Underworld

Brendon sighed, sitting at the front of his bed, his head in his hands. It’s been two and a half weeks since the shooting and on the outside everything was fine but on the inside Brendon wasn’t coping. He hadn’t had a full night sleep in two weeks, every time he closed his eyes he could see all those bullets flying towards him. Then he’d get angry with himself for not moving sooner and then he’d find himself rocking back and forth in fear.

Brendon’s head was fighting with itself. It was times like these when he understood his father’s advice to find someone to be with, to talk to. But then Brendon would think, what would’ve happened if he had been killed? How would she react? How would she cope?

“You’re up early” Toni smiled from the breakfast table when Brendon entered the room “You going into uni today?”

“Yeah” Brendon said his voice hoarse due to the fresh April mornings.

“You scared” she asked quietly.

He looked down at her, tempted to tell her everything and sighed “Not at all, I’ve just gotta stop forgetting to take my gun everywhere.”

She bit down on her lip before rushing up and giving him a hug, her petite body clinging to his, her face buried in her chest. “Please don’t die on me, okay?”

Brendon laughed and gave the sixteen year old a brotherly peck on the forehead “I won’t I won’t, now get going or you’ll miss your bus!”

Toni rolled her eyes “Yes mother!”

Brendon sat back down on his bed, a hot cup of milo in his hand, his morning toast smothered in butter in the other. He wasn’t sure how he could manage to eat when he was so scared. Throughout the week, Brendon had put certain measures in place to help ease the chance of another warehouse incident.

Instead of having only one gun for everything, Brendon had one gun in the glove box of his car, another in his bedside table and another which was to be carried with him at all times. Brendon needed to get himself back into his old mid set, the ‘I don’t give a fuck because you can’t touch me’ mindset. He needed to stop being so backwards and be himself, he needed to do something drastic.

With half an hour before school Brendon was ready to go, he picked up his leather jacket, slipped the pistol into the inside pocket, pulled his leather bag out from under his bed and left.

Brendon though that he had missed out on a bit of school but he wasn’t prepared for exactly how much. Upon arriving in his first class he was given an assignment on the effect of the economic crisis on Australian Businesses, in Genetics he was to do a complete genetic history on his family which was due in the next lesson.

“Please sir, if I could just have an extension o-” Brendon wined to his Religious Denomination professor.

“I’m sorry Brendon” the professor sighed “It’s a three thousand word essay, surely you’ll be able to get it done.”

Brendon sighed impatiently “Sir, I have two massive assign-”

“That’s not my problem, I expect you to have it on my desk by five pm, Friday.”

Brendon’s cheeks turned crimson with fury “Do you know who I am” he spat viciously.

“I know exactly who you are Brendon” the professor smiled “and I expect you, as well as everyone else to have the paper on my desk by the due date. Now, to catch up you’re going to have to borrow someone else’s notes okay?”

Brendon stormed off and flung himself into his seat. This was the old him, the demanding him, the Brendon who stopped at nothing to get his own way. Brendon would just give his father a call and he would have an extended due date.

Once the lecture was over Brendon stood up, scanning the class for someone to get notes off. His eyes fell on Lara, who was seated towards the back of the theatre. Falling into a completely different personality, he climbed the stairs two at a time to get to Lara before she left.

As he climbed upstairs, Brendon couldn’t help but be proud of the way he was able to switch on the fierce, intimidating self and then turn it off in mere seconds after. He didn’t know if he could do this with everyone, but he could defiantly turn of his vicious side around Lara, he wanted to turn of the vicious side around Lara.

“Hi Brendon” she smiled when he approached her, “haven’t seen you hear in ages.”

Brendon smiled, noting how adorable she sounded as she stretched the ‘ages’ “Yeah, family holiday.”

“Nice, where did you go?”

“Thailand”

“Nice! I’ve always wanted to go to Thailand” she smiled.

“Yeah, it’s beautiful, you should go” Brendon smiled “Anyway” he said getting back on topic “I was wondering if I could just copy out the notes that I missed b-because y-you’re good a-at t-t” Brendon sighed. He had no idea why he did this, he should’ve just asked for someone else’s notes. Not the girl who made him feel like he was sixteen all over again, he hated feeling like he was catching the MLC bus in year 10, he was feeling feelings that he had forbid himself. “You’re good at taking notes a-and all that, so c-could I just borrow them during my break.”

“Oh, umm, okay, I was going to re-write this le-”

“We could go and do it together” Brendon mentally slapped himself for his poor choice of words “Studying I mean.”

Lara laughed “I get what you mean, alright, let’s go out to the gardens.”

Brendon wished they chose to sit in the library or something, not lying on the itchy grass. For starters, grass sends Brendon’s allergies through the roof. Within seconds his arms were beginning to itch and his eyes were watery. Secondly, Lara was lying opposite him her low cut top proving to be very distracting for Brendon.

“Lara, what are you doing?” Spencer tried to sound discrete.

“Studying” Lara said simply.

“Maybe you should do that somewhere else” Brendon immediately knew that Spencer didn’t want him around her. His skin began to prickle as he felt himself become defensive again. “Come on Lara, besides, your mum wants you home.”

Brendon sighed and began to pack up her things “Don’t worry about it, I’ll get them off someone else.”

“No no no” she said quickly “Keep ‘em, just give them back when you’re done” she smiled and walked off “I’ll see you around Bren.”

Once out of earshot Spencer leant over to Brendon “Stay out of her way okay” he hissed.

“Mate, calm down a bit” Brendon smirked

“You listen to me alright” Spencer spat “I don’t give a fuck who you are okay? You stay the fuck away from her, she’s a nice girl, the last thing she needs in her life is you.”

“Mate, I was just borrowing her notes, I didn’t realize you two were-”

“We’re not, just borrow someone else’s notes next time.”