Hold The Pose (Ryden, Joncer) [by zarah5]

Part 3

It’s almost as if Spencer’s words are the starting signal for a whirlwind: The following days—The following weeks, wow, pass in a flurry of activity, with Jon red-cheeked and talking about hardly anything other than the plans he and Spencer are working out for the new café, detailed sketches of an Indian sort of hippie interior, of furniture they’re trying to assemble, of cloth and pictures that should be on the walls, the espresso machine already picked out. Talking bank people into credits isn’t a problem since Ryan, by Spencer’s account, nearly forced Spencer into accepting some of his money as a loan with extremely good conditions – as in, the interest equals the inflation rate, and it would have been zero if Spencer hadn’t insisted to pay at least a very small amount for the loan.

While Brendon would like to spend as much time in the changing shop as Jon does, Jon has the advantage of actually getting some money as well as college work out of it. His term project consists of a photo series, the topic conveniently chosen to allow him to take pictures of the construction and the planning, ladders that blur out of focus as they reach for the ceiling, paint dripping off a brush, maps that have been corrected until they’re almost unintelligible.

Brendon spends a few afternoons on the construction site, too, and he and Jon end up painting an enormous sun on one wall. Pete, who flits back and forth between the main room and Spencer’s office, claps his hands in glee the moment he catches sight of it, and he doesn’t stop talking until Spencer agrees that yes, it would be totally stylish to decorate the beams with pieces of a broken mirror, so that the pieces reflect the light of Indian lamps Haley found at a scruffy Asian shop a few days earlier.

In order to finish what they started, Jon and Brendon collaborate to break a large mirror into small slices, Brendon gathering up the pieces while Jon works the hammer.

It’s impossible to miss the occasional, increasingly obvious glances Jon sneaks at Spencer. Brendon is proud that he himself only nearly startles once, when Tom exhales against his cheek while examining Brendon's work. Fortunately, Tom leaves quickly to help Haley carry some things for the supply closet.

During the second week, William drops in to supply a selection of CDs, and Jon and Gabe immediately set to work on the stereo system. Whenever Brendon manages to spare a couple of hours at the emerging café, there's a constant trickle of people coming in to help out for a while, or to just have a look at how things are progressing. There are too many to remember all their names – Victoria, and a guy called Travis, and Brendon distinctly remembers that one is called The Butcher – but even between all those people, Brendon never meets Ryan.

Jon does. The first time is on his second day at the newly deserted screw shop, when he and Spencer are still trying to figure out how to do this working relationship thing. The figuring out part was apparently cut short when Jon and Ryan started discussing guitar models and pot while Spencer was pouring over his business plan. Considering Jon liked Ryan’s book, he’s probably biased about Ryan being a cool guy. Either way, it doesn’t take them long to fall into what sounds like an easy kind of friendship.

Brendon doesn’t really care about not getting to meet Ryan, not at first. Jon’s tales sound quite cool, but Brendon has enough on his plate without wasting time thinking about his elusive employer.

On the other hand, he and Ryan still exchange notes. The first song – Brendon still hesitates to call it that; it seems presumptuous, but Ryan went there first – gets polished and then exchanged for another set of lyrics, a different kind of mood, come save me from walking off a windowsill or I'll sleep in the rain.

Along with what might be the chorus, Brendon leaves a comment about how Ryan should really eat those eggplants in his fridge, or they'll walk out on him. He feels weird about it later, but the next time he's there, Ryan left the print-out of an internet recipe in plain view on the kitchen table: Eggplant lasagna. I'm sure you'd have liked it,Ryan wrote in one corner.