Underworld

Lara didn’t even have time to respond to the feeling of Brendon’s lips on hers. As soon as it registered in her mind Brendon had already leapt up off the couch and was out the door.

“I am so so so sorry” Brendon said as he rapidly packed up his notes, “Really, I am, I was completely out of line.”

Lara just sat on the couch in a stunned silence, for her, time had stopped even though Brendon was still rushing around her. She couldn’t help but wonder if she liked kissing Brendon, if she actually liked him.

“Umm, I’m going...Lara, I am really sorry” and with that Brendon hastily left the house.

Upon arriving at his home Brendon sat in his car for a few more minutes “Fuck!” he screamed as loud as he could before he began beating his head into the head rest “Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!” He could not like her; it wasn’t the way this was meant to be going, this wasn’t following the plan.

“Mate, are you okay?” Brendon was bought out of his state of self inflicted head injuries by Jack, knocking on the window of Brendon’s car.

“Fine” Brendon said shortly.

Jack laughed “My dad’s inside” he said as Brendon got out of the car “he thinks you’re out of your tree.”

Brendon smiled and got out of the car “I’m just an idiot, that’s all.”

“What happened?” Jack asked wrapping an arm around Brendon’s shoulder “C’mon, you can tell Aunty Jack.”

Brendon raised his eyebrows “Dude, you’re so queer.”

“Fine,” Jack sighed “Let’s go up to the gym and beat the shit out of the bags...is that butch enough for you?”

As it turns out, abusing the crap out of an old punching bag is a much more effective method of releasing built up anger than abusing the crap out of yourself is. Or maybe because Brendon had finally told Jack what the whole issue was, and it wasn’t solely his problem anymore.

“I, too be honest, don’t know why you care so much” Jack said sitting down on the window bench.

“I like her, I can not like her!” Brendon panted as he threw another punch into the bag.

Jack went over to the weights and started working out, with the weights on ten kilos “So go out with her, gee Brendon, I always imagined you as this massive as ladies man...and you’re too afraid to ask some chick out.”

“I could fuck ten different sluts a night if I wanted to” Brendon spat cockily “But for some reason, fucking isn’t what comes to mind when I think of Lara.”

“Maybe you should go see a doctor.”

“Fuck off.”

“Just kidding” Jack laughed “Just go out with her, what’s the worst that could happen?”

“Ummm...I could die on her, I really don’t think she’d handle anything like that” Brendon said quickly.

“And you could get knocked over by an out of control ride on mower.”

“No I wouldn’t” Brendon said ridiculously.

“You could, anyway, you’re Dad’s been here 50 years, still going strong, he’s been fine” Jack reasoned.

“Yeah but what if t-”

“Yeah and what if you get run over by a ride on mower. Plus” Jack smiled “You’re in university, it’s all fast flings and getting stoned, nothing serious.”

Jack at first, had also been quite reluctant to accept his place in the family business, the Barakats were neither the highest nor the lowest family of the group, they were just there. Jack was perfectly fine to let his family’s name just fade into the history books as perhaps one of the families to survive the eventual bloodbath but then Alex came into the picture. Alex had always been a family friend, they had known each other ever since they could remember but Alex became a permanent fixture in the picture when Jack turned 12, in year seven. Jack and Alex both went to Haileybury College where Alex was the loudest in every class, not that there was much competition considering one quarter of the twelve pupil class were international students, the other half were scholarship kids and then there was Alex and Jack. Barakat and Garskath became synonymous with Haileybury and plus, the magenta really bought out their eyes.

Back on subject, Jack’s mom was diagnosed with breast cancer during that year and by the next June she had passed away. That was when Jack, with the help of Alex realised that there was no point living life in his shell. He acted out, he got suspended, robbed a few milk bars, went to a couple of strip clubs and changed ‘girlfriends’ more often than he changed his underwear (and he was obsessively hygienic). Jack had come to the conclusion that everyone was going to die sometime, heck; he had defiantly expected his father to die before his mother did, so he might as well live it with no regrets.

Jack left later on that night and although Brendon simply snubbed off his words, he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t thinking about them when he went to bed. What if nothing happened and he spent his whole life alone?

Brendon spent the whole weekend thinking of what to do, how to approach her, what to say, what to wear. He reminded himself of one of his sisters, obsessing over the new guys on her tram. On Monday morning, Brendon woke up extra early, dressed extra slowly and spent an extra half an hour’s fussing over his appearance in the bathroom.

"This wouldn’t have anything to do with a girl does it” his mum smiled when he came downstairs without a hair out of place.

“No” Brendon rolled his eyes.

“A guy?” Machala teased.

“Fuck off” he said pushing her playfully.

“Language Brendon!”

Machala smiled “So, are you Brenda in the relationship?”

“Be quiet” Brendon narrowed his eyes at his sister.

“Nawww, Brendon’s got a boyfriend” she cooed messing up Brendon’s perfectly styled mop of hair.

“Fucking bitch” Brendon hissed.

“Language Brendon!”

Brendon rolled his eyes and stalked back upstairs to get his other sister out of the bathroom, now he’d have to style his hair all over again and bed head takes an awful long time to perfect.

Brendon walked into uni like a man on a mission. Lara was sitting in her usual spot on the grass with Jenna and Spencer. With nothing but adrenalin running through him, Brendon walked straight up to Lara, “Hey, will you go out with me?”