21 Questions (Ryden)

Let's Play

"Coach told us that we're not having practice tonight, so I'm free." Pete smiled as him, Patrick and Brendon were walking down the hall together. "Patrick was gonna come over. Wanna join us?" Brendon chuckled and shook his head.

"I'm sure your boyfriend wouldn't like me to be third wheeling you two. Enjoy yourselves." Brendon glanced at Patrick who mouthed a quick 'thank you'.

"You sure?" Brendon nodded with a smile. "Alright. Your loss." He threw his arm over Patrick's shoulder and kissed his cheek. "Just you and me tonight then."

"You two head to the cafeteria. I gotta grab a book from my locker and I'll be right there." Pete nodded and walked off with Patrick.

Brendon moved over to his locker, blocking out the crowd of people moving behind him to the cafeteria. He pulled a book off the top shelf and almost dropped it when he felt someone tap his shoulder. He spun around and pressed his back to the neighboring locker.

"Ryan?" Brendon was beyond surprised to see Ryan standing in front of him at school. His head was tilted down down. His hands were shoved in his pockets as he shifted nervously on his feet.

"H-hey Bren," Ryan stuttered quietly. Brendon stood wide eyed. He turned his head to see several students stopped to see the most popular guy in school talking to a nobody like Brendon.

"I thought you were suspended." Ryan peaked his head up and gave a small smile.

"First day back." He bit his bottom lip and Brendon would admit it was a little distracting.

"Uh, so, um, w-what are you doing?" He was failing at keeping the shock out of his voice. This was Ryan Ross standing in front of him in public while more and more students stopped to watch what was happening.

"I-I was wondering." He pulled a hand out if his pocket and brought it up to scratch the back of his neck. "If you might possibly want to have lunch with me?"

Brendon could hear whispers going on around them and it made him want to shrink until no one could see him. Ryan didn't seem to notice, only looked at either the floor or Brendon.

"You don't have to. It's no pressure." Ryan quickly looked down, but Brendon saw a brief hurt look Ryan had on his face.

"I'm not comfortable sitting at a table full of jocks," Brendon murmured. It was his turn to stare down. Ryan's head snapped up. He shook his head quickly.

"N-no. I was talking just you and me. I would n-never ask you to do t-that," he spilled out. Brendon smiled at Ryan's haste to get his words out. Brendon looked over at the stilled crowd around them.

"There's a lot of people staring." Brendon felt beyond uncomfortable. Ryan took a step closer and hesitantly grabbed one of Brendon's hands.

"Let me take you somewhere private, yeah?" He could see Ryan's confidence coming back. He slowly nodded earning a wide smile from the taller boy. Ryan shut Brendon's locker and pulled them through the crowd.

As they walked, Brendon tried ignoring the comments about Ryan taking Brendon away. He lived his high school life in the shadows. Every since Ryan, he'd been getting a lot of unwanted attention. The least Ryan could do was help him out of these situations.

Ryan locked their fingers together and gave a gentle squeeze. Brendon looked up and saw him smiling at him from over his shoulder. A small burst of butterflies started flapping in Brendon's stomach.

The crowd thinned quickly until Ryan led them outside to the football field. It was just the two of them, now sitting alone at the top of the bleachers. Ryan pulled out a couple ham sandwiches and two caprisuns from his backpack.

"Bon appetit?" Ryan's voice still sounded unsteady.

"Why did you bring me out here?" Ryan kept his eyes on his sandwich and shrugged.

"Cause I knew it was a quiet place where we could be alone and finish our game." He took a bite so he didn't have to talk. Brendon nodded, accepting the answer.

"You know a lot of people are gonna be talking about what just happened." Ryan shrugged again. "You're okay with that?"

Ryan looked over at Brendon with a smile. He nodded slowly and confidently. Brendon blushed under Ryan's gaze and looked away.

"You're not embarrassed of me?" Ryan shook his head almost before Brendon could finish his question.

"Of course not."

"Then why haven't you talk to me in school before? Why now?" Ryan chuckled softly.

"You'll have to count that as a question if you want the answer to that," Ryan said with a smirk. Brendon rolled his eyes.

"Fine. "

"Last three questions."

"And then we're done. The game's over." Brendon couldn't help his growing smile when Ryan was looking at him with those beautiful hazel eyes. It felt like they were the only two people in the world.

"Then the game's over," Ryan confirmed with a subtle nod. His eyes were trained on Brendon's eyes, not moving away.

"Okay then. Let's play."

---

A/N:

I have the last questions already picked out. This feels like it went by so fast (even though it's been a while)

𝐽𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑎 𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑚𝑡, 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑡ℎ𝑦 ❤
~𝐽𝑎𝑦