Mad as a Hatter, Thin as a Dime

When you first hear the words ‘best friends’, you think of a pair who have known each other since kindergarten, spending the summers with each other, perhaps living on the same street, having seen each other at their worst, being there through thick and thin.

The best friendship between Ryan Ross and Vesper Ashelford was not like this. Not at all.

The days turned into weeks, and the friendship between Ryan and Vesper only grew stronger. Ryan spent less time around his band mates, who were all kind of grateful for no longer being forced to listen to him crush on Kyra. Vesper and her sister didn’t hang out as much anymore, but that was alright. All of the other guys were only too eager to keep Kyra company, and she was very happy that her sister was allowing someone else to come close to her. It didn’t happen often.

Ryan and Vesper, of course, spent a lot of time creating extravagantly ridiculous plans to try to make Kyra want him, but after a while it more became just a fun thing to do. One time, slightly tipsy perhaps, they even drew ‘architectural blueprints’ for a love machine. Although Ryan was still falling in love with Kyra – and falling hard – the ‘plans’ grew less and less serious and more of a way to pass the travelling time and have fun.

“You know what I want to get you for your birthday?” Vesper asked lazily, regarding Ryan’s upcoming twentieth birthday.

They were, as usual, hanging out in the back lounge of Panic!’s bus, playing a violent Halo-wannabe video game incredibly badly. Neither of them were very good at video games. Vesper had practically moved into Panic’s bus a few days after that first night. There was a spare bunk here and Feign’s bus was quite small and cramped; more like a van with bunks, really. It was just easier this way.

“No. What?” he questioned back, throwing a grenade at an evil robot.

“Kyra. But I don’t think I’ll be able to. YES! I killed that commander one.”

He chuckled slightly, tossing the gaming remote onto the couch as the game paused.

“Thanks, but that’s okay. I know that if love potions really did exist then you’d have slipped her one in a second,” he joked.

“Pssh. Our love potion was so real.”

“We made it out of cocoa, yogurt and liquor.”

“Not my fault you wouldn’t drink it,” she mumbled, head facing down and doing a poor job of disguising her grin over yesterday’s antics.

He chuckled again at his friend – his best friend – and yawned, stretching out his long limbs. His eyelids rested shut, but he peeked through a gap in them at Vesper, who was scraping her layered hair up into a high ponytail. They were both still in their pajamas; he in his grey singlet and red and blue checkered flannel pants, her in pink and purple checkered pajama shorts and an oversized black Muse shirt, completed with one of his hoodies. The only make-up she wore was the residue of yesterday’s eyeliner, and he smiled to himself at the thought that he was one of the only people who she felt this comfortable around, not worrying if she looked bad. And she didn’t look bad; she looked human.

“What?” she asked with narrowing eyes, noticing his smile.

He shrugged a nonchalant answer, but the smile didn’t slip from his face. Vesper wasn’t convinced, but she chose to ignore it as her phone started playing ‘Let’s Dance to Joy Division'. She quickly retrieved the device and wrote a quick text message reply to her sister.

“Kyra said she’s going to force me to go shopping with her when we get to the next venue. You in?”

Ryan bit his lip. Over the last few weeks, he’d had a few conversations with Kyra, all initiated by Vesper, of course. Being so close to her, seeing her smile at him and spare words for him, it made his insides turn to mush. His palms would start to sweat, his stomach muscles would twist into knots, and he’d start to shake. Vesper didn’t tease him about it because she knew that she did that around almost anyone she didn’t know, but it was still entertaining for her to watch. She really wanted Ryan to get with her sister. He was so much nicer than most of the other hundreds of guys that wanted Kyra. He was different. He didn’t just want Kyra for her looks or for sex. From what she could tell, he loved her for who she was. It made Vesper happy to know that there were truly good people like that in the world. He would be so good for Kyra.

“Uh, I’m not sure. I kind of feel like I should hang out with the guys a bit more. There’s only so much of Brendon’s hype that Jon and Spencer can take by themselves.”

Vesper knew that he was just making excuses, but she did feel guilty about all the time that he spent with her as opposed to his other friends so she decided to let it slide.

“Okay then. We’ll probably end up getting your birthday presents anyway, so I guess that works out.”

“Ves, you know you don’t have to…”

“Oh shut up,” she rolled her eyes, ignoring his protests. “Everyone likes presents. Don’t be an annoying gentleman and deny it.”

“Fine,” he grumbled. “But I’ll be saying the same to you when it’s your birthday.”

Vesper bit her lip, one of the several habits that she shared with her best friend. She didn’t know how she’d be able to argue that point, but she’d cross that bridge when she came to it.

