hømetøwn

• : / seven / : •

He leaned backwards, studying me. "I thought you were mad at me."

"I wasn't mad at - well, okay, but you - you - you know what? Whatever. I..." My mind raced. I couldn't stay here. My mother couldn't make me stay here. Not in this town. Not after so long anticipating the day I would leave. I couldn't stay. I wouldn't.

Brendon's eyebrows pulled together. His hand shot across the table, long fingers closing over my wrist. I flinched.

"Lake, what's wrong?"

His caramel eyes were fixed intensely on mine, and it was impossible to look away. I felt like if I wasn't careful, I could slip and fall inside those eyes, I could descend into the endless brown layers and lose myself inside the galaxy of his soul. I shook myself.

"My mom set up some job thing for me here. She doesn't think I should go to college anymore. She wants me to stay here." A dark pressure was building in the back of my throat. My eyes stung. "I can't stay. I've been working my entire life to not have to stay. I hate it here, Brendon. I hate it. I..."

His fingers trailed down my wrist and wound themselves between my fingers. His skin was soft and warm against mine. I blinked fast and swallowed.

"I know," he murmured.

"I just. I need a way out," I said.

He was silent for a moment. Something in his expression shifted.

"Come with me."

I stiffened. His fingers felt electric against my skin. I stared at him.

"I...what?"

"Come with me," he said again. His eyes flicked away, then back to me. "We start our tour in around a month. Come back and stay with Ryan and I until you get up on your feet. You can live in the city."

My head was spinning. "Brendon, I - I want to. I really, really want to. But my mom, she would kill me. I can't just -"

"How old are you?"

"Eighteen."

"You're a legal adult, Lake. You can leave if you want to. You can't just let your mom push you around all the time. If you want to get out of here, get the hell out of here. I'll be your ride."

"I wouldn't have any money. No place to stay. Nothing."

"You can stay with Ryan and I until the tour starts. You can get a job, start saving up. Go to college eventually."

"I..." My emotions swelled at the sincerity of his offer. "But, Brendon, I barely know you."

A faint smile tugged at the edges of his lips. "Hey. If I were a crazy psychopath murderer rapist, you'd be buried in my backyard by now."

I couldn't help laughing, albeit softly.

"So what do you say?" said Brendon.

My thoughts swirled with the infinite amount of things that could go wrong. A fall out with Brendon. Not being able to get a job. Abandoning the only life I'd ever known. Leaving before graduating high school.

But then I saw Connor. His stormy eyes hazed in my mind's eye. My fingers tightened around Brendon's hand.

"Brendon, I -"

"Two medium sirloins with steak fries." The waiter had returned, balancing one plate on each palm.

"Oh, yeah, that's us," said Brendon. He pulled his hand away.

My mouth was dry as sand. I kept my gaze down as the waiter slid the plate in front of me.

"Thanks," I muttered.

"Yeah, no problem," the waiter said, and strode off.

Brendon immediately dove into the meal, his knife flying. I picked up my fork.

"So, uh," said Brendon, mouth full of food, "What were you gonna say?"

I stabbed a piece of steak and glared at it. "I definitely need to get out of here. Do you think my mom would kill me?"

"I'm, like, eighty percent sure that murder is illegal in this state."

"Har, har."

"Look, Lake, the way I see it, you're old enough to make your own decisions. My parents kicked me out of their house and I'm doing fine. You can leave and be okay."

I looked up at him. "Your parents -?"

"Yeah, they kicked me out."

I didn't want to ask why because I thought it must've been a sensitive topic. But he must've read my facial expression, because he said, "I guess you're wondering why, yeah?"

I nodded.

"Yeah, okay. Well, uh, basically I was brought up Mormon. My parents are, uh, they're pretty conservative. And I didn't agree with a lot of stuff that was pretty important to them. And, uh...I don't know. We fought a lot. And they, just, uh, they basically said if we didn't share the same values, then it was, uh, it was time for me to get my own place. And so I did. And you know what? It worked out damn fine. Now that Panic! at the Disco is starting to take off, I'm, uh, I'm doing great. So they can suck it." He twitched involuntarily and forced a smile. "I'm kidding. I'm not bitter about it. I get where they were coming from."

I nodded.

"You don't belong here, Lake." There was no denying the sincerity in his voice, and I felt unexplainably drawn to him. He was a magnetic force, and I was falling into him. "I've only known you for a tiny fraction of time, but I can tell. You don't belong in a place like this." He took a huge bite of steak.

When I finally found the strength to break my eyes away from him, I could feel a flush of heat rising in my neck. "So you...you're going to help me."

"Of course I am."

"This is insane."

"Of course it is."

"I'm kind of scared."

"Of course you are."

"So we...we're going to do this?"

He nodded. "Of course we are."