Heartthorns (chapter 38/38)
I'm re-posting the last chapter of Heartthorns here for anyone who's forgotten what was going on and stuff in the extremely long time it's been since I posted it. xD
THEN I'm posting the first chapter of the sequel. Haha.
Title: Heartthorns
Rating: PG-13 (overall)
Pairing: Ryden, Joncer
POV: Third person. It changes.
Summary: Brendon and Jon, who are best friends, decide to go to music camp for three weeks during the summer together. There they meet new friends, enemies, and do a whole lot more than play music...
Disclaimer: Not true. I do not own Brendon, Ryan, Jon, Spencer, Pete, or Patrick. But I do own all the other characters and Camp Keeway.
Previous Chapters
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38
Brendon’s POV
No one wanted to wake up the next morning.
But they had to, and memories of last night flooded the minds of Ryan, Spencer, Jon, and Brendon as they reluctantly climbed out of their sleeping bags and got dressed, still half-asleep. The part of them that was half-awake only existed because of those memories.
Breakfast was very quiet. Everyone seemed totally exhausted from last night, including all the other boys. Obviously Brendon and his friends weren’t the only ones who had stayed up way past lights-out/quiet time.
After breakfast was time for packing, packing, and packing. Everyone was given an hour to pack, and then after that they’d have some free time. So of course Brendon and Ryan tried to pack as quickly as possible so they’d have lots of free time to spend with each other.
As soon as he was done, Brendon got his duffel bag and rolled up sleeping bag and dropped them off by the fire pit, where the counselors had told them to put their luggage once they’d packed. Then he hurried over to Ryan’s cabin and went inside.
Ryan looked like he was almost done packing. His cabin looked so empty without the posters on the walls and the random objects and clothes scattered everywhere…
“Hey Brenny,” he greeted Brendon, smiling from his mattress.
“Hi,” replied Brendon, and he sat down on the bare mattress next to him. They instantly were locked in a tight embrace, kissing.
“I can’t believe this is it,” Brendon murmured sadly. “Today… our very last day… and in just a couple of hours we’ll be on the bus already…”
“I know,” Ryan said softly, “I can’t believe it either… I know we’ll see each other again, but I’m going to miss you so much.”
“I’ll miss you too, more than you could ever imagine,” said Brendon, nuzzling his face into Ryan’s chest. Ryan hugged him tightly and kissed the top of his head.
Now they were kissing again, but rougher this time. Brendon could feel Ryan’s desperation, his need, in his lips and the way they moved against his own. He had never felt this before. And then when Ryan slid his tongue through his lips, and the way he explored Brendon’s mouth, he could feel Ryan’s longing for him, and that he never wanted to, and just couldn’t stop, couldn’t let go…
Still kissing him fiercely, Ryan wrapped his hands around Brendon’s belt and began undoing it quickly. He’d already had it half off by the time Brendon noticed.
“Stop,” Brendon said, breaking the kiss and taking his hands off, but his jeans were getting tighter and shit, he wanted whatever it was Ryan wanted too. “Not now.”
“Please?”
“No, Ryan.”
“But Brendon… I need you.”
He looked into Ryan’s eyes and saw that desperation again, that longing, and sighed as he kissed him again.
Ryan’s hands triumphantly made their way back to his belt and as he undid it he pushed Brendon back onto the bed and straddled him, slowly pulling down his pants and his boxers. Without hesitation, Ryan bent down and took Brendon’s cock full in his mouth, and the two boys were in heaven again.
Time goes by fast when you’re getting a blowjob.
Somehow two hours had flown by (well, Ryan hadn’t been giving him head the ENTIRE time, they did other stuff afterwards, but you get the point) and Brendon found himself fully clothed again and stepping onto the bus, his friends right behind him. He went down the aisle of the bus and picked some random seat and sat down, putting his backpack and sack lunch on the floor. Ryan followed him and sat next to him, taking the aisle seat, and Jon and Spencer sat in the row in front of them so they could all hang out together during the bus ride the way home.
