Mercurial (Brendon Urie)

4

"What if I touch Brendon Urie's ass!"

I hear some fourteen year old girl scream at her friend as she realizes that Brendon's going to be walking through the crowd in a few moments. I have a pounding head ache from all of the shouting I've encountered in the last few hours. As tour manager, it's one of my jobs to stand in the crowd at concerts and take as many pictures as I can, but because there's no VIP seating section on this tour, I blend in with all of the rest of the Panic! At The Disco fans. Brendon just finished This Is Gospel and is transitioning into Death Of A Bachelor.

Zack is in front of Brendon pushing people out of the way as he begins to walk. A camera pans in on different fans as they grab pictures with Brendon and touch him in any way they can manage. It amazes me how many people devote their entire lives to this man.

At the end of the song, Brendon walks by me and the girls next to me. He hugs both of the two girls and then looks over to me. He smiles and leans in for a hug as if he doesn't know who I am. My face is being projected across the entire stadium so I don't push him away, but there's no doubt that he only did this to bother me.

"Good night, Las Vegas!" Brendon yells as the show finishes. Once he's off the stage, I get backstage as quickly as I can to avoid large crowds. Once I've finally pushed past everyone in my way and I'm standing behind the giant stage, I relax and sit down on a chair next to me. The air smells of lighter fluid because of Brendon's choice in the use of pyrotechnics. Zack is still in the crowd, making sure that no one tries to make a run for Brendon or the guys, and Dallon and Spencer are probably already on their way back to the tour bus.

I get up a few moments later to find Brendon, since I'm technically supposed to know where he is at all times. I check his dressing room first, which is empty, and then proceed to walk to the bus. Unsurprisingly, the only people on the bus are Spencer and Dallon who are playing video games. "Have you guys seen Brendon?" I ask. "He probably found a prostitute or something," Dallon says back. I sigh and step out of the bus.

After 45 minutes of looking, I finally find him behind the venue smoking a cigarette. He doesn't notice me immediately and for those few seconds, he almost looks pleasant. "Does Zack know where you are?" I ask him, earning his attention. He shrugs and walks over to me. "I'm a big boy Penny, I can do what I want." Smoke escapes his lips and makes it's way to my face as he speaks. "Do you not remember what you got that bruise from?" I say, warning him to be careful of what he calls me. He laughs like he thinks I'm joking. 

"So why'd you come over here? Just couldn't keep yourself away from all this?" he asks haughtily. "No, because I'm your manager and it's my job to know where you are." He laughs again.

"Zack is my manager, you're a glorified groupie."

"And you're a bona fide piece of shit."

"Yes but I have good looks, talent, and tons of money. I don't need to be nice."

I scoff and cross my arms. "What, do you disagree?" He asks. "I don't disagree, but I'll tell you one thing: you're a hell of a lot better looking when you keep your mouth shut." He smirks and snakes his arm around my waist, then presses his lips against mine. Rather than stopping him, I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him back, my wrists touching the shoulders of his suit. I can't deny how good looking he is, which is why I don't stop him, but I'm not looking for any kind of emotional investment. When it comes to personalities, he is definitely not my type.

We kiss against the wall for a while, maybe half an hour, then my phone rings. He groans as he pulls away but I have no issue breaking apart from him. The call is from Zack so I pick it up right away.

"Hey, are you with Brendon?" He asks, sounding just a bit worried. "Yes. We're on our way back now," I reassure him. He hangs up and I start speed walking back to the bus. Brendon jogs to catch up with me, and then cuts in front of me causing me to stop abruptly. "Can we pick back up where we left off later?" he asks desperately. "Maybe, maybe not. Why, just can't keep yourself away from all of this?" I say, mocking his previous statement. He nervously laughs and steps out of my way.

When we get to the bus, Zack practically throws us on. "Took you long enough! What'd you do Brendon, order a stripper?" He demands. Brendon opens his mouth to respond, but I interject.

"Yes." Zack shakes his head. "Brendon, how many times am I gonna have to tell you to stop doing that?" I laugh and push past the two of them on to the bus. I move over to my bunk and pull the curtain closed, then pull out my phone. It's already midnight, so I decide to go to bed. I think about what the next few months are gonna have in store, and remember that although I'm not on a bus with them, we are on tour with the neighborhood. I didn't get to meet them tonight, but it's bound to happen at some point.

Sleep comes slowly. Night transitions into morning before I even feel like closing my eyes, and then it takes another 45 minutes for me to actually drift off. A few hours pass, then I wake up to the bus jolting to a stop. At this point I don't even bother trying to get back to bed.

I crawl out of my bunk and walk to the front of the bus where everyone else is already awake. I'm still wearing my clothes from last night and I desperately need a shower. I look out the bus window and see that we're stopped outside of a small diner. Brendon is sitting on the couch on his phone, seemingly unaware that we've come to a stop, and the other guys are all looking at the ground. If I didn't know better, I'd say they all look guilty.

I look back out the window and see a girl walking towards the bus. Her stick straight, pitch black hair swings side to side as she walks and her face looks rested but her lips are still curved into a smile. She's beautiful, maybe she's a model or something.

As she continues to walk, I realize that she's coming for the bus. Nobody says anything as she climbs up the steps, so she must be what we were stopping for. She walks down the center of the bus, plants her feet in front of Brendon, and waits for him to look at her. When he finally sees her, he stands up and wraps her in a hug. As they pull away he kisses her mouth.

I look around the bus and everyone is still refusing to look at anything but their lap. I look back to the girl as she puts her hand into her bag and pulls out a medium sized white box and hands it to Brendon. She smiles even more as he takes it from her, and then she kisses him again. I don't ask any questions because her next sentence answers all of mine.

"Happy one year anniversary, Baby!"