Personal Goals
Chapter 16
*Vic’s POV*
I bit the inside of my cheek, careful not to react. I didn’t even look at Kellin.
“I didn’t know his birthday was coming up,” I said, evenly, trying to remain friendly with his mother as I monitored Jess’s feeding. I felt my heart pounding in my chest. This meant that I had been having sex with someone underage. Not only that, but it meant Kellin lied to me about his age. And I find out right after I agree to be in a relationship with him?
I politely found a stopping point in my conversation with Mrs. Quinn and made it a point to let her know I had to leave.
“Kellin, go get his things from downstairs while he has the baby,” his mom said, sweetly. He nodded sheepishly as he shuffled out of the kitchen and downstairs. He knew exactly what he did, and he knew exactly what his mom said. When Kellin came back upstairs with my gym bag and the car seat, I wordlessly loaded Jess into it before scooping up both items and leaving.
I felt my arms shaking as I drove home and it freaked me out. What was going to happen? What if someone found out? I needed to get to a computer.
As soon as I got home, I ran upstairs with Jess and quickly grabbed my laptop and charger before running back down stairs to my car. I strapped her back into the backseat and drove to the nearest place that had free Wi-Fi, which happened to be a McDonalds. I swore to myself I would never set foot in a fast food restaurant, but I needed to find something out as soon as I possibly could. I walked inside with my laptop and my daughter, quickly ordered a fountain drink that I didn’t fill and went to sit down at a table that seemed secluded enough.
I put Jess on the bench right next to me so I could keep an eye on her as I opened my laptop and quickly accessed the internet. I went to the search bar and typed in ‘age of consent in Michigan’, then hit enter.
*Kellin’s POV*
My mom wasn’t friendly when Vic left. She had gone right back to being indifferent and I guess it didn’t matter anyway because I didn’t want to talk to anyone. Vic wouldn’t respond to my texts, hell, he would even look at me. I felt awful because I knew Vic was mad at me. I had lied to him. You’re not supposed to lie to your boyfriend, dumbass.
I went to bed early that night.
The next morning I sort of just rolled out of bed, not really wanting to do anything. I forced myself to get ready for school so that I could go to pick up Justin. When I pulled up in front of his house, though, I was presented with even more of a reason that I should have stayed in bed. Matty was with him.
“Hey, I know this is weird, but he’s wondering if he can get a ride to school,” Justin said, in a low voice before either of them got in the car.
“Fuck no,” I spat. Why would he even ask that? “He’s not fucking getting in my car. There’s no room for him anyway.”
“That never stopped you from driving him before,” He pointed out, referencing the times when we were all friends and would give Matty rides to school by squeezing together in the passenger side and hoping we wouldn’t run into any cops.
“Yeah, well that was different,” I mumbled.
“Oh come one, Kells, don’t be an ass,” Matty said, making his way over to the car. I was about to tell him off but then he flashed me this look when Justin wasn’t paying attention. It was the same look he’d given me a couple days earlier. It freaked me out a little so I just grumbled and told them to get in.
I pulled out of our neighborhood and drove to school. I was going a little fast because I wanted to get off the road as soon as possible. However, it was probably too fast, considering my position, and out of what seemed like nowhere, there were blue and red lights flashing behind me.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I muttered, pulling over and slowing to a stop. I gritted my teeth and pulled out my wallet.
“Shit, man,” Justin said. Matty didn’t say anything. I hated him so fucking much.
I rolled down the window as the officer came into view.
“We’re going a little fast there, don’t you think?” he said, cocky as fuck. “And you’ve got one . . . two . . . three people in this car? Tell me, son, how many seats does this car have?”
“Two,” I said between gritted teeth.
“So you can count . . . Not only that but neither of your passengers is wearing seatbelts,” he observed. I moaned. “Let me see license and registration.”
I handed the documents to him and sat back in my seat as I waited for the verdict. I sat in an incredibly thick silence. I knew Justin probably felt bad- he at least had a conscience. Matty on the other hand, he probably loved it.
A few minutes later the officer came back and handed me back my license and the registration paper, along with a ticket listing my fines. I didn’t even want to look at it.
“Speeding more than ten miles over the limit, two counts of passengers without restraints, and one for careless driving,” he explained. “Now, I suggest you arrange for someone with a proper seating arrangement in the vehicle come and pick these two up, or they can walk.”
“Yes sir,” I mumbled. Without another word he turned and went back to his care before driving away.
“Dude, this is over five hundred dollars in fines,” Justin said, reading the ticket. I snatched it away from him.
“Get the fuck out of my car,” I barked. “Both of you – get out!”
“Kellin I-“ Justin started to say.
“I said get the fuck out.”
