Meant to Be

Brendon opened his eyes and found himself staring at the recording microphone in front of him. His hands were cupped around his earphones and slowly removed them from his head. Recording had been going on the past couple of months and Brendon had been thinking it wasn’t the sound he wanted for Panic’s! next album. He sighed heavily and walked into the mixing room where Spencer, Pete, and a couple of producers stood and sat, while they watched and heard him sing the latest song they were recording.

“Sounded good,” Pete said giving Brendon a thumbs up.

Brendon thanked him with a half-smile. “Yeah. So are we done for today?” he asked.

The producers nodded their heads, while they fiddled with the mixing equipment. And with that note Brendon left the studio without saying a single good-bye.

“Hey Brendon!” he heard someone call from behind him and looked to see it was Spencer jogging up to him. “Wait up.”

Brendon stopped where he was and waited. “Dude, what’s up with you? You acted like you didn’t wanna be there,” Spencer said.

Brendon shrugged his shoulders. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be there; in fact, he loved recording, he loved when everything came together in the studio. But it was more of him not liking what he was recording that it seem like he didn’t want to be there.

“Honestly, I’m just not happy with the way this new album sounds. I’m sorry if you don’t feel that way. I know we’ve been working really hard on this album, but now it just doesn’t seem right,” Brendon confessed.

Spencer smiled. “I thought it was something like that. And I agree. I think we should scrap these songs, use them as EP’s and start up new songs,” Spencer suggested.

“Really?” Spencer nodded. “I think that sounds like a good plan. I just have these new ideas ever since all this shit started happening in my life. When do you wanna get together and work on them?”

“How ‘bout next week? I’ll talk to Pete and the producers and see if we can push back recording until we’re ready.”

“All right. Thanks man. Oh and tell Haley I said hi. We should all go out to dinner some time,” Brendon proposed.

“Yeah we should. Let us know when!” Spencer shouted as he walked in the opposite direction.

Remembering he had turned off his phone when he entered the recording studio, he grabbed it from his pocket and turned it on. Immediately, he was notified of 5 missed calls and 2 voicemails. He scrolled through the missed calls: three were from a phone number he didn’t recognize, one from Kayla, and the other from his sister, Kara. Not really wanting to talk to Kayla at the moment or from someone he didn’t know, he decided to call back Kara and see what she wanted.

“Hey Kar, did you call?” he asked after she answered her phone.

“Brendon, guess who’s in Vegas,” she said slowly.

His mind was too cluttered with others thoughts and didn’t really feel like going through names before finally guessing the right one. “Mmm, I don’t know who?”

“Olivia.”

He felt his heart stop for a short period of time. At first he thought he heard her wrong, but her name kept ringing in his ears.

“Are you sure it was her?” he asked still skeptical.

“Positive. It was her Brendon. I know you’ve been worried about her this past week, so when I saw her I just had to call you.”

A faint smile appeared across Brendon’s lips as he heard the good news. “So she’s in Vegas. I knew Jason was lying about her leaving to go with another man. Something else must’ve happened.”

“You think? She was heading into Momma J’s House; she could’ve been meeting someone,” Kara recalled.

“If anyone it would be her dad or brother. Anyways, thanks for letting me know,” he said walking towards his car.

“I just want you to stop worrying about her now so you can focus on Kayla and that baby. Now that you know, you can move on. Right?” she asked hopefully.

If anything, Brendon really wanted to go to Vegas and see her, but he thought maybe Kara was right. Now that he knew where Olivia was and that she seemed okay, all his attention should be geared towards Kayla and the baby.

He sighed into the phone. “Yeah. I’m done with Olivia. It’s all about Kayla and the baby, which I gotta call Kayla back. So I’ll talk to you later. Bye Kar,” he said melancholy.

“Bye Bren,” she responded hanging up.

Entering his car, he called back Kayla to see what she wanted, most likely thinking she wanted him to get her something she was craving.



For some reason, Olivia began to feel nervous about meeting Travis for lunch. It wasn’t because she had any feelings for him, but if things started to become more between them, he would eventually discover she was pregnant and she was debating on whether to tell him today or not.

Olivia noticed the homey restaurant start to fill up for lunch. She sat quietly in a booth, slowly sipping on her water and indenting her teeth marks into the straw like she always did. She roamed her eyes around the restaurant, searching for Travis.

“Hey,” she heard from behind her.

She turned around and smiled seeing that it was Travis. “Hey, you’re sneaky. I was trying to keep an eye out for you.”

He laughed as he took the seat in front of her. “Perhaps you’re not a very good watchman.” She rolled her eyes and smiled. “So how are you?” he asked, picking up his menu.

“Well, since yesterday, I am doing quite well. You?” she asked, looking through her menu.

“Well, I was having a cruddy morning, but now I’m not,” he replied looking at her and smiling.

She couldn’t help but smile at his comment. Travis had the characteristics of the ultimate boyfriend and husband. He was charming, kind, thoughtful, and honest; if Olivia hadn’t been with Brendon when she met Travis, she probably would’ve fallen for him.

They both chatted a bit, asking the other what they would be ordering before the waitress came to take their order.