They spent the last hour of the trip eating chocolate-chip cookies and trying to defy the ‘Game Over’ text in the middle of the screen. Ryan had noticed that Vesper was hesitant, but still ate the food this time. He was worried about her. Sometimes she wouldn’t eat anything, other times it would seem as if there was nothing wrong. He could see the internal struggle in her eyes, but he chose not to address it. As far as he could tell, it was nothing too serious. Still, he kept tabs on what he saw her eating, just in case.

When they arrived at their destination, they hopped off the bus and met up with some of the others outside, stretching and enjoying the feel of the sunshine on their faces. Kyra, full of liveliness as seemingly always, pulled her sister to the closest mall in no time. She had to reject Chris and Mitch’s offers to accompany them, for she had simply had enough of boys. She needed some girl time.

Kyra was thankful for the changes she’d seen in her sister over the past few weeks. Ryan had cracked Vesper’s hard shell that was so naturally there. She was looking happier, more comfortable than Kyra could remember. It had been a while since Vesper had been so willing to go shopping, so willing to be happy. Kyra was going to accept it with open arms.

“So, what do you need to get, Ky?” Vesper asked her, smiling.

“Umm…” Kyra took a second to think. “Well, really, I just wanted to spend some time with you. But I do feel like just browsing for clothes and I need to get Ryan a present for his birthday.”

“Okay,” Vesper nodded. “Well I need to get something for Ryan too. There’s a new Palahniuk book out that I don’t even think he knows about yet and he’s been complaining about his camera stuffing up, so I’ve been thinking about getting him a new one, but that could get pretty pricey… What about you? Do you know what you’re going to get him?”

Kyra blinked. Vesper had never talked that fast in her entire life.

“Ves, are you sure you don’t like him as more than a friend?” she asked lowly.

Vesper rolled her eyes.

“Of course I’m sure. What brought this subject up again?”

“Well, since when do you get serious presents for people? Like, you always give joke presents or your paintings or something along those lines. And now all of a sudden you want to spend a lot of money on someone who you really only met a month ago. That kind of seems like more than just friendship to me.”

“Don’t be silly, Ky,” Vesper shook her head, walking into a large bookstore.

Instead of pressing the issue, like she knew she could, Kyra decided to let it go. Her sister was never one to hide things from her. If Vesper liked Ryan as more than a friend, she would have said so.

When they emerged from the bookstore, Vesper had purchased the book and was reading the blurb with gross fascination. It didn’t exactly sound like the most pleasant of novels, but it certainly was intriguing.

The two sisters made their way to the huge electronic store on the top floor of the mall, and spent at least an hour discussing camera types with the dazzled employee. Although the man, dark moustache distinguishing him, spoke mainly to Kyra’s chest, he still gave them all the information they needed.

“What do you think, Ky?” Vesper asked, biting her lip.

“I think it’s perfect. We could go half on it, so it’s from both of us.”

“That sounds good,” Vesper agreed. “But I’m not even sure if I’ve got enough for half of it, really. In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t earn as much money as you, especially since I won’t be able to work again until tour is finished.”

“I know,” Kyra sighed. “And I guess I owe you for that, seeing as I pretty much dragged you away. So I’ll pay for most of it. You pitch in a couple hundred. That okay?”

After a little bickering, the two finally purchased the expensive Nikon camera, proud of their gift.

“He’ll love it,” Kyra smiled.

“He will,” Vesper murmured, looking down. “But you know what he’d love even more?”

They stopped walking and Kyra looked at her sister, who refused eye contact.

“What?”

“He’d love to get to know you better.”

“Huh?”

“Just talk to him, okay? Spend some time with him. I know he’d really like that.”

Kyra gave her Vesper an odd look with one curious eyebrow arched, but Vesper said no more and started walking again.

“Okay then,” Kyra said, quietly but just loud enough for Vesper to hear and smile slightly.

“Where are we going now?” Vesper asked.

“Uh, well I don’t know about you but I’m kind of hungry,” Kyra replied hesitantly.

Kyra was smart, and she had known of her sister’s issues with food. There was no need for it, of course, but Kyra knew that these kinds of sicknesses weren’t entirely rational. She’d never mentioned it out loud to Vesper. Well, she had once when they were younger, and Vesper proceeded to run off and didn’t speak to her for days. Acknowledging it wasn’t going to do any good, so she always just made sure that her sister ate properly from the sidelines. She knew that Ryan did the same, although they’d never spoken about it to each other. They both cared about her, and on the few occasions that Kyra did get the opportunity to speak with Ryan, they usually spoke about Vesper.

