One of the Boys.

"Brendon, hey, Bren." I smiled, sitting on the side of his bed, rubbing his cheek slowly. His eyes slowly opened and he blinked a few times, smiling when he saw it was me. "Happy Birthday, mister."
He yawned and stretched his arms, his hands curling into the sheets, pulling them closer.
"You're so cute when you just wake up." I laughed lightly and he let out a stifled chuckle, sitting up and extending his arms. I sat in between them and gave him a big hug.
"Good morning, gorgeous." he grinned, nuzzling his face into my neck.
"How does it feel to be eighteen? You can do so much now. You're officially an adult!"
"It doesn't feel any different." he laughed. "I love you."
"I love you too, Urie." I said, backing away and ruffling his hair. He shook his head and brushed his hands away, indicating that he wanted to get changed, so I left him to it.
~~~~~~~~~~
Brendon came down the stairs, fully washed and dressed, looking pretty tranquil, but a load of us ran over to him, bowling him to the ground.
"You bastards." he whined from underneath our weight. Ryan, Spencer, Brent, Keltie and Alex had come. Even though they were ex-boyfriends, they had become really close friends and we assumed he would have wanted Alex here too.
He was a nice enough guy from what I'd seen.
We slowly rolled off of him, laughing, on the ground. My parents were out all day, and wouldn't be back until early morning. Kat had taken Jemima out somewhere to leave us the house to ourselves.
I gave him a hand to stand up, and he took it, slinging his arm around my shoulders as we walked into the kitchen. I covered his eyes with my hands and lead him inside, where there was breakfast pancakes that I'd made for everyone,
but special ones for Brendon, and a small pile of presents from all of us.
I removed my hands and he smiled. "Aww, well aren't all of you so adorable." he chuckled and sat down on one of the stools. "Thanks you guys."
Brendon tucked into his pancakes, as did everyone else, but he had bananas and strawberries spelled out in the '18' formation, as well as syrup. There was light banter, and it felt perfectly normal. It felt like everything had been restored back to how it always should have been, before we all suddenly decided to grow up, fuck up, and fuck. Normality had been restored, or rather, things were the way they should have been, e.g. Keltie and Ryan.
"Who cooked these?" asked the birthday boy, and they all pointed to me. He smirked. "They're shit."
I raised my eyebrows and he laughed again. "I kid, I kid. They're amazing." he nodded, putting his fork and knife together. Everyone else hummed in agreement. He rested his head on my shoulder, sighing happily.
"So what are we going to do today?" he asked.
"We are going to do whatever you want to do. As long as that involves watching Disney movies, volleyball and smoking some green." smiled Spencer. "And maybe a water fight."
He sat up quickly, his eyes wide. "Really? Dude!"
"Really, dude." laughed Alex. "We figured that's what you love to do the most. Besides sing loudly and obnoxiously."
"Hey! It's my birthday, therefore it means it is not pick on Brendon day today, as it seems to be the other 364 days of the year. And my singing is not obnoxious." he pouted, and we all scoffed, because it totally was, but we loved him for it.
That boy had a pair of lungs on him, and he knew it.

In no time, we were all in our bathing suits, in the back yard, armed with whatever weaponry we could find - water guns, water bombs and the solitary hose, which Brent had called.
"One, two, three, go!" shouted Brent, turning on the tap so the water gushed out through the hose at an alarming pace, hitting Ryan's back at full throttle, deciding to retaliate by chucking several bombs at his head, drenching him. Then the chaos
began. Brendon, being Brendon, decided to tip a full bucket of freezing, soapy water over me, making the floor very slippery, so when he tried to run away, he fell to the grass, sliding along it. I laughed and sat on his stomach, holding up the waist
band of his board shorts, squirting his most sensitive areas with the bitterly cold water, making him squeal. I dropped the band and he grabbed my arms, flipping me over and dropping a bomb on my face. He laughed and kissed me softly as I saw Alex approaching, water gun in hand. He was smirking, but it soon fell when he saw Brendon's lips attached to my collar bone.
I felt awful. I knew how much Alex had cared for Brendon, but I thought their break up was mutual, and that they didn't really care for each other that way anymore. I guess Alex's feelings were still present.
"Bren." I whispered. "Not here."
"Awh." he pouted and stood up, with Alex's dropped face behind him. "Hey 'Lex, are you alright?" he asked softly, resting his hand on Alex's shoulder.
"Yes, of course I am." he smiled, feigning it, removing Brendon's hand from his shoulder and squirting his chest with the water gun, but only lightly, so it barely dribbled. They were so cute together, that I almost felt bad for loving Brendon. Almost.
I was brought back into reality when Ryan threw a water balloon at me. I smirked and threw one back at him, but he ducked, and it got Keltie. She yanked the hose from Brent and squirted me, then grabbed a pistol. I skidded across the grass, grabbing one too and squirting her from the ground. She smirked and threw herself at me, wrestling me and squirting my face, both of us laughing hysterically. We'd grown to like each other now, and it'd turned out we had a lot in common.
I suddenly stopped wrestling with Keltie and looked up, and saw Brendon, Spencer, Ryan and Brent all staring down at us, their jaws on the floor.
Girls bikini mud wrestling - of course.
"This really does nothing for me." laughed Alex. "I mean, don't get me wrong, you two are hot, but you don't have dicks." he shrugged.
"You don't know what's underneath my bikini." I smirked and he laughed again, waving in front of the guys' faces.
"S-sorry, I just, heh." blushed Brent, walking away quickly.
"Damn." gulped Brendon, and he grabbed the hose, squirting it as Keltie and me, washing off the mud that had gathered on our skin. He dropped it and held out his hand, helping me up, hugging me from behind when I stood up.
"I wondered." he whispered. "If you were still up for that proposition, for tonight, um, about my birthday."
"Bren, if you can't even say it, are you really ready?" I asked, holding his hands in mine.
"Sex." he said bluntly. "Between you and me."
I could feel his cheeks heating up next to mine as he rested his forehead on my shoulder. I knew he was embarrassed to talk about it now, but when we were intimate, he made this sudden transition from his normal, hyperactive self to the
dominatrix. From what I'd witnessed, anyway.
"Yes. I'm in if you are."
"Good." he smiled, kissing my cheek lightly, squeezing my hips. "I love you!" he shouted, flailing his arms around, spinning in circles.
"I love you too." I smiled, folding my arms over my chest as I watched him spin. Alex, once again, looked devastated. He couldn't love Brendon, could he? I knew Brendon didn't love him.
Maybe that's what brought Alex down.

I sighed and walked over to Alex, hugging him tightly, rubbing his back. I'd never really hugged him before, but he was warm and surprisingly toned. "I'm sorry." I whispered.
"It's nothing." he whispered back and let go of me, smiling and throwing another water bomb in the direction of Spencer.

