Under Your Skin

Vic’s parents had ordered seven pizza’s for the lot of us, getting all different kinds.
He had explained that Friday’s were pizza nights, because Jaime and Tony always stayed over on Friday’s.
We had all been playing video games in Mike’s room until dinner, and then Vic took me back to his room.
He had that look on his face, alerting me that we were definitely going to have to talk.
I frowned and made myself comfortable on his bed. “Okay, you’ve managed to put it off for a while now,” Vic started. “Explain,”
I cringed and stared down at my hands. “Or we could—“Kellin, you said that you would tell me,” Vic said and frowned at me.
“Fine, um…it’s kind of a long story though…”
Vic nodded and started stripping his clothes off. “What the hell are you doing?” I asked and stared at him with wide eyes.
“I’m getting comfortable. If this is going to take a while, I at least want to be comfy,”
I rolled my eyes at him and then tried to subtly watch him undress.
Vic had strong arms and a lean, thin body. He had muscle, although not enough to make him look bulky.
He was fit and actually really hot, and oh my god, what am I doing?
I blushed and looked away quickly. I did not like Vic.
“What? Did you finally realize who you’re staring at?” Vic asked cockily and grinned at me.
“Fuck off,” He laughed at that and pulled on a pair of sweatpants. I looked back at him once he had put a shirt on, along with a smirk.
“You think I’m so hot,” he teased and sat down on the bed with me. “Yeah, keep telling yourself that,”
Vic rolled his eyes and then motioned towards me. “Aren't you going to get changed?” he asked, making me blush again.
“Uh, y-yeah,” I slid off the mattress and went to get my clothes out of my bag.
I could feel Vic’s eyes on me as I pulled my shirt over my head and dropped it on top of my stuff.
“Stop looking at me,” I said and pulled a clean shirt over my head. It was kind of loose, but the fabric was really soft, and it didn’t strangle me while I slept.
I shimmied my jeans down and then quickly stepped out of them so that I could pull my shorts on. “You have a nice ass,” Vic said randomly, making me blush.
Why the fuck was I blushing so much?
“How gay of you,” I shot back, earning a flick of his middle finger. “That was actually a compliment, but since you made me tell you, I can be as gay as I want. And I wasn’t lying,” he muttered the last part and glanced up at the ceiling.
“Are you done now?” he asked.
“Mhm, move over,” Vic actually did as I said for once and moved to the right side of the bed. He got under the blankets and then watched me as I did the same.
“Well?” he asked, making me sigh. “Can’t you ask me some normal things first?” I asked, “I mean, I don’t even know you and you want me to confide my biggest secret,”
Vic sighed and nodded. “Fine…um, we’ll start with the basics. How old are you and why did you move here?” he asked.
I smiled a little and met his eyes.
“I’m sixteen and my mom wanted to move closer to my grandmother. She’s turning 88, so she insisted that she had to move closer to take care of her, which is ridiculous, because we only moved like, a half hour from our old place,”
Vic chuckled lightly.
“I’m seventeen,” he said. “And I’ve lived here my entire life,” I smiled at that. “Why were you such a dick to me at first? Like, I ran into you, and apologized for it, but you were still mean to me,” Vic shrugged.
“Keeping up appearances? For your information, I’m not actually an asshole. It’s just easier to manipulate people when they’re afraid of you. Like, I can get away with acting kind of gay at school, and no one will say anything about it because they’re afraid of me,”
I frowned. “Yeah, well it sucks for everyone else. Getting bullied can actually really hurt, you know?” Vic nodded slightly, frowning too. “Why are people afraid of you?” I asked.
“You’re honestly not that intimidating, and after you get passed school you’re actually kinda nice,”
Vic laughed and looked at me. “Who’s asking for big secrets now?” he teased.
“I’m sure it’s not as bad as mine,” I muttered. “You don’t know that. You have no idea,” I frowned, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
“Guess I’ll go first then,” he said quietly and lifted his shirt up to his ribs. I made a face before noticing the inch-long scar just under the left side of his ribcage and reached my hand out. “Uh, sorry,” I muttered and pulled it away.
“What is that?” Vic let his shirt fall and sighed.
“It’s from a knife; um, I got stabbed,” I gasped and met his eyes. “How?”
“…Um, well I’m really protective,” he started, “Especially of people that I care about, and it gets me into trouble sometimes,”
He glanced at me before sighing and continuing. “About a year ago, Mike got into some things with the wrong people. He would stay out all night and skip school, and some nights he wouldn’t even come home.
I covered for him all the time, although it was kind of difficult when he was drunk…or high. And uh, his dealer, Oli, got really mad one night, because Mike couldn’t afford to pay. I guess that he hadn’t in a while, and he was really in trouble, so he called me. I drove to his house and paid Oli the money he owed him, but it wasn’t enough because Mike was still addicted, and he was still using without paying for it.
Oli let us both leave, but like a week later he went after Mike. He had knife with him, and I saw before he could get close enough to him and told Mike to run.
Basically, he stabbed me and ran. I woke up in the hospital a day later because Mike had apparently gotten my dad, and they called an ambulance.
I’m fine, obviously, but I was pissed, and I didn’t want Mike to get hurt; so I went after Oli. I beat the hell out of him, and because I was a minor, I got away with it.
He was the guy Matty mentioned to you at school. The one I supposedly put in the hospital?” I nodded silently.
So Matty and everyone else were wrong. Vic hadn’t beat someone up just because he could. He was protecting his little brother.
“Are you going to say something?” Vic asked quietly. I shook my head and met his eyes.
“Well then, I guess it’s your turn.” ~