Undress to Impress (Kellic)

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 - Figure You Out

“I hate to break it to you, Vic, but I think he might just be playing with you.”

It’s late, and Mike and I are sitting out on the couch in the living room, neither of us tired yet. I’ve just finished telling him everything—minus the part about jerking off—in the hopes that he could help me figure things out, and this is the conclusion that he seems to have drawn about Kellin.

"What makes you say he’s playing with me?" I ask, acting dumb. I know what evidence he has, but I don’t really want to believe it.

"Come on," he says. "At school he completely ignores you, but outside of school, he’s your best friend? And Tony told me about the way he flirted with that guy at the party. I know they didn’t actually have sex, but do you really think it hasn’t led to that a hundred times before? I mean, even if he has boyfriends, how do you think he keeps a guy around for longer than a week with the things he does? The other people he’s fucking?"

"Maybe he doesn’t do that when he’s in a relationship," I reply. "Have a lot of sex, I mean. Maybe that’s just something he likes to do while he’s single."

Mike raises an eyebrow. “And you’re going to accept that having sex with someone new almost every night is just something he likes to do?”

I shrug, biting my lip. I’ll admit that it makes me a bit uncomfortable, how much time he devotes to sex. Is there even room for anything else with people, or is that the only thing he cares about?

Mike sighs. “I’m sorry, really I am, but I think Kellin’s a slut, and it looks like he’s taking you as a challenge.” He shakes his head. “Fuck. This is my fault, isn’t it?”

"No, it’s not," I say, the word slut still ringing in the back of my mind. “Something would’ve happened eventually. I would’ve found out somehow.”

"Yeah, but now he’s interested in you."

Suddenly, I remember something that Frank said earlier. “Strippers hardly ever date their clients,” I blurt.

Mike narrows his eyes. “What?”

"Strippers. They hardly ever date their clients," I say. "The people that they meet while they’re doing their job, the people they’ve danced for. Which means that if he’s interested in me, it’s not because of what happened on Friday. It means he was interested in me before that."

He nods slowly. “How long will that interest last, though? I’m not trying to be the devil’s advocate or anything like that, I swear. I’m just worried, I guess. About…y’know.”

I stand up from the couch, pushing away the thoughts of what he’s worried about. “Well, let’s just see what happens,” I say dismissively. “I’m gonna try not to think too much about it.”

I mean, we both know that I’m going to end up thinking too much about it anyway, but at least we can believe that I’m trying not to.

—

Again, Kellin is completely silent at school the next day. I notice a couple of kids pointing at him and whispering before first period, but he just ducks his head and rushes away. I don’t know if he’s trying to ignore me or if he just doesn’t see me when I’m motioning for him to come over, but it’s getting frustrating, because I kind of want to talk to him. I kind of want to ask him where we stand, where he wants us to stand, because I’m not really sure of either of those things myself.

I can’t seem to find him when the dismissal bell rings, though. He’s somewhere in the sea of people, but he always tends to be one of the very last people out of the building, so I guess I’m just going to have to wait if I want to talk to him.