Paper Hearts [Brallon-ish]

79 days

News years eve proved to be the most tiring time of the year. Being up past midnight, suffering from lack of sleep, stuffing your face with so much food your stomach will literally explode if you don't put down the chocolate éclair, and worrying over what in the world the next year would bring was definitely the worst way to start off the year. Yet everyone did it anyways and the next 365 days always went to shit one way or another.

And of course this one was going to be going to shit a lot later than usual, considering Brendon had tripped face first over a chair on the floor while wearing a navy blue paper crown from a sparkly red party popper 6 seconds into the new year. Great start, I thought, no sarcasm intended.

There was no doubt in my mind that we were both so tired we could sleep for days, but that wasn't going to happen because there were only 7 days left before Monday, aka when we went back to classes. So metaphorically we could, but we weren't gonna. Because I'm almost an adult and I need to do adultish things like grocery shopping and taxes. Not taxes. Too adultish.

Brendon reached up and stood on his tip toes to adjust the crinkled green crown on my head, muttering something under his breath I couldn't make out; it was like he'd had too much to drink without drinking at all. And ever since Pete had snuck in to his dorm room the day he left and poured out every last bit of alcohol he owned out the window, Brendon had gone cold turkey. He didn't particularly like it either, considering the only moods he had now rotated between super pissed off, insanely tired, overly happy, and incredibly miserable. Sometimes tired and happy mixed, and this was one of those lucky times, but it didn't happen very often, much to my dismay.

"Holy shit," he blinked rapidly like he couldn't believe his eyes, holding up a lone firecracker he must've pulled out of thin air "we gotta use it."

"Absolutely not. We aren't even supposed to be up at midnight. We have this thing called a curfew, you idiot." I reminded him but he brushed it off, sticking his tongue out mockingly at me. He was a couple feet off from my direction, but I got the point.

"I do what I want, when I want. And I'm gonna set off a firecracker." Brendon sneered, climbing to his feet slowly, and I thought, there's no way he's going to be able to run, and he burst through the door and down the hall before I realized what was happening.

When I caught sight of him outside, he was already near the fountain and grasping at the little string to send the firecracker off into the air.

He pulled the string towards the ground.

It exploded a mere couple feet above the flower beds, yet was much louder than the distance suggested.

The lights in Spencer's office house flickered to life in an instant.

Brendon was sprinting across the yard as fast as his little legs could carry him.

And the next thing I knew, I was running up the stairs behind him, screaming monotonously in the lost hopes of saving my breath while still trying to power myself to get to Brendon's room as quickly as possible before Spencer caught up to us. I'd never gotten in trouble for something as stupid as this either, especially not based upon a friend's idiotic decisions, and I sure as hell wasn't about to now. And as we slammed the door shut behind us and heard Spencer scramble up the stairs, I really hoped this wouldn't be the first time and that it would be the last time. It would've been fun if I hadn't thought I was about to literally die.

To my relief, he left without even coming near our door. Unless he knew it was us. Which was bad. Very very bad. I didn't feel like getting suspended or expelled this school year; my parents would literally kill me, somehow send me back, and I'd never get to talk to Brendon again because he'd also be kicked out for setting off that single damn firecracker in the first place.

"Note to self," Brendon mumbled out loud "if one ever needs to distract Spencer, set off fireworks."

"You're never doing that again."

"I might not, but Pete probably will."

"There is no way Patrick would let him do that."

Brendon glared at me and sat down on the couch, right next to me, and said "yeah, well Patrick's fun and you aren't."

I shook my head and passed him the paper crown he'd accidentally left behind when he made a break for it out the front door. He took it back with a satisfied smile and carefully settled it down so it wouldn't mess up the rest of his messy hair.

"A crown fit for a king," he said "and I'm the king of my own castle."

[873 words, 9/12/16, all the chapters are becoming really short now whoops but I swear some are gonna be longer :)))]