“Okay,” the younger girl agreed, and the two headed for the food court.

They had both separated to get their food, and joined back at a table. Kyra ate from a plate of Indian curry, moderately spicy, and Vesper played it safe with two sushi rolls. They had only been sitting for a few minutes before Kyra was approached from behind. She turned around to face four teenage girls with nervous faces. She wiped her mouth on a napkin to make sure that there was no food around her mouth, gulped down her mouthful and smiled at them.

“H-hi,” the tallest girl, a fit-looking brunette with blonde streaks, began. “Um, are you Kyra Ashelford from Feign Eloquence?”

Kyra blinked a bit from shock; this wasn’t the first time she’d been recognized, but it didn’t exactly happen all the time.

“Uh, yeah, I am,” she laughed nervously, swiping her red fringe from her eyes.

She was then swarmed by the four girls, smiling and answering their questions as Vesper sat quietly, finishing her food and watching on in mild amusement. One of the girls, short with layered light blonde hair and a pale complexion, met Vesper’s eyes. The girl gave a small, timid smile that Vesper returned, but the others completely ignored her. As Kyra made casual conversation with the girls, probably only a few years younger themselves, Vesper was knocked out of her boredom by her phone vibrating in her pocket. She pulled it out, smiling slightly, and answered it.

“Hey.”

“Hey. How’s the shopping going?” Ryan’s voice sounded through her ear.

“Not too bad. Ky’s just been recognized by a few girls so she’s taking photos and giving them her autograph and stuff. It’s probably a good thing you didn’t come.”

Ryan laughed.

“Yeah, I guess so. So what, are you just standing there waiting?”

“Well, sitting, but yeah, pretty much. You chose a good time to call.”

“I guess I did. Imagine what those girls would do if they knew that I was on the phone right now…”

Vesper laughed, drawing the blonde-haired girl’s attention, but no one else seemed to take any notice. The other girls seemed to be ignoring the short blonde one too.

“Probably kill me… Would you be willing to speak to one of them?”

She didn’t know what made her say it, but for some reason Vesper just wanted to do something for the girl that had smiled at her.

“Uh, I guess? If you think it’s safe for your phone…”

“Okay. Hold on a minute.”

Vesper bit her lip, lowering the phone, and was glad to see that the girl was still eyeing her curiously. She waved the girl over, hoping that her friends wouldn’t notice.

“Hi,” she said, kind of nervously.

“Hi,” the girl said back, looking almost scared.

“I’m Vesper. I’m Kyra’s sister.”

“Laura,” the girl introduced herself, not looking so scared anymore.

“Friends of yours?” Vesper asked, gesturing towards the girls that Kyra was talking to.

“Uh, kind of. I only met them a week or so ago.”

“Do you think that they’ll come over here any time soon?”

“Probably not. Why?”

“Well, do you like Panic! At the Disco?”

“Yeah, they’re my favorite band,” Laura smiled, shyly but enthusiastically.

“Really? You want to speak to Ryan Ross?”

Laura’s eyes widened almost comically.

“Huh? Are you serious?”

Vesper just smiled and nodded, holding out her phone. Laura took the cell in shaking hands, raising it to her ear.

“Hello?” she whispered.

“Uh, hey there,” Ryan replied from the other end.

Vesper smiled to herself as she watched Laura grinning ecstatically, talking to her idol at an alarmingly fast pace. Soon enough, her friends told her that they had to go to line up for the show. Laura handed the phone back to Vesper with a beaming ‘thank you’, ignoring her friends nagging her for what just happened.

“Was that okay?” Vesper asked Ryan, who was still on the other line.

“Yeah,” Ryan laughed. “She seemed like a sweet girl. What did she look like?”

“Short, blonde, pale, nose piercing.”

“Damn. I guessed black hair.”

Vesper laughed, but Ryan spoke again in a more serious tone.

“That was a really nice thing you just did for her. She’ll probably never forget that.”

“Well, you think highly of yourself, don’t you?” Vesper scoffed.

“You know what I mean.”

“I know. I’m just trying to divert away from having to reply.”

“Fine,” Ryan chuckled. “Well anyway, what I originally rang for was to ask you to tell Kyra that she has soundcheck in twenty minutes.”

“And why didn’t you just ring her yourself?” Vesper questioned, knowing exactly why.

“Uh… yeah… um… I was… I was too shy. You know that.”

Vesper sighed.

“Okay then. I’ll tell her and we’ll be back soon.”

“Thanks. See you soon.”

“Bye.”

Vesper hung up and delivered the message to Kyra, and the two began their way back to the buses. For some unknown reason – not alcohol, for once – spirits were running high.