Together Again / Brendon Urie

2. Brendon

I'm driving home with no radio and I'm just lost in my thoughts. I feel bad. Like really bad, but I have to suck it up and go to work. I enter my home and immediately go upstairs to change, I grab a granola bar out of the kitchen and head back out the door. Neither of my parents are home yet. I have to work until 9pm tonight and then I start the project with Adler. Blair really ripped me a new one today and I'm glad my boys weren't there to see it or it would have been worse, for them not me. I unwrap the granola bar as I start my truck and eat it as I drive. I'm  driving down the street and get held up by a school bus. A couple students exit but I recognize one right away. Long brown hair, petite figure, hugging a book to her chest as always. She always has a different book, except she's wearing glasses. Has she always worn glasses? The red lights stop flashing and I wait for the bus to pull away. She crosses the street towards my direction and I realize I am in front of her house. Guys start running down the street and one bumps into her. She looks flustered and cradles her book to her chest protectively. When they pass her she closes her eyes and sighs, tucking her hair behind her ear and continues walking up to her house. She stands in front of her door for several seconds before going inside. I get knocked out of my thoughts when someone honks at me to go. I quickly drive away and head to work.

"Thanks Brendon, I'll lock up you head home." My manager Bianca informs me. I don't question it twice because now that I think of it. Addler is going to be at my house at 9pm and I was suppose to be done at 9pm. Its 8:30pm so I have time now to head home and shower before she comes over. I speed home and start stripping the second I get in the door. "Brendon Boyd Urie, what are you-"

"Sorry ma I need a shower real bad, I say as I'm taking my shirt off walking up the steps to the bathroom. I grab a fresh towel from the linen closet, drop all my clothes on the floor and jump in the shower. I shower quickly. I only have about 10 minutes until she gets here now. "Brendon!" I hear vaguely through the shower. "You have a friend here!" She yells up the steps again. "Ok! I'll be right out." Shit she would show up early. I rinse what is left in my hair and turn off the water. I'm still dripping wet but I leave the bathroom as is, clothes all over the floor, to go get changed. I enter my room and freeze because well, Adler is in my room. She was looking at my dresser and turned around and now we are staring at each other. Her cheeks go crimson of course and smile at her. "Sorry, your mom sent me up here. Let me just-" She speed walks to exit my room and I watch how flustered she is, I'm kind of blocking the door, unintentionally of course, but she does this awkward body shimmy to get by me putting her one hand up and the other hugging her notebook to her chest. Once she slips by I shut the door and finish drying and dressing myself.
I open the door probably like 2 minutes later and she is standing in the hallway anxiously.

"Hey, you can come in now." I open the door more for her to enter and I close it behind her. "I really am sorry, your mom said to wait in your room and I saw the picture on your-" she rambles and I hold my hand up. "It's fine. What's the book for?" I ask and she hold it out to me. "It's for our project we can both take notes in it and share ideas. I figure one of us can keep it until we switch houses again." She explains and flips open the blank book to show me. I take the book and on the first page inside it says our names, the subject, period, and due date. "You're very anal, aren't you?" I ask and she blushes taking the book back. "What no?" She gets defensive, she's an uptight one alright. "No I mean like detail oriented and organized." I explain to her and her shoulders relax. Yes, uptight indeed.
"I-I just like to make sure I know where everything is, ifs easier to find s-stuff."

"Have you always stuttered? Or is it just around me?" I ask and she raises her eyebrows. "I-I," she stammers again and her cheeks pink up again. They're always pink. "Fine, I'll do the project myself if you're going to just belittle me the whole time. I don't need this and I don't need you!" She shouts before exiting my room and running down the steps. She runs out the front door making a bee line for her house by the time I get down the steps and out the front door she is a couple houses down. I shut the door behind me and do a mild jog to catch up to her. "Adler!" I yell but she doesn't stop. "Adler!" I try again, no improvement.

"Addie!" I yell and stop advancing. She stops moving as well, and freezes in her place, facing away from me. I close the distance and grab her wrist. She flinches and pulls away, now facing me. "Don't touch me!" She whimpers, she looks petrified and is crying? "Why are you crying?" I ask because well my heart is breaking at the sight of this pretty girl crying in the middle of the sidewalk at 9pm at night. "What happened?" I ask and she laughs. "You! You happened!" I take a step back because I didn't do anything. "I'm trying to at least be civil with you so we can just get this fucking project done, but you can't stop being an ass for two seconds for us to even start it!" She yells at me and I look down at my feet, I've never heard this girl curse a day in her life and I made her. "I wasn't trying to-"

"You weren't trying to? Brendon. You are such an ugly and demeaning person. And why you chose to ruin my life is beyond me, but don't go thinking because you used my old nickname from when we were kids that I would forget all the torture you put me through in the past years and that I would forgive you."
I look at her seriously confused. "You're this angry over a hair tie?" I ask, still confused. She laughs again and I'm starting to hate that noise. "You think this is about a hair tie?" She laughs again and starts to walk away, but comes back and gets close to me. "Why don't you ask my skimmed hands and knees from when you pushed me down outside this morning. Or the time I got my period in gym and you told the whole school I had a miscarriage. Or how about the fact that you said I was the girl you slept with in 7th grade and I've been labelled a slut ever since. Why do you think I'm so quiet all the time? Why do you think I put my hair up? I'm trying to disappear and you won't let me!" She finishes, her voice breaking.
I open my mouth to say something but she puts her hand up, I notice the scrapes on her palms. "Fuck you Brendon Urie!" She turns quickly on her heel and walks home, leaving me frozen on the concrete at night with nothing but my thoughts.