“This is it,” Brendon said to Ryan, looking out the window at the camp, “we’re going home.”
Ryan didn’t reply, but stared out the window too.
The depressing moment was interrupted by Jon leaning over the top of his seat to look at them. “Hey, guys! Having fun?”
“Not really,” said Brendon.
“Aw, come on! Let’s have some fun while we’re here.” Jon was obviously hyper. He’d eaten too many cookies at breakfast. Why the hell would they give teenage boys freaking cookies for breakfast anyway?! “I have a deck of cards and Mad Libs and all this stuff to do. It’ll be fun.”
“Yeah!” said Spencer, leaning over the seat too.
The rest of the other campers had boarded the bus and now their conversations were interrupted by the bus driver giving them the usual speech about emergency exits and safety rules and all that stuff. Then the bus door shut and they began to move, a tiny lump forming in Brendon’s throat. He would miss this place so much. He gazed out the window again, at the trees, and the hills, and the studio off in the background, barely visible…
At least he and his friends had a few more hours together of hanging out. It was a long drive back to Nevada. Brendon couldn’t remember how long the ride had been on their way to camp, but it had definitely been pretty long. That reminded him of something. He got his journal out of his backpack and flipped it open to the first page.
Dear Journal,
My name is Brendon Urie. I am fifteen years old and I live in Nevada. I am currently on my way via bus to Camp Keeway for three weeks of music camp with my best friend Jon Walker.
I sing and play guitar, and Jon plays bass. We can't wait to get to camp. Jon's already been to Camp Keeway twice. He was the one who persuaded me into going with him.
Camp Keeway is somewhere in Southern California, in some mountains. I'm not sure where, but I don't really care. Ha! That rhymes!
Jon's getting impatient with me, so I'll stop writing now. He wants to talk. It's really hard to write anyway since the bus is really bumpy. I hope it gets smoother soon. Write more later!
-Brendon
He turned the page.
Dear Journal,
Supposedly we only have half an hour left until we arrive at camp. I hope that's true. Jon's snoring really loudly- he fell asleep a while ago, and I guess I did too, but I just woke up- and he's leaning on my shoulder. His hair kinda tickles.
I really am truly excited for camp. It sounds like a ton of fun. I've never been to sleepaway summer camp.
I'm really hoping to make new friends at camp (sounds super corny, but it's true!), and to improve my music skills, obviously. I can't explain it, but I have this weird feeling something really unexpected is going to happen at camp. I just know it.
-Brendon
“Whatcha reading?” asked Ryan.
Brendon jumped. He’d totally forgotten about the boy sitting next to him. “Oh, just my journal,” he said. “I was reading what I’d written on the way to camp.”
“Can I see it?” asked Ryan.
“Sure,” he replied, handing it over. There wasn’t anything embarrassing in those two entries.
He watched Ryan read, his beautiful eyes dancing across the pages, and his hair falling across his perfect face…
“Aww, that was so cute,” said Ryan a minute later when he had finished.
“Cute? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I don’t know. You’re just cute,” said Ryan, shrugging.
Brendon rolled his eyes and took Ryan’s hand in his. Who cared if any of the other boys saw them? Brendon was never going to see them again, probably. And they couldn’t get in trouble with the counselors now.
Jon and Spencer appeared over the back of their seat again and the four friends started talking, forgetting where they were and where they were going. They hung out for quite a while, attempting to play cards without dropping them everywhere, and playing Mad Libs and stuff… it was fun.
But soon their exhaustion came back over them and Jon and Spencer had fallen asleep. Brendon and Ryan were still awake, but barely, especially Ryan.
“Good night,” Ryan murmured weakly into Brendon’s ear. “I love you, Brenny.”
“Sweet dreams,” Brendon whispered.
“Will you sing for me?”
“Anything for you,” Brendon replied, and he began to sing Northern Downpour, very softly, and Ryan closed his eyes, smiling as he sang along.
But pretty soon Ryan’s mouth stopped moving and he was deep in sleep. Brendon kept singing anyway, trying to stay awake. He knew if he fell asleep time would go by insanely fast and he couldn’t afford to lose any more time with Ryan. He wanted to savor every moment of this.
