Underworld

“Brendon, up, now” a quick knock was on his bedroom door and his father’s stern voice echoed from outside of his room.

“Dad, Uni is like, five minutes away and I don’t start for another hour, let me sleep” he whined glancing at the clock.

“Not anymore” Brendon could practically hear the smile on his father’s lips “You do commerce, business management and accounting at RMIT now, just five minutes away from where we meet, now get moving, you’re mum’s making you toast now, I’m off. Don’t forget to thank your mother, and tell her you love her.”

“Yes Dad” Brendon rolled his eyes. This was one of the many problems of having a well connected and much feared father, with only a few words, he could get whatever he wanted. Brendon rolled clumsily out of bed and stumble over to the bathroom which his sister (for once) was not occupying; she had already left for school.

Brendon had put a lot thought into what his father had said to him a few nights ago and although he agreed with some of it, there were others that he would simply not abide by. Brendon would not get married; ever, even serious relationships were off the cards from now on. Every time he looked at his mother he felt a surge of pain run through him. Her husband could be brutally murdered at anytime, she must’ve been living in fear all the time and she was very good at hiding it from the kids. Brendon promised himself that if he ever loved someone as much as his father loved his mother then he would never sentence them to a life of fear and anxiety.

“Mum you didn’t put enough Milo in!” Brendon cried as he began to drink his morning milk, or in his mother’s words, his latte.

“Brendon, there’s two teaspoons in there, that’s enough” she said sternly.

“No there isn’t, I can’t taste any” Brendon jumped up from his table and sneakily stole the tin of Milo.

“Brendon, the milk is almost black now” his mother sighed “You’re gonna put on weigh-”

“Mum, I’m a growing boy, I need my energy!”

“Brendon, you stopped growing a while back.”

Brendon bit into his Nutella coated toast biting back on the temptation to let a “that’s what you think” joke enter the conversation. Breakfast with your mum is defiantly not the time to be cracking sex jokes.

After he finished his breakfast and kissed his mum he walked outside of his high security home and got into his small Mercedes. Even if he tried to fit in with the typical uni student, his car made him stand out. Brendon gave a small wave to his mum who he saw standing outside the front door waving him off. What he didn’t see was the tears streaming down her face. Her Brendon, her son, he was too young and too naïve to become a murderer.

Brendon was no angel that was a common fact. In his youth, well, mid to late teens he was picked up for numerous traffic offences. As for the things he hadn’t been caught for, Brendon once robbed a petrol station and stole six bags of chips and seven packets of lollies and a few movies from the local Safeway for a movie night. He had also been caught setting an old enemy’s house on fire. This old enemy, Alex Suarez had never done anything to Brendon, but he was a scholarship kid, and scholarship kids got all the crap. Brendon was what you would commonly call a bully throughout high school and poor Alex Suarez was his target. In the end, the bullying got so bad that Alex accidently had one arm broken and cracked his head open when Brendon shoved him into a wheelie bin and sent him flying off the edge of one of the old portables behind school. It was set, the school was going to expel Brendon, but Brendon’s father, and all his connections managed to keep Brendon in school, at the expense of Alex Suarez’s spot. Brendon never knew what became of Alex Suarez, in fact, he barely even crossed Brendon’s mind. He should have, because Alex Suarez was never someone you’d want on your bad side.

************

“And then, the fairy came back and she made everything good again!” Lara smiled, her head resting in Jenna’s lap as she spread herself across one of the many gardens at the university.

“Love,” Jenna smiled sweetly “What are you on?”

“Nothing, I promise,” Lara looked up at Jenna innocently “But seriously, you don’t get how cute Angie is, honestly, if yo-”

“Lara” Jenna snapped “Just quit it okay, I don’t like the brat okay? Were you babysitting her again?”

“Yeah.”

Angie was Jenna’s little step sister. When Jenna was fifteen, her mother died in a bus accident near Uluru. At the time it was big news, a bus, carrying sixty passengers collided with a freight train. Many of the passengers died instantly and the remaining died waiting for assistance which took eight hours to arrive. Jenna’s mother had only been dead for three minutes when paramedics finally arrived on scene but it was too late, she couldn’t be revived.

Four years later, Jenna’s father got remarried to a younger woman called Donna and later that year, Angie was born, Jenna moved out as soon as she found out about the pregnancy. Lara hadn’t quite figured out why Jenna resented her family so much but she knew that Jenna felt replaced.

Jenna and Spencer, often referred to as ‘the odd couple’ although they weren’t even dating lived down the road from university in uni houses. The university rented out homes to students who lived too far from school and although Spencer and Jenna lived no more than half an hour out from the uni they managed to get a small town house off Alexander Parade.

“Guess who’s coming to RMIT today?” Jenna asked even though she knew the answer.

“Who?”

“Brendon Urie.” Jenna smiled.

“Gee, I really know who that is” Lara said sarcastically.

“Son of Robert Urie.”

Yep, you’re real good Jen” Lara rolled her eyes.

“Robert Urie is the like the godfather, you’ve seen that movie right?” Jenna asked.

“Yeah, way too violent.”

Jenna rolled her eyes “Yeah, well Robert Urie is like the godfather of Melbourne and Brendon Urie is his son. He’s like the ultimate bad boy…as corny as that sounds, and not too bad on the eye either.”

