Playlist Love

***Sorry this chapter ends weird. If I ended it the way I wanted to, it would've gone from 6 pages to 14 and I'm not down for y'all reading all that. Anyways, enjoy!***


“You’ll be excited just to see me someday.”

---

The weekend passed in the blink of an eye, and before I knew it, it was Monday morning. I sat at the counter in our kitchen not dreading going to school for once in my life.

I was up before Mom since she had worked late last night. Thankfully she had a day off today so I would probably come home early and do something with her if she was up for it.

Rick hadn’t come home all weekend. Part of me knew I should be worried about my stepfather’s safety, but another part of me wanted to say “fuck it” for calling me a cockblock. It’s not like I ever interrupted anything between him and my mom, it was just that my mom didn’t want to sleep with him. Can’t say I blamed her; he had been a real dick lately.

I got up to get another glass of juice and start the coffee for Mom. For once in my life I had woken up before her, and rather than rub it in her face like I always assumed I would do if this were to happen, I decided to be a decent son and make the start of her day brighter.

I would rub it in after she had her coffee. I didn’t particularly want to die that morning.

I thought about making breakfast. It had been a while since my mom had had a good breakfast ever since she got this new job. I smiled to myself as I made the decision, and took the bread, eggs, cheese, butter, and bacon out of the fridge. I put some butter in a skillet and let it heat up. In the meantime, I found a circular cookie cutter in a cabinet and pressed it into some slices of bread.

I put the pieces of bread in the skillet and cracked an egg into each of the holes. It would take a couple minutes for the eggs to cook so I put the bacon on a baking sheet and placed it in the preheated oven. After checking the eggs one last time, I sat on the counter and scrolled through Twitter.

“I thought I smelled something good,” a voice said, startling me.

“Hey,” I said as they laughed at my reaction, “that was rude, and definitely not funny.”

“Oh, cheer up, sweetie,” my mom said, “it was very funny.”

“That’s it, no breakfast for you,” I mumbled loud enough for her to hear and chuckle at. She walked over to the stove to check on my meal.

“Are you making this for me?” she asked.

I shrugged. “I mean, if you wanna think of it like that.” She rolled her eyes and took the coffee off the pot.

“You couldn’t have made something fancier? Maybe some waffles or French toast?”

“This is literally all I know how to make, mother,” I replied with sass. “I’ll make a great husband someday, huh?”

“Kell, any man that loves you for your cooking loves you a whole lot, because sweetie, you can’t cook.”

I sat there with my mouth open at the sass my mom just threw back at me. She only winked and lowered the temperature of the stove before sipping her coffee.

My mom and I had the best relationship imaginable. For the longest time it was just the two of us, so we learned how to communicate with each other. I wasn’t scared to come out to her because we had joked about me being gay for a couple years before the fact. When I came out she simply hugged me and whispered “I knew it” with tears in her eyes.

“Whatever, you’re mean. No soup for you.”

“Save that for when I’m not making sure your food doesn’t burn.” She had a point.

“Whatever man,” I mumbled. Mom flipped the bread and opened the oven to check on the bacon.

“What’s going on after school?” she asked.

I shrugged. “I thought we could hang out if you wanted. We could get a bite. Your treat.”

Mom chuckled, as if she knew I was joking about the last part. “Sure hun,” she said, “but I do have some errands I need to run while you’re at school. Do you think you can come straight home and wait for the locksmith? I don’t think I’ll be home before the appointment.” I nodded.

Mom and I had talked about changing the locks this weekend. Since she and I were pretty much done with her husband’s bullshit, and he hadn’t even come home to apologize, we decided that we didn’t want him to come and go as he pleased. He’d have to earn his way back into the house.

“What time?” I asked.

“Three-thirty. Is that okay?”

I nodded again. “That’s fine.”

She smiled and took the skillet off the stove. I took the bacon out of the oven as she served up the bread nests. When everything was on the plates, she put them on the bar and sat next to me.

“Seriously, some hash browns would’ve been nice.”

I rolled my eyes and mumbled, “Shut up, Mom.”

***

I had no idea what to expect from the rest of my day, but if the feeling from this morning told me anything, it was that today was gonna be great. Or at least less shitty than usual.

I had gotten my new schedule that morning and was pleased to see that choir was my new second period. I loved that. I had gym second period because they couldn’t think of any other class to put me in, so I was excited to get out of wearing basketball shorts and embarrassing myself in front of the hotter half of the male student body.

My first day of choir went off without a hitch. Tyler and Mr. Urie talked me through the warm ups and gave me a lot of music to learn. I also learned about a musical that was gonna be put on in the spring. That was something I was looking forward to.

Now it was time for lunch. I was currently at my locker, putting the books I needed to take home on the top shelf so I would remember to grab them.

“Well, if it isn’t my favorite music appreciation partner,” a voice said from behind me.

“Since when was I your favorite anything?” I asked, not bothering to turn around.

“I was just being polite.” I rolled my eyes. “So listen, we can’t meet up tomorrow.”

