XO (FOB FanFic ft. Brendon Urie)

[Chapter 2] Someone Close To Me

I sat back and looked to my right to see Claire leaning against the threshold of the bathroom, her arms crossed over her chest as she looked down at me. "Do you feel better now?" She inquired, uncrossing her arms and pulling herself away from the doorway so that she was now standing in the middle of it.

I was sitting in the back of the van. It was dark, but I could still make things out. Like the person kneeling in front of me and the two people sitting behind them. The person in front of me was holding an icepack up to my forehead. "Do you feel better now?" They asked me.

I was about to answer her when another wave of nauseousness passed over me and I put my head in the porcelain bowl once more.

"Are you usually not able to keep down your drinks?" Claire questioned.

I lifted my head out of the bowl and wiped my mouth with the back of my wrist before looking over at her and replying, "No."

"You sure?"

"Yes. And I'm sorry, but I just found out my friends are kidnapped! So it's...to say the least, sickening." I smacked the handle of the toilet and the half-liquid, half-solid contents of my stomach mixed with the water and swirled around the white bowl before disappearing down the hole, new water filling it back up within a matter of seconds.

She extended her hand out to me. I placed my hand in hers and she helped me to my feet. "Do you have any idea who would do this?" She questioned.

"Why would I?"

"I don't know. From the TV shows I've watched..." She began to say as the two of us walked out of the bathroom and into the main part of the hotel room we were in, where we began to pick up our garments from the floor and slip into them, "...the suspect usually is someone close to the victim. Like a relative or a friend or a-"

"How about we talk more about this after breakfast?" I suggested, cutting her off. I really didn't want to think that someone close to me did this to me and my friends. There was no way in hell that someone I knew would do this. And if there was...no. Just no.

"Sure," She luckily agreed, bending down and pulling out something from under the bed. She stood back up and examined it. "Is this yours?" She asked, waving the hat in the air. It was my fedora.

"Yes. Give it." She threw the hat like a Frisbee and I caught it, putting it on my head in one smooth motion.

"Nice," She smirked.

"Why thank you," I bowed and tipped my hat off before putting it back on my head.

"So," She walked over to the hotel door and opened it, glancing back at me over her shoulder, "Where are you taking me on our first date?"

"This is not our first date," I corrected her as she and I walked out of the room.

"Whatever you say, Pattycakes."

"I told you not to call me that."

"And I told you that's too bad."

I rolled my eyes and heaved a sigh. I met this girl no longer than about thirty minutes ago and I could already tell she and I were going to have a hard time getting along.

*****

We didn't even have to walk out of the hotel to find a nice cafe to get a coffee and something little to eat at. The hotel, I soon learned as we walked into the lobby, was Hotel Lincoln. A quite expensive hotel, if I recall. The cafe we went to was Elaine's Coffee Call.

We sat down at a table for two with our order I paid for with the small amount of cash in my pants pocket - a cappuccino and strawberry muffin for Claire and a tea and bowl of oatmeal for me, though I wasn't really hungry for it. I just picked it because the cashier behind the register was getting antsy and it was the first thing I saw when Claire nudged me in the side, noticing the cashier's impatience, and whispered into my ear, "Just pick something!" I didn't even like oatmeal.