Population 801

"What's wrong, Quinn? Where's Vic? Did he ditch you?" Josh tormented Kellin from the other side of the puck. The game was about to begin and Vic still hadn't shown. Kellin and Josh were chosen as team captains and therefore were the players that got to do the beginning face off, but Kellin was so out of it he just knew he wasn't going to win this time.

"I don't need him to kick your ass, Josh." Kellin said in a macho tone to get Josh off his case. He didn't feel very macho though. He felt like the one person that he's cared about most for the past few months turned out to be just like everyone else in this good for nothing town.

No one here really cared about anyone else. It was every man for himself and Kellin had been okay with that until Vic came and ruined it all. Who gave Vic the right to come in here and mess with Kellin's head, just to eventually leave him all alone just like everybody else had? I guess that's what happens when you start to let someone in; you forget to make sure their worthy of entrance.

Before he could get another thought going he was body checked to the ground by Josh. When did the whistle get blown?! Kellin hadn't even heard it! 'Okay Kellin. Focus. You've got to win this game. Stop thinking about Vic, he's not worth it.' he said to himself as he stood from his spot and located the puck. Josh had ran it all the way down the rink and was about to score, before Justin checked him from behind. Josh went flailing to the ground and Justin recieved the puck. I screamed for Justin and the second we made eye contact the puck was being shot straight to me. I captured it and started a back-and-forth with Jack down to the goal. Back-and-forth was a tactic used to confuse the other team where two teamates pass the ball back and forth between eachother and eventually the person who gets the opportunity makes the score. The last time Kellin had done this was when-

- - -

"Okay so I pass it to you, and you pass it to me, it's really simple." Kellin said to Vic from the other side of the rink. Vic just nodded and put his stick to the ground. They both started skating up the rink and Kellin passed the puck timidly to Vic. Vic, with much difficulty, captured the puck and smiled back at Kellin.

"Hey, I actually did it!" Vic beamed with excitment. Kellin couldn't help but smile and the cheeky expression on his boyfriends face- eye's wide open, smile too big for his face, frostbite nose and cheeks- it was really a face to be caught on camera.

"Good, now pass it back to me. Nice and easy, in a straight line." Vic's excited face changed to one of concentration. His smile turned into a staright line with his tongue slightly jutting out and his eyes went squintted as he cautiously drew his stick back and sent to to Kellin. Kellin caught it and didn't give him time to react before sending it back.

They continued to go back and forth all the way up the rink. Well, as far as they could. Vic had been inching his way closer and closer to Kellin the entire time until finally he tackled him to the ground, landing on top of him, and kissed him. Kellin kissed back, laughing, until Vic pulled away and smiled at him.

"What do you think you're doing?" Kellin asked, still laughing.

"I checked you!" Vic said, causing Kellin to laugh more.

"Usually you don't kiss people you check."

"Are you complaining?" Kellin quickly shook his head and pulled Vic down by the collor of his sweatshirt, kissing him again.

"Not one bit." Kellin said between kisses. They laid like that for a while before Vic said something that had been burning in the back of his mind for some time.

"Hey Kels?" Kellin murmered in acknowledgement. "You still want to leave Denning one day, don't you? I mean after what happened and what I did I mean... Are you still scared?"

Kellin looked up at Vic, noticing the old gleam in his eye that he got when he was nervous, and just smiled. "Yeah I still want to leave. Someday. But things are different now."

"Different how?"

"Well before, I always pictured myself leaving alone, being all by myself out in a big world that I knew nothing about. Now, I can't even imagine leaving alone. The only way I would leave is if you came with me." Kellin brushed a stray hair out of Vic's face and watched as a tear fell from Vic's eyes. "No don't do that. What's wrong, what did I say?"

"No, nothing wrong. I just... I've been on my own since I moved out here, and now I'm not. Now I've got you. I almost forgot what it felt like to not be alone."

"Well we never have to be like that again."

- - -

"Kellin take the shot!" Jack screamed at me, "Kellin come on!" I finally knocked myself out of my flashback and took in my current position. I had a clear shot to the goal and was still passing it back to Jack. Jack passed it back one last time and I took the shot. The ball went flying through the air, right towards the goal, caught the goalie off gaurd, it was a perfect shot- until it bounced off the bar. No goal.

"What the hell is wrong with you Kels?!" Jesse asked coming over during a time out.

"Where is he, Jesse?!" Kellin said, tears threatening to set loose. "He's not here. You know why? Because he's just like everyone else! He doesn't care! He doesn't care and here I am and I cared Jesse, let me tell you, I fucking cared, and now I'm alone! Again! No, not only am I alone again, but now it's fresh in my mind what it feels like to not be alone! I wish he never showed up! I wish he had stayed in his own fucking town and left ours- left me- alone!" I didn't know where any of this was coming from. I didn't know why I started freaking out and I don't know why I was spilling all of this to Jesse. I guess because Jesse was the person who helped me realize that I like Vic in the first place.

"Kellin he didn't leave you. He didn't show up to a hockey game that he didn't want to go to in the first place!" Jesse said, attempting to talk some sense into his best friend. "You're not alone, Kellin. And even if he did leave, you weren't alone before. Not really. You made yourself like that. We've all been here, we've been here the whole time. I don't know why but for whatever reason you shut everyone out except Vic. And he shut everyone out except you! He wouldn't leave because then he would be just as alone as you would be."

"Thanks Jesse." Kellin said, letting Jesse's words sink in. He understood what Jesse was saying, but that doesn't mean that he believed him. Vic didn't have to be alone. He could have anybody. Kellin was just glad that, for a little while, Vic chose him.

The game continued shortly after. Everybody tried their hardest to not pass to Kellin after Jesse told them he was in no state to be playing. Kellin stood in the middle and only helped with passing between players. This wasn't how this game was supposed to go. It was supposed to be Kellin and Vic against everyone else. That's how everything was supposed to be. Forever. Kellin was pulled out of his thoughts when he saw a small car pull up at the top of the hill. He watched it as someone got out of the drivers side and walked around, only to sit against the passenger side door.

Kellin strained to see who it was, but he knew before he made out the figure. He knew exactly who he was looking at. He knew exactly who that was. He skated to the edge of the rink, effectively knocking over Josh on his way, threw his stick on the ground and tore his skates off, jumping right into his tennis shoes. He ran all the way up the hill and straight into Vic's arms.

"Wow, someone's excited to see me." Vic said. If Kellin had been paying more attention, he may have noticed how Vic was faking a chuckle, or a smile, or a happy tone, but he was too busy crying into Vic's shoulder as he realized that he wasn't alone. He didn't have to be alone.

"I love you, Vic." He said once he regained an ounce of composure. "I know we haven't been together that long and it's really random but I don't want... I can't be alone again, Vic. I thought you left and it tore me apart but you didn't. You're here, and because of that I don't have to be alone anymore, and I love you."

"I love you too, Kels." Vic said. That was when Kellin noticed something was wrong. It wasn't that Vic wasn't sincere, it was that somewhere behind the sincerity was a look of caution. A look that said there was something else going on here. "But before you commit to that I need to ask you something. You said once that you would leave Denning. That you would leave with me. Do you remember that?" Kellin nodded. "Okay. Do you trust me?"

Kellin was starting to worry. There was something going on here, something big. "Of course I do."

"Then get in."