Tutorial | Brendon Urie

Chapter Thirteen

Just before our lips are able to meet, a loud, obnoxious horn sounds from the highway, coming closer and closer to us. A huge voice whoops and hollers, screaming random words that we're too distracted to comprehend.

"Fuck, are they from school? Do you know them?" Brendon asks me as he clamors to move out of sight.

"Shit, yes they're in my year. Quickly, hide!" I whisper-yell as we gather the sheets and bag quickly, running for the trees. The truck stops near Brendon's car and four or five seniors climb out of the back, not wearing much, obviously warmed by whatever is in their red plastic cups.

"Oh, I've seen this car at school. What's the bet there are a couple of kids down here, makin' out or something," one meathead cackles to the wasted girl on his arm. "We should go find 'em," he slurs as he begins to stumble down the same snowy hill Brendon and I had left our footprints on.

"Oh shit, quick, let's move into the forest." Brendon turns, carrying more than he can hold, and moves up the gentle hill further into the dark comfort of the tall trees. I follow him as we venture away from the prying eyes of my drunken classmates.

"Brendon, my shoes!" I realise now that my socks are soaked. In all the commotion, I've left my shoes out on the rock.

"Fuck, me too. God damn it." Now we're both in wet socks.

"Grace, look, over here." He points to an opening in a steep part of a hill, a cave. He crouches to enter, but as he gets further from the mouth, his legs straighten. I crouch to enter as well to find that the ceiling rises much higher than it seems.

"Look, there's more," Brendon whispers as he turns on his phone torch to explore the deeper rooms of this cave. I follow him to find that he's begun setting the blankets up already, fluffing the pillows and the duvet.

"There are footprints up here!" The same booming voice from before calls, echoing through into our hideout.

"Turn off your light, Brendon, they'll see us," I whisper, moving towards him.

Without warning, Brendon snatches me, grabbing both my shoulders and pulling my body towards him, clutching my arms with a firm grip. "Shh," he whispers into my hair.

"I think they're in here. Let's go in." The same deep voice calls carelessly at the mouth of the cave.

Another softer feminine voice says, "We better not. You don't know what could be in there."

"I want to see who's been making out," the male voice complains as it comes closer, moving deeper into the cave. His heavy footsteps echo into the branching rooms.

Brendon and I are crouching in the corner of our room. I'm sitting between his legs and his arms are covering what feels like my entire body. His breath is heavy and slow on my scalp, shaking only slightly. I'm pressed against his chest, directly breathing in his vanilla and old oak, scared, yet so relaxed.

"Hello," the voice calls out, "kids, you in here?"

The feminine voice pipes up again, "This is creepy."

The footsteps are gradually getting closer to our branch of the cave, and I'm pretty sure our hearts are suddenly at war, trying to burst through our chests with their huge rapid beats. Brendon's fingertips are digging into my arm, even through my leather jacket. It doesn't hurt, it's just very strong. My hands find their way to the flaps of his jacket and I pull myself closer to his body, as impossible as it seems.

The footsteps are at the entrance of our branch and our breathing has stopped.

"Jeremy, I can't even see anything in here. There's nobody here, let's just go back to mine so we can get in the hot tub."