In Too Deep

"We are best friends forever. Right Kellin?" Kellin looked at an 13 year old Oli. He gave him a light smile. He remembers this. It was the best memory he had with Oli. They both had snuck out that night and were hiding under the pier near the gentle waves of the ocean. He looked back at Oli, who's smile was as bright as the stars that were twinkling above them.
"Yeah." Kellin said nodding. "Best friends forever and no matter what." Oli giggled and flung his arms around Kellin's neck. Kellin missed this. This was a month before the accident. It had changed both of them. Oli had become too weak after jumping in front of the car that would have killed Kellin. He couldn't preform in sports anymore and he had spent a year in bed. By the time Oli had gotten out, Kellin had gotten new friends and left Oli alone.
"I'm sorry. I'm so fucking sorry. I was an asshole." Kellin drew in a shaky breath as he felt Oli's grip tighten around his body. "I am an asshole." Oli's body no longer felt like his 13 year old body. "I'm so, so, so sorry Oli." Kellin went to wrap his arms around Oli's thin frame but stopped short when he felt something trailing down his arm and back.
"You were too late." Oli pulled away from Kellin's shoulder. Kellin gasped. Oli's eyes were a nasty white, the entrance and exit wound was rotten, and his skin was a pasty white. Kellin put his hand forward to touch Oli's face but the boy flinch away before he could get close. "Kellin?" They met eyes. In that moment Kellin wanted nothing more than to empty his stomach contains on the ground. It's not that he was disgusting, it was the fact that even though his body had lost its color, he had the same look as when he was alive. He had already been dead long before he put that gun to his head.
"Yeah Oli." Kellin swallowed the lump forming in his throat. He had to know what was so important for him to haunt his dream. Oli opened his mouth and blood dribbled down his chin. Kellin wanted to look away but he found himself entranced. Oli reached forward an tuck a piece of Kellin's hair behind his ear.
"I need you to help him Kellin." Kellin gave him a confused look. Oli gave a loud laugh that echoed through the empty beach. "Vic, Kellin. You have to help him. He is in a dark place Kellin." Oli ran two fingers down his wrist, feeling the bumps that go along them.
"Vic- he, uh, um, he hurts himself?" Oli looked up and gave the ocean a blank stare. He nodded. Kellin felt his stomach drop. What could bring Vic to do that to himself?
"There is a difference between Vic and I. Even though he hurts himself, he could never bring himself to end his life. He would never do that to his family, his friends." Oli sighed. Kellin didn't know what to do. His first feeling was to breakdown crying. The next was to be angry at what Vic, even Oli, do to themselves. The last was to run to Vic and shower him with kisses. Wait, what? Why would he want to kiss Vic? Yeah sure he was both into men and women but men were only one night stands. He would never really be with a guy. Oli laughed.
"What the fuck are you laughing at?" Kellin snapped. He saw Oli still looking out but he was smiling this time.
"Vic is attractive, isn't he?" Oli turned to look at Kellin with a teasing smirk. Kellin blushed and pushed Oli's shoulder causing him to fall into the sand. "Shit, mate. Try not to get sand in the bullet wound." Oli chuckled but when he looked back at Kellin. He was back to his serious self. "Damn Kellin. Lighten up!"
"I can't lighten up. You're dead, Oli! I can-"
"Did I look good?" Oli interrupted.
"What?" Oli look Kellin in the eyes.
"Did. I. Look. Good." Oli made sure to pause on every word. Kellin took a minute to think before nodding.
"Yeah. You were wearing a damn suit though." Oli gave a soft smile.
"I knew mom was going to bury me in that. That was my dads." Oli looked at Kellin with a serious stare. "It was ugly." Kellin couldn't contain it. He burst into a fit of laughing. After a few minutes of laughing to look up and see that Oli was crying. Kellin shifted so that their shoulders were touching.
"Dude are you okay?"
"Did people cry for me?" Kellin looked at the sand. He ran his fingers through his shaggy black hair. In truth, only Vic, Kellin, Kellin's parents, and Vic's friends cried. Oli's mother was claiming that she had no son.
"The truth?" Kellin looked up to see him nodding. "Only a few people cried. The people who truly cared about you." Oli's gaze returned to the ocean. He had tears marking little trials down his cheeks.
"Did you cry?" Kellin felt his breath hitch. Oli was being so blunt.
"O-of c-course." Kellin felt the tears pushing at the barrier, threatening to flow his face. Kellin tried to swallow but found his airways blocked.
