Happy Endings

16. last

"Give me your voice and I'll give it a listen. Are you complete or is something missing?"

☼

It's not like he could avoid Vic forever. It's not like he wasn't trying, though.

Kellin got lucky he didn't have to see him at Penny's school since Beth dropped her off earlier. He did have some texts from him, but the good thing about texts was that they didn't need an immediate answer or an answer at all. So he was dodging that too. Again. But now that he was staring at the red clock in the kitchen area of his office floor, ticking away second after second, Kellin realized he wouldn't be able to keep avoiding Vic for much longer. It was almost the afternoon. He had to go pick up Penny. He had to see him.

Honestly, he had been doing great all morning. He'd worked like usual, got his tasks done, had a short meeting with a client. His coworkers didn't ask questions about his day off, they never did, he guessed they already knew and were weary of talking to him about it, and Kellin was more than fine with that. Phoebe was the only person at the office that knew. And she called him first thing to her office to chat about how he was doing. She was one of the few people Kellin felt slightly more comfortable talking about these things with. She always found a way to make him feel better with their talks.

But he'd known Phoebe for three years, maybe more. They had some type of office bond in the least, some sense of trust built over time. They had history. How long had he known Victor? Only a couple of months. Weeks. And he already knew of his ugly, most unpleasant side. And somehow he still wanted to contact Kellin to see how he was doing? Kellin hated him for it.

He was... overly nice. All the time. And that bugged him. No one should be that nice all the time. Unless they wanted something. What did Vic want? He couldn't understand how being that nice was even possible. And that smile. He was always smiling and that bugged him even more. And, for some reason, he cared about Kellin. And that made even less sense. Why did they become friends anyway? Because of Penny? None of it added up.

He never wanted Vic to become anything, they weren't supposed to become friends, he was only the prac teacher at his daughter's school. He sure as hell wasn't meant to see him during the hardest day he had to go through. Sure as hell wasn't supposed to help him through it either.

He suddenly remembered what he thought about that time Vic's bike got a flat tire outside of the supermarket and he offered to drive him home. So many nights ago. How ironic. How absolutely not funny it was.

Truthfully, he was terrified. He didn't know how to act or what to say or how to feel about anything that happened. What could he say anyway? Sorry for breaking down in front of you and making you go through calming me down? Sorry you had to see me at my worst but at the same time, it's your fault for showing up when I didn't need anything? He could never say that.

He supposed it was his fault too. He didn't refuse when Vic suggested getting him inside the house because it was starting to get colder. He didn't reject the cup of tea he offered to make him ("or something else, whatever you want, Kellin"). He didn't say no to the idea of showering and changing his ratty clothes. He didn't kick Vic out as every ounce of common sense he had in him told him to.

Instead, he cried even more while he cleaned himself in the privacy of his bathroom and changed into fresher clothes, then stared into his reflection and hated what he saw, deciding to put on his glasses to hide a little of his puffiness at least.

Instead, he let Vic stay in his kitchen in the meantime, making him tea that wasn't as sweet as he would've liked, but that offered the most perfect amount of warmth to make him feel slightly better the second he took the first sip.