Every Inch Of Me - [Chapter Twenty]

When Brendon woke up, the clock told him that it was eleven in the morning. Classes had started three hours ago. He was so dead.

As he struggled to get into his slacks, he stopped and sat down on the bed. Maybe he didn’t have to go to class. A surge of recklessness surged through him, and he felt excited. No wonder Ryan loved to cut class.

He got up and screeched when he saw Ryan come out of the bathroom wearing his pajamas.

Speaking of the devil…

Ryan stopped in his tracks, staring at Brendon with surprise. “I thought you left for class.”

Brendon just shook his head. “I just woke up. I’m not going today.”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “If you want to ditch properly, you better get off campus quickly.”

“Why?”

“Ah, the young Jedi still has much to learn,” Ryan chanted in a deep voice. Brendon laughed a little before thinking about the things that Ryan said yesterday. He immediately rearranged his demeanor into one that someone would wear to a funeral.

“I’m still mad at you.”

Ryan just blinked at him. “I know.”

“Are you going to apologize at all?” Brendon demanded.

“I don’t say sorry,” replied Ryan tonelessly, “to anyone.”

Brendon felt all the tension in his body just snap.

“No, you’re going to apologize to me, and you’re going to do it now.”

“What did you say?” Ryan sneered. “You wouldn’t dare do anything to me.”

“No, Ryan, I will, because I am done with your bullshit and stupid lies and you acting like everything’s fine. Nothing is fine. First, when your dad died,” here Ryan winced and looked away, “I was there. I wanted to help. And you pushed me away and said some of the worst things anyone has ever said to me. And then, at the carnival, where you undoubtedly followed Spencer, Jon, and me, you said sorry, but it wasn’t enough. You didn’t even mean it. Then Spencer got mad at me—“

“I know, I was there,” Ryan said dryly.

“That’s not the point!” Brendon shouted, feeling like he was about to explode any second now. “The point is that you care about me. I know you do! You gave me a fucking piano for Christmas. You don’t give people you don’t care about a piano for Christmas.”

“It’s just a stupid little piano,” Ryan sneered.

“No it’s not!” Brendon felt like tearing his hair out of its roots. “I just…I don’t get you! Why can’t you just start acting the way you feel?”

Ryan only stared at him. “That would cause way too much trouble.”

It was Brendon’s turn to sneer. “And why’s that?”

“If I followed your way, we’d be fucking by now.”

Brendon gaped. “Wait, what?”

“Yep,” Ryan said, lips twitching. “I just can’t keep my hands off a piece of virgin ass.”

Brendon huffed and grabbed one of the throw pillows and threw it at Ryan, who ducked it and laughed. “Don’t joke about that!”

Ryan stopped laughing and looked at him strangely. “Who said I was joking?”

“You want to have sex with me?” Brendon asked hysterically.

“Uh…” Ryan said, unsure of how to go about with it. He had already spewed out the poison, and he might as well continue along.

“So you do!” Brendon shouted, pointing his finger at the accused. “You do want to have sex with me!” He then paused, looked down a bit, and then looked back at Ryan. “So why do you want to have sex with me?”

Ryan groaned with in frustration. “I don’t mean it that way. I mean like…I just…”

“Are you going to lie to me again?” Brendon said angrily.

“I like you, okay?” Ryan shouted, wishing for the words to burn through Brendon’s absolutely thick head. “I like you a lot! I might even love you!”

Brendon stood there, stunned. Ryan wanted to either melt into the group or just turn invisible. Both options seemed really fantastic at the moment.

Unfortunately, life didn’t work that way, because life wasn’t a movie. And no one was here to zap him and turn him transparent any time soon, so he had no choice but to stay where he was under Brendon’s scrutiny.

"Are you being serious?” Brendon finally said. “You’re not like joking with me, are you?” Ryan looked up and tried to read his face. Brendon was usually an open book, but he was completely impassive at the moment.

Ryan tried to speak, to say something, but all he could do was nod fervently.

