Church Boy (Kellic)

Twelve

We arrived the diner minutes after and I made it my duty to speed-walk my way to my booth - without so much of a care for the two guys behind me. I claimed ownership to this particular booth because ever since I could remember, this has always been my absolute favorite spot. The owners would always take it upon themselves to reserve this booth for me during their peak hours of days that they know I'd be here. Their diner is like my second home, really. They are a very nice couple.

"Someone's hungry." My dad chuckles as he sat across from me and I shyly scoot way over, giving space for Vic. And it's not like I gave him little to no space but he sat so close to me, so close that I felt my lungs needing more air than necessary - but that's just because of the close proximity. I'm not really opposed to it, I like it, he's so warm and he smells so nice.

"You guys were just bein' major slowpokes." I argue through a thin coat of blush on my cheeks and not a second later, a waiter pops up carrying three menus for us, a friendly smile on his freckled face. I also got distracted with the little smiley face pin he put on his striped shirt. I think the pin's cute.

"Hi, what do you guys want for drinks?" He asks and of course I told him I'll be getting vanilla milkshake while Vic and my dad got boring and disgusting coffees. "I'll be back in a while for the rest of your orders." He says and he looks at me for a second, smiling so nice. I haven't seen that boy before, I bet he's new. But he seems nice, his smile is nice. But not as nice as Vic's, though, that's for sure.

"So, Vic, what grade are you inl?" Here it goes, he's starting a conversation now. And I bet, that it would start innocent and end up humiliating as heck.

"Graduated a little over a year ago, sir." Vic answers politely and although I planned on just watching the passerbyers outside the quite foggy window, I felt intrigued. I don't know much about Vic because whenever I try to talk to him, he either answers all wittily or he'll shun me away. He's always been so confusing when we're together fixing church stuff, so this is quite new to me.

"Ooh, that's fun." My dad chuckles.

"Eh, getting out of high school's great but after that, everything's just so, I don't know.. Fucked, y'know?"

"Mm, I know what you mean." My dad said in an understanding tone, nodding a little, seeming to genuinely understand the lack of word there is in Vic's sentence. I don't understand it, though and I want to know what he meant by that. Is high school really as horrible as Jenna and the movies portray it to be? Isn't it, like, exciting because you get to learn from different people and with a lot of people?

"It's like, people throw their expectations at you, shove you down with things they expect you to do and expect you to be and with a single little slip, you're suddenly like dirt to them." Vic rambled on and I think it's the longest confusing thing that I've heard him say for the duration that I've known him. He confuses me with one-liners but this one is different. That entire statement feels heavier than how he made it out to be.

"What are you doing currently? If you don't mind me asking."

"Nah, it's okay." Vic shrugs but he doesn't continue for a while, he just exhales deeply through his nose, seeming to puzzle his thoughts first before actually pulling and laying them out in front of us and I waited for him to speak again because weirdly enough, I am hooked. Yup, a few words out and I am hook, line, and sinker. "Um, well, besides form doing afternoon helps and being a regular sacristan, nothing much, really." He says with a shrug, hand guiltily going to the back of his neck as he scratches coyly.

My dad only nodded and I looked at them back and forth, as if watching a live tennis game for the very first time because I'm trying to understand everything while I watch. "On a little break?" He asks a moment after and I cannot really tell precisely what his expression mean. He doesn't look mad, not disappointed, either. He looks kind of curious? I think? Intrigued, even?