True Colors (joshler, multi-fandom)

10 - Please Use Discretion

September 12. There's a clueless substitute teacher for physics today, and the only assignment was to copy down vocabulary definitions from the textbook. The conversations that fill the room are not about the task at hand, and the ones that aren't talking and actually working have headphones in and can't be bothered, including Ruby.

Tyler and Ryan on the other hand, are trying to multitask between talking and flipping through the glossary. Tyler tries to make a conversation- what new music are you making, what are your plans this weekend, do you wanna get some Taco Bell after school...

Ryan finally says his first full sentence of the day. "You have Brendon in one of your classes, Right?" Tyler nods and responds: "My next class, actually. Algebra. Why?"

Ryan pulls out a folded piece of paper, a page torn out of his journal, from his pocket. He briefly glances at it, and forcefully hands it to Tyler. "Can you make sure he gets this?" Tyler notices he wrote "Brendon" in cursive with purple pen. It was quite strange, didn't only 3rd grade girls do this? He puts his judgement aside and accepts.

"Okay."

"Please don't open and read it. I only want Brendon to. Don't let anyone see or know about this either, okay? I trust you."

Tyler puts the confidential folded note into his pocket. "I won't forget." He says before giving Ryan a playful salute. Ryan manages a half-genuine smile. Tyler could tell whatever Ryan wrote about in this note he was nervous about, nervous enough to make Tyler give it to Brendon, his best friend. He was Ryan's Message Man.

"I don't really like...Taco Bell."

Tyler looked fake-shocked. "But how could you hate...the good old Taco Bell?" He asked dramatically.

Ryan shrugged. "It's so gross. Everything I've ever had from there's gone to pieces in my hands and like...didn't end well for me...you know."

Tyler tries to hold back a snicker. "Well yeah, I get that. Anywhere you would like to go instead? I'm open."

"I thought about asking Brendon...but," he paused for a good minute, going through two expressions, concern, then anxiety, before finishing: "I guess we can let you tag along," with no hint of his emotional rollercoaster.

Tyler got concerned for his friend all over again. "I- you don't have to, you know. We can go another time."

"I'm just putting it out there."

***

Class finally ends. Tyler sees Ryan sigh, but not of relief. When they exit the classroom, Ryan salutes to Tyler the same way he did, then looks away from him and crosses his heart while walking away. Could this all be about the note?

Tyler gets to class and sees Brendon sitting at the desk next to him, with his folder and papers already out, completing the warm-up on the projector screen. This isn't the best tine to hand him the note, Tyler thought. He can wait until after the lesson, the notes, the homework getting passed out, before he can give it to him. All while never letting curiosity get the best of him.

Just focus on the lesson, Tyler. Focus.

Near the end of the period, Tyler quietly gets the note out of his pocket. Hoping it didn't get bent up, he smoothed out the folded edges and taps Brendon's arm with a corner of the paper. Brendon looks confused as if the note was from Tyler, who spoke on a low voice as response to the look: "It's from Ryan. He wanted me to give you this. I promised him I'd keep it secret until I gave it to you.

"Okay." Brendon carefully opened the note and read it under his desk, away from Tyler. The only thing Tyler noticed was that the note filled the entire page, and was written almost entirely in black ink, with Ryan's name signed at the bottom in purple.
Tyler watched Brendon's expression change, from confusion, to shock, to joy, then back to normal. He folds it back up carefully and puts it in an inside pocket of his jacket. Then he turns to Tyler and whispers, "Thank you for giving this to me." Then stays silent. Silent until they get outside for lunch, where Ruby sits every day with her homemade lunch, waiting with Gerard and Frank.

Like every day, Josh and Ryan follow Brendon and Tyler outside, but it seemed like Josh and Ryan were walking slower than usual. When they finally get up to the table and put their trays down. Brendon has the first word. "Ryan?"

Ryan breathed deeply. "Yeah?"

Brendon pointed to a skinny tree away from the table. "Lets go over there, behind that tree." He said calmly, followed by a small grin.

Gerard and Frank exchanged interested looks, and Ryan follows Brendon to the tree, looking down at his own feet.

Everyone was watching them. Discreetly, of course. Josh noticed Ryan wasn't acting the same as every day, also.

Nobody could hear what they talked about, but Tyler could see Ryan smiling about halfway through the meeting, and noticed Brendon got a little too loud, with an enthusiastic burst, "I'm just so glad you found the courage!" Occasionally the word "love" was heard, about twice, and "really," also twice, one from each of them. They ended the meeting with a long hug and walked back smiling.

Ryan's face was flushed, and he had tears in his eyes.

Frank arched an eyebrow at them. "So..."

Brendon and Ryan turned towards each other, Brendon asking, "Can I tell them?"

"Yeah."

Brendon swallowed and smacked his lips before stating, "Ryan and I are...well...more than best friends! And it took us this long to figure it out."

Everyone was shocked, even Frank and Gerard, Josh smiled, and Ruby clapped. She raised her half-dranken juice bottle and declared, "a toast to the new couple?"

In response, everyone raised their water, milk, or otherwise, and brought them together like a wedding toast.

"I didn't want it to be this big a deal..." Ryan mumbled.

Brendon consoled, "But you were so emotional over this, right? It was a big deal to you, so now it is for everyone."

Ryan shrugged, and lightly touched the back of Brendon's hand to hold it under the table.

Meanwhile, Tyler felt the view of his world get a whole lot clearer.