A few more moments of heavy silence fell between them, and Ryan couldn’t look Brendon anymore. Then he heard the sound of Brendon’s shoes tapping across the floor and Ryan barely had a chance to look up and speak before he felt Brendon’s soft warm lips on his.

“You two look happy,” Spencer commented at lunchtime.

Brendon stammered something unintelligible and Ryan cut in, “You’re dreaming.”

“Where’s Jon?” Brendon said hurriedly, desperate to change the subject.

“He’s working on a history project with his idiotic group. But really, like you guys are almost glowing…Did you dump yourselves in toxic waste or something?”

“Hah, so funny,” Ryan said sardonically. “I just decide to make myself sparkle because that’s what cool people do.”

“You like Twilight?” Brendon said frightfully. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know you anymore. You’re a random stranger. What’s your name?” he ended hysterically.

“I WAS JOKING,” Ryan yelled, clearly irritated. “Twilight is stupid, vampires are useless, and sparkling is for little girl craft-making. Now let’s just shut up and eat our stupid lunch.”

They were silent for a few moments before Ryan caught Spencer mouthing “glowing” at Brendon, and then Ryan lost it and threw a fruit cup at him.

After that…well, needless to say, Brendon needed to get his uniform to the dry cleaners before a teacher stopped him for undress.

He managed to rinse most of the food stains out of his blazer, seeing as it was dark blue. But his dress shirt was a different story. The light blue material was covered with brown and orangey splotches. It would take a lot more than some soap to make the shirt look presentable.

“Need help with that?”

Brendon shook his head hastily. “Ryan, you got all this on me. I’m pretty sure I don’t need more of your help. You don’t have any food with you, do you?” he added fearfully.

Ryan grinned and held up his hands. “Food-free,” he said, and walked up behind Brendon, wrapping his arms around his waist, making Brendon shiver. “Are you sure you don’t want my help?” he whispered seductively. “I can be extremely…helpful.”

“Y-yes!” Brendon stammered, wriggling away. “Why are you being all touchy all of a sudden?”

“We had a hot make out session on your bed. I think I can be touchy if I want to.”

Brendon made a rude noise and held up a finger. “That’s not it. What does this make us?”

Ryan blinked at him. “I don’t date.”

“Well, too bad, you’re my boyfriend now.”

“Why the hell do I have to be your boyfriend?” Ryan said incredulously.

“Are you that stupid?” Brendon asked. “You said that you liked me.”

Ryan made weird gesturing motions with his hands. “And that matters how?” he added sarcastically.

“I, uh, I kind of like you too,” Brendon stammered.

Ryan stopped looking so angry. He just looked down at his feet and eventually muttered unhappily, “Do we have to call each other weird names like Spencer and Jon do?”

Brendon laughed and bounced over to Ryan’s side, hugging him and pressing a kiss to his cheek. “No, because that’s a stupid idea, and you’d kill me if you knew all the names I could call you.”

“Like what names?” Ryan demanded.

“Nope, not telling you,” Brendon teased. “You have forbidden me to speak of the names ever again.”

“Hey, boyfriend here, I have a right to know the truth.” Ryan stuck up his nose like a petulant little toddler.

“Oh, so now you’re my boyfriend now? I believe the order is denial then acceptance.”

“I get to order you around for the rest of my existence,” Ryan replied haughtily. “I see no reason to deny anything.”

“Are you going to tell Spencer and Jon?” Brendon asked tentatively.

Ryan spluttered and turned bright red. “Why would I want to do that?”

Brendon stilled and looked crestfallen. “You’re embarrassed, aren’t you?”

“Brendon, that’s not—“

“Ryan Ross doesn’t want anyone to know he’s gone all soft and domestic,” Brendon scoffed. “I should have known.”

“That’s not it!” Ryan shouted desperately.

A trio of boys entered the bathroom and saw them shouting. “Uh, everything alright here?” one of them asked.

“Just dandy,” Brendon gritted out, and stomped past the trio and out the door.

