Goodbye Blues

Joy pulled the soft hair brush through the knots in her dark silver hair. She stared at her reflection, her eyes on her hair. It was once so soft, so lush and pretty; dark yet, shiny in the sun, casting all eyes on her.

As she stared in sympathy of her own aging, she remembered all the times Brendon use to pull his long fingers through her deep brown locks as he spoke to her. The gentle petting would make the familiar butterflies appear in her stomach, letting a smile form on her lips and a pink rise in her cheeks.

He knew it was a bit of a weakness to her and he used it to his advantage as much as he could.

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Joy didn't want to confront Brendon about what had happened days before. She didn't want him to see her so sad, so broken because of him; she didn't want him thinking she was weak for him, because he'd be right.

She kept her distance as well as she could. For days, she dodged him when he was coming her way, she tried her best not to look into his chocolate brown eyes, and every text message was ignored. And for days, it worked. Until, of course, Brendon decided to really start trying to get her attention.

Most of the musicians were all in the dressing room in the current venue in New York. They all were sitting around, messing with instruments and talking amongst themselves. Joy was talking to Greta by the door but every once in a while, she'd glance over to the other side of the room to see Brendon staring her down.

"Joy, are you even paying attention?" Greta finally asked, glaring at her best friend. Joy looked away from Brendon unwillingly before looking at an irritated Greta. With her arms crossed over her chest, she sneered at Joy.

"Of course," Joy promised, the lie quite obvious with her hesitant tone of voice.

"Then what did I just say?" Greta asked, pursing her lips. Joy opened her mouth to say something then closed it and glanced away from her friend's piercing gaze. A sigh came from the curly blonde as she muttered, "That's what I thought. Why don't you just go talk to him?"

The question was absolutely mind-boggling in Joy's opinion. To go over and talk to the boy who had no consideration for her feelings? Who thought it would be okay to play games on her head and heart, then go and 'lip-rape,' in Bob's odd words, some other girl? It was completely out of the question.

"Greta, he's the one who should be walking over and talking to me," Joy responded coldly, her hazel eyes narrowing. Greta rolled her eyes then looked towards the boys across the room. Ryan glanced at Greta before saying something to Brendon, something that made Brendon sigh and begin walking towards the two girls.

"I think your wish was granted," Greta mumbled as she turned away from Joy and walked over to Andy Hurley. Joy furrowed her brow then turned around when she felt someone's presence behind her. Her eyes immediately locked with two chocolate orbs.

"Joy," Brendon's deep voice said. With a blank expression on his face and using the most monotoned voice she'd ever heard, Joy found it hard to read what this handsome boy was feeling as he confronted her. It made her uncomfortable as she stared at him, the pain from the night at the club hitting her hard.

"Brendon," She countered, hiding the damaged feelings under a hard exterior.

"I'm sorry," He said after taking some time to take in Joy's body language. Dressed in a turquoise, sleeveless dress, one of her hands rested on one of her hips, showing off her attitude. She had been waiting for this apology and now that she had it, she was going to take in every moment of it.

"Sorry isn't enough," She snickered, her eyes still boring into his. Brendon looked down at his brown sandals with a sigh as he noticed the whole room drowned out with silence. He didn't bother giving everyone dirty looks for eavesdropping as he normally would have.

"I know," Brendon agreed, looking back at Joy, "I just didn't know what we had was so official. I mean, I would have loved it if it was, but I wasn't sure if that's what you wanted. I had heard that all you really wanted was just a summer fling and it just sounded, I don't know, open. I'm sorry for hurting you, you didn't deserve it. But I just hope you can give me a second chance."

Somewhere along this speech, Brendon had grabbed Joy's hand from her hip and placed it in his. Their bodies had somehow gotten closer and Joy was obviously losing her hard exterior with each passing moment.

"I don't know, Brendon," She whispered, her voice sounding distant and her eyes filling with threatening tears.

And here's where it happened. Brendon's free hand left his side and slowly made it's way to Joy's cheek. His fingers lightly brushed over her cheek as his adoring gaze stayed on the pretty girl in front of him. Slowly, his hand slid off her cheek and brushed through her hair as his low voice whispered, "Please."

And it was all over. Joy swallowed the lump in her throat, melting into his touch. She took a shaky, deep breath before saying, defeated, "Only one more chance."

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But it wasn't just one chance. Joy let Brendon have a third, fourth, fifth chance. Even a sixth, seventh and eighth, because she just couldn't say no. With one swift motion of his hand, he had her begging for him to stay with her.

He had taken her heart and he knew it - and Brendon Urie was never the one to waste a perfect advantage.

A tear slipped from one of Joy's eyes, sliding down her wrinkled cheek. Quickly, she looked away from the mirror as she wiped it away.