Collide Invisible Lips (KELLIC)

Chapter 14

Time Lapse: One Week

Vic's POV

A few decades of not speaking to another soul had made me remarkably good at keeping secrets.

Kellin had recovered quickly and easily from his mild illness, and the routine we had established together was very much back to normal. We played games, we went outside, we watched videos, and we continued falling more in love with each passing day. The family had packed up a pretty solid majority of their belongings to move into their new house, so our attic space was sparsely furnished and was occupied by humans more often than the usual. Regardless, our afterlives were at peace once more. I was doubtlessly the happiest that I had ever been.

So why did I feel so guilty?

I hated myself for feeling guilty, but I hated myself more for lying to Kellin day after day. I knew that what I wanted was for him to stay here with me forever, with no complications and no second thoughts. But I couldn't be certain that that was what he would want, and I was brutally aware of how wrong it was to keep him from having a choice in the matter of his own fate.

"Do you think the next family will keep up the pool? It would suck to not have it next summer," Kellin asked us one afternoon. The two of us were swimming outside with Craig and Matty while the house's living inhabitants (sans Kellin) were out finding their next house.

"I think so, it's part of the property and it's not too high maintenance," Craig replied thoughtfully. He wasn't particularly high today, so talking to him wasn't as awkward of a chore as it sometimes could be. Matty just rolled his eyes at Craig.

"You never took care of it when you lived here," Matty accused. Craig just shrugged his shoulders lazily.

"I had bigger and better things to do," he replied mockingly. The two relatives carried on bickering about Craig's sub-par care for the house, but I tuned out and focused my attention on Kellin. He looked so happy, so content with everything. You never would've known that somewhere, he was hooked up to life support with his family fretting over whether or not to snip the tiny string he was clinging to life by. I hated to think of Kellin, the real living Kellin, that way. I couldn't bear the responsibility of making this decision for him. I had to tell someone, anyone.

"Matty, can I talk to you for a second?" I requested, abruptly interrupting Craig and Matty's little debate. Matty turned to me in surprise.

"Uh, sure," he agreed cautiously. Kellin looked at me with questions in his eyes, but I gave him a quick kiss of reassurance.

"I'll be right back," I told him. Matty and I climbed out of the pool and moved over to the shade cast onto the deck by the grand house. I really hadn't spent much time outside of the stuffy attic before Kellin got here; the house was beautiful from the outside.

"Okay, what's up?" Matty asked, still wary of my intentions. It was an understandable way to react. After all, I wasn't exactly the type to seek out someone to talk to. I took a deep breath and looked over to where Kellin and Craig were swimming, blissfully ignorant, before answering.

"Kellin is alive."

"You mean an angel?" Matty checked in confusion.

"No, I mean alive," I reiterated before launching into a loosely planned explanation. I told Matty everything; how the others in the car died, how Kellin had been in a coma for months, and, most importantly, how to wake him up. Matty silently absorbed all the information. I could practically see the wheels turning thoughtfully inside his head. The first question that came out of his mouth should've been something I expected, but I hadn't put together an answer for it.