Church Boys † Brendon Urie

4✝ Do You Like Your Lips Bruised or Kissed

"Vanessa. Wake up." My mom wrapped her knuckles repeatedly against the surface of my bedroom door. "Vanessa!"

I struggled to wrench open my crusty eyes, all the while groaning, "I'm awake, mother!"

Her footsteps padded down the hallway, and I shoved my face into my pillow and wondered how long it would take to successfully suffocate myself.

Twelve seconds later, I gave up.

Unearthly noises erupted from my throat as I struggled to sit up and leave my bed. The warm comforter mourned my absence as I argued with myself whether I would be able to still look presentable if I slept for ten more minutes.

Deciding that five minutes to get ready was not, in fact, a substantial amount of time, I arose.

My eyelids failed to open successfully as I made my way towards my closet and tried my best to scope out an outfit with little-to-no vision. That didn't work out too well. After finding a nice pair of jeans and a shirt with my schools logo, I tugged them on slothishly and went to prepare my face for the day ahead.

Once I was convinced that I no longer looked like a hairy sea monster, I made my way into the kitchen where my nose humored me by expecting the sweet smell of breakfast food to be awaiting my presence.

Yeah, right.

No. Breakfast foods came from caring, stay-at-home mothers, and dads that weren't working atrocious amounts of hours. I just gave up on my family-loathing attitude and poured myself a bowl of dry cereal. Although the counter caught more than the bowl did, I figured the cat would clean it up, so I made my way into the living room.

"Nessy, you look messy." my younger sister ridiculed as I staggered into the living room. "Hey, that rhymes!"

"So does 'you better sleep with your eyes open, I wonder if I can over-dose on Ibuprofen'." I snarled, tossing a handful of cereal at her shocked expression.

My mom walked into the living room, moments after, looking busy and lost.

"Mom, Laura seems to have spilled her cereal." I teased.

She dismissed me with a mumble of, "That's nice, clean it up." before walking into the laundry room.

Christopher ran behind the couch with a pair of Pull-Ups fastened around his forehead, and my mom clicked her heels leisurely after him, attempting to wrangle him while still looking unfocused.

Luckily the bus pulled up just as I heard my mother raise her voice and monotonously groan, "Christopher pull your pants up, and get back in here." followed by a, "Don't sneeze on that."

Grabbing my things quickly, I rushed out of the door before I could be addressed with the situation.

"Goo' mor'un." the driver muttered as I stepped up, into the bus and took a seat in my regular spot.

As I plugged my headphones in to drown out the rowdy homosapiens filling the crowded space, my mind was finally able to relax. My thoughts wandered back to the same thoughts I had had the night prior.

Was I really going to change my actions and go against my families' beliefs just for the sheer thrill of my curiosity? I mean, my families' methods weren't always ones that I'd agreed with, but I still had to live by them for another year and a half. And besides, how would I even join a group like the ones that Brendon was in? Would they even accept the goody-two-shoes Christian? I highly doubt it.

We pulled up to the school gently, after some time. And by gently I mean, I'm still rubbing my forehead after slamming it against the seat in front of me, due to the force of the brakes.

Exchanging a curt nod with the bus driver, I exited the vehicle and made my way into the school.

As soon as I walked in, I locked eyes with the one person I knew I would find, but dreaded seeing.

"Hey, Vanessa..." Todd said, holding his hand up in a lazy wave. The group of friends around him- especially the girls- couldn't detach their eyes from his movements, as he pushed himself away from the wall and took quick strides to catch up with me.

"W-what do you want, Todd?" I tried to ask firmly, although stuttering a bit. He used his body to press mine back against the wall.

"Just wanting to know when you're gonna take me back, that's all..." he spoke into my neck, his voice barely above a whisper. I was in shock, but wasn't quite ready to push him off just yet.

"I told you Todd," he placed one hand on my hip, and the other against my waist, dipping his head even lower into my neck; I could feel his breath against my skin. I cleared my throat, "Todd, I told you that I didn't believe in the relationship methods that you were leading."

He only laughed, and brought his face back up to look me in the eyes. The eye contact didn't last long, before he planted his lips against mine.

I expected it to be a quick kiss, but he was still there a few seconds later, not even noticing the fact that I was not participating. In fact, my eyes were wide open and I was lifting my brow confused, at his friends standing behind him.

"No PDA in the school halls." we heard an authoritative voice call, as he passed us in a rush. We quickly separated. "Oh, hey Todd, good luck on tomorrow's game." the same voice said from further down the hallway.

Todd didn't say anything, just placed his for head against mine, and stared into my eyes.

"Did that change your mind?" he asked, trying to be seductive.

"Not particularly." I said firmly, although my legs were shaking.

"Well maybe if you come over tonight I can change y-" he was cut off by a head full of brow hair inching its way into our peripheral.

He was stood against the locker, right beside me, (No, I mean he was literally about an inch away from our faces.) and he was just staring, with a huge grin on his face.

"Do you mind?" Todd asked angrily.

"Nah, it's chill, just keep doing what you're doing, act like I'm not even here." he replied.

In that moment, I realized exactly who it was.

"Listen dude, I'm trying to talk to my girlfriend, so could you please get out of my face?" he spat. Oh shit. I wished he hadn't have said that.

Brendon's grin went from giddy, to cocky, as he raised his brows and stared directly at me, astonished.

"Hold on," he said, suppressing a laugh, "you're telling me that WWJD has a boy toy?"

I turned my head to look the other way, completely mortified that this was actually happening right now.

"What's it to ya?" Todd spat, pushing away from his previous stance of crushing my body, now turning to face Brendon.

"Nothing, big guy." Brendon said, patting his hand against Todd's chest. He then turned to look at me. "Isn't this against your beliefs or something? Are you gonna get shunned for this?"

Popping his knuckles, I could tell that Todd was getting angrier and angrier with every word leaving Brendon's mouth.

"Do you have a problem?" Todd asked, leaning his had against the locker to symbolically block Brendon from me.

"Nope..." Brendon retorted, "just didn't come to my locker expecting to see the Jock and the Christian getting all PG-13, but don't get me wrong, it was definitely the highlight of my day."

Brendon sported a busted lip for the remainder of the week.