I was counting down the hours, the minutes and the seconds to Valentine's day. At about ten to one I snuck out the window after putting a shirt and some shoes on (I didn't need to change out of my pajamas, because I was coming right back home afterwards).
I got to the school just past one and Ian was already there and talking to principal Kickurass. Maybe I was late...
"Finally! You took forever to get here," Ian said. He was also in pajamas, but his were cooler (I had on Spongebob ones and he had cool Batman ones).
"Sorry, I walked," I said, adjusting my very heavy backpack. Ian just sighed and the principle opened the school for us. I told Ian to get the upstairs part of the school while I got downstairs as I handed him some boxes.
"Why do these smell like perfume?" he asked.
"I was spraying some for Brent and then I accidentally spilled some on the others," I confessed. He chuckled and headed for the stairs. I rolled my eyes and started slipping the cards into lockers.
*...*...*...*...*...*...*...*...*...*...*...*...*...*...*...*
After Ian and I finished the lockers (which only took a little over an hour, surprisingly), I had gone back home to get a few more hours of sleep. I woke up at 6 and showered shortly (20 minutes compared to my 45 minute showers) so I could get Ryan's gift nicely wrapped.
I got dressed in my school outfit, fixed my hair, brushed everything and went downstairs with the red envelope that held a card and the tickets in the front pocket of my backpack.
"Hey mom," I greeted, walking into the kitchen.
"Hi Brenny-Bear," she replied, turning to look at me and smiling. "Do you have everything ready?
"Yep," I said with a small smile playing at my lips.
"Did you remember to get flowers?" she asked.
My eyes widened. "Shit, I forgot." I ran to the front door. "See you later, love you, bye!" I shouted, running out the door. I ran to the Wal-Greens near the park and went to the Valentine's Day isle and found some pretty red roses and a box of chocolate. I brought them up to the counter and fished my wallet out from my bag.
"Looks like somebody forgot Valentine's Day," the lady remarked, scanning my items. I stayed silent. "So who's the lucky lady?"
"His name is Ryan," I said bluntly.
"Oh, I-I... I have a cousin that's gay," she said. "That'll be $7.48."
I gave her a ten and she gave me my change and a bag that had the flowers and chocolate. I walked out and hurried to the Ross-Smith-Stump house to deliver da Valentine's Day shiznit.
I ran through the woods and up to the house, walking in when I got to the door.
"Happy Valentine's Day, bitches!" I exclaimed as I entered the living room.
They all glanced up at me, barely having any reaction, except for Ryan. He looked up at me and then back at the floor worriedly.
I walked over to the couch he was sitting on and sat next to him.
"Hey," I said as I placed my bag on the ground next to me. "What's up?" I placed my hand on his back.
"N-Nothing," he said, looking up at me. "What's up with you?" He glanced down at the envelope in my hands. "What's that?"
"Oh," I said. I held it out to him. "Open it."
"I-I," he stuttered, staring at it. "Bren-Brendon, I-"
I pushed it against his chest. "Open it," I said.
He gave in and took it from my hands. He slowly tore the envelope open before pulling the card out. He smiled at the Scooby-Doo card in his hands. I bit my lip as he opened the card and the tickets fell into his lap.
"Brendon, I..." He picked up the tickets and looked at the name on them. His jaw dropped and he glanced up at me. "Oh, my God." He smiled so big, it took up half his face. "Brendon..." He looked at me and leaned over and hugged me. "Thank you so much."
"It was my pleasure," I said. I pulled away from the hug just enough to look at him. "You deserve it, you beautiful person you."
He kissed me softly before hugging me again. "You just have no idea how much this means to me," he said, his voice wobbly.
"No, no," I said, hugging him tighter. "Don't cry."
"You're just such a great boyfriend," he said. "Thank you."
"It was my pleasure, Ryan," I said. "And I'm sure your gift is twice as cool. Wait, you know what?" I pulled away from the hug to look at him. "Just having you be my Valentine is gift enough."
"You're so sweet," he said before pecking me on the lips. "But my gift is right upstairs." He stood up. "I'll be right back."
I watched him run up the stairs before I noticed Patrick staring at me.
"What?" I asked.
"Nothing," he said. "Just curious to see how this turns out."
"What do you mean by that?" I asked.
"Nothing. Ryan just-" Patrick was interrupted by Ryan running down the stairs. He was carrying something very large behind his back to shield it from me, but since it was so big, I still saw it.
He slowed to a walk as he got closer to me and handed me the thing. "Here," he said, panting slightly. "Happy Valentine's Day."
I took the giant heart shaped box of chocolates from his hands. "Aww!" I said. "Thank you..." I faltered when I saw what was written on the box. "Ryan? Why does it say, 'To my big, strong, tiger man,' signed, 'P.W.'?"
