The next day, Brendon rest his head on his desk with his eyes closed when he felt someone standing beside him. He peaked open an eye to see Ryan leaning over him. He let out a soft groan and buried his face in his crossed arms.
"Did you not sleep well last night?" Brendon briefly thought about how he stayed on the phone long after Ryan had fallen asleep, imagining being in his arms like the last time he slept over. He continued thinking of Ryan until he scolding himself for sounding obsessed with the boy. His night consisted of tossing and turning while battling how he should be feeling for Ryan.
"I've had better nights," he mumbled. He could still feeling Ryan hovering over him and shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "What do you want?" Ryan chuckled softly and dropped something on the desk.
Brendon peaked up and saw a packet of gold, silver and bronze stars sitting beside his arm. Looking up at Ryan, he saw the boy already ready to laugh.
"What's this for?"
"I want you to rate every conversation you have today with these." Brendon looked down at the stickers then back up.
"So I'm just gonna put stickers on unexpecting people?" Ryan nodded with a broad smile, showing off his teeth.
"And I gave you a basic rating system. Gold for good, silver for decent, and bronzes for bad. And you obviously can't tell them what you're doing." Brendon picked up the pack, grabbed a sticker and stuck it to Ryan's sleeve. Looking down, there was a bronze star pressed against the black fabric.
"Rude." Brendon snickered as class begun. He began dreading the people that would come up to him. The dare was simple enough, though many of his classmates were confused after getting stuck with a sticker. Being antisocial helped make this dare go more smoothly, well that was until his teacher decided to discuss his grade with him.
"Brendon, I don't understand. I thought I had you see the school tutor to help with your math homework." Brendon shifted back and forth on his feet. His eyes were glued to the floor, not daring to look Mr. Locke in the eye. "Have you not been seeing Kate?"
"I haven't had the time," Brendon came up with. It wasn't true necessarily. He had enough time, but he never liked the tutor. She always treated him like he was stupid, belittled him for every mistake he made.
"If you don't find a way to get this grade up, you'll be at risk of failing." Brendon nodded in understanding, but he was only half paying attention. What he was focusing on were the stickers weighing in his pocket.
"You should probably get to your next class before you're late." Brendon nodded again and turned to leave. He hesitated and reached into his pocket.
"Um, sir?" Brendon voice was noticeably shaky. He knew what he had to do but debated if the win was worth sticking a teacher who always had little patience for him.
"Yes, Brendon?" Brendon quickly ripped off sticker, reached over the desk and planted a bronze star over the top of Mr. Locke's hand. The older man looked st it confused for a moment. "Did you just give me a sticker?" Brendon chewed his bottom lip, eyes glancing over at the door, his only escape.
"I'll see you tomorrow sir." Brendon rushed out the door, ignoring his teacher calling his name. His mind was racing, wondering what would happen when he runs into his math teacher again. Will the man be mad? Will he know what the sticker represents? Can he get detention?
"What are you so tensed about?" Ryan popped up from behind Brendon and threw his arm over the shorter boy's shoulder.
"Your stupid stickers," Brendon huffed. Ryan snickered at Brendon's annoyance.
"You know I thought I saw Awsten gloating about his gold star while Pete moped at his silver." Brendon frowned, pulled out his stickers and pushed one dead center on Ryan's chest before trudging off to his next class.
Ryan smiled as he watched Brendon leave, not bothered by yet another bronze star. His mind was more occupied with how easy it was to get Brendon annoyed and how much he enjoyed pushing his small buttons. To Ryan, Brendon only resembled a small angry kitten when he was like this. He found them both to be extremely adorable.
---
A/N:
Did I just spend the whole day starting and finishing my third anime in the past month?
Yes (they were kinda short in my defense!)Do I regret it?
Nope!Will I look for another anime to binge watch soon?
Definitely (suggestions?)Does my sister regret exposing me to anime?
Not at all (we fangirl together)