Everything You Are - Brendon Urie *completed* (part 2/3)

ninety-six: into a place where thoughts can bloom

I still worried about Dallon a lot after prom. And for good reason, too. It seemed like he was acting less and less like himself just slightly everyday. Probably not something that everyone else was picking up on, because the change was really subtle. But it was still there. 

Unfortunately, I did not have any more room on my plate to try and figure out what was going on with Dallon. My parents' divorce was being finalized, finals and graduation were rapidly approaching, my entire high school career was coming to an end, and to top everything off I watched Brendon start slowly packing some of his belongings for college. If I wasn't anxious about everything else, watching him scribble words like "winter clothes" over cardboard boxes with a sharpie sure did the trick. 

A few weekends after prom, we all finally had a minute to breathe and I invited Josh, Dallon and Brendon over to chill out and enjoy not stressing about any possible thing going on in our lives. They were all incredibly grateful for the outlet and were excited to come over. 

Brendon and Josh were sat on the floor in my living room talking about drums, which didn't interest Dallon and I, so we were sitting on the couch, Dallon with his knees pulled to his chest and facing me while we talked. The inevitable topic of college got brought up, and I felt my heart sink as I was once again reminded of Brendon leaving. 

"You're going to the university right?" Dallon asked, and I nodded. 

"Yeah, I'm staying at home for a little while," I replied. "I don't want to dive in headfirst just yet. I've lived in this house my entire life." 

Dallon nodded. "Yeah, I'm moving out soon but not right away. I need to find a roommate first, and then save up money for an apartment or a house or something, and then need a steady job to be able to pay bills and stuff. So I'm going to work on all of that while taking part time classes at the community college." 

"I'd be your roommate," I offered. "I feel like I could tolerate you enough for that." 

"Thanks, Charlie," Dallon rolled his eyes but smiled at me. "That'd be fun. You could be tolerable too, I guess."

"I mean I can hardly handle myself sometimes," I shrugged.

Dallon laughed a bit, a nice sight to see considering his appearance. His dark circles were more prominent than usual, and he looked just slightly paler than usual. I noticed then a purplish mark on his arm and frowned. 

"What's that from?" I asked, pointing to the bruise and he glanced down at it, and also frowned for a second, but then rolled his eyes. 

"Robin whacked me with a pipe the other day," he replied. "She's so annoying." 

I was about to question him because that bruise didn't look like it was in the shape of a pipe, but was suddenly even more confused because Muffin jumped up onto the couch and Dallon gasped softly, saying "Bonjour, belle." (A/N: translation: "hello beautiful")

"What the fuck?" I asked. 

"Tu m'as manqué mon cher," he continued, petting Muffin across the back. (A/N: the translation means "i missed you my dear" and yes I used google translate fight me)

"Are you talking to my cat in French?" I asked, and he smiled at me as Muffin headbutted his hand, purring loudly and rolling over onto her back. "And when did she become so comfortable with you?" 

"We bonded at your Halloween party," he explained, and I had a flashback to Dallon passed out in my bathtub in his giraffe onesie, Muffin sleeping on his chest. 

I watched as he gently rubbed her belly, and she looked slightly uncomfortable but wasn't fighting him about it. "What the fuck?" 

My 18th birthday came not long after, and Brendon planned out a date night for us since it also happened to be our one year anniversary. 

He took me out to dinner, and we had a good time together like we always do. We went to our favorite burger place, and I tried to absorb every detail of us being together in the moment, knowing I needed to start storing away memories for rainy days when he's away at college. I memorized his smile, the way his eyes crinkled in the corners when he laughed, the sound of his laugh, as much of it as I could. 

We went back to my house afterwards, sitting in my basement and playing video games for a bit. We just played racing games for a little while, and then I wanted a break so Brendon switched over to Fortnite to play by himself for a little while, swearing anytime he'd get killed. I laughed with him, curled up into his side until he had to go home, but promised to come over again later that night. 

As I sat waiting in my room, I wondered what changes would be brought about when Brendon left, as well as little things like how would we adjust. How often would we call each other? Once a night? Once a week? How often would he come home to visit? How much of that time would he want to spend with his family and what would that leave me with? I figured I would probably end up making some friend in college as well, leaving me with an entirely new group of friends as well. I wasn't entirely sure I was ready for all of these things to change just yet. 

When Brendon climbed through my window and looked at me, he must have noticed the troubled look on my face because he looked at me concerned. 

"What's wrong?" he asked, reaching out and touching my arms gently. 

"I know I really shouldn't be worrying about this right now, but I'm just nervous about you leaving for college," I sighed. "It's hard not to think about, it's sort of like it's just an elephant in the room that we're all ignoring." 

"It's not an elephant in the room," he shook his head. "I promise. I know things might take a while to adjust, but we'll figure it out. And this is still a few months away, why don't we just chill out for tonight and enjoy each other's company?" 

I nodded, trying to listen to his words but knowing I'd be worrying about all the same things everyday for a long time. 

"Come on, let's cuddle." 

-

A/N: ughghghghh abrupt ending and this chapter was super short and just SUCKED overall but hello i'm back, sadly the rest of this part will be filler chapters but luckily that's only 4 and then we will officially be in part 3!!! thanks so much for reading if you've stuck with it this long, it means the world to me <3 x