But damn, he was tired, and no matter how hard he tried, the inevitable sleep came over him, and Brendon slid into unconsciousness, his fingers still wrapped around Ryan’s.
A few hours later
He was awoken by the feeling of someone’s warm, sweet breath in his hair, and a hand gently stroking his face.
He opened his eyes and looked up into Ryan’s.
“Brenny? Did I wake you up?”
He nodded.
“I’m so sorry. Here, I’ll stop and you can go back to sleep. You look so tired.”
“No, I don’t want to sleep,” said Brendon, yawning. “I want to…”
The last thing he saw before he was gone again was Ryan’s sad eyes, gazing at him…
Another hour passed by, and this time Brendon woke up on his own.
Ryan was awake too, talking to Jon and Spencer. “Hey, Brendon woke up!” said Spencer suddenly.
The other two boys turned to look at him. “Yay, you’re awake! Finally!” said Jon. “We only have like 45 minutes left, or something.”
”Really?” Brendon rubbed his eyes. “Damn. I didn’t think I slept for that long.”
“Well, you did,” said Ryan, squeezing his hand. Wow. They’d been holding hands the entire time…
The four boys hung out, having tons of fun joking around and talking about stuff and doing riddles and stuff, but all of a sudden (it seemed like) the bus was pulling into a roped-off parking lot empty except for a big crowd of people and the trailer that had all their luggage.
“Holy shit, are we here?” said Brendon.
“Yeah,” said Jon, “I think so.”
They all exchanged a nervous glance, and Brendon’s hand grew sweaty in Ryan’s.
“I can’t believe it,” said Ryan sadly, “we’re already here… And our parents are here, to take us home…”
Brendon bit his lip and stared at his knees, that lump forming in his throat again.
“Oh, Brenny…”
He looked up and Ryan leaned forward and kissed him one last time. He knew it was the last time. Well, the last time until they saw each other again, but still.
He savored that lovely taste, the taste of Ryan’s lips, and his scent, and his soft hair falling into his eyes… damn it, how was he going to live without being with this boy all the time?
“Time to go,” Jon said quietly, and they broke apart, finally letting go of each other’s hands.
Brendon and Ryan exchanged another glance and gathered up their stuff and stood up, making their way to the center of the bus.
Brendon walked down the aisle quicker than he would have liked, completely numb. He was going to get off this thing and see his parents and have to face reality.
He reached the front of the bus. Fuck. This was it. He took a deep breath and stepped off, onto the asphalt below. Asphalt. Wow. Where was the grass and the soil and the trees? And ew, the air felt so dirty.
He’d only gone two feet and then suddenly he was being squeezed to death by someone’s arms.
“Oh, Brendon!” cried a woman’s voice. His mother. “My Brenny! I missed you so much!”
Brendon hugged her back. “Hi, Mom… can you please stop strangling me?”
“Sorry, honey, I just missed my little baby,” she said, letting go of him. She sure looked happy to see him.
Behind her was Brendon’s dad, a huge smile on his face. He hugged his son too. “It’s good to see you again. I missed you. Did you have fun at camp?”
“I sure did,” said Brendon, and his mind was filled with memories: his new friends, the trees, Ryan’s sleeping bag, the lake, the studio, stargazing, Ryan’s sleeping bag… “I had a lot of fun.”
“We carpooled with Jon’s parents on the way here, so we’re going to take him home too,” said Brendon’s mom. Brendon turned and saw Jon hugging his parents a few feet away. Once they were done the three of them went over to Brendon’s family. “Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Urie!” said Jon.
“Hi, Jon! Did you have a good time at camp?” said Brendon’s mom.
“Yep,” said Jon, smiling. Then he spotted Spencer walking towards him, a man and a woman and two girls walking with him. “Hey, Spencer!”
“Hi Jon,” said Spencer cheerfully. “I’m his and Brendon’s friend,” he said to their parents. “And these are my parents, and these are my sisters Crystal and Jackie.”
