Collide With This Guy

“You guys did well,” My mom said, breaking the silence on our ride home from the talent show. I just shrugged. My mind was on a million different things. I was thinking about how Kellin’s mom had hit him, and how I wanted to hit her for hurting him. I was also thinking about how I wanted to scream at Kellin for telling his mom all of those things and egging her on. I was thinking about how my mom still hadn’t said a word about my sexual orientation. Most of all, I was thinking about Mrs. Quinn’s threat to charge me with statutory rape.
“She can’t do that, can she?” I mumbled, weakly, without answering my mom’s question.
“Age of consent in the state of California is eighteen, honey,” she said sadly. “I’d have to look it up but, I think she can.”
“What am I going to do?” I whined. I just wanted to curl up into a ball and die.
“We are going to hope that Mrs. Quinn finds it in her heart to not go to the authorities,” she said, calmly as we pulled into our driveway. I went inside to find Mike talking to our dad in the kitchen.
“Hey, bro, how’d it go?” Mike asked me.
“Don’t talk to me,” I muttered, brushing past everyone.
“Vic, come back here,” she demanded. I turned around slowly, still feeling shaky. “Don’t you think we need to inform your father about what’s going on?”
“No,” I said, my eyes flashing to my dad then back at her. “He doesn’t have to know.”
“Honey, there’s not need to be afraid, no one’s going to be mad,” she said, warmly. I took a deep breath and sat down in the nearest kitchen chair. Mike glanced at me, concerned.
“She knows about Kellin, doesn’t she?” he asked. I nodded sadly.
“What about Kellin?” my dad wanted to know.
“They’ve been dating since, like, the end of November, I think?” he asked, shooting me a questioning look. I nodded to confirm that he was right.
“I told you,” my dad said to my mom.
“What?” I chirped. I was suddenly really confused for a whole other reason.
“Oh, Vic, come on,” she said, giving me a knowing look. “Every time that boy comes over you guys head straight up to your room and lock the door. That, and you’re not exactly quiet when you . . . you know.”
“Oh God,” I said, morbidly embarrassed. I covered my face with my hands. Mike just laughed. “You weren’t going to say anything?”
“No, we figured you’d come and tell us about things when you were ready to,” my dad said as he and my mom just shrugged.
“You guys are the best,” I said, quietly. But it still didn’t change the fact that Kellin’s mom was a nightmare.
“So what’s the problem?” Mike wanted to know.
“Kellin’s mother is . . . well, she’s livid to say the least,” my mom explained to them. “She told me she saw Vic and Kellin kissing and she and Kellin had a fairly . . .colorful argument, and long story short, Kellin admitted that they’ve . . . you know- and now she wants to press charges.”
“What for? That’s fucking stupid,” Mike spat.
“Language,” my mom reminded him. He rolled his eyes.
“She’s trying to get me for statutory rape,” I mumbled, staring at the kitchen table.
“How is she going to do that?” he wanted to know. “I highly doubt you raped Kellin.”
“I didn’t,” I said, trying to be defensive, but it was weak. “But technically he’s a minor, and I’m not.”
“That’s bull,” Mike said, shaking his head. “It’s not even fair.”
It was about then that a loud knock came on my front door. My dad excused himself to go answer it as I froze.
“Excuse me, sir, is Victor Fuentes home?” came a harsh voice. I bit my lip as tears welled in my eyes.
“Yes, officer, please come in,” I heard my dad say. I felt nauseous, and even more so the closer the footsteps got as several pairs of feet entered the kitchen.
“That’s him,” came Kellin’s mother’s voice. My blood boiled. I turned around to say something, but stopped when I saw the people who were standing behind me. There were three people. One was Kellin’s mom, one was a police officer, and the other was Kellin.
“Mr. Fuentes?” the police officer asked. My eyes flashed to Kellin, but he wasn’t looking at me. He couldn’t look at me. Did he even try to stop his mom?
“Yes,” I choked. I got this sinking feeling as he pulled out a pair of handcuffs.
“Victor Fuentes, you are under arrest. Don’t worry, these are just protocol,” he informed me as he spun me around and pinned my arms behind my back. I was shaking by this point, terrified of what was going to happen. I didn’t want to go to jail- I couldn’t go to jail, could I? “We need to take you downtown for some questioning.”
He went on to read me my rights and from then on, everything was just sort of numb. I was just going through the motions. Kellin had admitted that we had sex, so I couldn’t deny that. They set a court date, and that was probably the only time I really saw Kellin since everything went down. I was found guilty of only a misdemeanor since we were so close in age. I had to pay a fine, which my parents paid for me, but I knew I would be paying them back for as soon as I could. Not only that, but I was required to register as a sex offender because of the way the trial went. I was stuck with this stupid label all because I slept with a guy I genuinely thought I loved. I felt like the biggest idiot in the world.
As for the Quinns . . . they moved out as quickly as they could, and had Kellin transfer to a new school. There was a rumor that he was only at the local private school, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want to see him anyway, because it was ultimately what he said that got me into this mess. I mean, of course I thought about him, but it only led to more tears and more pain.
We won the stupid talent show, but it didn’t matter at that point. I didn’t care if we won or not.