I shut my locker and finally turned to look at Vic. “Why not?” I asked.

“My parents aren’t gonna be home – Dad has a doctor’s appointment or something – and they don’t like us having people over when they’re not there to supervise. Something about Mike burning the house down. Anyway, I was wondering if we could meet today?”

“I can’t,” I answered quickly.

“Wow, take some time to think about it, Quinn.”

“Sorry,” I said kind of sheepishly, “but I really can’t. My mom needs me home right after school. I’m supposed to be waiting for the locksmith.”

“Is she gonna be there?”

“No, but my mom trusts me at home by myself.”

“Sweet, then I guess she’ll trust you at home by yourself with me.”

I gave him a confused look, and not just because of that sentence structure. “Come again?”

“We’re meeting up at your place after school, got it?”

I furrowed my eyebrows together in an attempt to give him my most intimidating look.

“You can’t just invite yourself to someone’s house.”

“Hey, I did ask questions.”

“But none of them were ‘Can I come over?’” I said harshly. I expected him to shrug it off and give me a sly remark, but instead he did something I would have never expected.

He apologized.

“You’re right, I’m sorry. Can I come over so we can work on this project?”

I looked at him skeptically. Although his apology sounded somewhat sincere, I couldn’t help by keep my guard up. This was Vic Fuentes we were talking about. He used intimidation and manipulation to get his way.

“Alright,” I said slowly, “you can come over. But be there before three-thirty. I’ll text you the address.”

“Cool,” he said. “I’ll finally get to see how the other half lives.”

I shook my head at his comment as I walked into the cafeteria. What an idiot.

***

It took me until the last ten minutes of my last class of the day to realize that Vic and I had never exchanged phone numbers. In fact, we had never talked outside of school aside from working on our project at his house, so texting him my address would be impossible.

I groaned inwardly when I realized what I would have to do.

I would have to embarrass myself.

I would have to ask Vic for his number.

Kill me now.

“Uh, hey,” I whispered to him. Ms. Pope insisted on teaching until the bell, which was what she was currently doing, so whispering was the way to go. Plus I didn’t want the entire class to hear the question I was dreading asking.

Vic looked at me with the same bored and disinterred expression he was wearing while listening to the lecture. “Yeah?”

“Um,” I started, not sure how to ask.

He cocked an eyebrow. “What is it?”

I sighed. “Nevermind.”

He bit on the corner of him lip before shrugging and looking back down at his desk. I hadn’t noticed that he was writing something in the last few minutes. I assumed they were notes so I shrugged it off.

After what felt like an eternity, the bell finally rang. I took my time getting my things together, trying to think of a way to ask Vic for his number. He must’ve noticed because by the time I had everything packed, the room was empty except for the two of us.

“Uh, hi,” I said awkwardly. He was sitting on my desk staring down at me.

“Hey,” he said with a smirk.

“Can I help you?”

“You’ve been acting weird? You still upset with me?”

“What if I was?” I asked as I straightened up and put my hands on my hips.

“Well, then I’d just have to fix it. Who knows , maybe I could do it later today. Say three-thirty?”

Was he flirting with me? No, right? No. I rolled my eyes at the thought.

“Anyway,” he continued, “I’m still waiting for that text.”

I groaned. The time had come.

“So I thought of something,” I started. He looked at me expectantly. I sighed and decided to stop overthinking it and go with the first thing that popped into my brain. “You wanna come home with me?”

Apparently it was that.

He smirked. “What?” he asked with amusement in his tone.

“It’s just that…it’s almost time…you know?” It was the lamest excuse, but at least it wasn’t a complete lie. It was 3:10, almost time for the locksmith to get there. It was also a ten minute drive to my house so we would have to leave soon.

“Sure, I guess that works,” he said. “Just give me a minute.” I watched as he walked out of the room without another word. Slightly annoyed, I followed him out into the hall. He walked down a few feet before opening someone’s locker. He pulled something out of his pocket and put it on one of the shelves before closing the door and turning the lock.

“What was that?” I asked. “Did you just plant drugs? Are you trying to frame a kid? Did they wrong you?”

“What? No. The fuck?” He pulled out his phone and started typing on the screen.

“Then what was that?”

He slipped his phone back into his pocket and looked up at me. “It was my car keys. That was Mike’s locker. I’m leaving him my keys since I was his ride.”

Oh.

I rubbed the back of my neck nervously. Way to go, Kellin.

“Anyway, it’s getting too close to when you should be home. Let’s go.” He started walking down the hall to the back of the school where the parking lot was. I found myself following behind him like a lost puppy.

“Do you have any idea where you’re going?” I asked him once we were in the lot.

He stopped in his tracks and looked around. “No,” was all he said.

I chuckled as I fished my keys out of my pocket and walked to my car. I pressed the button to unlock my vehicle and sat in the driver’s seat. I stared at my project partner through my windshield with a smug smirk on my face. That smirk didn’t leave my face as he sat in the passenger’s seat and we drove to my house.

“Shut up, Quinn,” Vic mumbled.

Notes