His friends introduced themselves to his family, and then Brendon saw Ryan standing fifteen feet away with a woman next to him who he guessed was his mother. “Ryan! Come over here!” he called. Ryan said something to his mom and they walked over to Brendon and his friends.
“This is our friend Ryan,” said Brendon cheerfully, putting his hand on his shoulder. “Ryan, these are my parents, and Jon’s parents.”
“Nice to meet you, Ryan,” said Brendon’s dad.
“Nice to meet you too,” Ryan said, a bit distractedly. He gestured to his mother. “This is my mom.”
She smiled a weird smile that seemed extremely fake. “Hi. It’s nice to meet you,” she said stiffly.
More introductions, and then Mrs. Urie said to Brendon and Jon, “Well, boys, ready to go? We already got your luggage, so we’re all set.”
“Already?!” Brendon and Jon exchanged a glance. “Can’t we hang out for a few more minutes?”
“Oh, fine,” said Mrs. Urie, looking a little cross, and the two boys went back to talking to Ryan and Spencer.
But of course a few more minutes passed by instantly.
“Okay, time to go,” said Brendon’s mom again.
“Yeah, we have things to do at home,” said her husband.
“Fine,” sighed Brendon and Jon. They exchanged a glance with Spencer and Ryan.
“Well… Bye, I guess,” they said awkwardly. Jon hugged Ryan and Brendon hugged Spencer, and then he went to hug Ryan.
They gazed into each other’s eyes sadly, and Brendon could see that longing again in Ryan’s face, and the lump appeared in his throat yet again and he tried to hold back his tears as he and Ryan embraced. But then one choked sob escaped and then the tears came, spilling from his eyes like a waterfall, and from Ryan’s eyes too, and the thorns stabbed at their hearts as they began sobbing onto each other’s shoulders uncontrollably and continued doing that for several minutes.
Brendon tried to say something rational through his crying, but it was impossible, and fuck, this was not supposed to happen. He could feel everyone’s eyes on the two of them, wondering what the hell was going on, and he could see Jon and Spencer hugging a few feet away too, but at least they managed not to cry, dammit.
Finally the Brendon and Ryan of them ran out of tears, but they were still in each other’s arms. “I l-love y-you, Ry,” Brendon managed to say in a choked whisper.
“I love y-you t-too, B-Brendon,” Ryan whispered back, squeezing him a little. “P-promise me I’ll s-see y-you soon.”
“I p-promise,” said Brendon, “I promise.”
He felt like the world would end the moment they let go of each other, but it didn’t. It kept moving and turning, when he was no longer in Ryan’s arms and he had to walk away from him to his parents, away from the boy he loved more than anything. That was the worst feeling ever, walking away…
He reached his stunned parents and turned to wave at Ryan and Spencer one last time. “Goodbye, Ryan, Spencer,” he said.
They smiled weakly at him. “Goodbye, Brendon and Jon… we’ll see you soon.”
“Bye, Spencer and Ryan,” said Jon, who Brendon had forgotten about for a minute. “We’ll definitely hang out soon.”
Then Brendon’s parents were saying something to him as they all walked back to the car, but he couldn’t hear their voices. All he could hear was the word “goodbye”, spoken by Ryan, echoing in his head over and over.
And as they drove away, Brendon and Jon sitting in the back seat, Brendon stared out the window at all the other boys and their parents, desperately trying to catch one more glimpse of a certain boy.
He saw Pete, who he’d befriended on the first day, and Patrick, who had an awesome voice, and Lukas, who was really good at guitar, and even Brian and Rico, whose cheeks were being pinched by their mothers, seriously- they looked really pissed off, haha, suckers- and then finally he spotted Ryan amongst them, walking with his mom towards a car parked nearby, carrying his luggage.
I love you, Ryan, he thought, gazing at the beautiful boy.
And then inexplicably, or maybe not so inexplicably, a little smile appeared on Ryan’s lips.
“You’ll see him soon,” Jon whispered to Brendon.
