“Why did it take so long to just let it go?”

---

“Earth to Kellin. Come in Kellin.” I snapped out of my daze when I notice the fingers snapping in my face.

“Huh? Oh, sorry.”

Sav gave me a displeased look. “You doing okay, Quinn?” she asked me.

“Yeah, never better.” I knew she could tell that I was lying through my teeth but for once she didn’t push the subject.

“Bullshit.”

No, instead Lynn did.

“Spill the beans or I’ll force the truth out of you.”

“There’s nothing to spill,” I defended. “Honestly. If there was then I would’ve told you already.” She looked at me quizzically. She knew I had her there.

“Fine, but I know you’re lying,” she said. I rolled my eyes but smiled anyway. I couldn’t help it, she was trying to put me in a good mood and it kinda worked.

“Anyway, I was thinking of cutting my hair,” Sav said.

“Why would you do that, sweetie?” Tyler asked in his southern accent. “It looks so good long.”

He was right. Savannah had beautiful long, red hair that went down to the middle of her back. She would say that she liked to have her hair played with.

“Yeah but I think it’s time for a change.”

“Where’s that coming from?” I asked.

“You know, life.”

I shrugged and ate a fry. This was typical lunchtime conversation. The girls would bring up some random thing that Tyler and Trent could add on to then they would switch to my personal life and how Vic was treating me. I would change the topic to something else because talking about the little demon would be too much. Then the bell would ring and we would go our separate ways.

But for some reason reality wanted to switch things up.

“Yo, Quinn!” The entire cafeteria went silent. We all looked up to see none other than Vic Fuentes standing on one of the tables.

I gulped.

“Quinn, you and me, outside in ten. Come alone.” My friends looked at me worriedly. “And if anyone – and I mean anyone – follows us out there they’ll get it worse than he will.” He was addressing the rest of the student body. No one said anything in response.

“Good.” He got off the table and walked past ours. He did the eye-pointing thing they do in movies and walked out the cafeteria with his crew.

“What the shit?” Tori blurted out.

“Yeah, what the hell did you do, Kells?” Lynn asked. I shrugged slowly. I didn’t have the slightest clue. Could it be because of that outburst this morning? No, surely he wouldn’t punish me for something that happened hours ago.

Yes he would.

I stood up and grabbed my tray of half-eaten lunch.

“Where are you going?” Trent asked.

“You heard him, I have ten minutes. Less now.”

“You can’t seriously think about going out there alone,” Kortney said.

“I don’t wanna get you guys in trouble,” I answered. “Besides, he said I should come alone.”

“Yeah so he can kill you without witnesses.”

“Relax Gunn, I’ll be okay,” I assured her. Truth is I didn’t know what I had in store for me but I wasn’t gonna back down from Vic. If I did then I’d be seen as the school punk and I’d only been a student for less than a month. I wasn’t big on having a reputation but I wasn’t gonna squander it so quickly.

“Now if you’ll excuse me,” I said, “I have a tiny Mexican to face.”

I threw my trash away and headed out the cafeteria doors. I could feel the whole room’s eyes on me. No one said an audible word but I could hear the whispers under the sound of my shoes against the floor.

The silence followed me as I walked down the halls. Half of the student body was in the cafeteria while the other half was in class. No one could help me even if I wanted them to.

I opened the doors of the school that led to the parking lot out back and went down the steps. Vic didn’t specify where he wanted to meet but I figured this would make the most sense. Now if only I knew where in the parking lot he would be.

“Quinn!”

I turned around at the sound of my name being called. I didn’t know where it was coming from but I could tell it was among the cars further back in the lot. I walked back there with my eyes peeled. I didn’t want to be taken by surprise.

BEEP BEEP!

I almost fell on my butt. Turns out I was taken by surprise. By a car horn. From a car that was right behind me.

I turned around and saw Vic’s displeased face staring at me. He motioned for me to enter the car.

“Why the hell did you do that?” I asked as soon as I was seated in the passenger seat.

“What, I made myself easier to find. You should be thanking me.”

I rolled my eyes at his comment. “So what’s the plan? Are you gonna beat me up in this car? Doesn’t seem like you have enough space to do it.”

“Will you relax?” he said tiredly. “I don’t wanna beat you up.”

I was taken aback. “You don’t? Then why did you make that announcement? Why did you say you didn’t want anyone to follow us out here?”

“I just wanted to talk to you alone. If people followed us out here then they’d be observing our every move and I don’t need that. Plus I doubt you’d want to talk with a crowd around us.”

He may have had a point.

“What makes you think I wanna talk to you anyway?” I asked. “Last time I checked we don’t exactly have that kind of relationship.”