"U-U-Uh, I-I," he stuttered, staring at the box. He blushed slightly and I could hear from the kitchen, where Patrick had excused himself, the rest of the gang laughing. "Y-You, um, you're big a-and strong a-and, uhm, y-you, um, you're fierce? Like a tiger...? And, um, P.W. obviously stands for, uh, like... You remember out first date?" I nodded. "Well, uh, that has nothing to do with this. Uh... I mean, obviously P.W. stands for person without, as in, I wouldn't be a person without you. Like, I wouldn't be here."
"Wow," I said. "That's interesting." I stood up to meet his eyes. "Ryan, it's ok if you forgot Valentine's Day."
"Brendon, I'm so sorry," he said. "I-I really would've done something-something spectacular- if I had remembered. I'm so sorry. I..." He leaned over and hugged me. "It's just been so long since I've celebrated Valentine's with somebody. I feel so bad that I forgot. I'm sorry."
"Stop apologizing," I said, moving away to look at him. "It's ok. Really."
"Are you sure?" he asked. "I'll do anything to make it up to you.
Ryan, I-" I stopped my train of thought. "Anything?"
"Yes. Anything." He paused. "Legal. Anything legal.
I sighed over-dramatically. "Fine." I smiled at him and pecked his lips. "You don't have to do anything to make it up to me because there is nothing to make up. Just having you as my Valentine is gift enough."
"Aw, you're sweet," he said, hugging me again. "You're sure?"
"Yes." I was mostly sure. I would cry to Mom about it later. We had some Grey's to catch up on anyways.
"Ok." He pulled away and kissed me, leaving his hands on my face. "I'm making this up to you."
"Ok, fine."
We smiled at each other and he took his hands from my face, grabbing my hand instead.
"Thanks for getting me the tickets to see blink," he said as we walked towards the kitchen. "You know I'm not gonna shut up about it right? I'll be talking about it until the day I die."
I laughed as we walked into the kitchen.
"No seriously." He picked up a pancake from the stove. "We're gonna be, like, all old and grey in our rocking chairs and I'm gonna lean over to you and say," he switched to his impression of an old man "'Hey, Brendon. Do you remember that time when you bought me tickets to see blink on Valentine's Day?' and you'll be all 'Eh, what? What's a blink? Who are you? What?' and I'll laugh because I have a better memory than you and you'll hit me over the head with your cane."
"Whoa," I said. "You think I'll have a cane?"
He laughed. "Maybe. But you'll still look better than me. Even at eighty."
"Hey. You'll look better at ninety than I will at twenty."
"Not true."
"So true." I wrapped my arm around his thin torso. "I wish I was kidding right now."
"I wish I was kidding." He placed an arm around my shoulders. "I'm just an ugly, lanky mess with a good music taste."
"No, I think you're talking about me." I picked up a pancake from the plate we were now looking at when we weren't looking at each other. "I'm definitely the mess in this relationship."
He scoffed. "A hot mess. And if anyone's ugly-"
"Ok, ok, we get it!" Patrick said. "Both of you are beautiful and have a great taste in music. Now can we get to school before we're late?"
"Ok..." we said, letting go of each other.
As we all filed out of the kitchen and headed for the door and what was beyond it, I leaned towards Ryan and lightened the mood.
"Cheers," I said, holding my pancake out.
"Cheers," Ryan said, tapping his pancake against mine.
We each took a bite of our pancakes and then smiled at each other. This was already turning out to be a pretty good Valentine's Day.
*...*...*...*...*...*...*...*...*...*...*...*...*...*...*...*
It was lunch time and we still hadn't seen Spencer anywhere. I almost missed his constant name-calling and harmless (but not really) comments and jokes. Almost.
I was in the middle of telling Ryan and Patrick a story (Jack and Alex and Mikey were hanging around our table and kind of listening to our stories and conversations but were engrossed in their own) when I saw something peculiar; Spencer giving Vic a piggyback ride out the side door from the lunch room (did I mention we were eating outside today? It was beautiful out). They came toward our picnic like table and sat down across me and Ryan, next to Patrick.
"Happy Valentine's day, bitches," Spencer said, putting his arm around Vic's shoulder. "Happy Valentine's day, Jack, Alex, Mikey." They all waved. "And most importantly, happy Valentine's day to my little señor." He leaned down and kissed Vic's lips.
"Whoa, what happened there?" Ryan said, sounding a little too shocked (I mean, we all saw it coming at some point).
"Oh, I never told you?" Spencer said.
"Uh, no, you didn't," Ryan said.
"Why do you care so much, anyway, Ryan?"
"Because you're my baby brother and--"
"God, Ryan I'm not a baby anymore!"
"Dammit, Spencer, stop being so over dramatic and just tell me if you're dating Vic or not."
Spencer sighed. "Yes. We are dating."
Ryan smirked and it eventually turned into the biggest smile I've ever seen on his face. "Awh!! Our little Spence is in love!"
Spencer blushed.
"Awh, he's blushing!" I exclaimed, smiling. Everyone 'awh'ed and gave him and Vic a group hug.
"Congratulations, Vic. You're dating the worlds biggest asshole you could ever meet," Ryan said after pulling away from the hug. "Besides myself."
"But he's the sweetest," Patrick said, "when he's in the right mood."
