Missing in Action

Chapter 005

"I can't believe we've finished it," Spencer said, grinning from ear to ear. Both he and Ryan were sitting at his desk, the laptop in front of them, and they were now leaning back in their chairs, happy that they had finished their dreaded project. "And it wasn't even that bad, was it? I mean, even if Brendon couldn't help us much..." he trailed off and glanced at his alarm clock. "It's still pretty early, too, only eight o'clock. And we don't have a curfew tonight." Spencer continued grinning as he saved the document on his laptop and then closed it. "I'll go down to the library tomorrow and print out a few copies," he said, before shutting off the laptop.

Earlier that day, when they'd finished classes for the weekend, Spencer had banished Jon from his room so that he could work with Ryan. He'd been doing it all week and Jon was getting more and more aggravated, stomping off to Brendon's room without so much as a 'see you later'. Spencer himself was starting to get seriously annoyed with Jon, but it was mostly because he didn't understand what was going on with his best friend. He sighed and looked back at Ryan. "Want to go find Brendon and.. Jon?" he asked, wincing slightly at the name. He really hoped Jon would behave tonight.

Ryan nodded, holding back a sigh. Over the week he'd started feeling comfortable with Spencer, extremely at ease. Of course he was still pretending, and he felt bad that Spencer just seemed to swallow it up without really doubting him, felt bad for exploiting a nice kid who trusted easily. But at the same time it had helped him really develop his faux personality to a point where it almost felt real, sometimes, even to himself. Jon and Brendon were different. Jon was either an angry asshole who was - more or less subtly - at his throat, or he was grilling him so much it wasn't even funny. And Brendon... around Brendon he had to control the way he acted so much, had to keep his character in check to the point of sending the right glances, sending the right signals. It was tiring. And he was nervous lately because he felt he'd been here long enough to start the next step of his charade, had been around Brendon for long enough that it wouldn't seem too weird to start to develop a crush or whatever. And knowing that he had to start acting like he had soon was only making him more nervous about the whole thing.

None the less, he knew that for anything to work at all, he had to be around Brendon pretty often. And, by default, that quite often meant Jon too, so there was really no easy way around it. He took a deep breath and stretched, feeling slight relief in his muscles as his back cracked, and got up, ready to go.

Spencer got up as well, then led the way out of the room and to Brendon's. He knocked once, not surprised in the least when Zach opened the door, and let them through. Brendon was at his usual place on the desk chair and Jon was sprawled across his bed. Smiling slightly, Spencer climbed into the bed, shoving Jon over to give himself some room. Jon grunted, but Spencer could see the smile playing on his lips.

"Yes, please, invite yourselves into my room and lay anywhere you wish," Brendon said sarcastically, still staring down at a sheet of paper in his lap. He looked up briefly to glare at Spencer's shoes, that were currently resting on his bedding, and only looked back at the paper when Spencer had moved his feet off the bed. Spencer motioned to Ryan to sit down on the comfortable chair near the bed.

"You're making me anxious just standing there," he said, chuckling.

Ryan smiled slightly, shrugging and plopping down in the chair. "I'm so glad we're done with that stuff," he groaned. "I'll be happy if I never see or hear the word 'economy' again." Then he looked around in the room slightly, trying to gauge what everyone had been up to. Doing nothing, it would seem. Probably talking.

Spencer nodded in agreement, laying his head on Jon's shoulder. "I'll be happy if I never have to write an argumentative essay ever again, actually," he said, as Jon tried to push him off his shoulder.