“I know,” he replied, somehow finding the energy to smile.
“I can’t wait.”
X
THEN I'm posting the first chapter of the sequel. Haha.
Title: Heartthorns
Rating: PG-13 (overall)
Pairing: Ryden, Joncer
POV: Third person. It changes.
Summary: Brendon and Jon, who are best friends, decide to go to music camp for three weeks during the summer together. There they meet new friends, enemies, and do a whole lot more than play music...
Disclaimer: Not true. I do not own Brendon, Ryan, Jon, Spencer, Pete, or Patrick. But I do own all the other characters and Camp Keeway.
Previous Chapters
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38
Brendon’s POV
No one wanted to wake up the next morning.
But they had to, and memories of last night flooded the minds of Ryan, Spencer, Jon, and Brendon as they reluctantly climbed out of their sleeping bags and got dressed, still half-asleep. The part of them that was half-awake only existed because of those memories.
Breakfast was very quiet. Everyone seemed totally exhausted from last night, including all the other boys. Obviously Brendon and his friends weren’t the only ones who had stayed up way past lights-out/quiet time.
After breakfast was time for packing, packing, and packing. Everyone was given an hour to pack, and then after that they’d have some free time. So of course Brendon and Ryan tried to pack as quickly as possible so they’d have lots of free time to spend with each other.
As soon as he was done, Brendon got his duffel bag and rolled up sleeping bag and dropped them off by the fire pit, where the counselors had told them to put their luggage once they’d packed. Then he hurried over to Ryan’s cabin and went inside.
Ryan looked like he was almost done packing. His cabin looked so empty without the posters on the walls and the random objects and clothes scattered everywhere…
“Hey Brenny,” he greeted Brendon, smiling from his mattress.
“Hi,” replied Brendon, and he sat down on the bare mattress next to him. They instantly were locked in a tight embrace, kissing.
“I can’t believe this is it,” Brendon murmured sadly. “Today… our very last day… and in just a couple of hours we’ll be on the bus already…”
“I know,” Ryan said softly, “I can’t believe it either… I know we’ll see each other again, but I’m going to miss you so much.”
“I’ll miss you too, more than you could ever imagine,” said Brendon, nuzzling his face into Ryan’s chest. Ryan hugged him tightly and kissed the top of his head.
Now they were kissing again, but rougher this time. Brendon could feel Ryan’s desperation, his need, in his lips and the way they moved against his own. He had never felt this before. And then when Ryan slid his tongue through his lips, and the way he explored Brendon’s mouth, he could feel Ryan’s longing for him, and that he never wanted to, and just couldn’t stop, couldn’t let go…
Still kissing him fiercely, Ryan wrapped his hands around Brendon’s belt and began undoing it quickly. He’d already had it half off by the time Brendon noticed.
“Stop,” Brendon said, breaking the kiss and taking his hands off, but his jeans were getting tighter and shit, he wanted whatever it was Ryan wanted too. “Not now.”
“Please?”
“No, Ryan.”
“But Brendon… I need you.”
He looked into Ryan’s eyes and saw that desperation again, that longing, and sighed as he kissed him again.
Ryan’s hands triumphantly made their way back to his belt and as he undid it he pushed Brendon back onto the bed and straddled him, slowly pulling down his pants and his boxers. Without hesitation, Ryan bent down and took Brendon’s cock full in his mouth, and the two boys were in heaven again.
Time goes by fast when you’re getting a blowjob.
Somehow two hours had flown by (well, Ryan hadn’t been giving him head the ENTIRE time, they did other stuff afterwards, but you get the point) and Brendon found himself fully clothed again and stepping onto the bus, his friends right behind him. He went down the aisle of the bus and picked some random seat and sat down, putting his backpack and sack lunch on the floor. Ryan followed him and sat next to him, taking the aisle seat, and Jon and Spencer sat in the row in front of them so they could all hang out together during the bus ride the way home.
“This is it,” Brendon said to Ryan, looking out the window at the camp, “we’re going home.”
