Support Hotline (Ryden)

The Mistake Grows

Brendon calls his parents and says he's staying over at a friend's house. He holds the phone while sitting on the counter.

"Uh, we have a huge exam tomorrow, and we're gonna study all night."

I hear a slight voice through the phone and he rolls his eyes.

"We'll get some sleep." He says assuringly.

"He's got his license. We've got a ride. Okay, we gotta get to work, love you, night." He hangs up the phone with a sigh. He still didn't have a shirt on.

"Do you need clothes for tomorrow? They might be a little big."

"Y-yeah. Sure." His voice is still weak. I look down at his bruise and remember what we were doing. All of it.

"I..." I start but my voice cracks.

"Can I kiss you again?" He asks me quietly. My head pops up and I look at him as he stares down, afraid of my answer, or maybe he's afraid of the kiss itself. I fear it too.

I move slowly back to the counter and go back to the same place the first mistake was made. I stare up into his eyes and make the mistake again.

He moves his hand to the back of my neck as he leans into our kiss. My head is tilted up because of the elevation he has from the counter.

We pull away and each let out deep breaths, staring at each other with wide eyes.

"I..." I try again. "Is this going to be a normal thing?"

Brendon just looks at me and then exhales a small laugh.

"Well, there's no going back, now is there?"

"Guess not." I say through an exhale. He moves back forward and we start all over again.

"Fuck!" He hisses when he leans a little to far. He leans back against the mirror and lightly touches the bruise on his side with his fingers. I lean closer to help him off of the counter.

"Let's get back to the couch." I say as I struggle to move him back past my bed and through a hallway.

I set him down and he turns to lay down slowly.

"I'm gonna go call in for work." I whisper and go to my room to call my boss at Taco Bell.

When I hang up, I come back out to see him sleeping contently, but not completely at ease. I rub the part of his back that's exposed as he breathes steadily. I soon fall after as we both sleep without ease.

***

I sit up groggily and rub my eyes. I slept on the inside of the couch as Brendon slept on the outside, curled under me.

When I finally find my phone in my pocket without making Brendon stir, I see the time is seven-fifteen. We had slept for six hours without interruptions. My stomach growls and I realize how hungry I am. The position I'm currently in would make any movement without waking Brendon impossible.

I internally groan and try to sneak one foot down to the ground and when I finally touch it I try and slip through and stand. Turns out, that wasn't happening and I moved Brendon's entire body almost off of the couch. I move off quickly and try to catch his body before it hit the ground. No matter what, Brendon was already going to wake up, so it didn't really matter. He stirs for a moment and then stretches weakly as I push him back onto the couch.

He rolls over and looks up at me. "Hi." He says quietly with a smile.

"Hey. Are you hungry?"

"Kinda, I skipped lunch, but the taste of my own blood ruined my appetite for a while." He lets out a little laugh.

"Let's go grab something really quickly." I take his hand and help him stand.

We both had fallen asleep with our shoes on, so there wasn't any more struggle than there had already been.

When we finally get into the car, we decide on sub sandwiches. Brendon and I both agree that Subway sucks and the little shop on the corner near the mall is the best. It's a farther drive, but way better.

He orders his sandwich with multiple specific details which was rocket science compared to my simple turkey sandwich on white.

"Is this for here or to go?" The girl at the register asks. Just a glance at Brendon, who is not enjoying his time standing, tells me that we should take this to go. She nods and puts the wrapped sandwiches in a bag. When I pull out my wallet Brendon sighs.

"I should have grabbed my wallet." He mumbles.

"It's fine, I've got it." I say as I pay and grab the bag and push the door open for him.

As we drive through downtown I look at the music store and remember it made him happy. In attempt to make him cheer up a little, I offer to stop.

"Sure." He mumbles. When I find a spot, I park and run around to help Brendon out of the car. Through the window, I see a silhouette sitting at the drum set.

-A/N: Okay, so I'm doing prewriting for this story, which is much better. But just to set a promise, no chapter will go up unless it's 800+ words. And that's excluding notes. I might have already broken my rule in previous chapters, but from now on, no more. At the moment I'm adding in my favorite human being and I'm sO READY BECAUSE I FUCKING LOVE THIS PERSON SO MUCH. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading!