Disasterology

For once, Kellin’s day was actually going pretty good. He hadn’t seen Vic’s face all day, which he found a little suspicious because by now he had usually popped up somewhere, but he choose not to dwell on it, and chose to enjoy it instead. Maybe that was a bad choice though. He knew it was as soon as he saw Vic leaning casually up against some lockers a few yards in front of him. The other boy was obviously trying to make it look like he hadn’t even noticed the younger boy, but he was doing a pretty poor job of it if you asked Kellin.

The obvious option would be to avoid Vic, just turn around and go another way. Vic won both ways though, either by intimidation or whatever it was he was planning on doing to him. It was better, in Kellin’s mind, to face him though; show him that he wasn’t scared of him. Saying he wasn’t scared of him wouldn’t be a total lie, but it wouldn’t be the whole truth either. There were some things in the past that he had maybe taken a little too far, and he was always capable of doing it again. As long as he didn’t though, Kellin really had no reason to be afraid of him. Although Vic was pretty muscular (something Kellin was not) he was actually shorter than Kellin (which was saying a lot) by an inch or two. Most of the things he pulled didn’t really harm Kellin, unless you were talking about his social life which was pretty much nonexistent in the first place and honestly, he just didn’t look mean.

Rolling his eyes, Kellin kept walking, wondering what Vic was going to do to him this time. You can imagine how confused he was when he managed to just stroll by Vic without so much as a name called after him. That should have made him happy, but it only served to make him very, very suspicious. He didn’t think anything like this had happened since freshman year, when Vic had first decided to introduce himself by soaking all of Kellin’s clothes in the shower while he was in PE. He knew Vic was up to something, he just didn’t know what. His suspicions were confirmed when he felt something scrape the back of his shoe.

Taking a glance behind him, Kellin’s eyes landed on exactly whom he expected them to. Vic Fuentes was walking closely behind him, hands in his pockets and an innocent smile on his face. Kellin took a moment to glare at him before turning back around so he didn’t accidentally run into someone or something. He felt it again, and tried his best to ignore it. Pursing his lips, he sped up in hopes of losing his pursuer, but of course that wasn’t the case. He heard the footsteps behind him pick up and then he felt Vic step on the back of his shoe again.

“Go away.” He decided to try the not so subtle approach to getting Vic to leave him alone, since the subtle one hadn’t worked. Of course the not so subtle approach didn’t work either, considering the only response he got was Vic stepping on the back of his shoe for the fourth time.

He began turning around, intending to yell at Vic or something similar, but he barely turned when he felt himself stumble over something, what exactly he wasn’t quite sure. Before he could do anything to stop it, he was falling face first down to the floor. Kellin groaned, his face pressed into the linoleum floor as everyone around him laughed at his misfortune. He decided then would be a good time to just melt into the floor and disappear. It wasn’t even that he was embarrassed about falling though. He was mortified because he practically did that to himself, Vic hadn’t even been stepping on his shoe when he fell. He was basically doing Vic’s job for him. Quickly getting up as to avoid any further embarrassment he may have caused himself, Kellin picked up his things, which had gone flying around the same time he did, and hurried his way to the lunch room. Before he was gone though, he felt Vic clap him hard on the shoulder.

“Nice going Quinn.” The older boy laughed.

-

Kellin plopped himself down at his usual seat at the lunch table he and his friends normally occupied with a heavy sigh. His muscles were still tense from what had happened only minutes ago and the good mood he had been in before was soured. He was already thinking about what he could possibly do to get back at Vic, because although he hadn’t caused Kellin to trip personally, he was the reason he wasn’t paying attention to where he was going in the first place.

“Guess what I scored?” His friend, Justin, asked excitedly as soon as he was sitting. The kid was practically bouncing in his seat so Kellin figured he could forget about Vic for a minute or two and ask what had him so wired.

“What?” Kellin asked. He was the last one to the table, and it looked like everyone else already knew because they showed no particular interest in whatever it was Justin had to say.

“I got all of us invited to Danny’s party Friday.” Danny’s parties were always kind of a big deal. They usually got pretty wild and if you weren’t there then you wouldn’t know what anyone was talking about for the next week at least. You didn’t need an invite to go, but he had a policy that if you did get an invitation then you didn’t have to pay for anything you drank. Kellin had been to one or two of his parties, but he had never been invited before.

“That’s awesome man!” Maybe a party was exactly what he needed. It would give him the chance to have fun and get his mind off things for a bit.

“What happened to you anyway? Your face was redder than a tomato when you came over here.” Jesse, another of his friends asked with a mouthful of sandwich. Kellin’s face scrunched up at being reminded what had just happened.

“Vic Fuentes what else.” None of his friends were in band, so they weren’t ever subject to any of the ridicule the band kids got, but they were subject to Kellin complaining about it, so they knew all about it. Collective noises of affirmation sounded around the table, but that was the last anyone acknowledged it before moving on to other areas of conversation, which Kellin was thankful for.