Badlands

“I hate Pete so much.”

Vic scrunched up his nose, “ew, stop calling Mr. Wentz that.”

“What’d he do this time?” Alex reached over and swiped one of Vic’s fries, earning a whine from the shorter boy.

Tyler sighed, not really wanting to talk about it. He had been fooling around with their school’s guidance counselor, Mr. Wentz for the past month, sneaking around after and during school hours. “He wants to stop.”

The blue haired fiend placed a hand on Tyler’s back, “maybe it’s for the best, Ty.” Alex was the responsible peacemaker of their small trio, always making sure the other two weren’t getting in too much trouble.

“Everything was fine yesterday!” His voice got small, “I just don’t know what I did.”

“Maybe he’s just an ass. Ever think of that?” Vic commented before stuffing his mouth with two french fries.

Alex rolled his brown eyes at Vic, “what happened exactly?”

The blonde shrugged, “he wanted me to come over tonight, but I said I was busy - with Tay’s party and everything - and he just goes off on me.” He sniffed again, leaning his head against Vic’s shoulder, “telling me I’m ungrateful, how I should be thankful that he’s even paying attention to me.”

Vic raised an eyebrow at the red flag waving in front of them and wrapped his arm around his southern friend, “he sucks. Sorry, Ty.” The shortest of the three looked around the cafeteria until his eyes landed on Kellin Quinn, his smoking buddy and guitar extraordinaire. He watched as Kellin stood up from his seat and walked out the doors of the room. Vic did the same, turning to his friends before leaving, “I’ll be back.”

“Stop looking for trouble!” Alex called, worried about his friend who seemed to be trouble-prone.

“Stop worrying, Lexi!”

Alex just sighed and scooted over to Tyler in an attempt at cheering him up. Maybe even talk some sense into him, at least someone would listen.

The juniors and seniors both had a free period after lunch for making up credits so Vic had about an hour to just wander around. He usually used this time for hanging around Kellin, who doesn’t seem to mind the company.

A small smile formed on his face when he got to the courtyard to find Kellin leaning against the brick building, a cigarette hanging from his lips.

“Hey, Quinn, bum me one?”

Like he even had to ask. Vic was one of the few people Kellin was nice to. The black haired boy passed a cigarette from his pack along with a lime green lighter.

“Ooh, this one’s green,” he let out the smoke he was holding. “Nice.” The corners of Kellin’s mouth twitched as he took another drag. “You know, green is one of my favorite colors.”

“Is that so?” Though he asked with an unimpressed tone, Kellin genuinely wanted to know more about Vic’s favorite color. He wanted to know everything about the shorter boy. He was never good at showing his emotions.

Vic nodded and brought the cigarette to his lips before taking in the smoke, “what’s your favorite color?”

“Black.”

The shorter of the two snorted, “of course you would like black, Kell. I shouldn’t have even asked.”

Kellin smiled at the nickname Vic gave him and brought the cigarette back to his lips for a final drag. “You’re coming to Tay’s party, right?”

Vic released the smoke through his nose and looked at his smoke buddy. “Do you want me to come?” He flirted, leaning in closer to Kellin.

The taller of the two could feel his face heat up so he just shrugged and looked up at the sky. It was sunny out and school was coming to an end. He would be graduating soon, but wasn’t planning on going to college, and Vic had one more year left. This meant the end to their smoking sessions and a beginning to their young adult lives.

Vic backed away, loving the reaction he got, and tapped off the ash of his cigarette before turning back to Kellin, “are you performing?”

The blue eyed boy nodded and stepped on the butt before looking back at Vic who was still dragging away.

“Then I’ll be there.”