Sugarcane Chronicles Volume I: One and Lonely (ryden)

My Eyes Are Up Here, Tyler

"Hmm," I said. "Have you been watching Sherlock again?"

He looked down. "Maybe..."

There was a knock at the door and I heard Josh answer it.

"Hey, Brendon," Josh said. "You look nice this evening."

"Thank you," Brendon said. "Uh, where's Ryan?"

I walked to the front door as quickly as I could.

Brendon smiled at me when he saw me. "Hi," he said.

I smiled back and leaned own and kissed him. "Hi."

"I-I brought you flowers," he said, holding them out to me. "They're plastic, so you shouldn't be allergic to them and you can keep them longer."

I smiled wider and took them from him. "Thank you." I turned to Pete, who I knew would be standing behind me, and said, "Put these in your finest vase."

"Uh... Ok," Pete said, taking them from me before going back into the kitchen.

"So we're ready to go?" Brendon asked.

"Yeah," I said.

We walked outside and through the woods to the sidewalk. I looked around then turned to him.

"Which way?" I asked.

"Uh, this way," Brendon pointed to our right.

"Ok," I said. "Where to?"

He smiled at me. "It's a surprise." He grabbed my non-casted hand and started leading me down the sidewalk at a faster pace. "It's also a bit of a walk, but totally worth it."

"Alright," I said. "How long of a walk?"

"Not very long, but I can carry you there if you want me to," he chuckled.

"Ok," I said.

Brendon stopped and turned around. "I was joking."

"Oh," I said. I lifted my casted wrist and made an overly dramatic sad face at it. "But this cast... Just gets so heavy..."

He laughed. "Alright, fine." He knelt down in front of me and said, "I'll give you a piggy-back ride." I smiled and climbed on. He grunted as he stood up and mumbled "Wow, you're heavier than I thought."

"Yeah, that's what everyone says," I said just as quietly. I pointed ahead of us. "Now, ride like the wind!"

Brendon took off at a surprisingly fast pace. As he carried us to he knew where, I wondered for a second, only a second, how weird we looked. After a while, Brendon started to slow down and said, "This actually works out really well. Close your eyes."

"Uh, ok," I said before closing my eyes. I felt his pace slow and heard crunching against grass instead of tapping against concrete and he finally stopped. He tried to set me down gently but ended up kind of dropping me.

"Sorry," he said. "Could you sit crisscross-applesauce for me, please? And don't open your eyes yet."

"Ok," I said, doing as he asked.

I heard a little bit of rustling and glasses clinking before he told me I could open my eyes. When I opened them, there was a little picnic laid out in front of me.

"Oh my god, Brendon," I looked at him, smiling. He was smiling, too.

"It's a little pre-date. Kind of like an appetizer for our main date," he sat next to me.

"It's perfect," I leaned over and kissed him.

"And I have some sparking water or apple cider. Your choice," He smiled, pulling two smaller-than-medium bottles out of the picnic basket he had.

"I'll take some sparkling water, please," I said. He pulled out two plastic Champaign glasses and poured the sparkling water into both of them, filling them about half way. He handed me one and kept the other. I noticed a new bracelet he had on.

"To our first date," he held his glass up and I did the same. We both took sips.

"Where'd you get that new bracelet?" I asked, placing my glass between my legs.

He looked at the bracelet and took another sip of the water. "I uhm, got it from my friend Mikey. It cost a hug." He smiled a little.

"Who's Mikey?" I asked, a little too demanding. I wasn't the jealous type, but who the hell was Mikey?

"He's a friend, as I said. I met him in music one day and he's a kick-ass bass player," Brendon smiled a little wider.

I couldn't help but to continue asking more questions about Mikey. "What does Mikey look like?"

Brendon laughed a little. "He's a little nerdy kid, but he's kinda emo, too. His hair is kinda long-ish and it's like a darker kind of blonde. He has glasses and flawless bone structure."

What about my bone structure?

"He's just..." Brendon paused. "...cute." he smiled.

"Oh really?" I said, sounding more sarcastic than anything.

"Ryan, don't worry about me and Mikey hooking up. He has a boyfriend and he's also 15."

"Who's his boyfriend?" I nearly smacked myself and poured the sparkling water on my face.

He laughed again. "His name is Ray. He has an awesome 'fro and a smile that could possibly cure cancer. He's really sweet and shreds like a mofo on guitar."

I smiled and chuckled a little at the use of 'mofo.' I always found that word hilarious for some reason.

"I've noticed you have a few bracelets yourself. Tell me about those," he said, gesturing to my arm.

"Alright. Let me take off my jacket," I said, taking my jacket off to show my almost whole forearm of bracelets. "Where do I start?"

"Start from the top and go to the bottom," Brendon said.

"Well, this first one that says 'Chocolate Chip' I've had for probably around ten, eleven years now. When I was in the orphanage, I had one friend and her name was Hayley. We bonded over cookies and my favorite has always been chocolate chip and hers was always peanut butter. One day she made us little matching bracelets that said chocolate chip and peanut butter. I'm not sure if she still has hers, because after Pete and Jon adopted me, we kind of lost contact."

"Wow."

"Yeah," I looked back at my arm. "For my tenth birthday, which happened to be the first one I celebrated with Pete and Jon, Pete came and asked me what I wanted. I told him I liked bracelets and Patrick made me a few. Every birthday since then, I've gotten at least one homemade bracelet from Patrick, so that's where all of the weaved ones come from. A few broke a little while back, but I keep them all in a little box and I tried to repair the ones that I can."

He didn't speak.

"This one that says 'Danny' on it is from my last relationship. Me and Dan had matching bracelets and his said 'Kitty-Cat,' because those were our nicknames for each other. I don't know if he still has his."

"That's Daniel, right?"

I nodded.

"Why don't you just ask him? He remembered everything, right?"

I nodded again before going back to my bracelets because I didn't want to talk about Daniel on my first date with Brendon. "This braid looking leather one is one I stole from Jon when I was 13. Spencer made me the one that says 'Penis' for my 16th birthday."

"What about that little chain one?"

"Oh. I just saw it and I liked it so I got Pete to buy it for me after I turned 17 after some, uhm..." I cleared my throat. "Troubled... times."

"Troubled?"

"I-I don't wanna talk about it right now," I stood up. "Let's go to the swings."

"Ok."

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sup doods. sorry this was a little late but we both got sick and weren't able to write like we usually do

picture to the right is Ryan's makeup for this chapter