Air so Cold, Mind so Bitter.

“This one will be fine,” he smiled, holding up the bikini on the translucent hanger. “Now can we please go?”
“No,” she glared, grabbing the hanger and placing it back amongst the almost non-existent bikinis. It had seemed Brendon was insistent on choosing her the smallest bikini he could find. She hadn’t thought he was the atypical man, being flirtatious in a way that was almost inappropriate. He wasn’t doing it on purpose, he was just lifting up any old thing that caught his eye, because he had invited her to go to the water park with him. They’d been friends for a little over a week, and they were currently at the nearby mall, trying to choose something for Marina to swim in, as her last costume would have fitted her, had she been ten.
“This one?” he asked, lifting up a clip bikini, blue, green and silver, by Rip Curl. “Surely you can’t find something wrong with this one,” he almost begged. She laughed a little and punched his arm in jest.
“That one looks good. Price?”
“On sale - $15. I don’t know what size you are, nor will I ask, but there’s quite a few here so you should be able to find one in your size,” he nodded, backing away slightly to give her some privacy if she was conscious about her size. She wasn’t, but he wasn’t to know that.
She searched through and found the right size – 32C, assuming it would fit, and finding bottoms to match. She tapped him on his shoulder and he whizzed round, smiling.
“You ready?” he asked and she nodded, walking to the till. She pulled out a few dollar bills and quickly paid, thanking the cashier and taking the bikini from him, walking out of the shop with Brendon in tow. He crossed his arms loosely, rubbing the lower half of his arms slowly.
“So we can go to the water park now?” he smiled at her, getting a little more excited. He hadn’t been since he was a little kid, and he’d never really had anyone who’d wanted to go with him since that point, but now he had and there was a lot of pent up excitement wanting to burst out.
She chuckled. “Yes, Brendon.”
“Sweet!” he chimed, grabbing her hand and almost running out of the mall, in the direction of the water park. On the way there they were almost ran over, twice, and his shoe came off because he had slipped, making it slide off his socked foot and into the face of an innocent elderly woman. Marina apologized repeatedly for Brendon’s mistake, faking that he had an illness and it couldn’t be helped. His only illness was a wasted childhood and a caffeine/sugar high.
“Come on!” he ushered, tempted to jump up and down on the spot, then he remembered he was an adult and that was generally frowned upon in most societies.
She rolled her eyes and they walked up to the booth, checking out the prices as they waited in the queue. “$30 for a half day ticket isn’t bad,” he noted, pulling out $60 from his wallet, slipping it through the open slot to pay, the man behind the booth passing them two wrist bands. They walked through.
“Brendon,” she scolded. “I’m paying you back for that.”
“Nope,” he grinned, shaking his head. “No you’re not. It’s my treat,”
“You’ve already treated me too much. Cake and those flowers you got me is enough!” she laughed and he slung his arm around her shoulders, walking towards the changing rooms. They split into the separate sex rooms, grabbing a complimentary towel each and choosing a locker to put in their belongings.
She quickly changed her into new bikini, ripping off the tags with her teeth, then slipping it over her body, knotting her hair into a loose side plait, taking off her ‘promise ring’ and snapping the entrance wrist band around her wrist, placing her clothes in the locker.
Brendon was already waiting when she came out, resting against the faux brick wall, one foot pressed against the wall, wearing some green, surfer board shorts. He smiled in her direction, gulping as he did so. The bikini wasn’t overly-revealing, it was your standard, but it seemed to be cleavage enhancing. It was either that or he hadn’t noticed her chest size prior to this.
“Does it look alright?” she asked, blushing slightly as she noticed how wide his eyes had gone.
He nodded very quickly, gulping again. “Mmm, it does,”
“Stop staring Urie...” she trailed off, feeling self-conscious and walking in the direction of the slides. He shook his head to jump back into reality, then ran after her, realizing how very long it had been without action that the mere sight of someone in swim wear would turn him on.
“I’m sorry,” he apologized, looking down. He wasn’t usually like this, he normally kept his eyes to himself at all times for fear of seeming rude.
“It’s alright,” she smiled, not offended in the slightest. “Come on, let’s start on the tallest one!”
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“You dare,” she glared as he threatened to push her down the largest, windiest slide there. You could see across all of Sacramento, and they were the only two at the top, so they admired the view for a little while. “You forget I know how to work a gun, rifle, shotgun and even a machine gun.” she smirked, laughing as she saw his jaw drop to the ground, eyes widening as he backed away, gripping at the railings.
