Brendon sits in the room while waiting for more people to file into the room, along with the professor. He's always early for this class, but he can't help but love it. Psychology has always been interesting to him, he's always loved the way the human mind just works. It's hard to explain, but Psychology is hard to explain, and he gets so excited about these things. It makes him jittery and shaky, but in a good way. Maybe Brendon is a little bit of a nerd.
None of his few friends wanted to take this class because they said it was boring, but Brendon had tried to explain otherwise. Sadly, he couldn't get Gabe, Alex and Nate into it as they picked Zoology instead. But alas, it doesn't matter, because they would make fun of Brendon for geeking out about Psychology anyway, and he would rather not be ridiculed for what he enjoys, thank you very much.
So he doesn't know anyone in the class. No big deal, a lot of kids don't know each other in classes. Just because he's a little more open than the other students doesn't mean anything. It just kind of sucks when he tries to talk to someone next to him, just to make a joke about the class or ask a question, it doesn't really go farther than a chuckle or an answer. It especially sucks when Brendon introduces himself with his oh so charming smile and he just gets a tight smile and a jerky nod back.
But still, it's okay, it's totally okay. Brendon has his friends, so he doesn't need to make friends in this class. Just because he wants to, though, he doesn't think that should be a big problem. So what if he's more assertive than other people? That shouldn't be a bad thing. He likes to think he's a friendly person, pretty easy to talk to, can make people laugh. He makes his friends, and sometimes the people he's sitting around laugh at his low, mumbled jokes. So what's the problem? Is it him?
Well, whatever the case may be, he doesn't have to have friends in this class. Psychology is an awesome class and he enjoys it by simply being in there. It'd just be nice to have at least one friend in there, is all.
The professor entires the room and sets everything up while beginning the lesson. Brendon doesn't hesitate to begin taking notes, listening intently to Professor Caruso. She's a really good teacher, knows a hell of a lot about Psychology, but she is a bit of a loon. Everyone says it, but no one says it to her. It's kind of like high school all over again, but no one is arguing about it because it's like a well known fact.
After about a half hour of Humanism notes, Professor Caruso raises her voice to get everyone's attention. “Okay, now that we all know what we're talking about, time for a group project,” she announces. Almost all of the class groans, and she gives them a stern look to quiet them down. “There will be four people in each group and you'll be getting a sheet on what you're to be doing for your project. Now everyone get in your groups.”
Professor Caruso goes to her desk and begins calling out the lasts names of the four people who are in a group with each other, and Brendon tries to hide his grin. Doing a group project will help him make friends in this class, since they'll have to work together. Hopefully it's people he hasn't had the chance to (try to) talk to before so he can kind of start fresh. He usually sits in the back of the lecture room and he's got a pretty good view of the back of people's heads, but he doesn't know who many people are face-to-face.
There aren't many people left, and Brendon bites his lip hard to keep from smiling when he hears his name called. “Conrad, Ross, Urie, and Wentz.” He stands up and sees three other guys stand up around the room, looking around to find their partners. The area surrounding Brendon is mostly empty, since the students around him left to go to their partners, so once he sees his partners coming near him, he simply sits back down and waits.
Brendon's eyes dart from one partner to another, examining each of them. He doesn't know who is who yet, but his stomach is knotting in excitement and anticipation. As they all sit down with their things, Brendon sits up in his chair and smiles radiantly to the three of them. “Hey, I'm Brendon,” he introduces.
The one with black hair and an abundant amount of tattoos smiles just as wide as Brendon, if not wider. “Hey, man. I'm Pete.”
Brendon keeps smiling and looks at the two guys left who are unnamed at the moment, waiting expectantly. “I'm Tom,” the dark blond said, scratching his scruffy cheek before resting his head in his hand.
The last one practically mumbles his name as he introduces himself, but Brendon still catches it. “Ryan,” he says, fiddling with a beat up notebook that rested on top of his other textbooks.
It's quiet now, none of them looking at each other, but focusing on their personal belongings or the things around them. Professor Caruso hasn't given them a sheet for their project yet and Brendon bites his lip, hoping that this isn't how the project is going to end up if none of them talk. Granted, right now, they have nothing to talk about since they don't know what they're doing for the project, but they could at least try to get to know each other for the time being. Maybe that's for when they're working on the project. Brendon doesn't really know, this is the first time he's worked on a group project since being in college. Hopefully it'll end up like he hopes it will.