Ryan didn’t reply, but stared out the window too.
The depressing moment was interrupted by Jon leaning over the top of his seat to look at them. “Hey, guys! Having fun?”
“Not really,” said Brendon.
“Aw, come on! Let’s have some fun while we’re here.” Jon was obviously hyper. He’d eaten too many cookies at breakfast. Why the hell would they give teenage boys freaking cookies for breakfast anyway?! “I have a deck of cards and Mad Libs and all this stuff to do. It’ll be fun.”
“Yeah!” said Spencer, leaning over the seat too.
The rest of the other campers had boarded the bus and now their conversations were interrupted by the bus driver giving them the usual speech about emergency exits and safety rules and all that stuff. Then the bus door shut and they began to move, a tiny lump forming in Brendon’s throat. He would miss this place so much. He gazed out the window again, at the trees, and the hills, and the studio off in the background, barely visible…
At least he and his friends had a few more hours together of hanging out. It was a long drive back to Nevada. Brendon couldn’t remember how long the ride had been on their way to camp, but it had definitely been pretty long. That reminded him of something. He got his journal out of his backpack and flipped it open to the first page.
Dear Journal,
My name is Brendon Urie. I am fifteen years old and I live in Nevada. I am currently on my way via bus to Camp Keeway for three weeks of music camp with my best friend Jon Walker.
I sing and play guitar, and Jon plays bass. We can't wait to get to camp. Jon's already been to Camp Keeway twice. He was the one who persuaded me into going with him.
Camp Keeway is somewhere in Southern California, in some mountains. I'm not sure where, but I don't really care. Ha! That rhymes!
Jon's getting impatient with me, so I'll stop writing now. He wants to talk. It's really hard to write anyway since the bus is really bumpy. I hope it gets smoother soon. Write more later!
-Brendon
He turned the page.
Dear Journal,
Supposedly we only have half an hour left until we arrive at camp. I hope that's true. Jon's snoring really loudly- he fell asleep a while ago, and I guess I did too, but I just woke up- and he's leaning on my shoulder. His hair kinda tickles.
I really am truly excited for camp. It sounds like a ton of fun. I've never been to sleepaway summer camp.
I'm really hoping to make new friends at camp (sounds super corny, but it's true!), and to improve my music skills, obviously. I can't explain it, but I have this weird feeling something really unexpected is going to happen at camp. I just know it.
-Brendon
“Whatcha reading?” asked Ryan.
Brendon jumped. He’d totally forgotten about the boy sitting next to him. “Oh, just my journal,” he said. “I was reading what I’d written on the way to camp.”
“Can I see it?” asked Ryan.
“Sure,” he replied, handing it over. There wasn’t anything embarrassing in those two entries.
He watched Ryan read, his beautiful eyes dancing across the pages, and his hair falling across his perfect face…
“Aww, that was so cute,” said Ryan a minute later when he had finished.
“Cute? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I don’t know. You’re just cute,” said Ryan, shrugging.
Brendon rolled his eyes and took Ryan’s hand in his. Who cared if any of the other boys saw them? Brendon was never going to see them again, probably. And they couldn’t get in trouble with the counselors now.
Jon and Spencer appeared over the back of their seat again and the four friends started talking, forgetting where they were and where they were going. They hung out for quite a while, attempting to play cards without dropping them everywhere, and playing Mad Libs and stuff… it was fun.
But soon their exhaustion came back over them and Jon and Spencer had fallen asleep. Brendon and Ryan were still awake, but barely, especially Ryan.
“Good night,” Ryan murmured weakly into Brendon’s ear. “I love you, Brenny.”
“Sweet dreams,” Brendon whispered.
“Will you sing for me?”
“Anything for you,” Brendon replied, and he began to sing Northern Downpour, very softly, and Ryan closed his eyes, smiling as he sang along.
But pretty soon Ryan’s mouth stopped moving and he was deep in sleep. Brendon kept singing anyway, trying to stay awake. He knew if he fell asleep time would go by insanely fast and he couldn’t afford to lose any more time with Ryan. He wanted to savor every moment of this.
