Hold On Till May

Two

Amber's POV

"It started freshman year - the bullying, anyway. It's not really important who-"

"Damn right, it's important!" Kellin blurts. I shake my head at him, and he sighs. "Go on."

"Anyway, they sort of followed me around, giving me shit and making fun of me. They'd slam my locker and steal my backpack and other annoying stuff. I dealt with it. It started to get a bit worse in sophomore year with the same bullying plus problems at home, what with John's shitty grades and his... Drug addiction. Mom and Dad were always arguing and yelling, and sometimes they'd take it out on me.

"I tried not to let it affect me. I had you after all, and I had a few other friends. We had good times; John had been clean for weeks, and there was less yelling. Vic and his friends-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Vic? As in Fuentes, Vic?"

"Yeah... So?" I raise my eyebrow at Kellin.

"Oh. He's nice to me."

"Good for you. Anyways... So they stopped harassing me for the most part, but then Vic got my number and started texting me. He was being really friendly, and I'll admit I was flattered. No guy had really shown any interest in me other than friend-level, and I was beginning to feel really depressed.

"For a while, it was so amazing and I was really happy to be talking to Vic. But soon, right before the end of sophomore year, actually, I realized that nothing had changed. Instead of bullying me, Vic completely ignored and avoided me, letting his friends bully me harshly while not saying a thing. I held out, occasionally confronting him about it over text. He always chalked it up to being shy around me and not wanting to piss off his friends. I was so pathetic that I let it go, given I didn't want to lose the idea of a guy liking me.

"Everything was pretty fine, even though he was still ignoring me. I got used to the bullying, but it all went downhill when I confronted him face to face. It was right before the end of the year, at lunch. I think you were hanging out with your other friends or something. Anyway, it was at lunch when he was with his friends. I asked him why he wouldn't talk to me, and he scoffed. He laughed in my face, called me an attention whore, told me to get a life. He called me a slut.

"I was so upset that I told my mom I was sick and stayed home for two days. Vic tried to apologize but I ignored his texts and calls and told myself I wouldn't talk to him again. Staying home was awful. John had relapsed and was back on drugs, and my parents and he argued some nights until one o'clock in the morning. My parents saw how much I had been texting Vic, and told me to stop talking to him altogether. I agreed wholeheartedly, at the time.

"That's why I spent so much of the summer either with you or at another friend's house. John kept making terrible choices and my house was a war zone. Both my parents and John took out their frustration out on my. Mom and Dad would yell, but John would hit. I was afraid of him, and eventually that fear encompassed any guy - except you, of course.

"But junior year, you left and everything got worse."

"I'm so sorry" Kellin cries, regret and something I can't quite read in his eyes. He's got tears running down his face still. I lean over and rub them away, and then continue.