I Kissed The Scars On His Skin (Vic's Kid)

Chapter 7

I wake up in the morning and pack my bag. I feel Vic watching me which still feels uncomfortable but I let it be. He hands me my meds when I finish packing. I look at them sadly. I mess with the pills in my hand a little before I get a look from Vic that tells me to just take them.

I swallow them and then we leave. The doctor prescribed me Ativan again as well. We leave the house and go to the airport. When we land in Seattle I frown at the rainy weather. "I hate Seattle. It's too rainy." I see Vic smile. All three of the bands are here. They went on the same flight because they wanted to see my graduation.

From the fact no one besides Vic, Kellin, Alex, Jaime, and Tony were watching me more carefully, I would say the rest don't know or even forgot. I text the chat. "We're back in Washington!" "We're?" "All Time Low, Pierce The Veil, Sleeping With Sirens, and I." "No way." I smile.

"Ray, do you know the train?" I nod and lead them on the light rail and then to the train from there. I feel bad for the actual commuting people. "Rachel?" I close my eyes, trying to ignore how that feels. I see Lisa (not Gaskarth) when I open my eyes. "Oh, hi." She hugs me and I try not to pull away. "Jordan misses you. She wishes we took in you and Daniel." "I'm perfectly happy with my family."

She sighs and walks away. "Defensive much?" I see Jack. "You would be to. Also, the only reason why she would want me is as a built in babysitter for my cousin. Literally every time I was around my cousin, I was the one watching her since she was maybe 2."

I feel Kellin put a hand on my shoulder in an effort to calm me down. "I'm sorry." The train starts up again and I fall backwards, hitting my head on an empty seat. "Ow." Zack pretty much picks me up and sits me next to Vic. "Are you okay?" I nod.

"Did you hit your head?" "Not hard, I don't think anyways." He nods. "Jaime." Jaime comes over. He has me do a few things. "If she does have a concussion, it isn't very bad." Vic nods and I lean into him. "Next stop: Puyallup Station." I groan and stand up, watching them all grab their things.

We get off the train and I look at Vic. "What were we supposed to do before?" "Check-in to our hotels which are at the Holiday Inn Express by the South Hill Mall and you and I need to go to your school to get your things for graduation." I nod.

"To get to the hotel, follow this hill up until you see it. It should be on the left. Unless, you guys want to see my high school first." "I want to see your school!" They all agree so we all go to my school. "Welcome to Puyallup High School." I see Mr Sunich and my teachers standing outside. "Ray! It's great to have you!" They all hug me and I let them.

I see Mrs Coyer and she looks really happy for me. "Your family seems to be amazing." I point at them since they are all in groups. "This is my dad's band, plus the old drummer who is my uncle, my other uncle's band, and their friend's band." Alex gives me an offended look and I stick my tongue out at him.

"Mrs Coyer, you might remember Kenny and I talking about 1 or all of them during lessons." She laughs. "Which bands?" "Pierce The Veil, Sleeping With Sirens, and All Time Low." She nods. "I do remember you guys talking about all three bands while I was giving the lessons." I smile with a light blush. "Oops? Anyways, thanks to all of you for not giving up on me earlier this year. I was barely able to focus, whether in class or online."

Eventually, after a little more conversing, I lead them the 3 miles uphill to the hotel. I have Copeland on my back which is probably an extremely bad idea since I have crutches. We make it up the hill with no incidents. "I don't know how you managed to do that." I look at Jaime. "The weight would've been so far off balance I'm surprised you didn't fall backwards."

"I'm fairly good at balance as long as I actually am prepared to need to balance." We check in at the hotel. "This hotel was my house for 3 weeks. At my first house, Wendy had been filling up a pot of water with the hose detached and my 5th grade teacher was having a get together at the park. We left the house with the sink running. 3 hours later, we came back to about a quarter inch of water over the kitchen floor, my bedroom floor, and soaking through the carpet in the living room and hallway."

"Woah. Do you have anymore weird or crazy stories?" "I used to climb trees up to about 30 feet and sit up there for hours on my phone, not holding on or anything." "That sounds super dangerous. It also sounds like you were living out Hold On Till May." I shrug. "I didn't even know your band at that time. Plus, the train was far enough from my house I never heard it."

"Where else are you gonna show us while we are here?" "I'll show you my old houses, my best friend, who knows, I might even bring you guys walking over the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. It's safe." I see Vic has an unsure look. "We could go down to Westport/Ocean Shores as well. I spent a lot of summers down there."

"Where is your favorite place in the state?" "Eastern Washington. Cheney is beautiful, Spokane is busy but beautiful, Leavenworth is beautiful, Colville is beautiful. Colville or Cheney are probably my favorites in the summer; although, Colville has ticks. Leavenworth is amazing in the winter and I love skiing at Snoqualmie Pass or Stevens Pass."

"You seemed to be in Eastern Washington a lot." "I was. Paul liked to go hunting and I would go with him even though I knew I would never be able to shoot the animals. My cousin went to school far east as well and I got to tour her college campus as well as learn my way around the small college town."

"Well we have a week and a half after-" I hear the lahar sirens begin and they all look concerned. "Ray, why do you have no concern?" "First of all, this is as high up on the hill we would go for our first stop for school lahar drills and second, it's the first Monday of the month at noon which means they are testing the system."

"Oh, okay. We have a week and a half after graduation so we could go exploring your favorite places around the state." I smile. "Alright, Eastern Washington first?" "Yeah." "Okay, we could go to Leavenworth tomorrow. If we leave by 9:30 we should be there by 12:30." "You seem to know the roads pretty well." "Yeah, I'm kinda directional. I'm really good at maps and roads and things; although, don't leave me to wander around woods on my own terms or I will likely get lost. It's happened before."

"I want to hear that story." "I was just wandering trails in the woods and trying not to get hit by a few people on dirt bikes. I got lost but was able to find my way out by following the sound of the river until I was just walking along it back to my campsite." "Do you wander a lot?" "Yeah. I typically wander more than I am supposed to."

"What's the furthest you have just walked around?" "I walked 11 miles down the Orting Trail. I did some walking in the trails behind one of the high schools in my district; although, that ended with me having a lot of nettle stings so I probably wouldn't do that again."

Vic rolls his eyes. He hands me a debit card. "I'm trusting you to make plans for our week and a half. Remember drive time and the fact there is still two kids under 18." I nod.