But damn, he was tired, and no matter how hard he tried, the inevitable sleep came over him, and Brendon slid into unconsciousness, his fingers still wrapped around Ryan’s.
A few hours later
He was awoken by the feeling of someone’s warm, sweet breath in his hair, and a hand gently stroking his face.
He opened his eyes and looked up into Ryan’s.
“Brenny? Did I wake you up?”
He nodded.
“I’m so sorry. Here, I’ll stop and you can go back to sleep. You look so tired.”
“No, I don’t want to sleep,” said Brendon, yawning. “I want to…”
The last thing he saw before he was gone again was Ryan’s sad eyes, gazing at him…
Another hour passed by, and this time Brendon woke up on his own.
Ryan was awake too, talking to Jon and Spencer. “Hey, Brendon woke up!” said Spencer suddenly.
The other two boys turned to look at him. “Yay, you’re awake! Finally!” said Jon. “We only have like 45 minutes left, or something.”
”Really?” Brendon rubbed his eyes. “Damn. I didn’t think I slept for that long.”
“Well, you did,” said Ryan, squeezing his hand. Wow. They’d been holding hands the entire time…
The four boys hung out, having tons of fun joking around and talking about stuff and doing riddles and stuff, but all of a sudden (it seemed like) the bus was pulling into a roped-off parking lot empty except for a big crowd of people and the trailer that had all their luggage.
“Holy shit, are we here?” said Brendon.
“Yeah,” said Jon, “I think so.”
They all exchanged a nervous glance, and Brendon’s hand grew sweaty in Ryan’s.
“I can’t believe it,” said Ryan sadly, “we’re already here… And our parents are here, to take us home…”
Brendon bit his lip and stared at his knees, that lump forming in his throat again.
“Oh, Brenny…”
He looked up and Ryan leaned forward and kissed him one last time. He knew it was the last time. Well, the last time until they saw each other again, but still.
He savored that lovely taste, the taste of Ryan’s lips, and his scent, and his soft hair falling into his eyes… damn it, how was he going to live without being with this boy all the time?
“Time to go,” Jon said quietly, and they broke apart, finally letting go of each other’s hands.
Brendon and Ryan exchanged another glance and gathered up their stuff and stood up, making their way to the center of the bus.
Brendon walked down the aisle quicker than he would have liked, completely numb. He was going to get off this thing and see his parents and have to face reality.
He reached the front of the bus. Fuck. This was it. He took a deep breath and stepped off, onto the asphalt below. Asphalt. Wow. Where was the grass and the soil and the trees? And ew, the air felt so dirty.
He’d only gone two feet and then suddenly he was being squeezed to death by someone’s arms.
“Oh, Brendon!” cried a woman’s voice. His mother. “My Brenny! I missed you so much!”
Brendon hugged her back. “Hi, Mom… can you please stop strangling me?”
“Sorry, honey, I just missed my little baby,” she said, letting go of him. She sure looked happy to see him.
Behind her was Brendon’s dad, a huge smile on his face. He hugged his son too. “It’s good to see you again. I missed you. Did you have fun at camp?”
“I sure did,” said Brendon, and his mind was filled with memories: his new friends, the trees, Ryan’s sleeping bag, the lake, the studio, stargazing, Ryan’s sleeping bag… “I had a lot of fun.”
“We carpooled with Jon’s parents on the way here, so we’re going to take him home too,” said Brendon’s mom. Brendon turned and saw Jon hugging his parents a few feet away. Once they were done the three of them went over to Brendon’s family. “Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Urie!” said Jon.
“Hi, Jon! Did you have a good time at camp?” said Brendon’s mom.
“Yep,” said Jon, smiling. Then he spotted Spencer walking towards him, a man and a woman and two girls walking with him. “Hey, Spencer!”
“Hi Jon,” said Spencer cheerfully. “I’m his and Brendon’s friend,” he said to their parents. “And these are my parents, and these are my sisters Crystal and Jackie.”
