Jealous Orchard (Brendon Urie) 01

Tomorrow the boys left, again. I had spent a lot of time with Ryan and, once I forgave him for the whole school incident, Spencer. I had seen Brent twice but he spent the majority of his free time with either his family or his girlfriend. And even though Brendon and I talked on the phone quite a lot, he had been off with Tanya for the remainder of the past week. I had done a pretty good job of hiding how insane it was making me, but Ryan made it clear that everyone was aware of my feelings.

"Did you know that when you're annoyed with something, or someone, you make this smelly face?" He asked me as we sat on the couch in his apartment, "Sin City" playing on the dusty TV screen across from us.
"I do not," I protested, turning and frowning at him, "and I'm not even annoyed right now, so I know you're lying."
Ryan laughed, tipping his head back as he did so, making me watch the way his unusually large adams apple bobbed. "You're not annoyed? Are you kidding me? You've spent the last five days snapping at everyone who made the mistake of mentioning Brendon's name more then once. We passed Tanya in teh mall tow days ago and you threw a milkshake at her."
"That is a lie," I argued, "it was a smoothie."
He rolled his eyes. "Right, that makes it less insane." He let out a sigh, stretching his long arms above his head before letting the fall limply to his side. "I think you need to find some sort of activity that will get rid of all that anger in you."
I looked at him, keeping my face completly serious, "Ryan, I am not having sex with you."
He nostrils flared as his mouth curled downwards before he responded, "Well, good. I was going to suggest we drove out to the lame fair that's going on and play whack-a-mole, but I'm not sure I want to spend time with someone who makes me uncomfortable."
I only laughed, taking the remote and shutting the movie off before I pushed myself off of the couch. "There's a fair happening?"
"Yeah, one of the elementary schools is holding it to raise money for the band trip," he shrugged, still slumped forwards on the couch. "It's more like a fun night then a fair but who am I to ruin their fun?" He let out another sigh, making a move to get up but not actually doing so.
I nodded, biting on my lip slightly. "How many people will be there? Is it, like, a big deal?"
He smirked at me, finally letting out a runt as he pushed himself off of the couch. "Brendon and Tanya are going to see some shitty movie tonight. They won't be there."
I nodded thankfully, well aware of the way my face was growing warm. "Well, should we go then?"
"As long as we stop for coffee and energy drinks so I can stay awake,” Ryan mumbled, sliding his bony arms into the sleeves of his ugly brown suede jacket, lookinga t me through the fringe of his overgrown hair.
“Sounds good to me,” I agreed, tugging at the collar of my shirt before picking up my hoodie from the ground and sliding into it, following Ryan out the door of his apartment and through the dull hallway that led to the elevator.
------------------------------
I never liked crowds. That was part of the reason why I had only seen Panic play live twice in their entire existance as a band. I just couldn’t stand people being right in my space, clashing into me, shouting in my ears, rubbing their sweat and adrenaline all over me as if I was some sort of towel hanging on a wall. I avoided those situations. I only went to the mall on a Tuseday, an hour before it closed, just because that was almost a gurantee at the smallest crowd. But there was no escaping this mess of limbs.
The kids went flying up and down the field, which was covered with little carnival booths and tents, scraming as loud as they could about the game they were going to play or the prize they had won. I could feel my face falling with anger as each little rascal rushed past me and added colour to the already growing bruise on my rib cage.
“Seriously, who had these punks?” I yelled, pointing a finger at three little boys who ran past, two of them smacking an elbow into me as they did so.
Ryan laughed, taking a long drink from his Rockstar Energy drink as he looked around. “We should totally get our fortunes told,” he said, his voice laced with excitement.
I rolled my eyes, “Please. Everytime I’ve done that they tell me I’m about to encounter someone special or some change is about to occur.”
“Those are good things to be told, Paige,” Ryan informed me, grabbing my arm and leading me over to the big purple booth.
“But they’re lies. The biggest change I had that day was Spencer throwing up his Large Pretzel all over me on the Octopus ride,” I explained, trying to free my arm from his grip.
Ryan laughed, letting go of my arm as we came to a stop in front of the booth. “Okay, I’ll go have my fortune told, and you wait hear.”
“I have a better idea. You go get your fortune told, and I go acorss the field and play speedball,” I suggested, turning and walking away before he could say anything.
Speedball had always been the one game I could beat anybody at. It was a simple concept, roll a ball down a lane and hope you gave it enough force that it lands in a hole worth points, and I always seemed to score big points. The only person who had ever managed to beat me was Brendon, and as I stodd there in line, waiting for my turn to play, I couldn’t help but miss him. I missed him so much that I wouldn’t have cared if he showed up with Tanya, as long as I got to see him and act like a goof with him, I’d be happy.
Ryan came sauntering over as I was about to insert a quarter to play, leaning against the garbage can beside me as he waited for me to start.
“How did the fortune telling go?” I asked, grabbing the first small bowling ball and lining it up with the hundred hole.
“It was waste of time,” He admitted, applauding as the ball rolled landed in the 80. “She told me I was full of passion and that my heart would guide me to the person who will encourage my passion,” He rolled his eyes.
