Happy Thought: The One With The First Date
amy13 had a bad day at work today and when I asked her what would cheer her up, she said, a snippet of B/C 'verse! So I wrote her 1400 words of Brendon/Cash frat!verse. Because I still fail at short snippets. Schmoop warning, as always, because that's the way I roll.
Brendon's plan for the evening doesn't include, you know, *mentioning* exactly what he's doing that night to anyone in the house. Well, not in the beginning anyway, because while he thinks his brothers are pretty much the most awesome people ever, he also knows his brothers, from Pete and Travis to Tom and Jon, and, well.
Let's just say, as awesome as his brothers are, he doesn't trust them not to pull a stunt like Kappa Delta did the first time Spencer went to go pick Haley up, where about ten ("only *five*," Haley insisted, "I swear!") girls trooped down to check their mail right after the *'Haley, caller! Haley, you have a caller!'* page went out over the intercom.
Because honestly, he wouldn't put it past a whole group of them to show up at the quad, blankets and jackets and bottles of "apple juice" in hand and find a spot on the lawn maybe, like, 10 feet away from where Brendon and Cash are sitting, and then there would be whispering, balled up napkins being tossed at their heads, and possibly, you know, wolf whistles, and that is really not something Brendon wants for the night.
Still, he does live in a fraternity, so keeping things on the DL is pretty much impossible. Especially since he, you know, changes his shirt three times in twenty minutes, and he maybe starts pacing his room after dinner, when he still has two hours until sunset, and also, his brothers can be pretty observant when they want to be. For instance: Jon looks up from his Guitar World magazine and says, "Um, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you have big plans for the night?"
"No!" Brendon says. "No, I just-"
And, okay, it *shouldn't* be a lie, but it totally is, because Brendon is maybe, possibly, more than a little bit anxious. *Anxious*, because it sounds better than nervous, and it's not like Brendon *needs* to be nervous, because it's *Cash*, and it's not like he and Cash haven't spent four of the last six evenings together, you know? But those were evenings spent getting dinner in the dining hall, hanging out in Cash's room, studying and watching Best Week Ever and random movies and, you know, occasionally making out until Shane would come back from working on his design project in the Mac lab across campus and say things like, "Everyone's decent, right? You promised to 'x' the white board if people weren't going to be decent."
But this is.
This is the two of them going, you know, *out*, and it's not different, not really, but it totally *is*, and so Brendon swallows and smiles brightly at Jon and says, "Cash and I were thinking about catching the movie in the quad tonight. No big deal. I'm just, you know…"
Jon looks at him for a long moment, sighs, then sets down his magazine, stands up from the couch, and marches Brendon down the hall to Spencer and Travis's room. When they both look up, he says, "He's got pre-first date jitters. I need backup."
Which is how Brendon ends up playing Guitar Hero with Spencer while Travis talks smack about their skills-with-a-z before calling Beckett into the room to show these two freshman how it's done, yo. Then Haley's there, as are Ryan and Keltie, and for an hour or so Brendon actually forgets to be nervous. Or anxious. You know.
But then Haley pokes him in the arm and says, "Don't you have somewhere you need to be?" and Keltie walks him to the door of the room and says, "I'll do my best to keep them all here, okay? No promises, but if any of them show up at the quad, know I went down fighting. And Ryan did, too."
Ryan looks up when he hears his name-obviously having no clue what Keltie's telling Brendon-but when she says, "Right, babe?" he nods his agreement.
So then there's nothing left for Brendon to do but walk down the back stairs, through the kitchen, past Tom and Carden and Siska and their smirks and wiggling eyebrows-because of *course* word has spread-and then he's outside.
It's maybe a fifteen minute walk to Cash's dorm, but it, well, on one hand it seems to take forever, and on the other, it seems like he blinks and he's *there*. He's lucky in that someone's coming out just as he arrives, holds the door open for him. Then it's on to the 4th floor-elevator, because if he runs up the stairs he'll be out of breath-and, okay, so he's really only been coming here regularly for a week, but already he has people saying 'hi' to him as he walks down the hall.
Cash and Shane live towards the end of the hallway and Brendon can see that their door is open, imagines that at least some of the music clashing in his ears is theirs (Lil' Wayne, Shaggy, a little Britney Spears, the Toxic years, some Good Charlotte) and then he's looking into the room, knocking on the door.
Cash is the first to look up, but Shane is the first to speak. "He's all yours, Urie. Please, get him out of here." Shane's girlfriend is sitting on Shane's bunk with him and she giggles against his shoulder.
"Fuck you," Cash says, flipping them both off. "I haven't been *that* bad."
