Mom (Kellic)

5.

~Vic pov~
Kellin closes the door behind him and I let out a sigh. I nearly feel sick about the bruises on saw on him. Why was he so shifty about where they came from? Why was he so scared that I saw them?

"Vic? Did Kellin leave?" Lucy yells from the kitchen.

What if he hadn't?

"Yeah."

"Come here!"

I wander in and sit on a stool at the breakfast bar, my usual place while Lucy cooks. She's dicing up vegetables and adding them to a big pot of soup which smells really good.

"What happened with Kellin? In the living room?" She asks, not looking up from her task at hand.

"Oh, um, nothing really. JJ just didn't want him to leave."

"Then why were you in the bathroom together?"

Uh oh.

"I uh... well..."

"I can already tell you're about to lie to me."

How much can I tell her? I don't want to betray Kellin's trust or anything but I know she won't be weird or judgmental.

"When JJ was hanging onto him I kinda saw his stomach and there were- there were a lot of bruises."

"Did you ask what they're from?"

I shake my head solemnly.

"He didn't want to talk about it."

"Have you ever seen him get pushed around at school?"

"No, we all hang out together and nobody bothers us."

"But you're not with him the entire day."

"I guess not."

"Do you think he needs help? I could talk to his mom or something,"  She offers.

"No, I don't think he'd want you to. I'm not even sure I should have told you what I saw."

"Well just let me know, maybe it was nothing, just a one time thing from sports."

Kellin doesn't play sports.

"Okay, thanks."

Just the thought of someone hurting Kellin, the boy who keeps himself so closed off and just wants to make others smile, tears me apart.

I go to leave, needing some space to ponder this new information, when Lucy stops me.

"Vic?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad you're making friends, just be careful okay? Kellin's family is really rough and I saw him smoking today."

"Just cause he has a bad habit doesn't mean he's a bad person," I say, trying not to sound defensive.

"I didn't say he is. Your dad just has really high expectations for me right now."

I soften, knowing how stressed she is about being my caretaker.

"I'll be careful. I promise."

I shut myself in my room and lay on the bed, trying to make sense of everything.

There's definitely a possibility that he's being bullied. He is kinda emo and doesn't have any friends outside of our group. It would make sense of why he was suicidal at such a young age too.

Shit.

The puzzle fits together and makes my stomach churn. All of us have known that he's sensitive to being startled, all of us know that he drinks too much, yet no one ever asked him why? We must be the worst friends ever.