Collide With This Guy

The weekend went by just as fast as usual, and before I knew it I was getting up for school on a Monday. I avoided conflict in the morning, and tried to avoid Jack’s interactions, but it didn’t really work.

“Dude, you need to cut this crap,” he said, closing my locker door shut for me. I jumped, a little surprised by his sudden tone.

“What?” I said, defensively.

“You’ve been avoiding me lately, and I know why, I just don’t understand it,” he said, sounding disappointed. I felt bad, really. Jack was easily my best friend, but I had been so distracted by hating everything that I tended to forget that he was still there. Not to mention talking to him too much just made everything worse.

“I’m sorry, I just- I don’t know, okay?” I sighed, “I don’t want to provoke anything.”

“Yeah, I know, but it’s still crappy of you. We don’t even hang out anymore,” he said as we started walking down the hall to first period. It was the first time I had walked with him to class in a while, and nothing really happened. I guess it was all just paranoia. Why couldn’t I just be like Jack and not give a shit what other people thought?

“I know, I know- you should come over sometime, then,” I suggested, even though I still preferred to just be by myself.

Just then, to add to my paranoia, we passed by Kellin who was at his locker. I wanted to just walk by, but he noticed and came right over.

“Hey,” he said, coming up on my other side.

“Uh, hi,” I mumbled, nervously.

“Who’s your friend?” Jack asked, since Kellin decided to keep walking with us.

“He’s not my friend,” I said, defensively, earning a frown from Kellin. “I mean …this is Kellin, Kellin this is Jack.”

“Hey,” Jack said, being friendly.

Kellin flashed him a smile and I had to look away. He was cutest when he smiled like that and it pissed me the fuck off.

“Well, I’ll see you at lunch,” he said, turning off as we passed his first period class. I kept walking with Jack, and I could hear him snickering to himself.

“What?” I hissed.

“Oh, nothing,” he said, yet still had this knowing grin on his face. Of course Jack would always see right through me. “You just totally checked that guy out as he walked away.”

I felt my face getting hot. “No I didn’t! I barely know him.”

“You don’t have to know someone to find them attractive,” he argued, “How do you know him? I don’t think I’ve ever seen him before.”

“New neighbors,” I explained. He nodded in response.

“That’s exciting,” he said, wriggling his eyebrows at me.

“Stop!” I insisted, as we came up to my class. Jack just laughed again and told me he’d see me later.

Class was boring as always, and I found myself looking forward to lunch. I didn’t want to admit that it was because I liked talking to Kellin, so I convinced myself that it was because I just liked the fact that another human being that wasn’t Jack wished to associate with me.

I made my way to my usual spot in the cafeteria, waiting for him to come in and sit with me. I waited a little longer than I had the past couple of days, though, and it had me worried a little bit, especially since I noticed Rian and Jaime coming in late as well.

I calmed myself down by assuring myself that he was probably just talking to a teacher or something, and that I really wasn’t supposed to care anyway. I had still only just met him.

“Hey, Fuentes, did you scare off your new buddy already?” I heard a voice say. Before I had a chance to move or respond, Rian and Jaime had seated themselves on either side of me.

“No,” I snapped. “Don’t talk to me.”

They both laughed at me, and Rian patted me hard on the back.

“Then where’s he at? Huh?” he wanted to know.

“Why the fuck do you care?” I moaned.

“We don’t give a shit about you,” Jaime reminded me, and the coldness in his voice still stung. It especially hurt because these guys used to be my friends. “But we gotta warn the new kid, right? Can’t leave him with you or you’ll turn him into a homo too.”

“Oh, is that what I did to you?” I asked, without thinking. Jaime swore, and I barely saw him drawing his fist back before it was colliding with my face, knocking me from my seat. It really hurt, too. I was about to get up and attempt to fight back, but Rian caught me from behind by my wrists, as Jaime grabbed my ankles lifting me off of the ground.

“Let go!” I shouted, struggling against them.

“Hey, he said let him go,” I heard Kellin’s voice say. Oh no.

Lucky for him, they were preoccupied with me, and by the time they noticed him, one of the school security guards had come over. They dropped me immediately, sending me crashing to the hard floor.

“Ow,” I whispered, as I pushed myself up.

“You okay?” The security guy asked me, I nodded slowly as he beckoned for Rian and Jaime to follow him out of the cafeteria. I avoided eye contact with Kellin as I went back to sitting down at the table.

“Vic, what happened, are you alright?” he asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

“You’re a fucking idiot,” I spat, though I shouldn’t have been angry with him.

“What?” he asked, quietly, recoiling a bit.

“You’re lucky security came when he did, or they would have destroyed you,” I explained, hoping that my comment would sound less harsh. “You’re not exactly intimidating, you know.”

“I’m sorry, I was just trying to help,” he said, pouting. “I’m sorry, it’s none of my business.”

“No, it’s not,” I assured him. We sat in silence, though my mind was still reeling. In all honesty, I found it adorable that Kellin tried to stick up for me, but that just made everything much more infuriating. Kellin needed to cut it out with that adorable shit.

“Do you need anything?” he asked me, breaking the silence.

“No,” I muttered, not knowing what he was talking about.

“I mean … your face … “ he mumbled, turning to me. I shrugged.

