The Impossible is Possible (Ryden)

Chapter 3

Sitting down at his computer, he tries to take his mind off the gnawing worry by checking his email and playing a couple of games. It works better than anticipated, and soon he's gunning down imaginary men on his screen, laughing and talking to it, forgetting reality. Before too long, though, he hears the noise of a knock on the front door over the sounds of his game, and pales.

He glances at his watch. It's six, already.

"Oh, hell," he mutters to himself, running a quick hand through his hair, and bounding out of his door and down the stairs. He skids to the bottom of them and pulls the door open, before he can hesitate. It is, of course, Ryan, who is staring at the ground with his hands in his pockets. "Hey. How are you? It was, uh, nice of you to come and all."

Ryan raises his eyebrows at the pleasantries, and pushes past Brendon into the hallway. "I'm fine," he says, slowly, looking around. "This is your house?"

"Yeah," Brendon says, licking his lips nervously. "Um. All of the music stuff is upstairs but my mom is making dinner, so I'll check what time that'll be ready for because she's got a friend round so I think it will be made early tonight."

"I'm having dinner?" Ryan asks, the first flicker of emotion coming over him - a look of surprise. Brendon decides, suddenly, that Ryan looks much nicer when he's actually animated, and then tells himself that that's a weird thing to think about a stranger.

"If you want it," Brendon nods, walking through to the kitchen, Ryan following him. "My mom is happy to make some for you. In fact, I think she already has. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, it is," Ryan replies, quietly, as they enter the kitchen. Brendon's mom is now setting out four plates at the table, all full of steaming food, and Brendon smiles. Everything has obviously been timed pretty well by fate. Making the smile slip off his face, however, is the fact that Rodney is sitting in his chair, looking down at his dinner with a large smile.

The adults look up as the two of them enter, and immediately Brendon's mom smiles and bustles over, examining the newcomer. "Hello, dear. You must be Ryan? It's so nice of you to come over to see Brendon."

"Yeah, I'm Ryan," the boy replies, not looking at her, but instead gazing at the dinner. "You didn't need to make me any food."

"Don't be silly, of course I did," she dismisses, with a laugh, and then motions to the table. "Take a seat and dig in, boys. I'll just get everybody a drink."

"Thanks," Brendon smiles at her, and sits down, opposite Rodney. Ryan takes a seat next to him, and Brendon begins to feel awkward again. This meal is going to be nothing but weird, especially with two totally unexpected guests - one of which is the boy that everybody fears at school.

In a few minutes, the meal is well underway, and Brendon begins to feel a bit more comfortable. Most of the conversation is between his mom and Rodney, whilst Ryan hasn't spoken once. The dinner itself is gorgeous, as usual. Rodney, especially, seems to like it, and keeps piling chicken onto his plate. He offers some to Brendon, who has none on his own plate, but Brendon shakes his head.

"No, thanks," he says, wrinkling his nose at the food.

There's a clatter from the side of him, and everybody looks towards Ryan to see that he's dropped his fork onto his plate, his eyes narrow. "Your mom just spent ages cooking a meal, and you're not even going to try it?" he asks, sounding disgusted.

Mrs. Urie gives a nervous laugh, and shakes her head. "Brendon's a vegetarian, Ryan. It doesn't really matter to me, I know he's not going to eat any meat I cook."

"Oh. Okay, then."

With that, Ryan lapses into silence again. Brendon stares at him, feeling a sudden conflict of emotion. Half of him is a little intimidated about the suddenness of the reaction. At the same time, though, he's quite pleased that Ryan would actually care about his mom's feelings. Though he doesn't know the boy, at all, it's strangely satisfying.