Paper Hearts [Brallon-ish]

75 days

The best way to wake up on a Thursday was the complete opposite of how I usually woke up; it was currently 10 am, Christmas break, incredibly warm under the blankets, unnecessary to get up immediately, and Brendon was pressed against my chest again.

I could get used to this, I thought.

For another 21 minutes, he stayed asleep, only moving to wrap one of his arms up and around the back of my neck.

"Wanna do some shit today?" He said excitedly and started to roll over but decided against it and curled up next to me again.

"Well that depends. What would we do?" I smiled and glanced down at him as much as I could without disturbing him but he looked up at me just as I looked down at him and then we were both smiling for different reasons.

"Do you trust me?"

..:..::..:::..::..:..

"Whoa, look at all this stuff!" He howled, yanking my arms through the open window an entire floor off the ground and into the Way brothers semi apartment. He'd literally scaled the building to dive through the window like a secret spy with the only reason being 'because I want to'. Of course I didn't want to, but apparently it was required for the experience of breaking into something you really shouldn't have.

"Aren't we going to get caught?" I whisper yelled to him as soon as I got my feet through the window, and he turned around and dramatically rolled his eyes.

"Of course not."

"Well, what makes you so sure?"

"I don't get caught because nobody messes with me. And nobody messes with me in fear that I will break them like I have been broken."

The 'incredibly miserable' attitude had made a quick appearance on the Brendon Show. Thankfully it wasn't there for long before he started digging through some other things.

Even though the Way brothers had left with their friends over break, the place was still jam packed with as many gadgets and gizmos as anyone could ever want. It was like a toy store with the added bonus of as much alcohol as Brendon could drink himself to death with.

His eye twitched upon the sight.

He's been cold turkey for just about 2 weeks and like a day.

This is it, I thought, 2 weeks gone to waste.

And then, Pete's gonna be pissed.

I watched him shiver like he'd gotten snow dumped over his shoulders, and at the very last second before I could've sworn he was about to go berserk, he grabbed one of the wine bottles sitting on the table labeled 'Vanilla River' and walked right out the front door without a word.

He spun around to make sure I was following him, and glanced down to the bottle in his hand before looking back up to me.

"It's for later." He claimed simply, and raced back up the stairs.

..:..::..:::..::..:..

The door swung open and Brendon stepped through the frame, an overflowing box hugged to his chest. Slinky toys, some weird house plant, a tube of dog treats that was probably stuffed with something besides dog treats, and a sequined sweater sleeve hung out of the sides and poked through the cardboard flaps.

"Also there's a bunch of movies I found in Patrick's room." He announced and dropped the box on his plastic table in front of the table.

"Why did you break into Patrick's room?"

"Because I felt like it."

"I assumed you messed around with his things?" I asked and he smiled proudly.

"Don't tell him the industrial strength dye in his shampoo doesn't wash out until he showers and uses even more of it."

I wonder how Patrick would look with blue hair.

Brendon rustled around through the box, setting multiple things on either the table or the floor, finally tossing a movie case on to my lap.

"Beauty and the Beast?"

He closed the box flaps and dropped it carelessly on the floor and I could've sworn something had just shattered to a billion pieces. He nodded quickly, took the disk from me, and slid it into the DVD player carefully balanced on top of the tv, placed so intricately that if it was even brushed by a little bug it would fall to the ground and like explode or something really violent like that.

It was a metaphor for my life, as Pete would say.

Brendon sprinted as fast as he could over to sit next me on his couch, curling up against my side and positioning himself under my arm just as the movie started.

I wasn't even watching the movie. The screen lights dancing across his eyes was a much nicer sight, the slight smile on his lips making it just... better.

I could've stayed like this forever; warm and cozy with rain barely beginning to drip from the sky, but still staying inside because rain sucks. And on top of all that, Brendon was pressed to my side, cracking lame jokes the entire movie. How could I ask for more?

And right in the middle of the ballroom dancing scene, he shut off the movie. He sighed into the crook of my neck and pushed off my chest to stand up, rubbing his eyes and arching his back slightly when he stretched.

"This is fun, but I'm so sleepy," he glanced towards me and started walking to his room, gesturing for me to follow with the wave of his hand "to be continued?"

His voice was unaccompanied by any other words in fear they would disappear through the air, never to be heard from again.

To be continued, I thought while pulling the edges of the covers over my shirt and jeans.

To be continued, I repeated to myself as he buried himself in my chest again.

To be continued. You're not #57.

To be continued. He's not going to fall in love with you, Pete had told me.

To be continued.

[1022 words, 9/13/16, 'to be continued' was definitely much too good of a phrase to replace with something else so thank @ John green]