Ryan tried his best to apologize to Brendon, but every time he got remotely close, Brendon would blabber something to the person he was talking to and run the opposite direction. Ryan never knew that having a boyfriend would be so tiring, nor did he know that within a few minutes of getting his first boyfriend, said boyfriend wasn’t speaking to him.

Fortunately for him, they had AP Euro together next, and the teacher (thank you teacher thank you so much) had Brendon sit right in front of Ryan.

Stupid boyfriend. Let him avoid me now, Ryan said triumphantly.

Sure enough, he spotted Brendon walking into class with—

No. Fucking. Way.

He had his arm around the biggest whore in school, even bigger than Ryan, which was saying something. And he was laughing and throwing his head back and Ryan was seeing red.

Ryan was going to commit bloody murder on Kendall Hendricks as soon as possible.

Kendall, very sweetly and gentlemen-like, gave Brendon a small smile and an air kiss before going to his seat. Brendon seemed to not see Ryan at all as he sat down right in front of him.

Yep, Kendall would die tonight, no doubt about it.

The bell rang, and the teacher walked into the classroom and called for them to be quiet so that she could take roll call.

Ryan poked Brendon’s shoulder, and was miffed when Brendon remained unmoved. “Brendon,” he hissed, and there was no response. He dug his finger into Brendon’s back. “Brendon,” he said again, this time a little louder. The back of Brendon’s head showed no signs of hearing or feeling Ryan at all.

"I love you,” he said even more quietly than the first time, and Brendon turned around in an instant.

“What?” he replied, looking alarmed.

“I called your name twice and poked you, but you ignored me. But when I show that I have a heart, you express interest. Thanks,” he said dryly.

Brendon rolled his eyes. “I’m still mad.”

“I love you,” Ryan said again hopefully, and Brendon tried to look mad, but he was laughing.

“That’s not going to get you anywhere,” Brendon said indifferently, getting out his notebook, “although it does sound kind of strange coming from you.”

"Hey, I can be nice!” Ryan protested. “I’m really sorry,” he added. “I’m not embarrassed of you, I swear. That’s not it.”

Brendon sighed and turned his back towards him because the teacher was getting antsy. “Then what is it, Ryan? I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about you.”

Ryan let out a small groan. “I just...okay, you were right; I don’t want everyone to think I’ve gone soft or something. It doesn’t mean I like you any less. I’ve had this reputation, this image for being a total badass.”

"So your reputation is more important than me?” Brendon exclaimed, turning back to face Ryan. “I can’t believe it.”

            “It’s not that either!” Ryan whispered. “But it’s just… It’s really fast. And I don’t know how to really handle it.” He touched Brendon’s arm. “Just give me some time to get used to everything. I swear I can do this right.”

Brendon’s lip twitched. “No more horse-induced comas?” he said softly.

Ryan shook his head so quickly that whiplash was a real danger.

“No more lying about your feelings, or fighting on Ferris wheels, or getting mad when you wake up next to me in the morning?”

“Hey, you are welcome in my bed any time,” Ryan said, causing Brendon to laugh and the teacher to start going into a rant about how no one listens to her and how she feels so disrespected. She looked like she was about to go in for the long haul, so Ryan got out his notebook and tore out a piece of paper.

R: I mean it though. I really am sorry for being stupid. I don’t deserve your awesomeness.

He tapped Brendon’s shoulder and tossed the note onto his table. Ryan saw Brendon open the piece of paper, smile, and write a reply.

B: You know, even on paper, your sarcasm is evident.

R: okay, maybe not the last part, but I meant the thing about me being sorry. So yeah, I’m sorry.

B: you seriously suck at apologizing.

R: sorry, didn’t take “how to apologize to your boyfriend 101”

The two of them were trying their best to stifle their laughter, but they had to stop exchanging notes when the teacher turned on Ryan and told him to stop being happy.

Ryan didn’t really care. He knew that Brendon forgave him, and that was enough to carry him throughout the rest of the period.

A/N: so yes, Ryan and Brendon are together! (Finally, right?) But it’s not over yet. I still plan to make you guys cry with angst for at least two more chapters. That’s right, this story is ending soon!