"Did Vic?" All Kellin could do was nod. He remember Vic crying so clearly. He had sat in the one of the funeral home's chair and just looked at Vic sobbing into his hands. Kellin remembers when someone tried to touch Vic, he would flinch away. He also remembers the look on everyone's faces when he made his way over and place himself at Vic's side.
"What are you doing?" He recalls Vic asking. He had said nothing. He just took Vic's hand in his and pulled him to cry in the crook of his neck. Kellin was the only one that could touch him that day. He remembers the urging feeling to just lean down and capture Vic's lips with his own. Kellin shook his head. It was just the grief talking.
"It's not grief you know." Kellin pulled his head up meetin Oli's frowning face. "He's the one who can help back to the old Kellin. Don't shut him out just because you can't decide your own feelings. That's what you've been doing right?" It was know Kellin's turn to look out onto the dark waters. He could hear the waves crashing against the rocks. He started grinding his teeth together.
"I don't know what your talking about." Oli gave a strained laugh. Kellin locked his jaw. Oli noticed his demeanor change from relaxed to tense. It seemed that he returned to the fake asshole who made his way through the halls of Claremont High. Oli sighed.
"He lives right next to you Kellin. I noticed you watching to see when he was leaving so you can avoid him. Do you know how long it took me to even be able to poke him?" Kellin looked at Oli. He was looking at the ground with such longing. "It took me six months." He whispered. He looked up to Kellin with tears in his eyes. "He is practically leaning on you. He needs you. And you need him." Kellin tensed again.
"I don't need anyone!" Kellin boomed. Oli looked taken back.
"I doubt that." Kellin watched as Oli rolled his eyes and a few tear slid down his cheeks. "Without you..... Damn it Kellin! Without you Vic is going to end up killing himself. He probably won't even be trying to." Kellin pulled up his knees up to his chest. He closed his eyes and shook his head. That couldn't be true. Vic would never kill himself. When his eyes opened he was in a different place. It looked as if it was a bathroom.
"What the he..." Kellin turned his body towards the tub. A slender tan hand with blood dripping from the fingertips was peeking out behind the curtain. "Vic?" Kellin made his way towards the hand reaching a hand forward to grab the curtain. He tugged the curtain back revealing a very lifeless Vic. Kellin's hand went towards his mouth before he let out a very tortured cry. Kellin heard Vic mumbling. "What?" Kellin put his ear near Vic's mouth. The words sent a chill though Kellin's body.
"Kellin....I don't.....want to die." He fell to his knees and started to cry as if he were 5 years old again. Kellin could never let this happen to Vic. He needed him.
"I told you." He whipped around to see Oli staring at him. Kellin wiped the tears from his eyes and stood. He looked back to Vic then to Oli.
"What do I need to do?" Oli smirked.
"You need to be there for him. Make sure he isn't getting pick on, talk to him in class, just pretty much earn his trust." Kellin looked at Oli with wide eyes. He scoffed.
"Get him to trust me! He hates my guts!" Oli shook his head.
"No he hates the people you hang around. Defiantly not you." Kellin threw his hands up.
"Great I'm on an impossible mission given to me by my dead best friend. You know what's easier than this?" He looked at Oli's amused gaze. "It would be easier to get the preachers daughter to sleep with Austin. And trust me, she has been dening him since freshman year." Oli took a step towards Kellin, putting both of his hands on either of Kellin's shoulders.
"Well you better get cracking mate. Because if you don't..." He turned Kellin so they were both staring at Vic's bleeding body. "This will most likely be Vic at the end of the year." Oli released his grip on Kellin's shoulders as a ringing echoed through out the bathroom.
"What do you mean?" Kellin was looking down a lt Vic's slowly rising chest.
"Vic will be dead, Kellin." Vic's breathing stopped and everything plunged in to darkness as Kellin came awake. He slammed his hand down on the snooze button. Kellin was sitting up with his face in his hands as sweat and tears made its way down his shirtless body. He removed the sheets off his body. He made his way towards the wooden desk he uses for school work. He sat down in the chair and returned his face back into his hands.
"It was just a dream. He's okay." Kellin whispered to himself.
"Victor! It's time for school!" Kellin look across to the house outside his window. It had a straight view into Vic's room. And speak of the devil, Vic himself was standing by his dresser without his shirt on. Kellin let his eyes trial down Vic body and run over the scars that littered his hips. When Kellin trialed his eyes back up his body, he was surprised to see that Vic was looking back. Both of the boys faces were bright red. Vic ran to the window and dropped the blinds.
"Wow!" Kellin whispered. That was awkward. He was just caught lusting over Vic Fuentes.