hidden hearts ♡ ryden {COMPLETED}

♡one♡

Brendon walked into his last class of the day flawlessly. Well, almost flawlessly. A foot stuck out from a desk, causing the raven to stumble a bit. He straightened up and glared at the person who tripped him.

Ryan Ross.

Ryan just looked at Brendon innocently with a smile adorning his face. Brendon casually flipped him off and sat in his seat in the back row.

The class dragged on like it usually did, everyone itching to leave. Brendon absentmindedly took down the notes of the lesson from the board, printing them somewhat messily in his notebook. He got done before most people, he was a fast writer, and there were about five minutes until the dismissal bell rang. He quietly ripped out a piece of notebook paper from the notebook, writing a simple, little phrase with an innocent smiley face next to it.

Fuck you :)

Brendon, as silently as he could (because seriously, how quiet could you be?), crumpled the paper into a tight ball. He looked ahead to his teacher's desk, seeing that she wasn't paying attention to anything. Aiming for the hunched figure of the taller boy, he pulled back his arm, and threw the paper at his head. It bounced off of his wavy mop of hair and fell to the ground. Ryan took notice and picked it up, looking back at Brendon with a glare. He knew it was him.

Brendon smirked and mouthed, Open it.

Ryan uncrumpled the paper and flattened it, reading Brendon's sweet and heartfelt message. He looked back at Brendon. You wish, he mouthed back with a smirk of his own. He turned back to finish his notes, leaving Brendon to roll his eyes and huff quietly at the boy.

They did a lot of shit like this; make fun of each other, express their distaste to one another, and on a few rare occasions, physically fight. It all started when they were freshmen. Ryan was a nobody, and Brendon was fairly liked and as popular as a nineth grader could be. Ryan had pushed Brendon onto lockers, and ever since then they've not enjoyed each other's company. They were juniors now, and they still disliked each other. It wasn't exactly hate, it was more like playful banter between two old friends, but minus the "playful" and all of the "old friends" part and add more hostility. They didn't take each other seriously, though, it's like they were born with something screaming at them that they couldn't actually hate each other, but they didn't like one another in any sort of way.

There were about three minutes left in class so Brendon pulled out one of his pens. He started drawing random designs on the inside of his arm like he usually did. This time, however, instead of a smile or continuation of his doodles from his soulmate, he got a quick and rushed, can you stop for a sec. Brendon put his pen down and stared at his arm, mouth agape. That was the first time his soulmate wrote anything to him in the three years they've been able to write on themselves to each other.

He put his pen back into his backpack and started to pack everything in his bag. Everyone else was doing the same once there was about thirty seconds of class left. The only person still copying notes was Ryan, his hand going as fast as it could. Brendon watched him intently, for no reason he told himself later, as he finished his notes ten seconds before the bell rang. He stuffed his things into his satchel, bell ringing when he slung the strap over his shoulder, long fingers gripping the band. Yeah, Brendon was totally watching him for no reason.

He stood up from his chair and rushed out of the room, bumping shoulders with Ryan on his way out somewhat aggressively. It left him with a minuscule, barely there shock or spark of some kind, but Brendon blamed it on static electricity, even though it didn't quite feel like that. He passed his friends' last class of the day to find them waiting for him like they normally were.

"You guys ready to go?" he asked them, stopping in front of them for confirmation.

"I am," the strawberry blond, Patrick, replied. "Are you, Nicole?"

"Definitely. I'd like to spend the least amount of time in this hellhole as possible," Nicole said, starting to walk away with the boys jogging a bit to catch up to her.

"So," Patrick started, dragging out the 'o's, "anything interesting happen today?" He stuck his hands into his skinny jeans' pockets as they left the building. The air was a mild temperature, no clouds were in the sky either.

"Nope," Nicole responded. She looked like she was in thought as she played with her nose ring. "Wait! I overheard that Tyler was fucking someone in the bathroom after lunch period."

Brendon looked at his friend with wide eyes. "Seriously? He's found his soulmate already?"

"Nah, the girl wasn't his soulmate. He hasn't found his, or written to his, so she's kind of a replacement until he finds his soulmate or gives up and builds a relationship with her. She hasn't found her soulmate either. They're like fuck buddies," she shrugged.

"How do you know all of this?" Patrick asked as they crossed the street to their neighborhood.

"I have my ways," she answered vaguely, pushing her hair back with her hand. Patrick and Brendon both rolled their eyes to this. There was a pause before she spoke again. "Wait, why do you care if it was his soulmate or not? You got fucked by-"

"Speaking of soulmates," Brendon hurriedly rushed out, not wanting to relive that moment in his life, "mine wrote to me today for the first time."

"Really? You're so lucky! What'd they say?" Patrick interrogated.

Brendon looked at his arm. "Not much," he shrugged dismissively.

"What do you mean, 'not much'? It obviously meant something if this is the first time they've written anything to you," Nicole said, casting a glance over to Brendon.

They turned onto their street before he replied. "It's really not much. I was doodling on my arm and they told me to stop. That was it."

"Why'd they tell you to stop?" Patrick asked.

"Don't know. They were probably trying to do something and I distracted them. I'll ask them tonight and try to find more things out." There was a pause before Brendon was in front of his house. "Well, see you guys tomorrow."

"Bye, Bren," they called, walking a few houses down to their respective homes.

Brendon sighed a bit heavily as he opened the door to his house. It was unlocked, his mom already home from her job. "Is that you, Brendon?" she called from the kitchen.

"Yeah," he confirmed. He set his backpack down and headed into the kitchen, sitting down at one of the island stools.

His mom dried her hands on a dish towel before turning to her son and asking, "Soulmate stuff?" She gestured to his forearm.

"Yep," he sighed, glancing at it then turning his attention back up to his mother.

"Any writing going on?"

"Yeah," he said. Grace was beaming and was about to say something before her son quickly cut her off. "All they said was to stop drawing because I was bored in class and was drawing on my arm. They must've been doing something important." He swiveled himself off of the stool and jumped to the ground. "I should probably do my homework."

"That's probably a good idea," Grace agreed as Brendon walked off to grab his backpack and head upstairs to his room. He opened his door and stepped inside, setting his bag next to his desk and sitting on his desk chair. He took a wet wipe from the container on his desk, erasing what he, and his soulmate, put on their arms. He grabbed a pen from his pencil holder and clicked it pushing it to his skin. He took a deep breath before writing anything. Here goes nothing, he thought before dragging the tip across his arm.

a/s/l?

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A/N: The first chapter of the rewrite!

The images above are the eras of Ryan and Brendon for reference^^^^