"Uh huh," Shane says. "Yeah." Then, "Get out of here already. I don't want to see the two of you for *hours*, do you hear?"
"Yes, dad," Brendon says, and Shane laughs.
Cash grabs the blanket off the foot of his bed, then his jacket, then passes by Brendon on his way out the door. He nudges Brendon's side with his elbow, then grins when Brendon elbows him back, and any worries that Brendon may have had about this being awkward, what with it being a real date and all, pretty much evaporate. Because Cash is Cash, the same Cash he's been since Brendon first sat down next to him in their Bio lab, and he still laughs at Brendon's jokes and rolls his eyes at Brendon's tales of his brothers, and once they're outside, he hands Brendon the blanket so he can have both hands free to card his fingers through his hair, trying to spike it into a Mohawk to show Brendon what the guy in his comm class looked like the day before, and before Brendon knows it, they're at the quad.
There are actually more people there than Brendon was expecting, blankets dotted across the lawn. There's a popcorn machine set up next to a table covered with bottles of soda, a fundraiser of some sort, and Brendon says, "You want?" and when Cash nods, he buys them each a bag. Cash buys the Pepsi. "We can share," he says.
They find a spot off to the right side of the sheet-screen, spread their blanket out, and sit down. They start out several inches apart, but first Brendon has to lean across Cash to get to the soda, then Cash pulls his knees up to his chest for a minute, before crossing them in front of him again, which brings him closer to Brendon. Then Brendon feels Cash tapping at his knuckles with the tip of his finger and he turns his hand over to catch Cash's own. Then Cash leans his shoulder against Brendon's, so they're pressed together from bicep to elbow, and when Brendon looks over at Cash, to grin at him, Cash is looking right back.
"Hi," Brendon says.
"Hey," Cash says, squeezing Brendon's hand, and when Brendon squeezes back, he leans in, too, because, well, it feels right. But before he can do more than tip his head, he feels a soft ball of paper hit him in the back of the head, and when he turns around, he sees Travis, Beckett, and Gabe all sitting 15 feet behind them, grinning, laughing. And off to the left, Brendon sees Keltie, Ryan, Spencer and Haley (traitors) and Keltie just smiles, shrugs. Mouths, "I tried!"
Brendon leans his forehead on Cash's shoulder and says, softly, "I love my brothers, I love my brothers." Cash's laugh is loud enough that the people in front of them turn around to look at them.
"Sorry," Cash says. Then he turns his head far enough to press a kiss to the crown of Brendon's head.
Brendon smiles.
The end!
Brendon's plan for the evening doesn't include, you know, *mentioning* exactly what he's doing that night to anyone in the house. Well, not in the beginning anyway, because while he thinks his brothers are pretty much the most awesome people ever, he also knows his brothers, from Pete and Travis to Tom and Jon, and, well.
Let's just say, as awesome as his brothers are, he doesn't trust them not to pull a stunt like Kappa Delta did the first time Spencer went to go pick Haley up, where about ten ("only *five*," Haley insisted, "I swear!") girls trooped down to check their mail right after the *'Haley, caller! Haley, you have a caller!'* page went out over the intercom.
Because honestly, he wouldn't put it past a whole group of them to show up at the quad, blankets and jackets and bottles of "apple juice" in hand and find a spot on the lawn maybe, like, 10 feet away from where Brendon and Cash are sitting, and then there would be whispering, balled up napkins being tossed at their heads, and possibly, you know, wolf whistles, and that is really not something Brendon wants for the night.
Still, he does live in a fraternity, so keeping things on the DL is pretty much impossible. Especially since he, you know, changes his shirt three times in twenty minutes, and he maybe starts pacing his room after dinner, when he still has two hours until sunset, and also, his brothers can be pretty observant when they want to be. For instance: Jon looks up from his Guitar World magazine and says, "Um, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you have big plans for the night?"
"No!" Brendon says. "No, I just-"
And, okay, it *shouldn't* be a lie, but it totally is, because Brendon is maybe, possibly, more than a little bit anxious. *Anxious*, because it sounds better than nervous, and it's not like Brendon *needs* to be nervous, because it's *Cash*, and it's not like he and Cash haven't spent four of the last six evenings together, you know? But those were evenings spent getting dinner in the dining hall, hanging out in Cash's room, studying and watching Best Week Ever and random movies and, you know, occasionally making out until Shane would come back from working on his design project in the Mac lab across campus and say things like, "Everyone's decent, right? You promised to 'x' the white board if people weren't going to be decent."
But this is.
