Weight In Gold (Brendon Urie)

The Rose

"Alright, here we are," Brendon says as he parks outside of a massive outdoor mall. I clamber out of the car and stand on the sidewalk while I wait for the other two to join me. When they do, we immediately start walking towards the first stop on our to-do list, which happened to be Staples.

When we walk in to the building, Ryan grabs two shopping carts and tells us the plan. "Alright, Brendon you should help Ashley get everything she needs for school, as well as anything you need too and I'll just get my stuff and meet up with you. Kay?" We nod and head our separate directions.

"Alright, first thing we need are some basic school supplies, which I think should be this way," Brendon says and Points to his left, "so let's go there now." "Alright," I say and follow him to where they keep pens and paper.

"How old is Ryan?" I ask Brendon as he puts everything we're going to need into a basket. "16" he responds. "He's younger than you though, right?" I question. "No," he says, "He's turning 17 in a couple weeks." This again surprises me, seeing as I'm usually pretty good at guessing ages. "So is he going to be a senior or a junior?" I ask. "Junior," he responds, adding a box of staples in the cart. "How long have you two been friends?" I ask. Brendon stops what he's doing at this and starts counting on his fingers. "8 and a half years," he says proudly. "Impressive," I mutter. "How old are you?" He asks me. I guess it is about time he started questioning me back. "I'm 16 too, I turn 17 on the last day of school." I tell him. He nods and continues loading up our cart.

A little bit later, Ryan meets back up with us with everything he needs already loaded into plastic bags. The three of us then go back to the checkout so Brendon can buy our stuff. As we are checking out, I notice the cashier looking at Brendon as if he's a juicy piece of meat. She's so obviously flirting with him, and he isn't even looking at her. She's really pretty, too. I nudge Ryan and nod my head toward her. He rolls his eyes and whispers "He's the most clueless guy you'll ever meet, but he's also one on the most charming. The stupid idiot never wears his glasses either, so girls take his accidental clumsiness as intentional flirting." I chuckle at this a little bit louder than I should have and Brendon give us a suspicious look, before he accidentally hands the cashier $50 too much.

"You silly thing, this is way too much money for what your getting. You could buy an entire meal with this," the cashier flirts as she hands him back the fifty. He squints at it and says "Oh shit, your right. Thanks for the idea miss," than he turns to us and says "guys, you hungry?" Ryan and I both roll our eyes and take the bags as we head out to the car.

Right when we get outside, Ryan punches him in the arm and says "Dude, why didn't you get her number?" Brendon looks confused, and before he can say anything, Ryan shakes his head and mutters "nevermind."

We walk a little while longer before we reach our destination. It's a simple Italian food restaurant that doesn't look quite like a fast-food chain, but I don't doubt that there are a few sprinkled around town. When we walk in, I can see that it's moderately busy, but not to the point that there aren't any tables open. The hostess is immediately able to seat us and hands us some menus before walking away. I sit next to Ryan and start flicking through the menu, debating what to get.

I'm in the middle of deciding whether I want the penne with shrimp or the chicken Alfredo when I feel Ryan touch my wrist. "That's pretty," he says. At first I'm confused, but then I realize he's talking about my tattoo. "Thanks," I say and smile at him. "Does it mean anything?" He asks. I see Brendon glance up for a second, meaning he's probably going to be listening to my answer too. I think for a while. I wasnt thinking about much when I got it, it was my first tattoo and I wanted something small, but I guess it is meaningful in some ways. "Um, yeah," I finally say, "It's a reminder to me to have grace when things get hard," I tell him. He smiles at this, and then our waiter approaches us. He looks about 17, very tall with blond hair and blue eyes. "Hi, my name is Alex and I'll be your server today!" He says with enthusiasm. He takes all of our orders, but seems to pay special attention to Ryan.

The meal is delicious, and once we finish we decide it's best that we go back home. Ryan is nice enough to pay for us, and when he gets the receipt back it has a phone number written on it. Ryan looks back to Alex who is currently at another table and Alex winks at him. Ryan puts the receipt in his pocket and the three of us walk out of the venue. "Are you gonna call him?" Brendon asks Ryan. Ryan shakes his head. "He wasn't really my type," he says. Oh. Maybe ryan doesn't win over all the girls after all.

It's only 1:30 when we get back to the car, but it feels a lot later because of how little sleep I got last night. Brendon drops off Ryan on our way back home and I take his seat in the front. We drive quietly most of the way home, except for Brendon singing along to the radio. When we're almost back to the house, I break the near-silence. "Is Ryan gay?" I ask. "No," Brendon says, "he swings both ways." I nod and the two of us unload our bags from the car. Truth be told, I'm quite surprised at how quickly I'm getting used to life here.