“It’s just a bruise, it’s not the first time,” I said, trying to be nonchalant. Jaime got a real kick out of hitting me and it made me glad that nothing ever came of that flicker of an affection I had for him once. I was willing to be he’d have been abusive or something.

“It’s horrible that they do that to you,” he said, quietly. “I’ve never seen people act so awful.”

I chuckled.

“That’s because you’re sheltered,” I pointed out.

“No, I mean, even at my old school, people were nicer,” he explained. Well, that was just great for Kellin, wasn’t it?

“Well, this isn’t your old school. People are dicks here,” I muttered. “Especially Jaime and Rian.”

“Yeah,” he said, sadly.

—-

The rest of that week went on relatively normally. I wasn’t harassed much because Jaime was suspended because he had punched me at lunch, and Rian was nothing without his trusty sidekick. Jack tried to make plans with me for that weekend, but I came up with another excuse for why I didn’t want to go out. It was extremely lame, but I just didn’t feel up to it. Hopefully things would lighten up, but I just didn’t think they would any time soon.

It was that Saturday that I was drawn from my room by the sound of extra voices downstairs. I crept out of my room to see what was going on, and then heard the front door shut again. I walked downstairs and into the front hall, only to find my parents standing with Kellin.

“What are you doing here?” I asked him, sounding a bit more annoyed than I had intended. I wasn’t actually annoyed, I was just confused.

“Kellin’s parents are going out tonight, so they wanted him to come over here so we could watch after him,” my mom explained.

“Aw, we’re babysitting Kellin,” I cooed, teasingly.

“Hey,” he shot back. I laughed.

“Anyway, just hang out with him, or something?” my dad explained. “We’re watching a movie in the den. Please keep it down.”

I nodded and watched as they headed to the basement floor, leaving Kellin and me in the hallway.

“Well hey,” I said, mocking enthusiasm.

“I’m sorry,” he said, suddenly. I rolled my eyes.

“Why are you apologizing?” I asked him, and he just shrugged. “Come on, let’s go upstairs.”

I allowed him into my room, and just took to my seat at my desk.

“So, how’s it going?” I asked, in a bored tone. I couldn’t have him thinking I was excited that he was apparently hanging out with me… even though I kind of was.

“Oh you know … so glad to be out of the house,” he sighed, almost exasperated, which surprised me a little bit.

“And why is that?” I wanted to know, watching him as he walked around my room, looking at the posters on my walls and then the tower of CD’s in the corner.

“Because, I’m technically grounded,” he admitted.

“No,” I gasped, shocked that innocent little Kellin could possibly get in trouble. “What did you do? Did you not eat all your vegetables?”

He turned back at to me to give me one of his lame little death glares, before going on to explain, “No, I . . um, I got a bad grade on something.”

“And what counts as a bad grade?” I wanted to know. He sighed, looking annoyed; but that was probably directed more at his parents.

“Apparently an eighty percent,” he muttered, through gritted teeth. “And apparently feeling dumb isn’t enough of a punishment. So now she’s taken away my phone for the weekend.”

“That’s stupid,” I said. Kellin’s parents became more and more ridiculous the more he talked about them. I almost wondered what Kellin would be like if they suddenly let the reigns loose.

“Tell me about it,” he said, then changed the subject, “You have a pretty good taste in music, by the way.”

“Oh, yeah,” I shrugged. I wasn’t sure what that exactly meant, since my cd collection pretty much encompassed all genres. “Are you into music?”

“I guess,” he shrugged. “I used to be in the choir at Church- hey, don’t give me that look!”

I laughed at the fact that he noticed my judgment-passing face as he told me about being in choir. I tried to imagine him singing about God or whatever it was they did in church, and for some reason it was a hilarious image in my head.

“Sing for me!” I said, playfully, sitting on the edge of my bed as he just kind of stood in the middle of the room, awkward as hell.

“Um, no,” he said, instantly.

“Aw, come on.”

“Ugh, fine,” he said, quickly caving in. He turned away from me, as if he was too embarrassed to sing while looking at me. I was ready to tease him again, but I soon found that I had absolutely nothing to tease him about. Kellin was a great- no, he was an amazing singer. When I didn’t stop him, he stopped on his own and turned back to me, his face red, “Um, yeah, I’m not very good-“

“Whoa, stop it, you’re awesome,” I said, honestly. He looked surprised.

“Really?”

“Yes really,” I said, as I suddenly had this flow of ideas. “In fact- um, hold on.”

I reached into my desk drawer and quickly got out my writing pad and started scribbling away. Suddenly the words were just coming to me, and it was all because I was imagining Kellin’s voice singing them …or something like that. Either way, hearing him triggered something in me that just had me overwhelmed with inspiration.

“What are you writing?” he wanted to know.

“Nothing,” I muttered. “Don’t look.”

“Um … Okay,” he said, taking a step back. When I finally had the words on paper, I stepped back, looked over them, and when I was satisfied I threw the pad back into my drawer and slammed it shut. “What was that all about?”

“Nothing,” I repeated. “Don’t worry about it. Um- do you like video games?”

“I’m not allowed,” he sighed, in a defeated tone.

“Let’s go then, Mike has the xbox in his room,” I said, exiting my room, suddenly in a great mood.