He closed his mouth and stepped out of the car, bringing Matty with him. He made a point to slam the door shut which pissed me off even more. I didn’t drive to school- I drove home instead. I parked in the fucking driveway and stormed inside, slamming the ticket down on the island counter in the kitchen.
Why the fuck was everything bad starting to happen? Why did my mom have to go and tell Vic my secret and make him mad at me? Why did Matty have to be a prick? On top of that, all those stupid fucking fines meant point on my license, which meant I could very well get it taken away on my next offense.
Everything fucking sucked.
---
I spent the rest of my day trying to distract myself from everything I hated, but it was a little hard to do. I tried sleeping, I tried eating, hell I even tried to draw. I wasn’t any good at the last one, but it passed the time. Before I realized it, it was four o’clock, and the doorbell was ringing.
I guess I was a little shocked. I hadn’t left the door unlocked for Vic because I didn’t expect him to even come. I sighed loudly and made my way downstairs to answer the door.
Sure enough, Vic was standing there, gym bag ready.
“Don’t fucking yell at me, I’m not in the mood,” I told him, as soon as he was inside. He just looked at me and shook his head before making his way downstairs. I rolled my eyes and followed him.
“Well, sure,” he said, once we were down there. “You’re not in the mood, so I won’t express my feelings about anything, okay? That sounds totally fair right?”
I frowned, not appreciating his sarcasm.
“I’m sorry, I’ve just had a really shitty day!” I countered. He practically threw his gym bag to the ground after I spoke.
“And you think I haven’t? God dammit Kellin, do you know how fucking stupid you are?” he shouted. I bit my lip, but didn’t say anything in response. It was probably true anyway. “You’re lucky. I looked it up and the age of consent in Michigan is sixteen, so everything’s perfectly legal.”
“So why are you mad?” I wanted to know.
“Because you lied to me! Because- because if Jenna found out she could twist shit and use it against me in court to prove that I’m not responsible,” he shouted, a new edge of desperation in his voice. I could see the tears forming in the corners of his eyes. “Do you know what that means?”
“No,” I mumbled, trying to hold back my own tears.
“It means that she could win full custody and I would never get to see Jess again,” he said, his voice faltering. If I wasn’t crying before, I was crying now.
“I didn’t know that! How the fuck was I supposed to know that!” I shouted, then turned the argument back onto him. “I didn’t even fucking know you had a kid for most of the time I’ve known you.”
That seemed to quiet him a bit. He dried the few tears that had escaped on the hem of his shirt.
“Whatever, Kellin,” he sighed.
“I’m sorry, okay?”
“What do we even do now?”
“Keep things on the down-low like we have been,” I croaked, furiously trying to wipe away my own tears. “Not that you’d want to though. You don’t even want me anymore.”
“I never said that,” he snapped.
“You were thinking it. You’re mad at me, and now my best friend is mad at me because I made him walk to school-“
“Why did you make your best friend walk to school?” he asked, sounding confused.
“Because I got pulled over and it was his fault,” I mumbled darkly.
“And how was it his fault that you got pulled over. What did you get booked for?”
“He guilt-tripped me into driving Matty to school . . . they’re still friends,” I explained.
“Does your car even fit three people?” he wondered. “That flashy little sports car right?”
“Which is one of the reasons I got pulled over,” I sighed. “So he got me for careless driving, two passengers without seatbelts, and speeding.”
“Damn,” He said.
“The fine was over five hundred,” I shrugged.
“That’s steep,” he said. I looked to the ground and shrugged again.
“It’s not the fine I’m worried about-“
“Of course not, you probably have that in your pocket right now, huh?” he said, the agitation growing in his voice again. I scowled.
“Can you not? Just because my family has money doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to be upset!” I shouted.
“I didn’t say that,” he said, firmly. “Continue.”
“Whatever, I’m just upset because Justin’s mad at me and Matty’s probably pleased as fuck and who knows what he’s going to do next!” I said, a little frantically.
“You think he got you pulled over on purpose?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.
“No- that was probably just icing on the cake. He didn’t need a ride to school- he’s just trying to turn Justin against me. So that I have no one to fall back on when he- when he-“ I felt my stomach churning with anxiety as I remembered what he said to me that day. We’ll have to fix that.
“Kells, calm down, you’re okay,” he said, suddenly wrapping his arms around me. He must have noticed that I was getting upset all over again. I needed his touch, so I clung to him, crying like the kid I felt like into his shoulder.
“I’m sorry I made you mad,” I sobbed.
“I’m not mad,” he said, softly. “I mean, I’m a little irritated, but I’m not mad.”
“You called me stupid,” I pointed out. I sounded a hell of a lot more immature than usual, but I didn’t care.
“Well . . . I’m sorry, but you’re still an idiot,” he chuckled as I frowned into his shoulder. “But you’re my idiot, so it’s okay.”
