Spinning Stars on Her Fingernails (Panic! At The Disco)

Chapter 6: Late Night Ice Cream Shops

I feel Ryan tap my hand in class.

"What time for ice cream?" He whispers.

"Meet me at my dorm at 7:00. I gotta shower really quick." He nods and directs his attention back to the front.

***

I walk in to my third period early, as usual. Brendon sits on top of his desk in front of my seat.

"Hey." He says with a smile.

"Hey, I had fun last night, thank you."

"I had fun, too." He nods. I sit my stuff on my desk and sit down.

"So, what are you doing later? I was thinking we could do homework, if you want." He offers as he repositions himself to face me.

"Uh, I can't, I've gotta work on my project with Ryan."

"No big deal. I was thinking about watching the girl's soccer practice." He smirks knowingly.

"And why would that be?"

"There's a certain player on that team. I hear she's bad ass, I want to see what all the fuss is about. Plus, she's kinda cute." He smiles.

"Which one? Maybe I can get you a date." I play along.

"See, I don't know what position she plays. All I know is she's pretty cool. And a bit goofy." He grins.

"I bet she's pretty cool."I shrug shyly.

"She is." He nods. The bell rings and students begin coming in. Brendon hops off the top of the desk and sits properly.

"Also, she plays center-field, and practice starts at 5:00." I bite my lip through my smile.

***

I take my lunch to the table Brendon and Ryan sit. As I set my tray between Brendon and Ryan, I give everyone a greeting smile.

"Mr. Vick seemed weirder than usual today." I try to start a conversation.

"I think he's got a project assignment." Brendon shrugs.

"Dude, he never gives out projects. And when he does, they're almost as weird as he is." Spencer says quietly.

"My point exactly. He's probably planning a weird ass project."

"What do you mean 'weird'?" I speak up.

"Last year he made us go to a zoo and write down a song each animal reminded us of."

"How do you learn from that?"

"He spoke a long lecture about it having to do with the 'emotions' and 'feel' of music." Brendon says with a mocking face that is almost identical to Mr. Vick.

"He didn't even pay for the trip." Spencer mumbles.

***

I show up to practice and sure enough, there's Brendon sitting on the bleachers. He looks up to see me and furrows his eyebrows in thought, before nodding and silently mouthing, "Yeah, I think that's her."

I smile and roll my eyes, he shoots me a confident grin. I drop my bag and hustle to where everyone is stretching.

Just about every time I missed a goal during our scrimmage, I'd hear Brendon shout in a deep voice "Hustle! You've gotta be better than that!". And just about every time he said it, I flipped him off.

When practice ended, I grabbed my bag and headed straight for the bleachers. Brendon stood up with a smirk on his face.

"You're an ass." As I say it, he bursts out laughing.

"Oh, so you think you're good, do you? Fine, meet me here tomorrow at 7:00, we'll see who's good." I challenge.

"Bring it on, whateveryourlastnameis." He mumbles the words altogether. I roll my eyes and launch forward, connecting our lips. Brendon was shocked by the sudden movement, but started kissing back. I pull back quickly, leaving him stunned, and turn to walk away.

"Oh, and it's Grace." I shout without turning around. I grin madly as I walk away.

***

A knock on the door wakes me from my nap I took after getting dressed.

"Yeah, one sec." I stand up and immediately fall to the ground, quite not used to standing. I gain my composure and stand up. I hobble over to the door and open it to see Ryan standing awkwardly.

"Come in, I just gotta put some shoes on." I walk over to my black vans on the ground and sit on the bed to slip them on. They were still tied from earlier today, so all I had to do was slip my foot in.

I stand up and follow Ryan out the door.

***

I sit across from Ryan in an old ice cream shop, red lights flashing the word "Open" buzz louder when there's silence. It's pitch black outside, the only thing visible outside is a yellow street light across the street.

Ryan has his legs pressing towards his chest as he scribbles in his notebook.

"You know, you still haven't told me what's in there." I nod at the notebook.

"It's a secret."

"I'll mind my own business as long as you can assure me you aren't plotting murders in there."

"You never know. Maybe if someone takes my notebook, I'll have to." He smiles.

I roll my eyes. "You have any ideas?"

"Not really, you?"

"Nope. Fresh out of luck." I sigh.

"Guys, we're closing up now, sorry." The owner of the shop tells us.

"Okay, thanks." Ryan pulls out his wallet and sets five dollars on the table. A bell chimes when we walk through the door.

"You wanna just take a bus instead of walking? I'm kind of tired." Ryan asks.

"Yeah, let's do that." We find the nearest bus stop and sit on the bench.

"So, you and Brendon, huh?"

"Uh, I don't really know what's going on with that. He's really cool."

"Yeah." He says quietly.

Five minutes later, the bus finally comes and we get to the campus at 9:30.

"See you tomorrow." I wave and walk to my dorm.

"Yeah, see you." He mumbles.

"Night."

"Goodnight."