“Damn girl, you scary,”
She simply flashed her perfect teeth and pushed off, sliding down the vast expanse that was ‘The Death Eater.’ For the purpose of easily scared children, they’d had to add an asterisk to the sign, assuring you:
You will not die, nor will you be eaten, nor will you be eaten by death.
Brendon bent over the railings, smiling as he saw Marina slide down the fire red plastic, arms over her chest in a cross and her shout “Woo!” as she went down, as a sign of enjoyment, rather than your average squealing in terror. She fought the Taliban on a daily basis, this was nothing to be scared of.
The signal light was still red, but he held the top of the tube and forced himself down anyway, making the same noise as Marina, except a little lower. The red of the plastic and the water blurred as he slid down quickly, tilting his head to see how far it was before he reached the bottom, automatically regretting this as he did so, crashing into the water. He kicked his legs and pushed to the surface, brushing his soaking hair out of his face. He blinked and looked around for Marina, searching and-
“Boo.” she whispered in his ear from behind, and he cursed loudly.
“Holy shit,” he breathed. “Scare me half to death why don’t you,”
She shrugged and he threw himself in her direction, pulling her under the water too. She coughed and spluttered as she surfaced a few seconds later, flipping her hair back, folding her arms over her chest and raising an eyebrow.
“That wasn’t necessary,” she scowled and he pouted, accentuating his already large lips. He was nick-named ‘fish lips’ at high school. He was nick-named a lot, but that was one of the less vulgar.
“It’s a good job you can pull that off, Urie,” she smirked and swam to the edge, using her upper body strength to push herself out. Brendon soon followed suit and re-draped his arm around her shoulders.
He gulped as he saw a scantily clad, beautiful blonde walk past them, swaying her hips. It seemed only the beautiful women were here today, all of them with extraordinary bodies. Perhaps the women with ‘imperfect’ bodies were too conscious to come to somewhere like this, knowing full well what the average body looked like here. He wondered where they’d been all his life.
“Go talk to her,” she nudged, smiling at him. “I can see you like her.”
“No, no way,” he blushed furiously. “I’ll just make an ass out of myself. Plus, look at me, then look at her. But don’t look at her for too long because you may just drool,”
She chuckled lightly. “Brendon, you’re a nice guy. Girls like a nice guy. They claim they like ‘bad boys’, but what they mean is that they want their guy to be above the law, but when it comes to them, treat them like a princess. That doesn’t exist,” she scoffed and he smiled again.
“Is it just me, or is every girl here extremely skinny and gorgeous?”
She scanned quickly. “They are all alarmingly skinny. But that’s not gorgeous. And some of them are pretty average looking. Either you haven’t got your contacts in, or someone’s a little desperate,” she smirked, prodding his chest, which she had to give to him, was better than expected. He didn’t have a weight lifters body, but he had a nice outline, with relatively toned arms. He’d told her it was because he played guitar so astonishingly well and with so much force that it caused him to be toned. She let him have his way but put it down to rowing and running.
“I haven’t had sex in a really long time,” he almost begs and she scrunches up her face. He then laughs and pokes her stomach, as she had done to his chest. “I haven’t got my contacts in, no,”
She backed away from him, in search for another slide. “You went over a line there, Urie,”
“At least I’m honest.” he nodded, settling on a green, twisted slide, clambering up the stairs. Marina soon followed him and as he sat down, she did too, wrapping her legs tightly around his waist. He smiled to himself, a little color reaching his cheeks. She rested her chin on his shoulder, and they pushed off, sliding down.
“Tell me something no one else knows before we hit the water!” he shouted.
“I hate meeting new people!” she shouted, the last word slurring as they splashed, full throttle. He linked his fingers with hers underwater and pulled them both back up, resting against the edge. He removed the section of hair still on her face away from it.
“Thanks,” she smiled, giving it a permanent place to reside, tucking it behind her ear.
“Then, why me?” he asked.
“Why you, what?”
“You said you hated meeting new people,”
“You seemed nice enough. Plus, I’d seen you at the café many times before,”
“There must be some other reason.” he pondered, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles.
“Okay, I’ll admit I thought you were kinda cute,”
He smiled, feeling as if had succeeded in some form or another, then realized what she had said. “Thought? As in, past tense? To be fair, it was dark,” he nodded.
“Don’t put yourself down, you’re still cute. I thought you were cute then, and I still do,” she chuckled, letting go of his hand and pushing up, so she was sat on the edge with her calves in the water.
He smiled up at her. “Dude, I’m too old for you. I could be your dad,”
“There’s three years difference, Brendon. I highly doubt you could be my father,”
He laughed and kissed her knee, then pushed out himself, standing up and shaking the water droplets away from his hair.
