Infinite, Sometimes

15

"Polaris."

These three syllables that fell from Brendon's mouth caused Ryan to look up from swirling his orange juice around inside the bottle. The corner of his mouth raised and formed a pleased smile that gleamed through the concern on his face, but he was unable to speak.

"Jimmy Eat World. Polaris, I'm sure of it."

Ryan nodded and his smile grew bigger. He kept his promise and relied only on what his heart told him to do as he slipped his arm around Brendon's shoulders and pulled the boy's body closer to his own. It was time to leave his mind out of things because it was far too rational and cautious to be depended upon in these situations. Ryan was ready to lose his habit of thinking before acting because in some cases it would ruin moments of surprise, and in others it had the unfortunate ability of preventing honest emotions from being set free.

Brendon was physically unable to reciprocate with a proper hug, so he let his hand settle on Ryan's knee. "That's one."

Ryan accepted the fact that he would probably be smiling for the rest of the day as he reluctantly ended the small hug and tried to keep his thoughts away from the warm hand that was still lingering on his leg. "I'll have the other nine hundred later."

"You mean nine hundred and ninety nine." Brendon noticed Ryan's narrowed eyes and slight grin. "Well hey, you're the one that promised."

Ryan's mouth had decided to stop working for the moment, so he nodded and once again fixed his eyes on the orange liquid in front of him until Brendon spoke again after folding the paper back into a square.

"Ry, thanks for this, really." Brendon's voice was quiet as he slipped the paper into hiding, slightly exposing part of his hip as he lifted his shirt to reach the small pocket of his jeans.

"You don't need to thank me."

"But I am anyway."

"You don't need to, though."

"So?"

Ellen turned her attention away from her other friends who were sitting at another table. "Stop fighting over there. I'm too lazy to make any trips to the hospital today, so I don't want any bloodshed, got it?" She finished her joke off by flicking a piece of popcorn at the two boys on the other side of the table, managing to hit Ryan directly in the forehead. "Oh man, she shoots, she scores!" Ellen leaned forward and extended her arm, lifting her fist to Brendon, who met it with an enthusiastic fist of his own. "That deserves the respek knuckles, for sure. I'm pretty much awesome."

"Yeah I'll agree there. Mind if I give it a shot?" Brendon held out an open hand and Ellen gave him a few pieces of popcorn, which he promptly tossed at Ryan's face. "Ten points, all the way."

"Oh I completely hate you guys right now."

Brendon and Ellen laughed loudly, catching Spencer's attention, and he looked at his girlfriend as if she were crazy. "What are you people doing?"

"I'm pretty sure we're just throwing popcorn at Ryan, here."

"Oh, sounds good to me." Spencer reached into the bag and pulled out a rather menacing handful of popcorn, but he tossed the majority of it into his mouth before hurling three pieces at Ryan.

"Hate, you guys. Pure hate." Ryan slouched down in his chair and pressed his lips together to try to hide his smile. "Leave me alooone!" He crossed his arms and whined, which only made his friends laugh about as hard as he wanted to. It was too hard for him to not see the humor in being pelted with popcorn by his favorite people.

"Oh we love you lots, Ryface."

"Ellen, you are so lame."

"Your FACE is lame!"