Happy Endings

48. mine

Took too long to update so here's a monster chapter again to make up for that <3

—

"Hold mе like you'll never lеavе. Break me down and I'll call you mine."

☼

"We're hanging out today."

Phone to his ear, Kellin Quinn blinked before chuckling softly, "What?"

"You heard me," even through her bossy tone, Kellin could see his friend Hayley smiling in his mind. Her voice gave it away so easily, he found it funny.

"Can I rain check...?" Kellin asked carefully either way, leaning back on the kitchen counter, and crossing one arm over his chest.

He'd just finished doing the dishes after making breakfast for Penny and himself, and now his kid was watching her cartoons in the living room. He could see her from his spot, concentrating on whatever the paw patrol was doing on the screen, her big blue eyes staring intently, and her cute little mouth open in wonder.

It was just another regular Saturday morning for them until his phone rang with Hayley on the line.

"Well, tell your other friends you're busy, 'cause you can't."

Kellin had to snort, "I don't have any more friends."

What he did have was a date with a certain boy... tonight... A big enough reason to raincheck if anyone asked him. But the sigh Hayley let out told him perhaps he wouldn't anymore, and that bummed Kellin out because he knew what Hayley was going to say next. He didn't know how to refute the elephant in the room.

"Come on, man. We haven't seen you in forever."

"You see me plenty," Kellin didn't filter his reply. He should've.

"As a customer, though! And you still haven't explained why you're getting so many flowers lately, but whatever, not my business, I know. But I want to see you! As my friend. We all do. We miss you. It's been too long, Kellin."

He walked right into that. It silenced Kellin for a few seconds, but yeah, that was exactly what he was expecting to hear.

"Everyone is down too..."

Kellin laughed lightly. "What, are you asking me last?"

"Of course, I'm playing my ace here, Quinn. You can't say no."

Kellin had to laugh again, covering his face with his hand as he thought this through. God... He'd been neglecting his friends for a while now. At least he was aware of this.

Thinking back, the last time they all got together was during Kellin's biggest crisis, after he kissed Vic in that photobooth and proceeded to real-life block him. Evidently, he wasn't the greatest company to have around; he was sure he barely spoke, was in a shitty mood... His friends saw a version of Kellin that thankfully didn't exist anymore, but they didn't know that.

He was doing a lot better now, mentally and physically. He supposed he did want them to see that, even though they had no idea of the stuff he's been going through, but, yeah... He missed them too. That didn't take away how he also missed Vic, though.

Sure, he just saw him last night, met up with him and Penny to get dinner at Tom's, hung out until her bedtime, then parted ways, but it wasn't enough. Kellin had been so busy at work the entire week, and Penny started school again, so things were more hectic. Kellin couldn't get his Vic fix as much as he'd wanted, so that's why they'd planned a date for tonight. An excuse to go make out at the new drive-in theater downtown, really. But a date altogether.