Collide With This Guy

Kellin actually did come over after school, but I still wasn’t allowed to just drive him home. I thought it was incredibly stupid, since we were essentially going to the same exact place. I pulled into my driveway with Mike and about the same time the Quinns turned into theirs. I got out of the car and waited for Kellin as he walked over from his mom after she gave him a goodbye hug. I rolled my eyes.
“Finally,” I muttered, once he was in earshot.
“It’s not my fault,” he protested weakly as he followed me inside.
“Hey, Kellin,” Mike said cheerfully as we joined him inside. Kellin smiled and offered a shy hello, which made me feel oddly triumphant. It was like confirmation that I was better friends with Kellin than Mike was, but I wasn’t sure why it mattered.
“Come on,” I said to Kellin, as we headed upstairs to my room. I slung my backpack onto the floor and shuffled through a pile of papers on my desk to find the notes I had written, plus the lyrics to the song. I handed the papers to him, and he scanned over them, squinting as he tried to decipher my handwriting.
“How does it go?” he asked, as I finally let myself exhale the air I was holding in. I was so nervous to show Kellin the song, even though it was obviously not about him. My songs were personal, and I didn’t typically let other people see them or hear them. He sat on the edge of my bed as I picked up my guitar and sat next to him.
I sang the first verse for him as he studied the lyrics. He nodded as I did so, showing that he understood. When I finished the first verse he looked up at me, confused.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing, it’s just . . . why do you want me to sing this? You have a great voice,” he said. I bit my lip, not entirely sure how to answer his question.
“I just . . .I think that, um, your vocals would work better for the way I want the song to sound,” I explained, mentally patting myself on the back. That didn’t sound too bad at all. There was a glint of something in his eye as he studied me, but then he quickly turned back to the paper in his hands before I could read too much into it.
“I’ll try,” he said, in a soft voice. We went over the first verse again and he sang the lyrics. I couldn’t hide the smile that was quickly spreading across my face as I watched him sing.
“So perfect,” I found myself whispering.
“What’s perfect?” he asked, causing my heart to practically jump out of my chest.
“Um, the song. It’s perfect- exactly how I imagined it going,” I explained. He smiled back at me, his big blue eyes shining, and I swear I could have just kissed him then and there. I took a deep breath, trying to shake those kinds of thoughts from my head as I stood up and walked across my room to my desk chair. I sat there and played while Kellin stayed seated on my bed.
“Okay, let’s try the rest,” I suggested. He nodded and that was exactly what we did. We went through it again and again, and luckily Kellin was a fast learner, so soon enough he had the entire song down. It was just so great.
After a while, the door to my room swung open and Mike invited himself in. I stopped playing the guitar and Kellin stopped singing.
“What do you want?” I said, grumpily. We had been right in the middle of a really good run through. He ignored me, his attention going right to Kellin.
“Dude, was that you singing?” he asked him. I noticed Kellin’s cheeks go an adorable shade of pink as he nodded. “That’s fucking awesome.”
He closed the door behind him and seated himself on the floor.
“What the fuck are you doing,” I spat at Mike, resenting his presence because it was cutting into my alone time with Kellin.
“I want to hear the song,” he whined.
“Why, when I was singing the same song last night you told me to shut up,” I protested. Double standards much?
“Well, that was you,” he teased. I rolled my eyes and looked to Kellin to see if he was okay with doing the song. He gave me a shrug and I sighed. I started to play the song for an all too satisfied looking Mike. He actually sat through the entire song, though I noticed he took his phone out to text someone as we went on.
“So what do you think?” I asked him.
“It’s actually really good,” he said, which made me happy.
“I wrote it,” I told him, feeling proud.
“Nice,” he said, preoccupied with his phone. He replied to a message quickly then stood up. “You guys have to come play that song for my friend, Tony. Like, tonight, okay?”
“What, why tonight?” I asked, feeling uncomfortable just waltzing into someone’s house that I didn’t know. I had heard of Tony before. I knew that he didn’t go to our school, but that Mike knew him from . . . actually I had no idea how Mike knew him, but that was beside the point.
“I was gonna go over anyway,” he said, “He’s having another party.”
I didn’t really like the idea of going to a party considering what had happened last time. But then again, the last party wasn’t even a big one, it was like a smaller get together. I knew Mike liked to sneak out to go to Tony’s parties, so there must have been something good about them.
“Why does he need to hear the song?” I wanted to know.
“Because, he’s fucking loaded. He has this studio in his basement, and I bet he could record that for you,” he explained, and suddenly going to this Tony guy’s house sounded a hundred times more appealing.
Then I remembered that there was no way in hell Kellin would be able to go.
“My mom would kill me if I went,” Kellin said, confirming my suspicions.
“Just tell her you’re spending the night here,” Mike shrugged.
“I can’t lie to her,” Kellin shrieked, then added in a whisper, “She knows things.”
“It’s not a lie- you will spend the night here . . . just not the first part of the night, but she really doesn’t have to know that,” Mike said. Kellin looked super uncomfortable, but before we could discuss it further, I heard my mom calling for us to go downstairs. Kellin, Mike, and I filed out of my room and down to the front hallway, where I was disappointed to see Mrs. Quinn standing already. Kellin looked super nervous, as if he thought she heard that we wanted to sneak him out.
I thought she was here to take Kellin home already, but it actually turned out to be quite the opposite.
“Oh, hi there honey” she said to Kellin, which probably embarrassed the hell out of him. She didn’t seem to care though, so she just kept talking, “I was just so glad to see that you’re having fun making friends with the Fuentes’ boys that I thought you could spend the night here. Your father wants to go out again, and we might not be back until late so-“
“Yes,” Kellin said quickly, earning a curious look from his mother. “I mean, yeah, that sounds great.”
She smiled warmly and said something about Kellin coming home for a few minutes so that he could get some overnight things together. Before long, he was back in my room, setting down an armful of pillows and blankets, along with a duffel bag with his initials on it.
“So, I guess you’re gonna go to the party with us?” I asked him, unable to hide the smirk on my face as I tried to imagine innocent little Kellin with a red solo cup in his hand. I just couldn’t picture it, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t interested in seeing it.
“Yeah,” he said, grinning. Then practically whispered, “I’ve never been to a party before.”
“Have you ever been to anything fun?” I teased. He frowned, unimpressed with my joke. I just laughed and turned back to my closet, where I had been previously. I was trying to find something better to wear, and I ended up settling for a red flannel and the black skinny jeans I was already wearing. I threw the flannel on over the t-shirt I was already wearing and started working at rolling the sleeves up when I turned back to Kellin.
“Are you wearing that?” I asked him, scanning him up and down. He was wearing a light blue, short-sleeved, button-down shirt that was buttoned all the way up to the collar, pair with yet another hideous bowtie. I mean, I guess it looked cute on him, but not for going to a party.
He nodded, sadly. “I don’t have anything better.”
“Here,” I said, moving towards him and taking hold of his collar. He tensed a little, not entirely sure what I was doing to him. All I did was undo the bowtie and toss it aside, but suddenly I felt my heart beating a little faster. I mean, I was standing really close to him, and I could feel his breath on my fingers as I undid the bowtie. I felt like I was undressing him, almost. I bit my lip and tried not to make this less innocent than it was.
I unbuttoned the first few buttons on his shirt ad adjusted the collar a bit before stepping back and looking away.
“Um, thanks,” he mumbled. I glanced back at him, but he looked away immediately. I smiled.
“Looks better already,” I finally said, before attempting to brush aside the awkwardness and say that we were going to go find Mike and see when he wanted to leave.