The Good, The Bad, and The Dirty - Brendon Urie

III. I Pinky Promise

Since my mother had so inconsiderately planned for me to have to talk to an extremely attractive guy multiple times a week (PLUS have to learn an instrument I have given up on twice), I decided to spend the rest of the night in my room. It worked for the first couple of hours; until my dad came home.

"You spend so much time alone in your room I'm starting to worry about what you're doing in there," he said, hands on his hips.

I'm either eating where no one can judge me or watching Netflix, but if that's naughty behavior then I don't know what the world has come to.

"Sorry, dad," I managed to say, not wanting to talk back to him. His face suddenly switched from anger to sympathy as he came into my room and sat at the end of my bed.

"I just want to spend more time with you, I feel like I missed so much of your childhood."

And who's fault is that?

"So can we make a deal that you'll start coming out of your room more?" He asked, his eyes filled with kindness. I mentally rolled my eyes as I nodded my head, hoping my response will encourage him to leave.

"Okay honey, can you come eat dinner with me and your mother?" He asked, genuinely concerned about me.

"Sure," I said as I started to get off my bed. "But if you and mom argue I'm coming straight back to my room." He chuckled at my comment and turned off my light as we left my bedroom.

"I'll try my hardest not to pick a fight." He said to me, holding his pinkie out to me for a "pinkie promise." I looked up from his hand to his face, which had a child-like look on it.

I'm not five years old, I thought to myself as I joined my pinkie with his, which he seemed to take as an official promise.

I walked into the dining room, where my mother was currently setting out dinner.

"Hello, Frank," she greeted my dad as she placed a small kiss on his cheek. I fake gagged as I sat down in my seat, disgusted that my mom tried so hard to make this family perfect again. Luckily, neither of them saw it- they were too busy talking about "how work went" or "how nice the weather was" today. I grabbed a plate of food and listened to them chat about nothing, until a topic that interested me was brought up.

"So we have a new neighbor," my mom said as she took a bite of her meatloaf. My dad raised his eyebrows at this, but still didn't look up from his plate.

"Oh?"

"His name is Brendon and he will be giving Kristine guitar lessons soon."

Oh my god, don't bring this up.

"That's nice," my dad said, clearly not that interested. "Is he cute?" he asked, joking with me. My eyes widened at this question, and my cheeks suddenly turned red.

"Yes, he is." My mother said laughing, responding to the question for me. My dad switched his gaze from me to my mother, and set his fork down onto his plate.

"Well, if you think he's so cute maybe you should be having dinner with him," My father said, jealous for no reason.

"Honey, I was just kidding." My mom said with a fake smile on her face. My dad crossed his arms and sat back in his seat, anger filing his eyes.

"Didn't sound like you were," he said, officially picking a fight. I stood up from my chair with my plate and nodded in my mom's direction.

"Thanks for the dinner mom, but I think I'll be going to my room now." My dad looked over to me, finally realizing what he was doing. Tears filled my eyes as I walked quickly to my room, hoping that they weren't following me.

"Kristine, I'm sorry. Come back!" My dad yelled from the living room. I rolled my eyes as I walked into my room and slammed the door behind me.