Please, Won't You Push Me for the Last Time

~Kellin~

The band stops playing way too soon, and the crowd relentlessly cheers for more, but the boys are done playing. Jack and the two others leave the makeshift stage and Alex makes a few announcements, mostly general things, he says to leave the tunnels and call your parents if you’re too intoxicated to avoid getting caught and tell them you’re staying at a friends to study or something and then come straight back here. He says the same place next week only some other band will play, I don’t catch the name. There’s also something about a planning meeting I don’t quite understand but I figure that announcement isn’t meant for me.

Vic and I are still holding onto each other as the room slowly begins to empty, people going home or off to call their parents I suppose. I figure maybe we should join them and I’m about to tell Vic it might be time to go when I see Jack heading over to us.

“Hate to break up you two lovebirds,” Jack says, smirking, “but Alex and I need to have a word with Kellin if that’s alright.” He gestures to me and I look at Vic, who nods an okay. I follow Jack over to the other side of the room where we reach the giant, fan-like structures they showed me earlier, where the air comes in from. The ones that never fail out because they run on their own energy and on magnetic forces, apparently. Alex is there talking to a few other people, but he abandons them when he sees me and Jack come over.

“Enjoy the party Kellin?” Alex asks casually, but his eyes tell me he’s looking for the right answer, which makes me nervous.

“I-uh, of course,” I stutter, “you guys are great. This is so, cool I guess? I don’t even have words for it.”

“Relax man,” Alex said, probably noticing my nerves, “it’s safe here you know. We were wondering if you would come to the planning meeting tomorrow. We’re gonna work out the details of some of our failsafes, and the next mission. I don’t suppose you take singing classes?”

“Uh I’m starting some next week at-”

“The Baltimore Music Academy for Young Talents,” Alex finished, “the only ones in the nearest three towns doing classes next week, I’ll be there too.” I just look at him blankly.

“Kellin,’ Jack chimes in, “we need your help with the next mission, if you’re willing. We will fill you in tomorrow if you’d like to be a part of it.

“Of course,” I say without thinking, “whatever it takes.”

“It’s risky,” Alex says in his rare serious tone, actually, he looks a bit scared himself. I don’t know how I even know that. I’ve never seen anyone be scared. Only read and heard about it, maybe felt it myself, when I thought I’d get put on new cures, and maybe one time before...

“I don’t care,” I reply honestly. They do their silent communication thing for a while, and then just tell me they will see me tomorrow, say I should see that my boyfriend gets home before curfew, unless we wanna stay here or another tunnel, in which case, we should make a call and there’s “camp beds” in the first storage closet in the tunnel nearest us. I decide that I should go find Vic and head home, I didn’t want any suspicions, even though a curfew violation isn’t that suspicious among healthy teens in new relationships.

Vic is over talking to, I guess his little brother. He’s taller than Vic though. He looks like he’s had too much to drink, or just enough I guess because I always read that the point was to get as out of your mind as possible and this guy seems like he can’t even walk. Surprisingly, Vic doesn’t seem angry or worried at all, just a little confused. I walk over to them and Vic asks if everything is alright, and I nod and ask him the same.

“I don’t think Mike can go home,” he tells me, gesturing to his brother, who is still clinging to a bottle of some variety of alcohol, and I can’t help but laugh.

“Come on lets take him to call your parents and get you home,” I say. We help Mike get set up in one of the “camp beds” and start heading home.

~Vic~

After Jack pulls Kellin aside to talk to him I decide to go check on my brother, who I don’t think has noticed that I’m here yet.

“Well look who it is,” Mike smiles when he sees me, his words slurring together, which I guess must be an effect of whatever he’s drinking,”whatcha happening to be doin here big bro?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” I say, a bit confused. I want to know how he found out about this and, well if he stopped taking cures like Kellin. I want to know why I haven’t noticed anything different. How often does he drink this stuff?

“‘Sall fun big bro don’t think so much.” He tells me, at least I think that’s what he said, his words are all mingling together and hard to understand. He definitely can’t go home like this, come to think of it, he stays over at his friend Tony’s place quite a lot. Maybe he’s been hanging out here. He will probably have to tonight. I need to find a way to talk to him about all this, it’s really changing how I think about my life. I used to think it wasn’t possible to avoid cures or sneak around, because even in the rare case you wanted to, someone would surely notice right? But here’s my own brother and I had no idea. Here I am and nobody is stopping me.

“Mind sharing?” I ask him for some reason, and without hesitation he smiles and hands me the squarish bottle he’s been holding. I take a swig of the drink, and it’s actually not bad, though it has a bit of a... sting to it. I take a few more drinks and hand it back to my brother. I don’t really feel any different, maybe it takes time to kick in? Maybe you don’t feel anything at all? I’m a little dizzy I guess. I ask Mike if I should feel anything yet and I can’t make out what he says back between my thoughts and his slurry words. What a strange drink.

I see Kellin walking away from Jack and Alex and over to me. Apparently there is a place to stay here, there’s little folding out beds stored in a tunnel over, and Mike knew exactly what to say to our parents, which bothered me a little, though I wouldn’t say so. We take the rails back home and it seems we will make it well before curfew, good planning on Alex and Jack’s part I guess. I’m trying not to talk about the party, but I feel like talking and Kellin is the best to talk to I think.
“Tonight was fun Kellin,” I say, smiling.

“I agree,” he says back, but he doesn’t seem very happy, he looks like he’s thinking about something really hard.

“Don’t be so grumpy,” I say and attack hug him. He seems surprised but he smiles and I start giggling. He stares at me, smiling for a moment. Actually I think it turns into more than just a moment, I’m just holding him as we smile at each other. I can’t even imagine being any happier. Everything is perfect hugging this strange boy on the rails back home.

That is, until I see his expression fall into one of worry, just before everything goes black.