“How do you know what he looks like?”

“Brooke sent me a photo, he was at some friends’ party ages ago and he’s sitting just over there” Jenna said simply.

“Which one is he?” Lara asked, her neck snapping in the opposite direction she almost gave herself whiplash.

“In the café, black hair” Jenna said, her eyes staring in the direction of the café.

“That narrows it down, there are four guys in the café with black hair” Lara rolled her eyes.

“Head in a commerce book.”

“There’s two wi-”

“Oh my god Lara do I have to spell it out for you!” Jenna yelled “In the café, black hair, black jeans, red t-shirt, black hoodie, really really hot man bag…ohh, leather man bag!”

Brendon’s head snapped sharply in the girl’s direction. “Oh crap” Lara said quietly, immediately turning her head away in embarrassment.

“Fuck, can you see his lips?” Jenna said sharply.

“Jen, are you still looking?”

“Dude, the kid’s hot, fuck, turn around, they’re massive, pink, maybe a little swollen” Jenna smiled “I wonder what he’s been doing this morning hey?”

“Coke, most likely” Spencer sat down, immediately joining into the girl’s conversation “Not that he’s snorting it himself, he just sells it so people can just snort their lives away.” Spencer took his work placement a little too seriously in Lara’s opinion but, he had impressed the right people and would probably get a full time job at the taskforce once he finished Uni. He was in with the top detective senior constable Blackington so of course, he knew all the ins and out of Melbourne crime.

“Spencer, you’re over-reacting, he can’t be that bad” Lara sighed quietly as she rested her head in his lap. Spencer had comfy legs.

“Trust me, this guy, his dad and his friends are. To add to that, not only is he turning half the state into drug addict but, his dad fucking pays for him to go from uni to uni for all the best courses and stealing our spots. Seriously, lucky if he got over sixty on his VCE but he manages to get into all the best-” Spencer’s voice rose dramatically high as he spoke.

“Shut up Spence” Jenna hit Spencer’s arm “great, now he’s looking our way again.”

“But it’s true!” Spencer yelled.

“He can hear you!”

“Ohh so he’s just going to get his daddy to knock me off, why is he even here?”

Spencer and Jenna’s bickering was a common occurrence well, actually, Jenna bickering with anyone was common. The girl managed to fight with everyone she knew yet still managed to stay friends with them.

Lara, who had zoned out to the bickering stood up and picked up her bag “I’m getting a coffee, who wants one?”

“No thanks” Spencer said curtly “Wait, are you going where he is?”

“Yes Spencer, you’re overreacting” Lara sighed.

“I’ll have one” Jenna piped up “One sugar, thanks love.”

Lara wasn’t a massive coffee drinker, two a day at the most but the Hundson’s outside the library was pretty amazing, honestly, they have hazelnut cappuccinos.

Brendon Urie saw her coming; he had also heard the girl and her friends talking. Upon his first look at the girl he immediately thought of her as rather average looking. From his spot at the café he could see her lying on top of a bearded boy, apparently he had something to do with the police.

The girl had wavy, long, light brown hair and pale skin. She was rather small and fragile looking and was wearing a simple short white summer dress. By the time Brendon had taken in her full appearance, she was already walking past him. Up close he could see her face and to Brendon she was actually quite pretty. She had a heart shaped face, small thin lips and almond shaped pale green eyes.

“Excuse me” Brendon called out to the girl. She simply walked right past him “Excuse me miss!” Brendon called out again; she didn’t respond and began ordering her coffee.
Brendon sighed get and got out of his seat, wondered over to the girl and tapped her lightly on the shoulder. He didn’t even know why he was doing this, but he was sick of hearing them all talk about him.

The girl jumped slightly as he tapped her “Umm…hi?” she said giving him a curious look.

“Uhh…umm” Brendon stopped talking and bit on his lip for a few seconds, wondering why he couldn’t manage to get any words out. “Umm…I-I called out to you but yeah, um, you didn’t answer so I ju-“

“Oh my god are you serious? I am honestly so sorry, I zone out sometimes y’know?” she said slowly as she picked up two coffees from the counter.

Brendon bit on his lip to prevent a smile from forming on his lips “Urh…yeah…umm, tell y-your friend their not to good at keeping their voices down.”

The girl’s eyes widened “Oh, umm, sorry okay I will…sorry” she said quietly “I’ll just g-”

“I’m Brendon” Brendon said, quickly extending a hand to the girl.

She juggled two coffees onto one arm “Lara” she shook his hand quickly “Umm, I’ve got to go… I-I’ll see you around” Lara flashed one more smile in his direction before walking back to Spencer and Jenna.

“What did he say to you?” A furious Spencer asked as soon as Lara came into hearing range.

“Nothing” Lara said quickly, to be honest, she had actually forgotten the whole conversation with Brendon already. “Spencer stop giving me the look. Jenna, stop giving me the other look.”

“Come on” Jenna teased “what did he say to you?”

“Nothing.”

“Come on love, you can tell Aunty Jenna.”

“Shut up Jen, honestly, he said nothing to me” Lara said as they began to walk towards the lecture theater.

Jenna smiled “Sure sure.”