Collide With This Guy

I just sat in my car in the student parking lot for the rest of the day. At first I was just fuming, gripping the steering wheel so hard that I probably could have ripped it right off. Luckily I didn’t, though, because that would have only caused more problems for me.

If I had my way, I would have just gone home as soon as I left, but I couldn’t. I still had to pick Mike up, and leaving him here just wouldn’t be fair. On top of that, I would have never heard the end of it from either him or my mom if I did.

When it got closer to the time that school was letting out, I pulled out of the parking space I was in and drove over to the pick-up/drop-off circle was in front so that I could leave quicker when Mike came out. However, as I did so, I noticed the car in front of mine was one of the last ones I wanted to see. It was Kellin’s mom’s car.

In fact, she was even standing outside the car, waiting for Kellin to get out. I rolled my eyes at how ridiculous this was, and for a moment I genuinely felt sorry for him. His mom was treating him like he was five.

Much to my disappointment, Mrs. Quinn happened to turn and notice that I was parked behind her. She smiled and marched over excitedly. I sighed as she came around to the driver’s side window. I really didn’t want to talk to her, but I wasn’t able to escape it, because the windows were still down.

“Good afternoon, Victor,” she said cheerfully.

“Uh, hi,” I mumbled.

“Why aren’t you in class?” she asked, a slight motherly tone to her question. Because people are homophobic cunts.

“I just didn’t feel well,” I lied.

“Oh you poor thing,” she cooed. “Did you see Kellin at all today?”

“Yeah, I saw him at lunch,” I shrugged.

“Oh, lovely, did he sit with you? I know he could use some friends.”

“Yeah, it was super,” I lied again, hoping she didn’t notice that I was only mocking her cheerfulness. She chatted with me a few more minutes about nothing as people started coming out of the school. I looked over and noticed Mike walking towards the car with Kellin.

“Oh, there’s my boy,” she said, beaming, as she broke away from me to greet him. I looked back over as the two got closer and I could tell right away that something was wrong. Kellin’s face was red and blotchy, like he’d been crying. Mike said a few things to Kellin’s mom that I couldn’t hear and she responded by wrapping Kellin in a hug and telling him to get in the car so that they could ‘talk about it’.

“What happened?” I asked Mike as he got in the car. I watched the Mrs. Quinn drive away before taking off myself.

“What happened is that you’re an asshole for leaving him to fend for himself,” he grumbled. “I found the poor guy crying in the bathroom. He wouldn’t talk about it much, but he said something about two guys cornering him after you supposedly stormed out of the cafeteria.”

“What do you mean left him to fend for himself? He’s a big kid,” I said, defensively. I felt bad that Rian and Jaime had gotten their hands on him but it wasn’t my fault!

“I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that it was Rian and Jaime, and that you left because they were saying shit to you again,” he said. I scowled.

“Yeah, so?”

“So … you know, whatever. I thought you could at least try to be nice to him, he’s just trying to adjust,” Mike explained. “And he’s actually really nice.”

“I’m sure he is,” I muttered, as I started to drive. I was really offended that Mike was trying to blame me for whatever happened to Kellin, but at the same time I felt bad for him. Rian and Jaime didn’t even freaking know him.

Mike didn’t say anything else to me the entire car ride. I had to stop and get gas on the way, but after that we went straight home. And when we arrived there, I was less than pleased to be welcomed by the sound of Mrs. Quinn’s voice ranting to my mother.

“Fuck,” I whispered. Now what?

I wanted to just turn and leave again, but my mom had heard us come in.

“Victor Fuentes, you get in here right now!” she called to me. I moaned and trudged into the living room to find my mom and Kellin’s mom both with their arms crossed as I entered.

“What?” I sighed.

“What is this I hear about Kellin getting beat up at lunch? Mary tells me you sat with him at lunch, is that right?” she asked. I rolled my eyes.

“I left less than halfway through lunch,” I muttered.