His eyes run over each of his partners while they wake for their instruction sheet. Both of Pete's arms have a lot of tattoos on them, one more than the other, and Brendon can see a lot of movie references on them. There are a few other things he doesn't quite get, but he doesn't think he should ask about them just yet. His hair is cut in many different layers and it's kind of all over the place, but it works for him. He's wearing a Police shirt, jeans and some bulky shoes. All in all, Pete looks like he does his own thing and doesn't care who likes or doesn't like it.
Tom seems to have dressed casual and uncaring. He's wearing a white t-shirt with a black sweater vest pulled over it, a black belt, jeans, and sneakers. His hair is long and slides over to the side of his head. Tom just looks bored at the moment, but he seems like a cool person. Brendon judges people by their clothes because he's just kind of weird like that.
Ryan's wearing clothes that makes him look like a TA. Nothing complicated, just some black jeans, a belt, and a white, buttoned-up long-sleeved shirt. He's not looking at anyone, just down at his notebook and writing something on the cover. Brendon narrows his eyes to see a little better, even though he has his glasses. He mouths the words to himself as Ryan writes them, i missed your skin when you were east.
Brendon always has a feeling when someone is looking at him, so when he quickly brings his eyes up after Ryan's hand immediately stops moving, Ryan is staring directly at him. He's not glaring at Brendon, just looking with bland eyes. Brendon looks back at him with his own wide eyes, unsure of what to do or say. Maybe he should say sorry, maybe he shouldn't say anything.
Thankfully he doesn't have to say anything as Professor Caruso comes up and drops four sheets on their table. “Good luck, guys,” is all she says before moving onto another group to give them their assignments.
Everyone picks up a sheet, beginning to read it. Using Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs (physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization), pick five different movies with five different scenes relating to each need.
Each scene from the movie has to be no shorter than five minutes long. Pick a scene that makes others think about why you picked that specific one. Some of the needs are obvious when picking a scene, but every general need in each category should be met.
Deficiency needs must be included. With the exception of the lower needs, the physiological needs, if the deficiency needs are not met, the body gives no indication of it physically, but the individual feels anxious and tense.
When you're finished picking your movies, put the scenes together in a Powerpoint. Don't forget to be creative in this as well.
Write a five page essay about the history of Abraham Maslow, including background on his personal life, scholastic matters, his interest in Psychology, who influenced him and who he influenced. Explain in thorough detail why he was known for the hierarchy of needs and what the criticism was followed with his theory.
Pete is the first one to say anything ever since the introductions, groaning loudly and tilting his head back in frustration. “I fucking hate projects, man,” he complains already, closing his eyes for a moment before bringing his head back. “Like, can't we just write notes and shit and take exams and be done with it? Why do we need projects?”
“For professors to have something to do or not to do while we all sit here, working our asses off,” Tom responses plainly, pulling out his cell phone and flipping it open, presumably to text someone.
Brendon's eyes move from one partner to the other, wondering if he should say anything. He obviously doesn't mind the project – he wants to work with these people, wants to be friends with them. He has only a few friends, admittedly, and it'd be insanely awesome to make more. Especially guys with such awesome fashion sense. Maybe they could help Brendon go shopping.
Before Brendon or Ryan say anything though, Pete grins at Tom and sits up straighter. “Good point. Okay, I got how we can do this, guys. Me and Tom – Tom, was it? Right, Tom – me and him, we'll work on three of the needs and get three scenes, and you two can get the other two. Then when we're done with that, you guys can write the first three pages of the essay and we'll write the last two. Huh? Doesn't that sound good? I like it,” Pete nods confidently, folding his hands on the table.
Brendon looks over at Ryan, who is gazing at Pete with something sharp in his eyes. Not like he was looking at Brendon before – this stare looks mean. He doesn't know if Pete or Tom can see what he sees, but he decides not to say anything about it. “Sure, I guess,” Ryan says, his voice a bit rough. Probably in anger, since he had no say in how the project was going to be done. Neither did Brendon, but at least he's working with one of them, so he nods in agreement and doesn't say anything again.
