Mr. B. Urie

7

I wake up to arms carrying me and I freak out until I realize it's just Brendon. "Holy shit, Arie!" He says, suffering from a minor heart palpitation.

"Sorry, B, I didn't know it was you. Where are we going?" I whisper. The house is completely dark and it's a wonder that Brendon can find his way anywhere.

"To bed. You passed out on the couch around nine, but I still had a stack of tests to grade, so I let you sleep. I figured you'd be upset if you woke up alone, so I decided to move you. Obviously that was a failure. But, I mean, now I can kiss you goodnight and stuff so it's not that much of a failure." He sets me down gently on his bed and tucks the blanket around me.

"Are you my boyfriend or my mother?" I laugh as he slides in beside me.

"Am I your boyfriend?" He asks, not looking at me. His voice sounds nervous in the dark and I find his arm under the covers and trace his tattoos.

"What else do you call this?" I say breathily. The truth is that I haven't really thought about it yet.

"Totally platonic friends . . ." He replies, sarcastically. I laugh and turn on my side to kiss him goodnight, as he suggested.

"Brendon Boyd Urie, my boyfriend and English teacher . . . The first part has a ring to it." I grin, pecking his lips once more for good measure.

"Ariella Garcia Alvos, my girlfriend and English student," he mocks me. "Can we leave out the ending? I think it might be unwarranted." I giggle and rest my head on his chest.

"I agree. Goodnight, B."

"Night, my lovely."

****

Waking up in another person's bed can be disorienting, especially with two different alarms going off at the same time. I can hear my phone from a distance, so I figure it must still be in the livingroom, and Brendon is already out of bed and on his way to the kitchen. I sigh loudly and he turns around and chuckles at me.

He walks towards me and puts his hands down on either side of my shoulders. He bends forward and kisses my nose. "Wake up," he says softly. His voice is rough from sleep and I decide that it's my favourite. I groan, because the bed is warm and school sucks, minus English class. He moves his lips from my nose to my mouth and kisses me deeply. I let him pull me up into sitting position and then out of bed so that I'm standing on the hardwood floor.

"I wouldn't mind waking up like that every morning." I say, biting back a smile.

"Oh yeah?" He still has his arms around me and I snuggle into him.

"Yeah." I say, pulling out of the hug and tapping his nose. "Too bad we can't stay here all day . . ."

"But alas, there's this thing called school, where I work and you pretend to." Brendon sighs, taking my hand and walking me out of his room. My alarm is still going off persistently. It's playing "This Ain't a Scene, it's an Arms Race" and I shut it off quickly. I love the song, but at top volume at 6:30 in the morning it isn't optimal.

After eating breakfast and getting dressed, I realize that I forgot my backpack at home. "Fuck!" I yell in frustration.

"What's wrong, darling?" Brendon pokes his head out of his bedroom. He called me darling. I love it!

"I forgot my school bag. Can you drop me at my house?"

"Of course I can, as long as you remember it tonight," he winks. Tonight? I guess he had as much fun as I did . . . Now I have something to look forward to. I smile up at him.

"Will do, Brendon Urie, my boyfriend." He shake his head at me, grinning.

"You've never had a boyfriend before, have you?" He chuckles, taking my hand and walking me out the door.

"Not technically." I don't know what he's getting at, and I'm not proud about what happened before I moved here. I'd rather not talk about it.

"Then I forgive you for your totally embarrassing infatuation," he jokes, opening my door for me.

"Am I embarrassing you?" I scoff, getting into the car.

"God, no!" He laughs, running to the driver's side door. "You're embarrassing yourself." He snickers. I swatt his arm playfully and buckle myself in.

****

"Look who's doing the walk of shame!" Taya calls as I get out of Brendon's car. She's waiting on my doorstep.

"There's no shame," I say to her, then turn back to Brendon before closing the car door. "See you later, alligator." I blow a kiss and he laughs at me.

"In a while, my little crocodile." I close the door and wave as he pulls out of my driveway and down the street to the school.

"That's not the walk of shame? Because that looked pretty shameful to me . . ." Taya smirks at me. I roll my eyes and unlock my front door. My backpack is sitting right inside.

"Nothing happened. He marked papers and I fell asleep at nine." I pick up my bag and relock my door. "But he did ask me over again tonight . . ."

"Arie, you rebel!" Taya gasps. "To be honest, I was worried when you didn't come home last night, I was watching out my window for you. This is so uncharacteristic of you; boys, sleepovers, it's crazy to me." If she only knew . . . But I never told anyone about what happened right after my mom died.

"I'm glad you care about my well being, but I'm the same Ariella as I've always been. Just now with a boyfriend," she gapes at me as we turn into the school parking lot.

"You made it official?" I nod and she squeals. "My little bean is growing up!"

"Chill! We have to keep it low key, otherwise he could get caught." I whisper. I stop at my locker and Taya keeps going.

"See you at lunch!" She waves, heading down the hall. There's a tap on my shoulder as I'm collecting my things and I jump.

"Sorry!" Brendon chuckles, picking up a book I dropped.

"What are you doing?" I ask, my voice low and panicky. I look around to make sure nobody is watching.

"Signing you out of period one and two so you can come watch a presentation. I'm allowed to invite three students, and you're one of them."

"Oh." I sigh in relief. "Okay," I follow Brendon down the hall towards the lecture room. I wonder what the presentation is on . . .