Hold My Heart

The next day, I had to take Billie's car to the hospital to pick him up. He didn't have to go to rehab, which was good, but surprising. I didn't know the extent of his drinking past, but from what I had witnessed in the past few weeks, he drank a lot. When we left the hospital, I climbed into the driver's seat and Billie sat in the passenger seat, which he didn't seem to happy about. He didn't like anyone else driving his car. But right now he had a broken arm, so he couldn't really argue.

"Are you alright?" I asked as we drove down the highway. Billie sighed.

"Yeah, I guess. I'm going to try to stop drinking as much, though. This isn't my first broken bone after a party, and I don't really want any more," he replied. I raised my eyebrows in shock. This was probably the most adult decision that he'd made since I moved in with him.

"That's really great," I said, glancing at him briefly, but still focusing on the road. He shrugged.

"Yeah," was his only reply.

Whenever we got home, I went immediately up to my room where I stayed most of the day. I couldn't stop thinking about last night with Vic. I wanted so badly to be able to hold him and kiss him, but I knew that that would never happen. Vic said that he didn't want to come out yet, and I had to respect that, but now it was a whole lot harder knowing that he liked me back.

School on Monday was completely different than before. Before, I always kept second guessing if Vic even wanted to be friends with me - especially on Friday - and that I know that he wants to be even more than that, I can't stop smiling. That mood was short-lived, though, because as I was walking to first period, I felt two forceful hands on my back, and I fell forwards, dropping all my books in the process. I heard choruses of laughter all around me and my face flushed red. I was confused for a moment, because they knew that I was friends with Vic, so no one had tried anything with me before. I realized that they didn't know about what happened this weekend, and as far as they're concerned, Vic still hates me.

"Watch where you're going, faggot," I heard one of the boys behind me say as I picked my books up from the floor. I rolled my eyes and stood up. I turned around to face the culprit, Jeremy. He was popular, but he and Vic hated each other. I could see why now.

"Maybe you should watch where you're going, moron," I shot back quietly. His amused face quickly turned angry. He waved his hand, and all of his idiotic friends quickly came to his side. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground, and five other guys were beating the living shit out of me. I was still bruised from my run in with that gang behind the movie theater the other night, so this was really painful. I begged for them to stop, but they wouldn't listen. All of a sudden, I felt a sharp pain in my right foot, and I cried out. The bell rang, signaling that first period was about to begin, and then everyone cleared out of the hallway so they wouldn't get caught. I didn't move for several minutes, partially because I didn't want to go to class, and partially because I didn't know if I could stand. My foot was throbbing with pain, and I could tell that it was already starting to swell.

"Kellin?"

I turned my head at the sound of my name, and saw Vic standing there in shock. He ran over to me and knelt down.

"What happened?" he asked.

"What happened is that Jeremy and his friends are dicks. My ankle feels like it's broken or something, and I just want to go home," I replied coldly. I wasn't trying to be cold towards Vic, I was just incredibly pissed off. He frowned.

"Here, I'll help you up," he said, standing and extending his hand. I grabbed it firmly with one hand, and used the other hand to push myself off the ground. Vic leaned over and wrapped his free arm around my waist to pull me up, and we walked out of school together.

Vic helped me into the passenger seat of his car before getting into the driver's side and speeding away. Neither one of us cared that we were skipping school. We hadn't gone to first period or homeroom, so no one would know that we had been there that morning, and we could just say we were sick. I bit my lip out of habit as I tried to concentrate on anything but the pain in my foot.

"Shit, this hurts," I groaned.

"Do you want me to take you to the hospital?" I asked. I shook my head. I didn't want to cause a huge commotion, plus it would probably upset Billie. He doesn't need anything upsetting him right now while he tries to stop drinking.

"Where do you want me to take you?" he asked.

"I don't know. Home, I guess," I replied. Billie was at work, so he wouldn't know that I was home.

"Do you want me to stay with you?" he asked. I didn't even have to think about it.