This is the two of them going, you know, *out*, and it's not different, not really, but it totally *is*, and so Brendon swallows and smiles brightly at Jon and says, "Cash and I were thinking about catching the movie in the quad tonight. No big deal. I'm just, you know…"
Jon looks at him for a long moment, sighs, then sets down his magazine, stands up from the couch, and marches Brendon down the hall to Spencer and Travis's room. When they both look up, he says, "He's got pre-first date jitters. I need backup."
Which is how Brendon ends up playing Guitar Hero with Spencer while Travis talks smack about their skills-with-a-z before calling Beckett into the room to show these two freshman how it's done, yo. Then Haley's there, as are Ryan and Keltie, and for an hour or so Brendon actually forgets to be nervous. Or anxious. You know.
But then Haley pokes him in the arm and says, "Don't you have somewhere you need to be?" and Keltie walks him to the door of the room and says, "I'll do my best to keep them all here, okay? No promises, but if any of them show up at the quad, know I went down fighting. And Ryan did, too."
Ryan looks up when he hears his name-obviously having no clue what Keltie's telling Brendon-but when she says, "Right, babe?" he nods his agreement.
So then there's nothing left for Brendon to do but walk down the back stairs, through the kitchen, past Tom and Carden and Siska and their smirks and wiggling eyebrows-because of *course* word has spread-and then he's outside.
It's maybe a fifteen minute walk to Cash's dorm, but it, well, on one hand it seems to take forever, and on the other, it seems like he blinks and he's *there*. He's lucky in that someone's coming out just as he arrives, holds the door open for him. Then it's on to the 4th floor-elevator, because if he runs up the stairs he'll be out of breath-and, okay, so he's really only been coming here regularly for a week, but already he has people saying 'hi' to him as he walks down the hall.
Cash and Shane live towards the end of the hallway and Brendon can see that their door is open, imagines that at least some of the music clashing in his ears is theirs (Lil' Wayne, Shaggy, a little Britney Spears, the Toxic years, some Good Charlotte) and then he's looking into the room, knocking on the door.
Cash is the first to look up, but Shane is the first to speak. "He's all yours, Urie. Please, get him out of here." Shane's girlfriend is sitting on Shane's bunk with him and she giggles against his shoulder.
"Fuck you," Cash says, flipping them both off. "I haven't been *that* bad."
"Uh huh," Shane says. "Yeah." Then, "Get out of here already. I don't want to see the two of you for *hours*, do you hear?"
"Yes, dad," Brendon says, and Shane laughs.
Cash grabs the blanket off the foot of his bed, then his jacket, then passes by Brendon on his way out the door. He nudges Brendon's side with his elbow, then grins when Brendon elbows him back, and any worries that Brendon may have had about this being awkward, what with it being a real date and all, pretty much evaporate. Because Cash is Cash, the same Cash he's been since Brendon first sat down next to him in their Bio lab, and he still laughs at Brendon's jokes and rolls his eyes at Brendon's tales of his brothers, and once they're outside, he hands Brendon the blanket so he can have both hands free to card his fingers through his hair, trying to spike it into a Mohawk to show Brendon what the guy in his comm class looked like the day before, and before Brendon knows it, they're at the quad.
There are actually more people there than Brendon was expecting, blankets dotted across the lawn. There's a popcorn machine set up next to a table covered with bottles of soda, a fundraiser of some sort, and Brendon says, "You want?" and when Cash nods, he buys them each a bag. Cash buys the Pepsi. "We can share," he says.
They find a spot off to the right side of the sheet-screen, spread their blanket out, and sit down. They start out several inches apart, but first Brendon has to lean across Cash to get to the soda, then Cash pulls his knees up to his chest for a minute, before crossing them in front of him again, which brings him closer to Brendon. Then Brendon feels Cash tapping at his knuckles with the tip of his finger and he turns his hand over to catch Cash's own. Then Cash leans his shoulder against Brendon's, so they're pressed together from bicep to elbow, and when Brendon looks over at Cash, to grin at him, Cash is looking right back.
"Hi," Brendon says.
"Hey," Cash says, squeezing Brendon's hand, and when Brendon squeezes back, he leans in, too, because, well, it feels right. But before he can do more than tip his head, he feels a soft ball of paper hit him in the back of the head, and when he turns around, he sees Travis, Beckett, and Gabe all sitting 15 feet behind them, grinning, laughing. And off to the left, Brendon sees Keltie, Ryan, Spencer and Haley (traitors) and Keltie just smiles, shrugs. Mouths, "I tried!"
Brendon leans his forehead on Cash's shoulder and says, softly, "I love my brothers, I love my brothers." Cash's laugh is loud enough that the people in front of them turn around to look at them.
"Sorry," Cash says. Then he turns his head far enough to press a kiss to the crown of Brendon's head.
Brendon smiles.
The end!