A/N: Thanks for checking this story out! :)
A few possible trigger warnings, and a couple smut scenes. Enjoy.
Chapter 1 - Kellin - Where We Started
The first thing I hear is my iPhone ringing.
I groan and reach out to where it sits on my side table. Without opening my eyes, I tap the screen around where I think the “Answer” button is and put it up to my ear. “Who are you and why the hell are you calling me at six in the morning?”
"Kellin, it’s not six in the morning; it’s 7:45 in the morning. Get your ass down here, you sexy bastard. I’m waiting."
I laugh. Of course it’s my boyfriend Vic. It wouldn’t be anyone else.
Then I realize what he just said, and all of a sudden I’m completely awake. I’m going to be late for school. Again.
Shit.
I jump out of bed, shaking my head to clear away any more grogginess. I rush through my morning routine, taking a two-minute shower and throwing together an outfit that doesn’t match. When I take the first step downstairs, my dad immediately bombards me, demanding to know why I didn’t wake up earlier and how being tardy is going to help me in any way. Mom doesn’t say anything—not that she would.
"Well, you’re the parent,” I point out to Dad. “Isn’t it part of your job to wake me up when I oversleep?”
"My job is to teach you how to be responsible," Dad snaps. "And you’ll never learn to be responsible if you can’t even fucking wake yourself up on time."
Oh, yeah, Dad, because you’re so responsible. “Well, then,” I say, “don’t complain when I don’t get to school on time.”
Slowly letting out my breath, I grab my backpack and head outside without bothering to eat breakfast. The morning’s always a bit difficult. Actually, the entire parent thing in general is a bit difficult. At least Mom has an afternoon shift, but she’s not really the problem; she just kind of ignores me. Dad works from home, so I have to deal with him almost constantly. Half the time I don’t even think he’s actually working. I don’t know how he keeps that job.
Vic’s parents’ old blue car is sitting in the driveway, Vic behind the wheel. I hop into the passenger seat, breathing a sigh of relief and forgetting the tension from thirty seconds ago. As Vic pulls out and onto the road, he hands me a donut with his free hand. “You look hungry.”
"Donuts? What’s the special occasion?"
"The special occasion is you’re late. I sat here for, like, twenty minutes. Then I went down to Dunkin’ Donuts and got us both donuts and coffee. I figured you’d be ready by the time I got back…nope. So I called you."
"Shit. Sorry."
He smiles and sips his coffee. “Don’t have to apologize. I needed one of these anyways.”
"Me, too. Didn’t eat breakfast." I take a bite out of my donut.
Still keeping one hand on the steering wheel, Vic sets his cup down and tousles my hair. “Going natural today, are you?”
I glance at my reflection in the rearview mirror. It’s still wet. I haven’t brushed it or anything. “Guess so.”
He tousles it again, a bit rougher. His attention is more focused on me now. “Stop that,” I demand, though I actually enjoy it.
"No way. You never let me do this."
I smack his hand away, laughing. “Keep your eyes on the road, damn it!”
The car swerves a little, and Vic quickly straightens it out. “Told you,” I sing.
"Wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t hit me. We’ll continue that later."
We both have stupid grins on our faces when we turn into the school parking lot. “Well, let’s hope we’re not completely screwed,” Vic says, putting an arm around me. “We could make it to class on time if we hurry. Unless you don’t give a shit. Then we don’t have to.”
"The ‘rents do." I jump out of the car, grabbing my backpack and swinging it over my shoulder as I speed-walk toward the front doors of the high school.
Vic sighs as he catches up to me. “It’s always the damn parental units.”
He has a point. My life isn’t very exciting and I don’t have a whole lot of friends. Not many close ones, anyway. There’s only Vic and a senior named Oli, and my parents only know Vic. They wouldn’t approve of me hanging out with Oli just because of the fact that, since he’s eighteen, he’s nearly covered himself in tattoos. They don’t know I’m dating Vic, either; they think we’re still just really good friends.
My parents aren’t exactly abusive or anything. I mean, Dad gets mad a lot, but it’s no big deal. I just sort of feel like I don’t really recognize them, like our whole family is just a bunch of awkward strangers. It seems like they only talk to me to put some more pressure and expectations on me. Even that is mostly Dad, since Mom barely speaks to me anymore. I’m trying to figure out if maybe I’ve disappointed her.
Luckily, Vic and I make it just before the late bell rings. A few seconds after I sit down in my first period class, a message pops up on my phone’s screen. Oli is texting me from a different class. Discreetly, I check the message he just sent me:
Saw you in the hall. Looks like you were running late today.
I reply:
I was. Please don’t make a hair comment.
Oli says:
Ok I won’t.
Followed by:
Your hair looks fucking fabulous.