I grinned at him, throwing another ball and letting out a squeal as it landed in the 100. “So basically, you’re marrying Spencer?”
“Basically,” he laughed, raising his eyebrows at me as I eanred another hundred points. “Seriosuly, how are you so aweome at this game?”
“Because I’m an all-around awesome person, duh.” I reminded him, bowling the last ball and feeling my shoulders sink down as it rolled into the 10 point hole. “Well, that was dissapointing.”
“Yeah, 1118 points is a real bummer. I’m lucky if I get ten points but let’s all feel sorry for the overachiever," He sent me a look before nodding his head in the direction of the field once more.
I followed after him, trying to keep a hold of all the tickets I had won myslef as I did so. "What fun games should we get up into now, Ryry?"
He made a face, looking at me over his shoulder. "Don't call me that."
"But Brendon calls you that all the time."
"Brendon is special," he reminded me, stopping in his tracks as he looked around the field. "I'm thinking we hit up the smoothie hut."
"I love smoothies. And I don't even plan on throwing this one,” I told him, earning a grin out of him as we head off towards the smoothie hut. We ordered our drinks, mine raspberry and Ryan’s pineapple, before sitting at one of the sad, plastic tables that were set out. I stirred my own drink around for a moment, letting myself get lost in my thoughts before Ryan interrupted.
“He’ll be home soon,” he said, smiling at me as I looked over at him. “Don’t look at me like that, you know who I’m talking about."
"I do, I'm just not sure why you told me-"
"I'm telling you because Tanya has to be home by 10:00pm on Satruday because she works early on Sunday mornings. And I know that you want to say an actual goodbye to Brendon, so you should wait until 10:30 or so and just go to his house," he explained, taking a sip of his smoothie afterwards.
I nodded, feeling a smile pull itself onto my face, "Thank you, Ryan."
He nodded, placing his drink down on the table and looking at me, "You konw, we never did play whack-a-mole."
------------------------------
I hadn't been to Brendon's house in awhile. I actually felt uncomfortable standing on the porch as I rang the doorbell. He and Adam lived in a tiny house just around the corner from my own. Brendon lived upstairs and Adam lived downstairs, giving them a break from each other when needed.
I could hear Brendon bounce down the hall after I rang the doorbell, making a small smile appear on my face. I ran a hand through my hair, smoothing out the tangles my night out with Ryan had caused, and smoothing down the material of my shirt as I waited for him to answer the door. I felt my breathing increase as he pulled the door back, sending me a grin when he saw me. "Paige Winters!"
I smiled back, letting him hug me befor follwoing him into the house. I looked around at the mess, frowning at the clothes strewn across the floor and the half empty glasses of milk sitting everywhere. "Ew, Brendon. Do you know how to clean?"
"Yes, but I like to be original. Everyone has clean houses. Mine is a disgusting mess of mold. I am an oroginal," He explained, winking at me.
I let out a small laugh, trying to cover up the blush that his wink had brought to my face. "I actually came to say bye, since you guys leave tomorrow and I haven't really seen much of you," I tried not to let my voice fall flat at the last part, but it happened anyways.
Brendon sighed, pulling a carton of orange juice from the fridge, "I know. I'm sorry. Tanya's all worried that I'm going to forget about her while we're on tour so she's been a little clingy," he shrugged, shaking the jug at me. "You want some juice?"
"Do you have any clean cups left?" I asked, shaking my head when he gave me an emabrrassed smile. "I'm good, thanks." I took a seat on top of the counter, swinging my legs as Brendon leant agasint the cuboards across from me, taking a swig of juice from the carton. "What if I'm scared you'll foret about me on tour? Would you hang out with me more?" I asked cheekily, grinning at him.
Brendon let out a small laugh, placing the carton next to him. "I would never forget you, Paige," He assured me, causing a small smile to tug at my lips once more, "And I promise that when I'm back I'll devote more time to hanging out with you."
"Good, because I miss you." I told him.
"You mean missed," he corrected, lifting up the carton of juice and taking another swig.
I watched him, chewing on the inside of my lip for a moment, "No, I mean miss."
He tilted his head, looking at me in a way I hadn't seen him look at me before. He pursed his lips a little bit, as if debating what he should say next. He finally let out a sigh, "Not as much as I miss you," He said softly, raising his dark eyes to meet my my own.
I sat there for a moment, trying to decide how I should react. There was a part of me that wanted to be cliche and hop off the counter, walk slowly towards him and kiss him. But I knew that was just a little too Hollywood for reality and instead chose to stare at him with the same intensity he was giving me. I finally lowered myself off of the counter and walked over to him, pulling him into a hug and feeling myself get pulled onto the tips of my toes as he hugged back. We stayed like that for a good minute or two before I finally pulled away from him.
"Have fun on tour. I'll miss you," I told him, turning to go.
Brendon gave my hand a squeeze before letting go of me. I could feel him watching me as I went, and it took all of my strength to not turn around and run back into his arms. Instead I chose to reminde myself, "He belongs to Tanya now," encouraging my feet to lead me away from his house instead of back to it.