“Awesome!” Pete grins, holding up his paper in front of him. “Alright, Tom, which ones do you want to do?”
Tom holds up the paper as well, scanning the needs and humming to himself. “Let's do physiological, safety, and... esteem. They seem easy enough.”
Pete looks at needs inside of the pyramid and nods, smiling. “Yep. Okay, I like it. So you guys get love/belonging and self-actualization. They're all pretty easy, so it shouldn't be hard for us to pick movies. So! Let's all exchange numbers and we'll talk to each other when necessary.”
He takes out his phone and hands it to Tom, who takes out his phone and hands it to Ryan, who does the same and hands it to Brendon, who pulls out his own phone to hand it to Pete. The phones go in circles until everyone has entered their number into each other's phones and they get their respective phones back. Professor Caruso dismisses them and Tom and Pete quickly leave, talking to each other on the way out. Brendon frowns a little, because isn't this supposed to be a group project? Should they all work on the entire thing together? Maybe he's being a little immature about this, but he was looking forward to it. Now that it's hardly started, he doesn't know if he's as excited about it anymore.
Brendon sighs and takes his time collecting his things since he can go home now. He puts his iPod in as soon as he finds it in his bag, playing whatever song he was playing the last time he listened to it. I Love Rock'n'Roll happens to play and Brendon chuckles to himself lowly, shaking his head as he slings the messenger bag over his head and adjusting it before beginning to walk out of class.
As he turns out of the room, he feels a hand on his shoulder and jumps, spinning on his heel to turn around. Ryan stands there with widened eyes before his expression turns slightly amused. Brendon sees Ryan beginning to talk, and he quickly yanks out of his ear buds out of his ear only to catch the last of what Ryan is saying. “-so maybe we could start early and get it done so the other guys can do their shit.”
“I'm sorry, I didn't catch the first part,” Brendon apologizes, pulling out his iPod to turn down the music. Well, he tries, but he ends up accidentally blasting it in his ear and jumps again, cringing as it turns it down as fast as he can before Ryan recognizes what it is.
Of course he does recognize it though, his amused face never really going away. “Is that Britney Spears?”
“Oh, uh,” Brendon starts, about to deny it, but that would probably make him seem even more lame since Ryan obviously heard Britney's voice and counter Brendon's deny, “yes, yeah. It is. Catchy music.”
He figures that Ryan isn't into the poppy bullshit that is Britney Spears, but Brendon absolutely loves it. Plus her new CD is fucking awesome. And he loves the oldies too. But to Brendon's surprise, he sees Ryan nod and a smile tug at the corner of his mouth. “Yeah, catchy. But anyway, I was asking what you were doing tomorrow? Because I don't want to do this project as much as the next person, so maybe we could start early and get it done so Pete and Tom can do their stuff.”
Brendon usually gets excited when someone asks him what he's doing on a certain day, because that obviously means he or she wants to hang out with him. But when Ryan asks him, it makes him excited in a different way. A flutter in his stomach, kind of. “Um, no, I'm not doing anything tomorrow so we can work on this, definitely, yeah,” he nods, and maybe it's a little too eagerly, but Ryan doesn't seem to mind as he keeps smiling just a bit.
“Okay. Would you mind meeting me at Starbucks? My friend works there and his boyfriend will want me to be there since, I don't know, something or other,” Ryan explains, waving his hand out. “I'll just put some movies on my laptop that I think are relevant to the needs we have, and you can too, if you want--”
“Yeah, yeah,” Brendon nods his head in a jerk, “I can do that. And, uh, yeah, I'll meet you there. Time?”
Ryan furrows his eyebrows in thought for a moment, and Brendon instantly thinks he looks pretty adorable while he's trying to think. Then Brendon thinks he should stop caring what Ryan looks like when he thinks. Too much thinking going on right now. “Is 9:30 okay with you? I have work later on, so if we want to work on it tomorrow, we'd have to do it early. If not then we can do it the next day.”
“No, 9:30 is fine,” Brendon agrees, re-adjusting his bag out of nervousness. He doesn't know why he's so nervous, but he's sure it's not what he thinks it is. Really, it's not. “So I'll meet you there.” He smiles, hoping it looks confident and cool and normal.
“Meet you there,” Ryan nods, cocking his hand in a wave before turning around and walking the opposite way.