I try not to smile. Anyone reading that who knew him would know he was being sarcastic. Oli doesn’t use the word fabulous seriously.
A third message pops up:
Don’t tell me it doesn’t, I saw it.
And then a fourth:
I heard Ian’s looking to start some more shit with you.
I suppress a groan and type back:
Oh great. Hooray.
Ian is my ex-boyfriend. He’s a senior like Oli, a year older than me. We dated when I was a freshman and he was a sophomore, which is a year he seems to have tried his hardest to forget. He acts like nobody remembers that the only reason he gives me a hard time is to hide the fact that he used to really like me.
The whole rest of the period, Oli deliberately does not talk about Ian to keep me from thinking about him. Our conversation is meaningless, random, and doesn’t really go anywhere, but that’s okay with me. It’s a distraction, and that’s all I want.
On my way to second period, I find Vic talking with his friend Jaime and hold my hand up for high-fives as I walk past them. Both of them give me one, and then Jaime points at something over my shoulder. “Better watch out,” he warns. I turn around, already knowing what I’m going to see.
Ian is striding toward me, that new confident smirk on his face. It doesn’t matter how many times I see him as he is now; I will always expect the small, dorky kid I fell in love with, the one who played video games and read comic books. He’s got the same dirty blond hair and the same blue eyes, but that’s pretty much it. Since our breakup, he’s gotten taller and broader, a lot more imposing. He’s joined the football team and has a girlfriend named Mandy, who likes to spit in my face.
"Hey, Kelly!" he shouts. He doesn’t even have to say anything else to piss me off.
I scowl. “You’re not allowed to use that name on me anymore.”
"Oh, right. Forgot. Only Vic can now, right? Tell me, Kelly, how’s that going for you?"
Vic tries to hide his emotions, but I can tell that comment hit him. Ian acts as if I date hundreds of guys and Vic’s just my latest fling. He can’t seem to grasp that in reality, we’ve been dating for over a year and are completely loyal to each other.
"It’s going great," I reply smoothly. "I think I’ve been doing better than you have. I mean, you’re the one who keeps coming back to me.”
With that, I spin around and quickly escape. I don’t know whether or not I’ll make it to my next class, so I round a corner and hide myself in a supply closet. I don’t hear Ian coming after me, but I think I’ll stay here for the rest of the period just in case.
This isn’t just a normal supply closet. About a year ago, some kid a year older than me put a hidden camcorder in it to see just how many secret things it caught. Turns out, he’s discovered a whole shitload of stuff. Other than Vic and I, only the other seniors know about it. (Oli’s the one who told me, and I told Vic.)
I know exactly where the camcorder is, since I’ve holed up in this closet many times. From across the room, I smile and wave at it. This school does have security cameras, but only in the halls and the lobby, and people only check them if they know something is happening. Because I don’t know what to do in here for forty-five minutes, I pull out a white piece of paper, a pencil I never use, and some tape. I fold the paper into fourths, tape it onto the pencil, and wave my homemade “I surrender” flag around. Maybe I’ll use it on Ian.
Although he was the one who broke up with me, Ian holds more of a grudge on me than I do on him, because in his mind, I’m the one who started it. He acts like I brought this on myself.
Let me get something straight: I didn’t do anything.
I don’t know what exactly happened, but one day, apparently some kids decided it’d be funny to fuck with our relationship. They started rumors claiming that I was cheating on Ian when I wasn’t, and Ian chose to believe them. He didn’t even talk to me about the issue, didn’t trust me. Instead, he came up to me at the end of the day and punched me in the face. He called me things like a fucking bastard and a son of a bitch, and he didn’t give me any sort of chance to explain myself. To this day, I still think that he was angry enough to have killed me if Oli hadn’t interfered.
Back then, Oli and I barely knew each other. It was this encounter that started our friendship. I don’t know what it was that made Oli decide to get involved, but he did. He stepped in quite literally, actually taking a punch for me, and told Ian to leave me the fuck alone. I guess Ian didn’t want to start something with him, and after a few threats to me, he stopped.
So now our rivalry—if that’s what you want to call it—is one of the most well-known feuds in the school, at least with the juniors and seniors. You’d think other people would try to get involved, but for the most part everyone just kind of knows that it’s our battle. Plus, it’s probably entertaining enough without even having to do anything.
Vic is the one good thing I have that doesn’t remind me of this whole war. Even Oli is tied to it. Vic’s just sort of separate from all the drama, except for days like today where Ian baits him. To be honest, I feel a lot better with him than I ever did with Ian. I’d like to be bold and say I love him, but I’m a little afraid I’ll jinx it. At this point, though, I can’t help but feel optimistic about him. At the end of the day, at least I know that he cares about me, and that’s the only thing I’m sure of.