I bit the inside of my cheek, careful not to react. I didn’t even look at Kellin.
“I didn’t know his birthday was coming up,” I said, evenly, trying to remain friendly with his mother as I monitored Jess’s feeding. I felt my heart pounding in my chest. This meant that I had been having sex with someone underage. Not only that, but it meant Kellin lied to me about his age. And I find out right after I agree to be in a relationship with him?
I politely found a stopping point in my conversation with Mrs. Quinn and made it a point to let her know I had to leave.
“Kellin, go get his things from downstairs while he has the baby,” his mom said, sweetly. He nodded sheepishly as he shuffled out of the kitchen and downstairs. He knew exactly what he did, and he knew exactly what his mom said. When Kellin came back upstairs with my gym bag and the car seat, I wordlessly loaded Jess into it before scooping up both items and leaving.
I felt my arms shaking as I drove home and it freaked me out. What was going to happen? What if someone found out? I needed to get to a computer.
As soon as I got home, I ran upstairs with Jess and quickly grabbed my laptop and charger before running back down stairs to my car. I strapped her back into the backseat and drove to the nearest place that had free Wi-Fi, which happened to be a McDonalds. I swore to myself I would never set foot in a fast food restaurant, but I needed to find something out as soon as I possibly could. I walked inside with my laptop and my daughter, quickly ordered a fountain drink that I didn’t fill and went to sit down at a table that seemed secluded enough.
I put Jess on the bench right next to me so I could keep an eye on her as I opened my laptop and quickly accessed the internet. I went to the search bar and typed in ‘age of consent in Michigan’, then hit enter.
*Kellin’s POV*
My mom wasn’t friendly when Vic left. She had gone right back to being indifferent and I guess it didn’t matter anyway because I didn’t want to talk to anyone. Vic wouldn’t respond to my texts, hell, he would even look at me. I felt awful because I knew Vic was mad at me. I had lied to him. You’re not supposed to lie to your boyfriend, dumbass.
I went to bed early that night.
The next morning I sort of just rolled out of bed, not really wanting to do anything. I forced myself to get ready for school so that I could go to pick up Justin. When I pulled up in front of his house, though, I was presented with even more of a reason that I should have stayed in bed. Matty was with him.
“Hey, I know this is weird, but he’s wondering if he can get a ride to school,” Justin said, in a low voice before either of them got in the car.
“Fuck no,” I spat. Why would he even ask that? “He’s not fucking getting in my car. There’s no room for him anyway.”
“That never stopped you from driving him before,” He pointed out, referencing the times when we were all friends and would give Matty rides to school by squeezing together in the passenger side and hoping we wouldn’t run into any cops.
“Yeah, well that was different,” I mumbled.
“Oh come one, Kells, don’t be an ass,” Matty said, making his way over to the car. I was about to tell him off but then he flashed me this look when Justin wasn’t paying attention. It was the same look he’d given me a couple days earlier. It freaked me out a little so I just grumbled and told them to get in.
I pulled out of our neighborhood and drove to school. I was going a little fast because I wanted to get off the road as soon as possible. However, it was probably too fast, considering my position, and out of what seemed like nowhere, there were blue and red lights flashing behind me.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I muttered, pulling over and slowing to a stop. I gritted my teeth and pulled out my wallet.
“Shit, man,” Justin said. Matty didn’t say anything. I hated him so fucking much.
I rolled down the window as the officer came into view.
“We’re going a little fast there, don’t you think?” he said, cocky as fuck. “And you’ve got one . . . two . . . three people in this car? Tell me, son, how many seats does this car have?”
“Two,” I said between gritted teeth.
“So you can count . . . Not only that but neither of your passengers is wearing seatbelts,” he observed. I moaned. “Let me see license and registration.”
I handed the documents to him and sat back in my seat as I waited for the verdict. I sat in an incredibly thick silence. I knew Justin probably felt bad- he at least had a conscience. Matty on the other hand, he probably loved it.
A few minutes later the officer came back and handed me back my license and the registration paper, along with a ticket listing my fines. I didn’t even want to look at it.
“Speeding more than ten miles over the limit, two counts of passengers without restraints, and one for careless driving,” he explained. “Now, I suggest you arrange for someone with a proper seating arrangement in the vehicle come and pick these two up, or they can walk.”
“Yes sir,” I mumbled. Without another word he turned and went back to his care before driving away.
“Dude, this is over five hundred dollars in fines,” Justin said, reading the ticket. I snatched it away from him.
“Get the fuck out of my car,” I barked. “Both of you – get out!”
“Kellin I-“ Justin started to say.
“I said get the fuck out.”
