Nine In The Afternoon {Ryden AU Short Story}

Part 1

It's almost Monday.

Or, so, Brendon thinks it's almost Monday because they don't let them have clocks in the rooms. The lights are on in the hallway and Brendon can see shadows of feet moving back and forth quickly and even though Brendon can only hear whispers of words through the door, he knows something is up.

Brendon stands up on his bed, sure not to move too quickly because the bed squeaks, stands on his tiptoes and presses against the vent on the ceiling. "Hey, Hey, Pete," Brendon says into the vent and he's not sure if he's spoken loud enough because silence meets him, but then he hears the familiar sound of Pete pushing against his own vent. "Something's up," Pete says back to him. "It's making Patrick nervous." Brendon nods his head, even though Pete can't see him, and licks his lips.

"What do you think is going on?" Brendon asks and he watches his door just to make sure that no one is approaching. The orderlies think they know everything, but they don't know that their patients talk to each other through the vents. The first day he was here, Pete showed him how to do it.

"First push against the vent so the other person can hear you," Pete had said and shown Brendon how to do it. "And then start talking." Pete was the first friend Brendon had made.

"I don't know," Pete replies and Brendon can hear his bed squeak. There's a moment were Brendon sucks in a breath, afraid that they've been caught and then he hears Patrick talking. "I think something's going on upstairs. I'm worried for William." Patrick's voice is quick and Brendon can hear the panic in it. If Patrick starts to have a panic attack, they're destine to be caught.

"I don't think it's that," Pete says and he's more or less speaking to Patrick, but Brendon hears him anyways. The last time things were like this was when Mikey didn't take his medicine and had a seizure. Brendon remembers the day after, when Gerard snapped at everybody and everything just seemed to be wrong with St. Mary's.

"I think Mikey might have had another seizure," Brendon says and then there is a shadow right in front of his door and Brendon drops to his bed, pulls up the sheets as quickly as he can and tries to stop the racing in his heart. If they get caught, if they get caught. Brendon starts to shake and now he knows what it's like to be Patrick - that frequent anxiety clawing at the back of his mind. His door opens up, the lights turn on, and Brendon peaks out from under his sheets to see whom it is.

"Brendon," Jon says and Brendon takes a breath of relief because Jon is the only cool orderly in the whole institution, except for Maja, but she never comes to this floor anymore because the upper floors are filling up faster and faster. Jon's like the older brother Brendon never had before, and Brendon has a feeling that Jon knows that they communicate through the vents, he just doesn't say anything about it. Jon smiles at him warmly, but Brendon can tell that there's something wrong.

"Brendon, you know how you always say that it's unfair that you don't have a roommate?" Jon asks and Brendon nods his head because it is unfair. Pete has Patrick and William has Travis and Brendon has no one. There's a spare bed in his room because no single rooms were open when he arrived and Jon comes promising that he's going to get a new roommate, some time. Jon's smile widens and he comes further into the room. "Well, you're getting a new roommate. His name is Ryan."

Brendon blinks at Jon before he's up and out of his bed and his arms are wrapped around the orderly's neck. "Is that why everyone's freaking out? Why is everyone freaking out? Is he from upstairs?" Brendon asks question a mile a minute and Jon just stands there with his shoulders slack.

"He just arrived," Jon says and avoids Brendon's questions. Brendon pouts and pushes his weight against Jon's, kisses his bearded cheek and tries to work the door open with his hands around Jon's neck. "You're not going out there," Jon says and Brendon's pout increases but he pulls away from Jon and rocks back and forth on the tips of his toes. "Can I meet him? I want to meet him."