Collide With This Guy

The next day I reluctantly got out of bed and ready for school. I was a bit late in getting up as usual, so I skipped breakfast and grabbed my car keys from the counter.

“Mike, are you ready?” I called out for him. He was always so slow in the mornings. He appeared in the front hallway with me a few seconds later, his backpack slung over one shoulder.

“Ready,” he confirmed. I sighed and we left the house. As we walked out to our driveway, it was no surprise that just twenty feet away we could see Kellin walking out to a car with his mom.

“Hey, Kellin!” Mike called out, walking over to him. I just got in the car because I didn’t feel like socializing. I rolled down the windows to compensate for the fact that our little car didn’t have air conditioning, so I got to hear their conversation anyway.

“You should ride to school with us!” Mike suggested. I moaned internally. I didn’t want to drive Kellin to school, I didn’t even know this kid. More than likely he’d get to school, hear all the rumors about me, and then never want to associate ever again anyway.

“Oh, no, I don’t think it’s a good idea,” his mom said, with a horribly fake laugh. “I don’t want Kellin being driven by a student.”

“Oh, um, okay. Vic’s a really safe driver, though,” Mike said. At least he was trying to come to my defense. I felt a little bad for Kellin, because I could already kind of see how overprotective his parents were of him.

“I’m sure he is,” she said, turning her attention to me and waving excitedly. I gave an awkward salute and then motioned for Mike to hurry up. He told them he’d see them around, and then jogged back over and got in on the passenger side.

“What a bitch,” Mike chuckled as we pulled out of the driveway and were out of earshot.

“I’m sure she has her reasons,” I mumbled, though I really didn’t care. “Plus, what do you expect? She drives a Prius.”

Mike laughed at that and I actually smiled. It didn’t happen too often anymore, but I secretly loved the moments where Mike and I were laughing with each other rather than bickering at each other. The rest of the car ride to school was spent listening to Mike go on and on about some teacher at school that gave him a bad grade.

We went our separate ways as usual as soon as we got to school. I watched as Mike ran off to talk to his friends while I just sat in the car for a few minutes, collecting myself. It was almost like I was just checking to make sure I’d put on my thick skin that morning. I knew I was going to need it.

I made it to my locker without any comments, but of course that was where it ended. As soon as I got to my locker I felt an arm wrap around my shoulders, patting me on the back.

“Good morning, Vicky, how’s it going?” It was this guy, Rian. I swear to God, he was the biggest douche I knew, and I was so over his bullshit. He was the one that started all of this, and he was also the one who made sure it would keep going. He patted me on the back again.

“Let me guess, you just taped a sign to my back,” I said, in a bored tone. He just snickered as he fist bumped one of his friends that was standing nearby. I picked my back pack off up the floor and laughed. “You know that’s actually clever, you know? Because now I’m going to put my backpack on and no one will see what dumb shit you wrote anyway.”

Rian and his friends stopped laughing. He frowned and pushed me hard against the locker. It caught me off guard, but I wasn’t afraid of him. The last time he hit me at school, he got suspended, and I knew he wouldn’t do it again and risk his athletic scholarship to whatever party school he wanted to go to.

“Watch your mouth,” he growled.

“What are you going to do to me?” I challenged. What could he do, though? He pushed me again before letting me go. He muttered something demeaning under his breath and stormed off with his crowd.

As soon as he was gone, I took my backpack off again and reached back to try and reach the paper he had taped to me. It was a little hard to reach.

“Let me help you with that,” another familiar voice said. I turned to see me friend, Jack, standing over me, peeling the sign off of me.

“What does it say?” I wanted to know. Jack shook his head.

“Nope, not showing you,” he said, before crumpling up the paper and throwing it away in a nearby trashcan. “I know you, and it’s just going to piss you off anyway, so why bother?”

“Because,” I argued, though it was pretty weak. I glanced around me, anxiously, as I always ended up doing when Jack was around me. Jack was my friend, don’t get me wrong, but he didn’t exactly help all the bullying that was directed towards me. He was the only one who knew my secret before Rian did, and the only one that stuck by me when Rian told everyone. So, naturally, people just assumed that we were dating, which was so far from the case.

“Dude, calm down,” he said casually, before turning away, “I got to get to class, and I’ll see you later.”

I nodded and did the same.

Before I knew it, It was lunch time. Lunch used to be my favorite part of the day, but not anymore. I found myself sitting alone every single day, because Jack had an internship that he went to for the second half of the day, leaving me with no friends in my lunch period.

I sat down at my usual table, and pulled out my lunch. As I did so, I happened to look up towards the doors, only to see that Kellin kid walking in. What was he doing in senior lunch? He looked around the room timidly, as if he was deathly terrified of everyone in it. I guessed it would have been terrifying walking into a crowded cafeteria when you didn’t know anyone.

Then, his eyes found me, and he brightened a little. I looked away, but it was too late, he was already walking over to me.

“Hi, um, can I sit here?” he asked. I shrugged.

“I don’t know, can you?” I snapped. He looked a little taken aback by my comment, and I felt bad so I told him to sit down. “I thought you were a junior.”

“I am, I just, one of my classes has mostly seniors in it, and it was during junior lunch, so …yeah,” he explained. I watched as he pulled what looked like a monogrammed lunch box out of his backpack. Of course, he had a perfectly balanced lunch, with his water and sandwich and little baggie of what looked like an assortment of bell peppers. “I’m sorry, I know you don’t like me, but I don’t know anyone else.”

I frowned.

“Who said I don’t like you?” I questioned, even though it was kind of true.

“Um, I don’t know,” he said, quickly. “I just thought- never mind.”

He stared down at his lunch, awkwardly nibbling at one of his peppers. His face was turning red. I didn’t say anything more on the subject. I didn’t really want to talk to anyone, especially him. Sooner or later he wasn’t going to want to sit with me anyway.

And I guess that was going to be sooner, because the next thing I knew, Rian and one of his buddies, Jaime, were taking seats across from us.

“Aw, Vicky’s got himself a boyfriend,” Jaime snickered. I rolled my eyes as Kellin more or less choked on his food.

“What?” he chirped. Rian and Jaime busted into an obnoxious fit of laughter.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I muttered. “Leave him alone.”

“Aw, you’re defending him, he must be your boyfriend,” Rian teased. “How cute.”

“No, I’m just attempting to be a decent human being for once,” I said, icily. Rian stood up and leaned across the table, getting a little too close to my face for my liking.

“Talk back to me again and I swear to God, I’ll-“

“Dude, don’t hit him, you remember what happened last time,” Jaime reminded him. Rian growled and sat back down.

“Fine then, you do the honors,” Rian said, as Jaime smirked. This was not going to end well.

I stood up from the table and went to leave, but Jaime caught me by the wrist instead, bending it behind my back.

“Ow, fuck, let go of me!” I shouted.

“Then stop being such a little bitch,” he grumbled, shoving me roughly to the ground. There was some chatter around the cafeteria- everyone always seemed to enjoy any form of a fight, which was sick as fuck. He seemed satisfied with that, and he and Jaime finally walked off. I sat up and looked up to see Kellin coming over to me, looking almost horrified.

“Are you okay?” he gasped, trying to help me up.

“Don’t touch me”!” I shouted, grabbing my back pack. I noticed that he was trying to follow me out of the cafeteria, too. I turned back to him, “Don’t fucking follow me either.”

He stopped in his tracks, allowing me to leave on my own.