He closed his mouth and stepped out of the car, bringing Matty with him. He made a point to slam the door shut which pissed me off even more. I didn’t drive to school- I drove home instead. I parked in the fucking driveway and stormed inside, slamming the ticket down on the island counter in the kitchen.
Why the fuck was everything bad starting to happen? Why did my mom have to go and tell Vic my secret and make him mad at me? Why did Matty have to be a prick? On top of that, all those stupid fucking fines meant point on my license, which meant I could very well get it taken away on my next offense.
Everything fucking sucked.
---
I spent the rest of my day trying to distract myself from everything I hated, but it was a little hard to do. I tried sleeping, I tried eating, hell I even tried to draw. I wasn’t any good at the last one, but it passed the time. Before I realized it, it was four o’clock, and the doorbell was ringing.
I guess I was a little shocked. I hadn’t left the door unlocked for Vic because I didn’t expect him to even come. I sighed loudly and made my way downstairs to answer the door.
Sure enough, Vic was standing there, gym bag ready.
“Don’t fucking yell at me, I’m not in the mood,” I told him, as soon as he was inside. He just looked at me and shook his head before making his way downstairs. I rolled my eyes and followed him.
“Well, sure,” he said, once we were down there. “You’re not in the mood, so I won’t express my feelings about anything, okay? That sounds totally fair right?”
I frowned, not appreciating his sarcasm.
“I’m sorry, I’ve just had a really shitty day!” I countered. He practically threw his gym bag to the ground after I spoke.
“And you think I haven’t? God dammit Kellin, do you know how fucking stupid you are?” he shouted. I bit my lip, but didn’t say anything in response. It was probably true anyway. “You’re lucky. I looked it up and the age of consent in Michigan is sixteen, so everything’s perfectly legal.”
“So why are you mad?” I wanted to know.
“Because you lied to me! Because- because if Jenna found out she could twist shit and use it against me in court to prove that I’m not responsible,” he shouted, a new edge of desperation in his voice. I could see the tears forming in the corners of his eyes. “Do you know what that means?”
“No,” I mumbled, trying to hold back my own tears.
“It means that she could win full custody and I would never get to see Jess again,” he said, his voice faltering. If I wasn’t crying before, I was crying now.
“I didn’t know that! How the fuck was I supposed to know that!” I shouted, then turned the argument back onto him. “I didn’t even fucking know you had a kid for most of the time I’ve known you.”
That seemed to quiet him a bit. He dried the few tears that had escaped on the hem of his shirt.
“Whatever, Kellin,” he sighed.
“I’m sorry, okay?”
“What do we even do now?”
“Keep things on the down-low like we have been,” I croaked, furiously trying to wipe away my own tears. “Not that you’d want to though. You don’t even want me anymore.”
“I never said that,” he snapped.
“You were thinking it. You’re mad at me, and now my best friend is mad at me because I made him walk to school-“
“Why did you make your best friend walk to school?” he asked, sounding confused.
“Because I got pulled over and it was his fault,” I mumbled darkly.
“And how was it his fault that you got pulled over. What did you get booked for?”
“He guilt-tripped me into driving Matty to school . . . they’re still friends,” I explained.
“Does your car even fit three people?” he wondered. “That flashy little sports car right?”
“Which is one of the reasons I got pulled over,” I sighed. “So he got me for careless driving, two passengers without seatbelts, and speeding.”
“Damn,” He said.
“The fine was over five hundred,” I shrugged.
“That’s steep,” he said. I looked to the ground and shrugged again.
“It’s not the fine I’m worried about-“
“Of course not, you probably have that in your pocket right now, huh?” he said, the agitation growing in his voice again. I scowled.
“Can you not? Just because my family has money doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to be upset!” I shouted.
“I didn’t say that,” he said, firmly. “Continue.”
“Whatever, I’m just upset because Justin’s mad at me and Matty’s probably pleased as fuck and who knows what he’s going to do next!” I said, a little frantically.
“You think he got you pulled over on purpose?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.
“No- that was probably just icing on the cake. He didn’t need a ride to school- he’s just trying to turn Justin against me. So that I have no one to fall back on when he- when he-“ I felt my stomach churning with anxiety as I remembered what he said to me that day. We’ll have to fix that.
“Kells, calm down, you’re okay,” he said, suddenly wrapping his arms around me. He must have noticed that I was getting upset all over again. I needed his touch, so I clung to him, crying like the kid I felt like into his shoulder.
“I’m sorry I made you mad,” I sobbed.
“I’m not mad,” he said, softly. “I mean, I’m a little irritated, but I’m not mad.”
“You called me stupid,” I pointed out. I sounded a hell of a lot more immature than usual, but I didn’t care.
“Well . . . I’m sorry, but you’re still an idiot,” he chuckled as I frowned into his shoulder. “But you’re my idiot, so it’s okay.”