Infinite, Sometimes

18

"Hey you." Ryan's adrenaline rush ended and he was able to relax after several agonizing minutes of waiting.

"Hey, what's goin' on?"

"Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine."

"Well what took you so long to call? I was afraid to call you and it took you like ten minutes or something."

"Don't be afraid to call me, you know I like talking to you."

"Well I didn't know what you were doing."

"Don't worry about it. I'm sorry I took so long. You're funny, you know that?"

"No I'm not. Just tell me what you were doing." Ryan was getting aggravated with his paranoia and inability to accept that bad things are not always inevitable.

"I'll tell you what. Are you in your room now?"

"Yeah."

"Could you look out the window real quick?"

"I guess. Hold on." Ryan pushed himself up to position his face in front of the window and his eyes were drawn to a figure coming down the sidewalk.

"Well hello there. Care to come let me in?" Brendon's innocent smile adorned his face and he gave Ryan a small wave with his fingers peeking out from the sleeve of his jacket.

Ryan was not in control of the small laugh that escaped his throat. "What are you doing? I'll be right out, just hold on."

"I wanted to see you. Come let me in."

Ryan saw Brendon take his phone away from his ear and shove it into his pocket before he started running toward the house. Ryan quickly made it to the front door with his heart beating almost loud enough to wake his father. As he pulled it open, Brendon fell forward after leaning his body against the door with his hands. He draped the Blink 182 shirt over Ryan's shoulder and he didn't mind the fact that his hand brushed against Ryan's hair in the process.

"Just be quiet, my dad's asleep. Come on, my room." Ryan didn't speak again until the two of them were securely locked inside his bedroom.

Brendon unzipped his jacket and paused without removing it completely. "Do you mind if I take this off?"

"Why would I mind?"

"I try to keep everything covered, and I always do but I don't know now."

"Hey, you should know better." Ryan grabbed the hood of Brendon's sweater and slid it off of him, letting it fall to the ground. "Don't worry about it. You know I don't mind."

"I just know it's not pretty to look at or anything."

"I don't care about how it looks." Ryan did care. He cared that none of the marks on Brendon's arms looked to be less than a day or two old, and he was instantly relieved after so many minutes of worrying. "I just care about it not happening anymore, alright?"

"I know, that's kind of why I wanted to come here. I didn't wanna disappoint you."

Ryan was surprised by just how much his opinion really mattered to his friend, and he started to think like Spencer again. He put his arms around Brendon's neck and to his surprise, he wasn't afraid. He wasn't uncomfortable when Brendon's arms rested against his back with his hands settling up near his shoulders. Brendon only seemed to try to pull him closer. "I'm glad you talked to me."

"You're going to fucking save me, you know that?"

If Brendon's mouth weren't so close to Ryan's ear, he would not have been able to hear him. All Ryan could do was nod. Even if he wasn't sure that he could save the boy, he knew he would at least die trying. "We'll talk like that without a computer some day."