"Yes," I replied without hesitation. I didn't want to sound too eager to hang out with him so I added, "It would make it easier to get around with someone helping for today."

We made the short drive to my house. When Vic parked the car, I opened the door and started to get out. The second I put pressure on my foot, I almost dropped to the ground. I would have probably injured myself more if Vic hadn't been there to catch me.

"Thanks," I said, embarrassed that he had to help me do something as simple as walk.

"It's no problem," he replied. When we got to the door, I got the key out of my backpack. Vic opened it and helped me inside. He took me over to the couch.

"Do you need some ice for your foot or something?" he asked. I nodded. Vic went over to the freezer in the kitchen and got a few pieces of ice, wrapped them up in a paper towel, and brought them over to me.

"Thanks," I muttered as I pressed the frozen cubes to my swollen foot. We sat there in awkward silence for a few minutes before I turned on the TV to some random cartoons. We didn't talk much for most of the morning, but when it got to be around eleven o'clock, but of us started getting hungry.

"Do you want some lunch?" I asked.

"Yeah, sure," he replied. I started to get up, but he stopped me. "I'll make it. You just wait here."

He came back a few minutes later with sandwiches and a bag of chips. We started eating and continued watching TV. I turned to him.

"I feel really bad that I'm not doing anything for you. I mean, you've helped me out twice now, and it seems like I can never return the favor."

He smiled and said, "Kellin, you don't have to return the favor. I'm doing this because I want to. I'd do anything for you."

Wow. Anything? I couldn't help but feel special after he said that. I've had friends before, but none of them were ever willing to do so much as help me out with homework.

"You're a really good friend, Vic," I said, smiling. He flashed me a quick smile before turning back to the television. We both finished our lunches quickly.

"You want to do something else?" he asked. I shrugged.

"Sure. Like what?" I replied.

"Do you think your uncle would mind if I played his guitar?" he asked. I knew that Billie wasn't too fond of people handling his guitar, but he wasn't here, so I didn't think it would hurt.

"No, go ahead. Just be careful with it," I replied. He shot off of the couch and went towards Billie's room. He brought it back and plopped down next to me on the couch again.

"Okay, so this is a song that I wrote recently. Don't laugh at me if it sucks," he told me.

"Alright, I won't," I promised, and he begun to play

"Like a rush shot through you, everyone is watching you . . . "

I watched in amazement as he played the song. His face was so intense the entire time, it was mesmerizing. I also hadn't heard him sing until now, and holy shit, he was good. As he finished the song, I couldn't help but smile. He looked up.

"So what did you think? Was it awful?" he asked. I could tell that he was expecting bad news, but that's far from what he got.

"It was amazing! You seriously need to get that recorded, like, now," I praised. He blushed.

"Thanks," he said. The front door suddenly swung open, and my uncle Billie walked in. He looked surprised to see us in here, which I guess made sense, since it was about noon on a school day.

"Kellin, what are you doing home?" he asked.

"Oh, I hurt my foot at school, so they sent me home. But I'm fine," I lied. Well, it wasn't a total lie. I did hurt my foot at school. But that was about the only part of that statement that was true.

"Who's your friend?" he asked. I couldn't tell if he was angry about the fact that Vic was holding his guitar or not. His guitar was like his baby, and if Vic were to damage it, Billie would've been pissed.

"This is Vic. We have math together," I replied. Billie nodded.

"Alright. Well, Vic, it's nice to meet you, and I'd appreciate if you put that guitar back where you found it," he said calmly before walking into the kitchen. Vic did as he was told, and when he came back into the living room, he grabbed his car keys off of the coffee table in front of us.

"I should probably be going. Let me know if you need anything," he said. I nodded.

"Okay, I will. Thank you for coming over," I replied. He smiled.

"Yeah, that's what best friends are for, right? See you later," he said. Yeah, best friends. That's all we were right now, despite the fact that both of us had huge crushes on each other.