“No, but we are partners on a project and I can’t do that project alone just because my partner is going through some sort of crisis that he doesn’t wanna talk about so it eats him alive.”

I crossed my arms over my chest.

“Besides,” he continued, “we’re not leaving this car until you talk so I suggest you start saying something if you don’t wanna be stuck here with me.”

I groaned. “Fine! What do you wanna know?”

“What was with the mood this morning?”

“You were rude, simple as that,” I answered quickly.

“Okay, fine, I apologize. Now tell me the truth.”

I raised an eyebrow. “That was the truth.”

“You suck at lying,” he said matter-of-factly. “I barely know you and I can see that. Tell me why you were really upset.”

I sighed. I knew I was a bad liar but I never would have guessed that Vic saw it. I guess I had to be honest.

Or maybe just tell him what he needed to know.

“There’s some stuff going on at home that I’d rather not talk about,” I said.

“Then don’t talk about them,” he said simply. “Let’s get to know each other.”

I almost laughed. Almost.

“Seriously?” I asked.

He nodded. “Seriously. I mean, why not? We still have about half an hour before our next class.”

He had me there. We had too much time for anyone to think that we were in a fight. I didn’t need the questions.

I sighed. “Fine, I’ll talk.”

“Awesome,” he said somewhat excitedly. “Tell me about yourself.”

“That’s kinda open-ended, don’t you think?”

“Okay, yeah, my bad. Where are you from?”

That was an easy enough question.

“Medford,” I answered.

“Where’s that?” Vic asked with an eyebrow up.

“It’s a city in Oregon.”

“North or south?”

“What does that matter?”

“Well it’s kinda like here in Cali. NorCal people are pretty different from SoCal people,” he replied. I shook my head to get rid of the confusion.

“I don’t know how any of that relates to me but it’s southern Oregon.”

“Cool. So what made you move here?”

“My stepdad got transferred here. I did all of elementary school in Oregon but then he and my mom got together and we moved to Grand Rapids. I did junior high and part of high school up there. Now I’m here.”

“That’s pretty cool,” Vic said. “I’ve lived here all my life. Same house and everything. The only time I’ve ever been out of state is family vacations.” I nodded.

“I’d really love to see the rest of the world,” he continued. “I wanna travel and see every state, country, and continent. That’s not crazy, right?”

He looked at me with those big, hopeful brown eyes.

“No,” I answered, “that’s not crazy at all.”

“Thanks,” he said softly.

I wondered why he seemed so bashful. He hasn’t told me anything embarrassing. All he had said was that he wanted to travel someday. Was that something to be ashamed of?

I looked deeper and realized that Vic had opened up to me. He had told me something he probably never told anyone else. I was a little surprised but wasn’t that the point? Didn’t he want us to get to know each other?

Then why did he look like he wanted to disappear?

He must have noticed that I was staring at him because he cleared his throat and looked out the windshield.

“So, you got any siblings?” he asked.

“Nope, you?”

He gave me that confused one eyebrow look. That’s when I noticed what I said.

“Uh, you know, besides your brother,” I said quickly.

“Oh. No, no other siblings. Just me and Mike.”

I nodded and looked out the windshield.

I would have begged for the ground to swallow the car up, or for one of the school security guards to tell us to go back inside. We had about ten minutes before music appreciation and I knew people in that class were dying to know how badly Vic kicked my ass.

Wait, Vic and I had music appreciation today.

I groaned inwardly when that thought hit me. I just knew class today would be awkward.

“You alright?” Vic asked when he noticed my expression.

“Yeah,” I sighed. “We should probably start heading back.”

Vic pulled his phone out of his pocket and hit the lock button. “Yeah, I guess we should.” Was it just me or did he almost sound disappointed?

We exited the car and headed back into the school.

“Hey,” Vic said to get my attention, “you should come over after school.”

We didn’t stop walking but I did stare at him in disbelief. “Seriously?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “What is it with you not believing what I say?”

I couldn’t help but smile at that. “Just making sure.”

“Well yeah, come over. We’ll work on the project and stuff.”

I nodded. “Sure, I’ll come over.”

“Sweet,” he smiled.

“Is Mike gonna come direct me again,” I laughed. He chuckled again.

“No,” he replied, “I’ll give you the address. Text me when you decide to come over.”

I nodded with a small smile. This all seemed so weird. One minute Vic Fuentes is announcing to the school that he’s gonna beat me up and the next we’re laughing like we’re old pals. I didn’t know what to think of it but for the first time since I’d known Vic, I didn’t feel like I was in danger. I actually felt like I’d made a real friend.

Notes