Brendon turns around as well, walking to his car after putting his ear buds back in and trying not to grin at absolutely nothing. People might think it's a little strange, but Brendon doesn't care that much right now. He has butterflies again and he's not trying to deny it.
***
He's a little early, since it's only 9:20, but he figured it would be better to be early than to be late. Ryan seems like a punctual guy, showing through the way he dresses. Maybe he is, Brendon doesn't really know, but he really does judge people through what they wear. He wonders if other people do the same and also wonders what people think of him with the clothes he wears.
As he walks up to the counter, since the store isn't extremely crowded since it is a little past a quarter of, Brendon takes his time looking at the menu. There's a big variety of drinks and he's usually the adventurous type, so he might want to try something different.
He politely waits for the barista to finish what he's doing until he gets to Brendon. Brendon definitely knows what it's like, having customers harassing you while you're obviously doing something else. So whenever he's at shops like these, he patiently waits until the workers are ready, not when he's ready.
The barista doesn't take long though, quickly tossing a wet rag onto the counter before walking up to Brendon and smiling. “Sorry about the wait, how can I help you?” He's scruffy too, but he has brown hair, unlike Tom. He has a soft, friendly, open smile, more relaxed than Brendon's at time, and he has a calm nature about him. He's wearing work clothes, so there's no way that Brendon can judge him based on that, but he doesn't think he needs to.
“No problem,” Brendon smiles, then looking at menu once more, even though he knows what he wants. “Um, may I have the... cinnamon dolce frappuccino, please? Tall?”
“Yes you may,” he says, punching in the price in the register. “Is that all?”
Brendon nods and takes out his wallet, pulling out a five and handing it to the guy. “Keep the change,” Brendon tells him, grinning back when the barista grins at him in a thank you.
He leans against the counter, looking at all the different desserts and pastries in the little closed off section next to the register. There cookies and brownies and breads and other things Brendon's never even heard of. He chuckles lowly to himself when he reads one of the desserts, Spartan Mile High Pie. He doesn't get it, but he figures he really doesn't need to.
As the barista finishes his frappuccino and places it on the counter, the bell above the door rings and Brendon immediately turns to the door, seeing Ryan and another guy walk inside. Brendon instantly smiles at Ryan's arrival, remembering that his assumption was right and Ryan is a punctual person as he glances at the clock on the wall that reads 9:29.
Brendon doesn't know who the other guy is that Ryan is with, but he tries not to think too much about it. He has light brown hair and scruff which kind of looks like a beard, which Brendon is surrounded by a lot lately. When they get closer to the counter after Ryan spots him, Brendon sees the guy has piercing blue eyes and a tight smile when he looks Brendon's way. On the spot, Brendon feels intimidated, even though he has no idea who this guy is. But when he takes his eyes off of Brendon and towards the barista, his eyes shine as he gives him one of the most breath-taking smiles Brendon has ever seen.
“Hey,” Ryan greets, stopping in front of him when his friend walks past them and over to the counter, leaning over and greeting the barista with a slightly rough kiss. “That's Spencer and his boyfriend, Jon,” he says, answering the widening of Brendon's eyes and the lift of his eyebrows as he looks their way.
Brendon nods slowly, turning back towards Ryan with a bit of a wary smile. “I see. But, um, would you like a drink? I ordered one and I wasn't sure what you liked, so I didn't bother to order something.”
Ryan looks thoughtful for a moment, his eyes softening in a way Brendon thinks you were going to order a drink for me? How are you so sweet and adorable? But it's probably not like that at all and Brendon really has to stop thinking into this too much. “No, thanks. I had a drink before we left, so.”
He nods again, quicker this time. “Okay, yeah.” Brendon grabs his drink with only a glance at Jon and Spencer, who are looking at each other with hearts in their eyes. “Let's sit, then.” He lets Ryan lead the way to a table with enough room for both of their laptops, sitting down in one seat as Brendon slides into the chair across from him. “So, um, should we tell what movies we've picked?” Brendon suggests, shrugging his shoulder.
“I guess so,” Ryan says as he pulls his laptop out of the case. He gently places it on the desk and Brendon does the same, both of them opening it at the same time. Brendon would probably laugh, but Ryan most likely doesn't think it's as amusing as Brendon does, so he keeps the chuckle away.
