Well, I May Have Faked It

Chapter 11

Ryan's POV
They had kissed. Brendon's lips had been on his own. But it hadn't felt the way he thought it would. Ryan imagined he might feel something, maybe a dull spark or even nothing at all. Instead, it had been unfathomably amazing. Ryan hadn't even been able to comprehend much during The Kiss. That's what he had decided to name it, The Kiss. The thing he couldn't stop thinking about. The event that was frustrating Ryan and driving him crazy.

He shouldn't have a romantic interest in Brendon. Ever since the night Brendon took him to the karaoke restaurant, Ryan couldn't help looking at and thinking of Brendon differently. Ryan couldn't help wondering what it would be like if he was more than just friends with Brendon, if he really was his boyfriend. But he shouldn't do that. Brendon still wanted to be with Dallon. That was the whole pint of his plan anyways. Plus, Ryan still liked Sarah, right? But she didn't like him back... That was besides the point though. Brendon liked someone else and so did Ryan. End of story.

Ugh. Why was all of this so complicated? But then again, when was anything easy? Like right now. Ryan was sitting in math and couldn't quite grasp what the heck he was supposed to do. Why did he have learn this? How did it apply to his life? He could do the basic stuff like adding, subtracting, etc. So why did he need to know anything else?

"Ryan? Ryan!"

Brendon was waving his hand in front of Ryan's face.

"What?"

"I just asked you if I did this problem right," Brendon explained. "But apparently you weren't paying attention because you haven't done anything yet."

Ryan's cheeks flushed. Brendon had noticed him zoning off and he guessed Sarah did too because she was trying to hide her laughter with the sleeve of her jacket, unsuccessfully might he add.

"I'll just ask Spencer instead," Brendon said, turning to face the dark-haired boy even though Sarah was closer.

Oh yeah. That was another thing. Brendon and Sarah had been acting weird since they had last talked, the day Brendon found out Sarah liked him. Whatever had happened that day had apparently ended awkwardly. Reeeeeaaaaally awkwardly.

Speaking of awkward, Brendon seemed kind of out of it recently, zoning out a lot and not seeming all there at times. It would be awkward sitting next to him at lunch. Ryan would ask him a question or tell a joke and Brendon wouldn't respond at times. Maybe he just needed a day to relax.

• • •

"So are you free Saturday?"

"Yeah, why," Brendon asked, turning towards Ryan with a confused face.

It was Thursday and Ryan and Brendon were heading over to their usual lunch spot. They assumed Pete and Jon were already there.

"You've seemed out of recently so I thought we should hangout this weekend. Where do you want to go?"

"THE POOL! I've been dying in this heat! Plus, there's a pool by your place, right?" Brendon had been telling Ryan a lot recently that he's been wanting to go to the pool.

"Yeah. I'm fine with- wait. We can't go to the pool maybe we should do something else."

"What? Aw, come on! We gotta go to the pool."

"Sorry. No can do."

"Why?"

Ryan rubbed his neck and looked away. He almost forgot why until Brendon had brought up the pool by his house.

"I've been banned from that pool. One day Pete decided we should go to the pool in our neighborhood and about 30 minutes later we got kicked out. We went back a week or two later and got banned because Pete thought it would be hilarious to flash people sitting on the side and of course Jon filmed the whole thing. All I have to say is that surprisingly he doesn't have an underwear tan."

Brendon just stared. He surprised Ryan when he burst out laughing. "Sounds like Pete," was all he could say. When he finally settled down they were sitting and Jon, Pete, and some kid I a fedora could be seen in the distance.

"Just come to my house Saturday. I still want to hang out," Brendon said.

"Okay. It looks like Pete finally brought the Patrick kid he's been talking about to eat lunch with us again."

Patrick was always fun to eat lunch with. He might've started out slightly shy but he warmed up quickly after making some jokes and realizing they all shared an interest in music. Pete should totally saw him or at least invite him to lunch more often.