic: Can you, like, come over?
Kellin looked at the time on his phone and bit his lip. 11:58 PM. He shrugged, because Vic was way too important for him to not do this. It wasn’t a problem anyway, he finally had his car, and he hadn’t been sleeping for the past couple of weeks anyway. So, instead of replying, Kellin pulled on a pair of jeans and his Vans, a grey hoodie and climbed out of his bedroom window and onto the tree branch. He leapt down from the tree and clambered into his car, driving to Vic’s house.
He parked and bounded out of his car, climbing up the drainpipe he knew was next to the other boy’s room. Kellin slid up the PVC piping and knocked on the window. He saw Vic leap up in surprise, before tugging the window open and watching Kellin stumble in with fearful eyes.
“I’m an idiot…” He said softly when Kellin stood up. Kellin looked at him for a moment and wanted to burst into tears, once again, all because of Vic.
“No. No, no, no. You’re not, Vic. I shouldn’t have said what I said.” Kellin argued, reaching up to press a hand to Vic’s cheek, stroking softly. “I’m sorry.”
“I... I guess I’m just not the most secure and I kind of believed it...”
“Well you shouldn’t have. You’re perfect, Vic, and I’m just so sorry and can we just put all of this behind us?” Kellin looked Vic straight in the eye hopefully.
“Yes. Yes we can.” Vic nodded and pulled Kellin into a tight hug, which he eagerly returned. The two boys stood like that for a good ten minutes, head buried into each other’s necks as they both ended up crying, mostly in happiness because it seemed that they couldn’t even last a fortnight without one another.
“Thank you, Vic.” Kellin muttered. Vic didn’t reply, instead he pressed his lips to Kellin’s for a short moment. Until the door swung open. Vic squeaked and shoved Kellin so he toppled behind his bed as light from the hallway flooded into the room.
“Vic? I saw that, you know?” Mike said. “Who is that?”
“It’s Kellin.” Vic admitted.
“So you guys made up? You’re friends again?” Mike asked.
“Erm... Yes.” Vic said.
“Oh. Okay. Hi, Kellin.” Mike greeted the boy still lying on the floor and left the room, closing the door so they were left in darkness again.
“Sorry.” Whispered Vic. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah,” Kellin said, standing up and brushing off his jeans. “So... Um... I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Yeah, Kells. I’m sorry again,” Vic pecked Kellin once again on the lips.
“Don’t be.” Kellin insisted, an elated grin plastered on his face.
“You okay climbing out the window?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. See you soon.” Kellin pressed his lips to Vic’s cheek, causing the other boy to quietly giggle and help to boost Kellin out of the window.
____
Kellin couldn’t help but smile as he entered school the next day.
“What’s with you, Kells?” Jack frowned as his friend walked to his desk, opening it to empty his bag and replace it with the books he needed.
Kellin shrugged and pulled his maths textbook and exercise books out of the desk. “It’s the last day.” He answered nonchalantly.
“Yeah, and we need to perform our song.” He pointed out. Kellin nodded, but ‘With Ears To See, And Eyes To Hear’ was finished.
“It’ll be fine.” Kellin insisted, grinning when he saw Vic enter the room with Jaime by his side. Vic winked at him, which caused him to blush slightly and turn away. It was ridiculously sweet, how they were with each other. Normally he would laugh at couples like this, but now he part of a relationship like that, and he honestly didn’t care.
He ignored Jack’s questioning eyes, putting his music textbook into his messenger bag, and slumping into his seat with his headphones in.
“Kellin?” Jack prodded. Kellin held up his iPod, the album cover of ‘There Is Nothing Left To Lose’ as he played ‘Gimme Stitches’. Jack shook his head as Kellin closed his eyes, enjoying the sound of Dave Grohl’s voice.
____
“Does anyone want to go first?” Mr. Kowalewicz asked. “I don’t know if we’ll have enough time for everyone, but I doubt anybody wants to go after the holidays, so... Vic? And Jason? Okay boys, set up.” Vic and Jason made their way to the front, Vic plugging in his guitar while Jason set up his microphone. Kellin couldn’t help but feel a bit of jealousy as the two boys laughed together, even though he and Vic were back together, and when Vic nodded to Mr. Kowalewicz, he couldn’t help but smirk slightly at the smaller boy, who grinned back.
“Don’t you say you had a part of it, I guess we’ll never know.” Jason began to sing, and Kellin couldn’t deny how amazing his voice really was. The only reason he wasn’t chosen to do the solos, Kellin thought, was that he had a much deeper voice than he did.
He swelled with a strange sense of pride as Vic played the complicated riffs in the song, and his heart literally stopped when he heard the angelic voice drift from Vic’s lips. He didn’t even realise that after five minutes the boys were finished until the applause started. He jumped slightly and joined in, grinning at Vic when he took a seat next to Kellin.
“That was amazing.” He whispered.
“Thanks.” Vic smiled back. “You going next?”
“I think so. Don’t know if I can top your performance, though.” Kellin raised his hand and gestured to his friends to do the same as Mr. Kowalewicz asked for the next group.
“Okay, Jesse and your group, get up and get ready.” Kellin stood up and adjusted the microphone that Jason had set up (seeing as he was quite a bit taller than Kellin) and waited for his friends to set up their instruments.
“True friends lie underneath, these witty words I don’t believe,” Kellin started to sing. He hadn’t been nervous to begin with, because he knew he could sing, but seeing Vic grinning at him from his seat made him feel even more comfortable in himself.
When they finished, Kellin ran to his seat and smiled at Vic, who grinned and took Kellin’s hand in his own, squeezing gently. And they left their hands like that for the rest of the lesson.