“You what- Victor, what did I tell you about skipping class?” she scolded, forcing a smile to Kellin’s mom, as if to tell her that, really, I was a good kid. I didn’t think she bought it, though.

“Well, all I know, is that my son was crying when I picked him up from school today, and has a big ol’ bruise swelling up under his eye. I’m not happy about this,” she said, in a stern voice.

“You go over and apologize,” My mom snapped. She normally wasn’t like this, so I assumed that she was just trying to impress Mrs. Quinn with her parenting skills.

“But why? I didn’t even do anything!” I whined, probably sounding a lot more immature than I had intended.

“Go,” she snapped. I groaned and turned on my heel, marching out the door. I was sure to glare hard at Mike as I passed him, too. I crossed their yard, not paying attention to the stupid little sign they had put up about not walking on the grass. I banged on the front door until it swung open.

Kellin stood in front of me, still looking really upset, but not like he was still crying. His mom was right, though- he did have a pretty noticeable bruise on his left cheekbone.

“What?” he said. He didn’t sound angry or anything, though, he just sounded uncomfortable.

“I’m supposed to come over and apologize,” I shrugged. He looked down at his feet.

“You don’t have to,” he mumbled. “I tried to tell her it wasn’t your fault.”

“You did?” I said, kind of surprised.

“I mean, I saw what they did to you, I highly doubt you’d want them to do the same to me,” he explained. “I didn’t tell her what they did to you … or what they said.”

“Thanks,” I breathed. I was actually glad for that, because the last thing I need was for it to get back to my mom that I was being bullied at school for being gay. I mean, she didn’t know about any of it, because I had sworn Mike to secrecy by threatening to tell them about the alcohol stash under his bed if he did. “What did they do?”

“Come inside?” he suggested. I shrugged and followed him inside. I wasn’t surprised at the level of tidiness in his house. Everything matched, and everything looked perfect, even for a family who had just moved in. I followed him as he lead me upstairs to his room where he stopped. I was a bit confused as to why he was insistent about shutting the door, but I let it slide.

“So, um, don’t tell my mom but I lied to her about what happened,” he said, nervously. I raised an eyebrow. Goody-two-shoes Kellin lied to his mom?

“What?”

“I told her that they cornered me and then hit me when I refused to do their math homework for them,” he explained. I couldn’t help but burst into laughter. He was kidding right?

“What the fuck?” I said, amused. “That sounds like something off of a TV show.”

“It probably is, but she believed it,” he said, then when he noticed I still looked amused he added, “I’m really good at math, okay?”

“Nerd,” I coughed, as he shot me this feeble attempt at a menacing glare. I laughed again, because it was actually kind of cute.

I caught myself there- no, Kellin wasn’t cute. I pushed the thought away, and he luckily had no idea that it even crossed my mind.

“Anyway, that’s obviously not what happened,” he said.

“Then what happened?” I asked, pretending to be super interested. He glanced around the room nervously, before lifting up his shirt to reveal his chest. I was about to make a bad joke, but then I realized he was trying to show me something.

Written sloppily across his stomach was the word ‘Faggot’ in big letters. I moaned, really hating how often they liked to use that word.

“How did they do that?” I wanted to know.

“Um, they held me down, I know I look really strong, but I’m actually not,” he said, sarcastically.

“They’re assholes,” I told him, though I was sure he knew that by now.

“Yeah,” he sighed. “I didn’t even do anything to them.”

“Yeah you did- you sat with me,” I sighed. “Sorry, but if you want to avoid confrontation, you should probably stop sitting with me at lunch.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” he wanted to know. I shrugged, not really wanting to get into it with him. He wasn’t really as annoying as I expected him to be, but I still didn’t want to open up to him, as I’d only just met him.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I snapped. “I should probably go.”

“Okay,” he sighed. “Um, I’ll still sit with you though.”

I shook my head and laughed.

“Okay, it’s your funeral,” I shrugged, before I opened his bedroom door again and let myself out.