They exchange movies that they've thought of from the day before, mostly love movies like The Notebook and P.S. I Love You, trying to connect them with the love/belonging needs. Then self-actualization comparisons, using movies like Rocky and The Pursuit of Happyness. Ryan says it was a bit of a task to think of movies, it not being as easy as it sounded, and Brendon whole-heartedly agreed, because it really wasn't that easy.
As they go through the movies with their ear buds into their laptops, trying to pick a scene from each film. They work quietly, sometimes mumbling things to each other about finding a scene or how it sucks that there's a perfect scene, but it doesn't meet the requirement of five minutes.
Brendon finishes his drink, which tasted absolutely amazing that he really wants another one. He pauses The Pursuit of Happyness because he really needs a break from it since it easily makes him cry like a baby. He's probably seen the movie over five times, and it still makes him cry no matter what.
“I'm gonna get another drink,” he announces to Ryan who watches him stand up. “Sure you don't want anything?”
“No, here, sit,” Ryan tells him, waving his hand his way while turning to Jon. “Jon!” he calls out. The barista turns to him to show his attention, smiling at Ryan. Ryan smiles back, saying, “Can you get Brendon a re-fill and can I get the usual?”
“Got it!” Jon replies, getting to work. Brendon slowly sits back down, looking at Ryan with a raised eyebrow.
“You didn't have to do that,” Brendon says, putting one of his ear buds back in.
Ryan smiles a little bit, shrugging a shoulder and looking back down at his laptop. “Don't worry, it's cool.”
Brendon slouches down in his seat, staring at his screen with one of the biggest grins ever, the ones that hurt, because he's thinking that what Ryan did was extremely sweet and maybe it meant something. He doesn't want to get too hopeful, because that's what Brendon's life basically consists of – being overly hopeful about things that will just never happen.
When he glances over at the counter, he sees Spencer staring at him with narrowed eyes. His gaze looks like he's evaluating, but Brendon doesn't like it, so he quickly turns his attention back to the movie. Will Smith holds his son close while they're sleeping in a dirty, subway bathroom and Brendon swallows the lump in his throat.
***
The guys say Brendon's being a total pussy about this, but maybe Brendon was getting the wrong vibes the other day. Then again, maybe he wasn't, and Ryan is waiting for him to make the first move. Which, Gabe said, could highly be the case. From how Brendon described him, maybe he's really shy and doesn't want to make the first move. With Brendon's outgoing personality, it's probably expected of him to make the first move.
Brendon thinks this is logical – he is outgoing, he's friendly, polite, sweet – and people would most likely assume that he's usually the person who makes the first move. But the thing is, he hasn't made a lot of first moves with a whole lot of anybody. He tends to leave that detail out of certain conversations.
But whatever, whatever. Not the point. He thinks Gabe is right, he should make the first move. But Brendon doesn't really know how. What should he say? Should he wait until he sees Ryan? Call him? Maybe it's too early to do any of those things.
It's been a few days since the two have seen each other. They talked a little about things that weren't related to the project – mostly music, but it's progress. Brendon's afraid that if they only meet up for project purposes, then their friendship (or something possibly more) won't enhance and then they'll just be two college students who worked on a group project together. And Brendon obviously doesn't want that.
After his internal battle, he pulls out his cell phone and sits cross-legged on his bed, taking a deep breath. He doesn't know why he's so nervous, it's not like he hasn't asked people to hang out before. Just because this means a little bit more than the other people shouldn't make a big difference. Right?
So he just sends a simple, casual text message to Ryan. It totally sounds casual, just the way he words it and everything. He's feeling confident about it. And why wouldn't Ryan answer it? He should figure, 'hey, this could be a chance to make a new friend and Brendon is a cool guy, why not go?' Well, that's what Brendon thinks. If he had gotten a text message like this, he would totally respond yes and go, because it'd be a good time and it could become something more.
But hours pass – two hours, three hours, five hours, six hours, eight hours – and it's late by now. Brendon doesn't get a response, and he hides it extremely well around Gabe, Nate and Alex. They continue to ask him if he's okay and he says he is, seriously guys, it's fine, we hardly know each other, it's completely okay, it's not that big of a deal.