~~~~~~~~~~~

It was late afternoon, and we were lounging around in our bathing suits, with the occasional shirt here and there, and a load of weed. We knew Brendon loved to smoke it, and it worried me sometimes, but if we were around him whilst it happened, we could control how much he had. The boys had all had several hits from the bong, Brendon having had the most. I'd had one, but it wasn't really for me, nor was it for Keltie.
She was pretty mad they were doing this, but wasn't going to say anything. Ryan had taken the least amount of hits out of all the boys, so I guess it was a compromise.
"Mmm." he sighed happily, collapsing in my lap, cuddling up close. He was extremely affectionate when high.
"You." he whispered, putting his finger on my nose. "You're beautiful, you know that? And your eyes are like, mmm, blue bubblegum." he giggled. "Nom nom. I could just eat them up. If I liked to eat eyes."
I simply laughed and shook my head. He was an oddity alright.
"You're laughing?" shout-whispered Keltie. "He's out of his mind! They all are! How can you take this?"
"I don't know, I just." I sighed. "They're having fun, and they're in a safe environment, so it's not like they'll do anything stupid."
"I guess, but they're acting off their heads. It scares me a little."
"You don't need to worry." I smiled sympathetically. "If it even starts to head in a bad direction I'll hide the bong."
She nodded and bit her lip as Ryan lay his head in her lap as she stroked his hair. Alex lay down on his back with his arm around Spencer, and Brent was just rolling about on the grass. I guess this is what it takes to calm the crazy crew down. A little marijuana in their veins and tranquility is given in return.
"Emma." he started, holding my hand and looking up at me as I played with small tufts of his hair. "I know this is silly." he giggled and rested his head against my chest. "But how do you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Put the little things in my stomach." he nodded and held my hand on his stomach. "Little flutterbys in there, flying around, and it tickles."
I blushed and pressed my lips together to try and hide the stupid smile that I new would reveal itself. He was out of it, but damn it, he was cute.
"You mean butterflies?"
"That's the one." he grinned.
"Well, you see Brendon, when you're not looking, I put butterflies in your food and you eat them up whole, and then they fly around in your belly."
He sat up quickly and covered his mouth with his hands, eyes wide, genuinely believing me in his confused state. "Poor flutterbys!"
I shrugged and he leaned forwards, pressing his forehead to mine. "You don't really do that, do you?" he whispered.
"No Bren, I don't." I whispered back and he giggled again.
"Okay, if you say so." he said, pouting so our lips touched briefly. I don't know what it was about that moment, but something made me really happy for all I had. Deftones played in the background, quiet enough not to overpower the silence. His lips on my own, his stupid little smile, holding him, the sun pelting us. I could get used to this, but I couldn't, because in a few weeks, we all graduate and go in our separate directions. What is it they say? There has only ever been fifteen seconds of absolute peace in the world. I guess these were my fifteen seconds.
Brendon slowly rolled off of me, on to the grass, and I left him to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Thanks Alex!" chimed Brendon, holding up his array of CDS from his ex-boyfriend. They hugged quickly and sat back down - that was the last of the presents. It was getting dark and we were all now showered and dressed, looking reasonably presentable in comparison to right after the water fight.
"We better be heading back." nodded Ryan, tapping Keltie's leg, who was sat on top of her boyfriend. She quickly jumped up and they held hands. "Thanks for having us over. I'll see you at school you guys, and happy
birthday dude." he grinned, ruffling his hair. Brendon soon stood up and gave Ryan a hug and Keltie a smile.
"Me too, I'm beat." said Spencer, who was soon followed by Brent, until it was just the three of us. One too many.
"I think I'm gonna head on up to bed." yawned Brendon in an over-exaggerated manor. "I'll see you in the morning, Em. And thank you for coming, 'Lex. I appreciate it."
"No problem." he laughed and they hugged again, for far too long, but I let it slide. Alex left.
"You should head on up too." he smiled, holding my hand in his.
"You know what? There's room in my bed, you should sleep it that tonight."
"Oh, I couldn't possibly do that." he said sternly, until we broke into a fit of laughter, and somehow moved to the bedroom.