“So what were you doing at the cemetery if you don’t work there?” Olivia asked pushing down the ice in her glass with her straw.

“Well, I kinda work there. I do landscaping and the cemetery hired my company to make it look more alive there.”

“You have your own landscaping company?” Travis nodded. “Wow. You sure are doing well for yourself.”

Travis shrugged his shoulders and nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I’m pretty happy with how everything turned out,” he said before taking a sip from his straw. “So um…where’s Brendon?”

The sudden bringing up of Brendon’s name took Olivia out of her thoughts. “Who?” she asked, making sure she heard him right.

“Brendon. Urie? I just assumed you two were still together. You both were pretty in love during high school.”

“Yeah, we were, but no um…we’re not together anymore. We broke up five years ago,” she said sadly, shrugging her shoulders.

Travis gave her an apologetic face. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I really thought you two would end up together.”

She nodded her head understandably. “Me too.”



Green is supposed to be a soothing and calming color. That’s why they paint rooms this color when the person in it will be involved in a stressful, nerve-wracking situation. However, this wasn’t the case for Brendon. The green room did nothing to soothe his nerves, from keeping his tired leg shaking furiously, or absentmindedly staring at the blank screen on the TV.

Her hand loosely held his as she slept quietly on the bed next to him as he sat there not knowing what to do with himself. Brendon wasn’t a fan much of the hospital. He hated the way it smelt, all the beeps coming from the monitors, how quiet the halls were, and how no one seemed to want to acknowledge your presence. He was thankful visiting hours were just about over so he would be able to leave without feeling guilt. Brendon slowly and carefully freed his hand from hers, making sure not to make a sound as he got up from the stiff chair so could go.

“You’re leaving?” the low crackling voice that he heard from behind asked.

He momentarily closed his eyes; feelings of surging guilt came to him for not telling her good-bye. “Yeah, visiting hours are over. I’ll be back tomorrow.” He tried smiling, but the corners of his mouth did not move.

“Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said with a faint smile. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

He knew she was, but was tired of hearing it. He shook his head in disagreement, “Don’t be. It’s not your fault.”

As he headed for the elevator, he reached for his phone and scrolled down the letter S, calling the only person he wanted to talk to at the moment.

“Hey what’s up?” Spencer answered.

“Can I come over? I really need someone to talk to,” he said trying not to sound upset.

“Of course. Is-Is everything okay?” Spencer asked concerned for his friend.

“No,” was all Brendon could respond with.



Olivia dug her fork into the last piece of cheesecake on her plate. “You really love cheesecake don’t you? You only let me take like two bites,” Travis laughed, watching as she shoved the last piece into her mouth.

She blushed and quickly covered her mouth. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled in between chews.

She really wasn’t. Her hunger had increased intensely the past two months and she couldn’t exactly blurt out to Travis it was because she was eating for two.

“It’s okay. I’m actually not a real big fan of the stuff anyways.”

As Olivia finished off the cheesecake, the waitress came by to clear the table. “Will this be separate or together?” she asked.

“Separate. Together,” Olivia and Travis said respectively, in unison.

She looked at him surprised and shaking her head. “No, you don’t have to pay for me. It’s okay.”

Travis waved off her comment. “Don’t even worry about it. I’m the one who asked you out to lunch, it’s only fitting that I get the bill,” he said already giving the waitress his card.

After the waitress came back, they headed out of the restaurant, taking their time to walk back to their vehicles.

“So that was nice. I really enjoyed catching up with you,” Travis said turning his head in her direction.

“It was. I’m glad we ran into each other.”

“Me too. We should do it again sometime, if you’re still in town that is,” he suggested.

“I’d love that. I’ll be in town for a while actually.”

“Well great, that’s what I was hoping to hear.”

Olivia couldn’t hold onto her secret any longer. She stopped, staring at the hot asphalt and gulped loudly. Travis looked to his side and noticed Olivia was no longer by his side. He turned around and saw her mindlessly looking down at the ground.

“Are you okay?” he asked, placing his hand on her shoulder.

She looked into his eyes, seeing his concern, and knew she had to tell him. “Um…there’s something I have to tell you,” she blurted out.

“Okay,” he responded.

“I just want you to hear this from me and think you should know in case things between us get more serious. And I’m not saying things will, but you’ve just been so sweet to me and deserve to know…” Olivia rambled.

Travis grabbed both her shoulders. “Liv you’re talking to too fast. Just tell me what you want me to know,” he said calmly.

“I’m pregnant.”

Travis’s eyes widened and Olivia waited for a response. “Wow. I mean, I thought the date went well; didn’t know it went that well.”

Olivia couldn’t help but laugh; it was just the thing she needed to break the awkward tension she brought upon their afternoon. She pulled him into a hug and laid her head on his shoulder and began to cry. Travis soothingly ran his hand up and down her back, trying his best to comfort her, despite still being in shock himself.

“Is it your ex-fiancé’s?” he asked.

He felt her shake her head. “It’s Brendon’s,” she whispered.

Travis broke their hug and held her at arm’s length. “Wait what?” he asked confused.

“Do you have more time to talk? It’s a complicated and long story,” she explained.

He nodded his head. “I have all the time in the world,” he smiled.