It just, it only stings a little bit, a lot, a whole fucking lot when he deletes the text message like he never sent it.
hey its brendon, u busy tonite? was thinking dinner and a movie if thats cool
***
He's really dreading going back to Psychology, which is weird because he loves that class. And it's only once a week, so it's not like an overload of work or anything. Plus he's almost done with his part of the project – he put the videos together on a disc and now all he has to do it hand it to Tom and Pete to let them do their thing. He's not sure about the essay part, which is one of the reasons he's dreading the class.
Brendon doesn't hold grudges. He completely agrees that life is too short to be mad at people for the stupidest things, but this is something he just doesn't do. He doesn't “casually” ask people out on dates. Sometimes he's a huge dork, can geek out about anything in the snap of a finger. He's been called a dork on several, more than several occasions by his friends, but he doesn't really mind because they're his friends and friends just do that with each other. But being called out on a date is a totally different story. And he doesn't want that to happen.
This time he hasn't even had the chance to go on the date to make sure he doesn't geek out because Ryan didn't even answer him. One of the first times he actually asks someone out on a date and he gets shot down. He has some confidence, or so he thought. Figured he was kind of in the mid-esteem level of the hierarchy of needs pyramid. But now, Brendon feels Ryan unintentionally pushed it down to the safety level. Now he's not so confident, doesn't think he'll ever have the opportunity to be outgoing and flirty with people when the one person he tried to go on a simple date with just didn't do a thing.
So Brendon mossies into the classroom, trying to act like he normal does – excited, anxious to learn more in this class, ready to become a better person with the help of Psychology. He sits in his usual seat in the back, waiting for the professor to come in and begin something new.
He doesn't look at the door or the rest of the class to see if Ryan is around. Maybe he should be looking for Tom or Pete to give his part of the project since he's finished, but he can do that later. Brendon just gets his notebook open, a pen, and doodles until he's supposed to take notes.
When someone sits next to him, Brendon doesn't acknowledge them. He figures it's one of the usual students that just sit there to sit there, not because of him. So he continues to draw a super adorable giraffe until the person says, “um, Brendon?”
Quickly he jerks his head to the side, looking at the boy next to him. He immediately remembers him – Spencer, from Starbucks – and, hey, is he even in this class? “Are you even in this class?” is the first thing Brendon asks.
“No, I'm not, but I'm here to talk to you,” he explains, and what the hell could he want to talk to Brendon about? They haven't even been properly introduced. “It's about Ryan.”
Oh. “Oh, uh. If this is about what I asked him, then just--” Brendon starts, but Spencer interrupts him.
“Ryan is retarded,” he blurts out, causing Brendon to raise his eyebrows in a surprised manner. “Okay, no, not like... he doesn't have mental problems, physically. He's just extremely bad at showing his feelings and shit like that, blah, blah, et cetera, you get where I'm going here. Anyway, he's not coming to this class today because he feels like a total dick for not answering your text – we're best friends, so I obviously read it – and he knew it was a date-type thing, and he's absolutely horrible at dating in general because he's always afraid he'll fuck it up. Which is why I'm here, to tell you he's not a jerk like you may think he is, and he really wanted to respond yes to your text, but he was being a weird, self-conscious pussy about it, so. He just, you know, completely ignored you.”
Um. What. “So... he did want to go out with me, but he didn't because he's nervous?” Brendon tries, thinking that's what Spencer said. He mostly thinks that Spencer just insulted the shit out of his best friend, but he thinks he's trying to help Brendon too. And he's thankful for that.
Spencer nods in agreement, pushing his hair out of his eyes. “Yeah. So, me being his best friend, I'm doing this for him because you seem pretty cool and maybe I'll like you in the near future. Jon already likes you, says you're very polite and whatever.” Brendon tries to remember who Jon is, then letting it click that he's the barista from Starbucks-slash-Spencer's boyfriend. “So I'm doing this for Ryan. And you, I guess, even though I don't know you. But I'm warning you, if you hurt my friend, I'll hunt you down – don't doubt me, I will find you – and make sure no one remembers you existed.”
“I'm seriously doubting ever talking to Ryan again on a count of you might slaughter me into oblivion,” Brendon deadpans, even though he's fucking serious and now he's scared as hell.