His friends introduced themselves to his family, and then Brendon saw Ryan standing fifteen feet away with a woman next to him who he guessed was his mother. “Ryan! Come over here!” he called. Ryan said something to his mom and they walked over to Brendon and his friends.
“This is our friend Ryan,” said Brendon cheerfully, putting his hand on his shoulder. “Ryan, these are my parents, and Jon’s parents.”
“Nice to meet you, Ryan,” said Brendon’s dad.
“Nice to meet you too,” Ryan said, a bit distractedly. He gestured to his mother. “This is my mom.”
She smiled a weird smile that seemed extremely fake. “Hi. It’s nice to meet you,” she said stiffly.
More introductions, and then Mrs. Urie said to Brendon and Jon, “Well, boys, ready to go? We already got your luggage, so we’re all set.”
“Already?!” Brendon and Jon exchanged a glance. “Can’t we hang out for a few more minutes?”
“Oh, fine,” said Mrs. Urie, looking a little cross, and the two boys went back to talking to Ryan and Spencer.
But of course a few more minutes passed by instantly.
“Okay, time to go,” said Brendon’s mom again.
“Yeah, we have things to do at home,” said her husband.
“Fine,” sighed Brendon and Jon. They exchanged a glance with Spencer and Ryan.
“Well… Bye, I guess,” they said awkwardly. Jon hugged Ryan and Brendon hugged Spencer, and then he went to hug Ryan.
They gazed into each other’s eyes sadly, and Brendon could see that longing again in Ryan’s face, and the lump appeared in his throat yet again and he tried to hold back his tears as he and Ryan embraced. But then one choked sob escaped and then the tears came, spilling from his eyes like a waterfall, and from Ryan’s eyes too, and the thorns stabbed at their hearts as they began sobbing onto each other’s shoulders uncontrollably and continued doing that for several minutes.
Brendon tried to say something rational through his crying, but it was impossible, and fuck, this was not supposed to happen. He could feel everyone’s eyes on the two of them, wondering what the hell was going on, and he could see Jon and Spencer hugging a few feet away too, but at least they managed not to cry, dammit.
Finally the Brendon and Ryan of them ran out of tears, but they were still in each other’s arms. “I l-love y-you, Ry,” Brendon managed to say in a choked whisper.
“I love y-you t-too, B-Brendon,” Ryan whispered back, squeezing him a little. “P-promise me I’ll s-see y-you soon.”
“I p-promise,” said Brendon, “I promise.”
He felt like the world would end the moment they let go of each other, but it didn’t. It kept moving and turning, when he was no longer in Ryan’s arms and he had to walk away from him to his parents, away from the boy he loved more than anything. That was the worst feeling ever, walking away…
He reached his stunned parents and turned to wave at Ryan and Spencer one last time. “Goodbye, Ryan, Spencer,” he said.
They smiled weakly at him. “Goodbye, Brendon and Jon… we’ll see you soon.”
“Bye, Spencer and Ryan,” said Jon, who Brendon had forgotten about for a minute. “We’ll definitely hang out soon.”
Then Brendon’s parents were saying something to him as they all walked back to the car, but he couldn’t hear their voices. All he could hear was the word “goodbye”, spoken by Ryan, echoing in his head over and over.
And as they drove away, Brendon and Jon sitting in the back seat, Brendon stared out the window at all the other boys and their parents, desperately trying to catch one more glimpse of a certain boy.
He saw Pete, who he’d befriended on the first day, and Patrick, who had an awesome voice, and Lukas, who was really good at guitar, and even Brian and Rico, whose cheeks were being pinched by their mothers, seriously- they looked really pissed off, haha, suckers- and then finally he spotted Ryan amongst them, walking with his mom towards a car parked nearby, carrying his luggage.
I love you, Ryan, he thought, gazing at the beautiful boy.
And then inexplicably, or maybe not so inexplicably, a little smile appeared on Ryan’s lips.
“You’ll see him soon,” Jon whispered to Brendon.
“I know,” he replied, somehow finding the energy to smile.
“I can’t wait.”
X