On your knees // Bandom

7. Liability

"Truth or dare?"
"What?" Dallon hadn't been paying attention to his English class and he definitely hadn't been attention to the boy next to him.
"You're obviously bored, I am too, so, truth or dare?"
"Uhhhh, dare?"
"Ask the teacher if Shakespeare was gay and if she denies it prove her wrong."
"Shakespeare was gay?"
"Yeah, did you not know about his hundreds of sonnets to his boyfriend?"
"No?"
"Okay. I'll write some gay Shakespeare proof and you tell the teacher."
"I feel like I'm gonna regret this."
"So? Its a dare, Weekes."
And suddenly he went from Ryan, the guy he sat next to in English and didn't know the surname of, to Ryan, the guy with cool hair he sat next to in English who flirted with him. Dallon wasn't complaining.

He put his hand up and the teacher sighed.
"Dallon, is there something you don't understand about the three pages of Macbeth you have been assigned?"
Heads turned Dallon was almost enjoying his momentary spotlight.
"Wasn't Shakespeare gay?"
"He had a wife and children."
"What about," Dallon glanced down at Ryans book "The 126 love letter sonnets addressed to a man?"
"Detention for answering back." She turned back to the board and he sat down, Ryan was quietly laughing.

Dallon called his dad on his way to detention.
"Hey, I'm, uh, I have to stay an hour after school."
"You're not in trouble, are you? Dallon?"
"Not anything serious, just my English teacher."
"What a bitch, eh? Try not to do this again though, and don't let your mum find out."
"Won't do."
The line went quiet and Dallon just stared at his phone for a second, wondering how he got to the point where he called his dad in this situation. Wondering what exactly he wanted to be different.

He sat down at one of the desks, pulling out various stationary reluctantly, dragging out the time. A moment later someone else came in and he looked up.
"Ryan?"
"Don't sound so surprised. Im the bitch that got you here in the first place."
The teacher cut in. "No swearing."
"Sorry," Ryan grinned.
"You didn't have to get yourself a detention, ohmygod."
"Its fine, I'll be back before my dad anyway." He took the seat in front of Dallon and turned round. "I've been trying to befriend you forever, anyway."
"Me?" Ryan rolled his eyes and Dallon laughed. "Okay. Stupid question. I like your hair though, how'd you get the school to let you dye it."
"I came in with it dyed and refused to dye it back, they gave me permanent detention until I changed it so I just did whatever I wanted with no consequences because I had detention anyway, eventually they figured I was using it to my advantage and just let me have blue hair."
"You kinda look like Vision from the new Incredibles movie."
Ryan grinned. "Thanks! Not the look I was going for but they're awesome so thats cool."
"You really wanted to be my friend?"
"Don't sound so surprised, I'm meant to be the awkward one for admitting it."
"You're not awkward, you're amazing."
Ryan sighed and turned to his essay on punctuality. "Flattery gets you nowhere."
"Agree to disagree."

~

"4 days until The Smiths, 25 until my birthday." Frank practically bounced into maths.
"That's quite a long time, y'know, Halloween boy." Gerard had not had enough coffee to deal with his energy.
"I have a question."
"Is it one you could google?"
"Probably not."
"Then go on."
"Would you call Jack Skellington Halloween Boy?"
"What?"
"The guy from The Nightmare Before Christmas, my favourite film, I think he deserves the title, but I also kinda wanna feel special."
"You are special. He can be Halloween Man instead."
"Im a man."
"You're like 4 ft."
"And you're mean."
"I haven't had enough coffee this morning."
Frank reached out and pushed his hair behind his ear. "You haven't even bothered with makeup. Long night?"
"I was watching movies with Mikey."
Frank grinned "Leonardo DiCaprio movies?"
"You're never letting me live that down, right?"
"I just think its cute that Romeo made you realise you were gay. With all of Mercutios ass right there."
Gerard hit him.

"What I wanna know is," Gerard and Frank were sitting on the floor in the music room at lunch. "Who was your DiCaprio? Who made you realise?"
Frank blushed. "Uhhh, obviously im straight, so, nobody."
"C'mon, Frankie,"
Frank tilted his head away and Gerard was going to press him further but Mikey walked in and he stood up instead.

