Dead End Kids

Liz stumbled into the house, long since abandoning her beer for jell-o shots and swigs of vodka. Brendon was following behind her, a dazed look on his face.

He only drank when Liz wouldn’t finish her shot or someone would hand him something. This was proving to slur his speech and complicate his footing, so, he was still getting the job done.

“Where did Druscilla go?” Liz said, her grip on Brendon’s hand tightening.

“Uh, upstairs, I think.” Brendon mumbled.

“With who?!” She nearly screamed back at him. No one noticed; the music was too loud.

“Spencer and Ryan, I think they said they wanted to get . . . uh . . . away.” Brendon didn’t sound sure of himself, but Liz led him up the stairs regardless.

They opened doors at random, having to apologize only once to a couple on the floor instead of the bed.

Finally, they stumbled into a room towards the end of the hallway. Brendon gasped and Liz grinned when their eyes were met with the scene of Ryan kissing Spencer, hard.

Brendon’s face went pale. Liz didn’t notice.

Dru looked up at Liz, clapped her hands, and then continued to snap photos of the two.

“I don’t want to remember this in the morning,” Ryan mumbled against Spencer’s mouth.

“You’re fucking lucky I’m getting paid for this, shit.” Spencer said, before Ryan’s tongue silenced him.

After a few more photos, Ryan pulled away from Spencer with a small laugh. Spencer wiped at his mouth and immediately stuck his hand out for the money Dru had “promised” him.

“I’ll get it to you tomorrow,” she said off-handedly as she skimmed through the pictures.

Ryan looked up at Brendon, who was staring at his shoes. “Aw, do you want a kiss too?”

Before Brendon could really respond Ryan was on his feet, stumbling towards him. Dru looked up in interest, her camera already ready for any photo op that might present itself. Liz was watching in half-horror, half-amusement. Spencer was still wiping his mouth.

And then Ryan kissed Brendon. Square on the mouth. And Brendon felt his heart leap into his throat and push back all the words he wanted to scream. His mouth opened under Ryan’s probing tongue, and he secretly savored the taste of vodka and cigarettes on the older boy’s breath.

When Ryan finally pulled away, he gave a contented smile and stumbled back to Dru, who was beaming in triumph at the pictures she didn’t have to pay for.

Brendon stared at where Ryan had been before looking down at Liz, who had a blank expression on her face. He opened his mouth to try and explain, but she just smiled and shrugged her shoulders. She slid on the floor next to Ryan and smiled up at him. He slung an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.

“You’re cool, for a sophomore.” he said too-loud into her ear.

She giggled. “You’re cool, for a senior!” He gasped and buried his face into the crook of her neck for a moment, before giving a series of breathy laughs.

“Ryan thinks you’re hot,” Spencer said. Ryan gave him the finger.

“He thinks Brendon’s hot too.” Liz said, looking at a still red-faced Brendon, who was now sitting beside her.

Ryan dug his elbow into Liz’s side, but said nothing.

* * *

Brendon pried his eyes open after minutes of contemplating smashing his head in with a brick to stop the pain. A few soft voices were growing louder, though, and the louder they got - the more he wanted to listen to them.

So he sat up, fought his urge to crawl back beneath the covers on him, and looked around the dark room. To his left, lay Spencer, drooling lightly on his pillow. To his right lay Liz, curled up against Dru. The raven haired girl reminded him, distantly, of a cat. Dru had a protective arm over Liz. Liz was whispering in her sleep.

Was her voice the one he’d been hearing?

“No mom, I’ll be home. I’ll take a shower here. I’ll eat here, too. Don’t flip out, Jesus Christ.”

No, it wasn’t Liz.

He shifted to his knees and staggered to his feet. Once there, he shuffled towards the voices, the bright light of the kitchen blinding him unpleasantly once he reached it.

Ryan stood in his boxers, shirtless, with his cell phone held to his ear.

Brendon felt a little-too-warm all of the sudden.

Ryan turned towards Brendon, smiled, and then turned towards the fridge.

“Mom. Listen to me. I’m fine. I’m a senior mom; these are the last days of my life before I have to become ‘responsible’. Seriously. Let me be a fucking kid.” There was a ‘beep’ as Ryan turned off his phone.

He sighed and tossed it onto the table in the middle of the room, ignoring Brendon standing there awkwardly, and rummaging through the fridge.

Brendon watched him carefully; watched him move. He watched the way his spine curved, and the way his feet tapped against the floor impatiently.

He emerged with a small sandwich in his hand, and a Coke, a smile of triumph on his lips. Hadn’t Brendon kissed those lips last night?

No. No, that must’ve been a dream.

“Here, have a sandwich. It’ll help with the hangover.”

“Really?”

Ryan shrugged. “It might.”

* * *

Ryan made conversation, small talk, nothing big. But every word that he drawled out sent Brendon’s head into a frenzy. He didn’t want to say the wrong thing. Wait, didn’t people think that was cute? Well Ryan might think it was annoying, but he was smiling so maybe not. Jesus, he was in trouble . . . and he couldn’t breathe and—

“Morning.” He turned around to see Liz shuffling into the kitchen, rubbing at her eyes.

She could’ve been his own Jesus Christ right then.

Only shorter, and in pajamas.

“Feelin’ okay, kid?” Ryan said, with his Coke can poised in front of his lips. She nodded her reply and stole the Coke from him, helping herself to a generous amount before handing it back to him. “You’re supposed to respect your elders.” he said, pouting.

“Yeah, yeah.”
* * *

It was Dru’s idea to go to the mall, for lack of something better to do.

Once there, it proved to be a very bad idea.

Liz and Ryan decided it’d be fun to play hide-and-seek inside of the mall. Darting in and out of stores and hiding behind clothes racks tended to not sit well with employees.

When they finally coaxed Spencer, Dru, and even Brendon to join in – it was only a matter of time.

“We’re going to have to ask you to leave.” a mall cop said from behind Liz, while she stood on top of a bench, shouting things at Spencer – who had just recently found her.

She turned around and looked the cop up and down, before snorting lightly. “What for?”

“You’re disturbing the peace.” he said after a pause.

“Oh. Well then, holy fuck, we better leave right now – we don’t want to ruin anyone’s trip to the mall. And we certainly don’t want to make the rent-a-cop’s job any harder.” Brendon giggled somewhere beside her, which only made her stare a little more arrogantly down at the cop.

“Don’t make me call—”

“The real cops?” Dru made a soft ‘ooh’ noise beside her and Liz sniggered at the cop’s suddenly red face.

The mall-cop picked up his walky-talky and began muttering instructions into it. Liz threw her hands up and shook her head. “Fine! You win, Jesus Christ. I just want you to know that you’ve hurt my feelings, sir.”

Brendon half-scolded Liz as all of them walked away. She pouted softly and made grabby hands up at him. “Piggy back ride?”

He rolled his eyes, trying to hide his smile, and knelt down on the tile so she could climb on. Once her arms were securely around his neck, they started walking with the rest of the group.

Neither Brendon or Liz saw Ryan staring at them.