“Talk to him or I'll still kill you because he'll be upset that you're ignoring him!” Spencer exclaims, throwing up his hands, which makes Brendon jump.
“Okay, jeez, I'll talk to him!” Brendon says, huffing because he's feeling like he's being forced to talk to Ryan now, even though, hello, Ryan does want to go on a date with him and he's seriously fucking happy right now.
Spencer smiles and nods again, just once, like he's accomplished his mission or something. “Good, good. Now I'll leave. Don't tell Ryan this happened.”
And Spencer leaves.
Brendon slouches in his seat, reaching up and covering his mouth to hide the grin taking over his face. It's the same grin that hurts, the one he got when Ryan paid for his drink, but this is different. Ryan wants to go on a date with him, actually wants to, and he did want Brendon to make the first move. Granted, that part didn't end up so well, but he still wants to go on a date with him!
He wants to squeal, but maybe that would be too embarrassing.
***
meet me at starbucks?
It's downright humiliating how fast Brendon gets to Starbucks. He might of sped a little bit, slowing down whenever he figured out he was seriously going way too fast. Parking down the street, he practically power-walked towards the coffee shop but slowed down to catch his breath and act like he wasn't sprinting.
So when he collected himself and tried to resemble a normal person, Brendon strolls into Starbucks with his hands in his hoodie pocket, looking around casually. When he spots Ryan in the back, curled up in a booth with a latte and a book, his heart skips a beat as his hands begin to shake in his pockets. He doesn't know what to expect, but from what Spencer said, it should be positive.
Brendon walks over towards Ryan, watching his facial expression change when he notices Brendon. Ryan sits up more, folding the corner of the page and shutting the book. “Hey,” he greets, his voice sounding overly monotoned.
“Um, hey,” Brendon returns, sliding into the booth on the other side and trying not to over-think this. Now, for some reason, despite what Spencer said, he doesn't know if this is going to be good or bad. But just by the way Ryan greeted him, he feels like it's going to end up shitty and he raced to Starbucks to be let down again.
But Ryan takes a deep breath, looks down at his book and starts to explain. “I'm sorry I didn't reply to your text. I... I act on bad impulse, and I just didn't respond because I was nervous, or something, I don't know. But I've been called out on it and I know it was really shitty of me to do that. Because, um.”
Brendon is looking at him intently, watching the way his mouth moves as he speaks, the way the crease between his eyebrows scrunch together when he's saying something that's hard to explain, the way his hands pull and tug at his book for a distraction. It's small things that Brendon can easily, too easily, learn to appreciate more than ever.
“I really did... you know, want to go on that, um, date thing. It, it was a date, you asked me about, right?” When Ryan glances at him for a mere second, Brendon sees the nervousness in his eyes, wondering if he's wrong or right, but he's right, he's so fucking right, he's practically off the damn meter of being right.
“Yes, yeah, I did, it was a date, I just,” Brendon blurts, babbling before he catches himself. He clears his throat and shifts in his seat, trying again. “I tried to ask it as casual as I could so if you didn't want it to be a date, then it could've been just us hanging out, if you brought it up or whatever, so.” He waves his hand out mindlessly before shoving it back into his pocket, now unsure of what to do with it.
Ryan smiles though, and it immediately makes Brendon break out into a grin. “Okay. Well, I did want it to be a date, so. I'll still take you up on that offer if dinner and a movie now, if you want.”
Brendon should be jumping for goddamn joy right now, doing back flips out of the coffee shop. But the first thing he says is, “It's only 11:30 in the morning.”
Thankfully Ryan thinks it's funny and lets out a burst of laugh, smiling shyly. Brendon declares it the most precious smile he's ever been in the presence of. “Okay, well... brunch and a movie.”
He's still grinning, and he's so glad he didn't ruin it, because he nods and scoots out of the booth with a little too much energy. “I would love to take you out for brunch and a movie.”
Ryan laughs again, because he obviously sees how eager Brendon is, but he doesn't really care. He collects his things and holds out his hand, so shyly, so timidly, that Brendon's heart is no doubt melting as he stands there.
Brendon slides his hand into Ryan's, their fingers fitting on top of each other's hand as they walk out of the coffee shop.
Maybe Brendon is a little bit of a nerd, but at least someone likes it.