"So," Mikey began "Our parents say you can all stay over tomorrow, but there are only four beds and a sofa so there may be.......sharing."
Brendon and Ryan were sitting on the windowsill, Ryans hand in Brendons back pocket, reminiscent of Sixteen Candles or To All The Boys I've Loved Before. They made eye contact momentarily and Ryan grinned. "Bagsy Brendon."

Pete and Mikey barely acknowledge it, confident in their place together.

Gerard turns to Frank. "You wanna share with me?"
"Uhhhhhhh..."
"You don't have to."
"Yeah, yeah I do." He grins. "I'd love to."
"Good."
Ray smiles nervously "I can share with Patrick, if you want?"
"Its fine." Dallon steps in. "I'm busy tomorrow night anyway."
"You sure?"
He nods and leaves the room, Brendon watches him go, worried.
"Should I go after him?"
"Do you think he wants you too?"
"I don't know." He makes the decision and follows Dallon out.

"Hey,"
"Brendon, how nice to see you."
"Are you actually going anywhere?"
"God forbid I have friends other than you."
"I just..."
"Im going to," Dallon checks his phone. "The library."
"Are you ok?"
"I mean the guy who literally told me he never loved me is now bothering me so you tell me."
"Dall.."
"Because you obviously can't have feelings that you don't chose, so you play everyone until you decide and then break the rest."
"I know I used you, Dallon, because you were available and willing and hot, but I never had..... I didn't feel the same way as you did."
"Whatever Brendon, just walk away, its what you do best."
"You're the one walking away,"
"Brendon, just leave."
They had entered the library now.
"See you tomorrow lunch, though?" Brendon asked, almost desperately searching for the right thing to say.
"Don't wait up."
"What should I tell the others?"
Dallon shrugged. "They won't ask."

He walked off then, and Brendon let him go because he had nothing else left, and maybe the blue haired boy who he greeted with a smile could provide something, or maybe he'd break him further. Dallon may be the one who walked away, but it was by no means his fault.

~

Franks did not enjoy waking up at three in the morning by Rick Astley but Jamia had been the exception to 'silent' since they had phones.
"Hey," He greeted her groggily.
"Did I wake you, shit." She sounded like she'd been crying.
"Its fine, what's up?"
"Lindsey."
"You want me to come over?"
"Please," Jamia was the strongest person he knew, but her voice broke on that.
"Fifteen mins."

He arrived at her window at exactly 03:28 in the morning and she let him in.
"Fifteen minutes and you didn't even get dressed?" She tried to joke but couldn't hide the tear tracks and puffy eyes.
He pulled chocolate ice-cream, a plastic spoon, and a Toblerone out of his bag.
"Forgive me?"
"I love you, Frank."
"Im flattered, but gay."
"Devastating, but I am genuinely happy and perhaps a little jealous that you can say it that easily."
"You say you're happy but I'd beg to differ."
"How do you talk eloquently when you woke up twenty minutes ago?"
"Practice, Jamia darling."
She laughed and he silently congratulated himself for that achievement.

"Do you want to talk about it?"
"Yeah." She sighed. "Me and Lindsey almost had something, I didn't say shit because she was drunk and I couldn't do that, like, she would kiss me and tell me I was beautiful and that she loved me and then act like nothing happened, like we were just best friends. So I confronted her and she said it was nothing and I was sad, but not that surprised, but she kept...." Jamia swallowed and Frank offered the icecream. "She kept doing it, and like we got high and, fuck, we did it, like she gave herself to me like that and then she acts like it wasn't real. Then I got kinda mad and she, she basically called me a dyke and said we couldn't be friends. So I just left school and smoked behind the skatepark, with all the stoner kids who pretend to be edgy, and now..... now it all hit me."
She had finished half the tub and Frank was staring wordlessly.
"I should have told you earlier, but you have better friends now, and you stopped telling me anything so I figured we'd just, like, 'drifted' or some bullshit. But I need you, Frank, I don't act like it but I miss you so much, fuck."
"I miss you too, you wanna know whats going on with Gerard?"
"For once, actually, yeah."
He grinned. "So we're going to see The Smiths in four days......"

They spent the night talking, and woke the next morning in the same bed, holding each other in childish need. They used to have a handshake, and they relearnt it before Frank left. Heads held high and friendship intact.

Im seeing idkhow tonight woo.
Also I update this when I write it so yes I have been writing like 1500 words a day for three days I love my life.