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He ran after her, wrapping his arms around her waist and tackling her to the ground, causing a squeal to come from her as they collapsed in a heap on the grass. They’d left the water park a few hours ago, but her hair was still slightly damp, tied back in a loose bun. They had time to fill, so had gone to the nearby park.
She laughed and pushed him off of her. He reminded her of what it was like to be in high school again. He was a little kid inside, with a big heart, from what she’d seen. It was refreshing, vastly different to your standard soldier.
“You know what?” he said as he sat up, pulling off any odd bits of grass that had stuck to his shirt. Before he could tell her what she may or may not know, and before she had the chance to guess, he was hollered at.
“Hey, Mr. Urie!” shouted one of his students. He smiled as they walked over.
“Hey there Lucas, what’s up?”
“Nothing much, just out to get a coffee. And you know that DJ you said I’d like, who was like, major hardcore drum and bass? What was he called?”
“Rusko,” he nodded.
“Alright, thanks Mr. Urie. See you on Monday!”
“You better! I’ll know if you ditch again, and trust me, I won’t be so lenient next time,” he smirked and Lucas put up his hands, as if to say he was innocent, smiling and walking away, hands tucked in his pockets.
“The kids really do like you,” she smiled and he laughed.
“Yes, I know it’s hard to believe, but they do.” he said, taking off the only piece of grass remaining. He jumped so he was laying across her stomach and she groaned, but honestly didn’t mind too much because he wasn’t all that heavy.
“Brendon,” she whined.
“Oh, hush,” he stuck out his tongue. “And do you know what?” he repeated, hoping not to be interrupted this time.
“No, Mr. Urie, I do not,”
“Don’t you call me that too. I can take just Urie, but don’t put the ‘Mr.’ in front of it. Makes me feel old,” he laughed. “Anyway, we should go on a date,”
“We should?”
“Yeah! It would be fun, don’t you think?” he grinned, looking at her. “Not the typical one, y’know? Going out to an over-priced restaurant, spending a while choosing what you want because you have nothing to say, conversation minimal, and when present, awkward, until the end of the night when they say ‘I had a lovely time’, earning you a kiss on the cheek, but no call back, ever,”
“Aww, Brendon, I’m sorry your dates are like that. You’re the easiest guy I know to talk to, how the hell can ‘conversation be minimal’?”
He shrugged.
“You’re quite... full on, though, aren’t you?”
“What do you mean by that?” he asked, turning to look at her, still lying across Marina.
“It’s not every day a guy you’ve known of a week is jumping on you, holding your hand in the pool. I don’t know, maybe you’re always like this, I wouldn’t know,”
He rolled off of her and sat up, crossing his legs and picking at the rubber on the bottom of his chucks. “This is why people think I’m gay, isn’t it? I just like to be affectionate,” he blushed, looking down at his shoes. “Fuck.”
“It could be a contributing factor...” she trailed off. “Don’t worry, people assume I’m a lesbian all the time. Yes, because of my profession, thinking I’m the ‘butch lesbian’ type,”
“That’s stupid,” he scoffed. “It’s blatantly obvious you’re not a lesbian. For starters I saw you staring at that dude’s butt at the water park,”
She laughed a little and he smiled, because she had a pretty laugh. He watched her mouth as she laughed, and he noticed how perfect her teeth were, encased by rosy pink, fluffy lips. Her teeth were like white bricks, contrasting against – no, not bricks, he thought. Bricks sounded too violent, they were like little white pearls.
Forgetting about the list he was making of reasons why she wasn’t a lesbian, he returned back to his proposition about their , maybe, date.
“Would you like to go somewhere, then? I understand if you say no,” he half-smiled, wanting to add ‘Many, many women have said no before, so I honestly don’t mind’, but didn’t want a sympathy acceptance. They’d always seen him as adorable, so he had a large amount of friends who were girls, but their friendship had started because he had originally asked them out on a date. He went date crazy for a while, asking an awful amount of women, but had stopped about a year and a half ago. It was a big thing for him to ask Marina on a date, because he’d grown a rather strong phobia of being rejected. He was sure she would say yes, because there was something a little different about her. As horribly cliché as it is.
“Yeah, alright,” she smiled. “No typical dates, okay? No movie, no restaurant, no brothels,”
He laughed and looked back up. “Damn it, I thought a brothel would be sure fire for you,”
“What can I say, once you have too much of something, you don’t like it so much anymore.” she smirked and he simply shook his head, smiling, intrigued by the twenty year old in front of him.