"Thanks, guys," Vic said. "I already love him, though."
Vic and Spencer smiled smiled at each other.
"I love you, too," Spencer said before leaning down and pecking Vic's lips.
I wasn't sure whether to 'aww' or cringe. I mean, they were cute together, it's just not something I would've put together. It was kinda like Ross and Phoebe from Friends; you didn't really think about it or ship it until you saw it. So, I just smiled because I was glad that they were happy (the world needed more happy people).
"So guys," Jack said. "What about those Valentine's cards?"
My heart stopped momentarily. "What about them?" I asked.
"Well, you should know; you got one, too," Alex said, "didn't you?"
"Yeah," I said. "But what's so special about the most recent ones? They just had dude's initials on them."
"They were initials?" Alex asked. "We thought they were, like, text talk for 'be you'. As in 'be yourself'."
"Yeah," Jack said. "Everyone did. That's why we came out to Brent today." Jack and Alex held up their linked hands. "Gerard did. Frank did. Vic did. Everyone did."
"Oh," I said, looking down at my hands. I realized how selfish I had been thinking. I thought everyone would, like, see the initials and eventually figure out it was me (it's human nature to be selfish. Stop looking at me).
"So what did Brent do?" Ryan asked.
"He, uh," Vic started, "he just, like, ran out of the room and, uh, gave up. We're, like, all of his backup."
"Yeah, it's just one big love-fest everywhere," Alex said.
"As it should be on Valentine's Day," Mikey said, pulling his phone out of his pocket.
At this point, Vic and Spencer had turned their attention back to each other and their lunches and were feeding each other.
"You have no idea how long I've wanted to say this to you Spencer," Ryan said. "Get a room."
Spencer scoffed and told Vic, "Don't pay any attention to him, my little señor."
They continued what they were doing and I was unbelievably grateful that I got a text.
I pulled out my phone and opened the message from Mikey.
It read, "ur lst naym iz speld 'urie' rite?"
I tried to contain my giggles at how text-talk-y he was.
"yea," I replied.
His reply came almost immediately.
"so r u bu" he asked.
"yep. howd you kno?" I said, nervous and happy someone finally figured it out (leave it to Mikey).
"im a jeenyus" he said and I couldn't help but laugh.
I looked over at him and winked.
He blushed and turned back to his phone.
"Ur guna hav 2 sho me how u did it l8r" he sent, then followed up with, "wenevr iz fyn"
"tomorrow after school??" I said.
"das fyn" he said. I smiled and put my phone away, looking at Ryan. He was staring at Spencer and Vic with a disgusted look on his face.I nudged him and as soon as he turned to look at me, I pecked his lips.
He jumped in surprise and said, "Ooh!" then blushed and looked down. "Sorry," he mumbled.
"Awh," I cooed, draping an arm over his shoulder. "You're cute when you blush."
He blushed harder and pushed my arm off him before standing up.
I watched him walk(run) to the bathroom until I couldn't see him anymore. I slumped over my lunch of mostly fruit Mom had packed me and stared at it instead of Spencer and Vic for fear of losing what I had already eaten. Then I thought of something I had to tell Ryan when he got back.
Ryan eventually came back and as he sat down, he stole a strawberry (but I forgave him because it was Valentine's Day).
"Hey," I said, nudging him with my elbow. He looked at me and I nodded towards Spencer and Vic across the table, who were now just baby talking to each other. "Do you think they're mashup name would be Viccer?"
"What?" he asked, looking back at me.
"Viccer," I repeated slowly. "Vic plus Spencer equals Viccer." Ryan still looked very confused so I continued. "Say it with me. Vic."
"Vic."
"Ser."
"Ser."
"Viccer."
"Viccer."
"Good boy." I rubbed the top of his head, which made him 'mew' and close his eyes slightly. It was cute, so I continued doing it, which had the same result. He then proceeded to swat my hand away.
"Stop that," he said.
"But it makes you make kitty noises!" I said, reaching up to do it again but (through cat reflexes or something I guess) he swatted my hand away again.
"Seriously, Brendon," he said sternly. I tried again, but he caught my hand and held the other one down on the table. "Don't. Please."
I sighed. "Fine."
He stole more strawberries before the bell rang and we held hands as we walked to biology. We saw Gabby and Carrie on the way and I saw a lot of people still holding mine and Ian's cards (I felt like the love-fest had at least a little bit to do with me and my awesome cards, but I digress (Ian is still a junior card deliverer)).
The rest of the day was really nice. I went over to the Ross-Smith-Stump house after school and did some homework and stuff with Ryan, but that got too boring, so we lay down on his bed while listening to an album he had picked out. When that finished, I went home, had dinner and went to bed, dreaming of listening the song in my head (from the album Ryan showed me) on repeat with The Boy That Was Everything in my arms again.
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yo peeps, we're back! sorry for the wait, but we're moved in enough to start writing again. we're gonna (try to) be back on track so stay tuned c:
picture to the right (or at the top/beginning of the chapter if you're on mobile (thats a new feature on the app)) is Spencer