Stick Boy and Match Girl

Things were really good in my own world, my eyes showing me only what I wanted to see and not the real reality of it all. My focus was on Ryan, my school work and partly Brendon, as for everything else was a complete blur. Ryan’s night visits were becoming more frequent, instead of every other night it turned into every night visits. I wouldn’t be worried if it weren’t for the fast pace movement, the heavy breathing and the sound of sniffles as he entered my dark room. I had a clue on why he was like this, I just didn’t want to ask him, I didn’t want to get snapped at or him trying to change the subject.

Ryan was good at hiding marks on his body, to good in fact that the curiosity in me was growing. Brendon was the same way, seeing what he wanted which wasn’t much because he didn’t notice anything abnormal about Ryan, it made me wonder if he had any kind of common sense. Opening up to Brendon was an opinion, but the timing had to be perfect or else you’d probably get the lost expression and the minimum amount of words.

As for today was a bit different, I leaned against my poster/picture covered wall with a pillow on my lap, I stared at the math problems in front of me. I was half way done, I’ve been half way done for a half an hour now and I couldn’t focus anymore. I pushed both Ryan and Brendon out of my room because they were being really loud and annoying, but now that they were downstairs making noise, I couldn’t focus.

My mom wasn’t home and I wasn’t complaining seeing that our relationship was sort of spiraling downward. It worried me a bit, but it didn’t make me want to actually want to talk to her.

My math session turned into a doddle partying in the corner of my paper, I was getting lost into perfecting one of my stick people when everything seemed really quiet. I put my pencil down and looked over to my closed door; I picked up my pillow and carefully placed it next to me on the bed. I got off the bed as Ryan and Brendon entered, really quiet.

“Anna, we got a problem.” Brendon started standing front of Ryan; he rubbed his neck and looked over his shoulder to his friend.

“It’s fully Brendon’s fault and not mine!” Ryan said pushing Brendon out of the way, he pointed to his hair.

I stared at his hair with wide eyes and walked towards him; I grabbed the sides of his head and brought him down to my level. “Is that gum in your hair?” I asked and laughed.

“Yes! He doesn’t know how to do anything!” Ryan said trying to kick Brendon but missed miserably.

“Correction, I can put gum in your hair.” Brendon stated and walked over to my desk; he opened one of the drawers and pulled out scissors. He opened and closed them a few times and smirked.

“No, get the fuck away from me Brendon.” Ryan said and pulled me in front of him.

“Yeah, I don’t even trust you with those, there not even the safety ones!” I reached out carefully and got them out of Brendon’s tight hold.

“Fine, you cut his hair.” Brendon said and crossed his arms.

“I’m not going to cut his hair! Leave the gum in there, it’ll be trend.” I turned around and laughed a bit, “I can’t believe you got gum in your hair!”

“It wasn’t my fault, it was Brendon’s! And just cut my hair, I don’t care. Just do it.” He said and placed himself on the chair at my desk.

“This could be the moment from Parent Trap, but the chances are Ryan will leave looking ugly and not as cute as an 11 year old girl.” Brendon said with a loud laugh.

“Get out of here, Urie!” Ryan yelled throwing a book at him.

“Stop trying to hurt me!” Brendon yelled while throwing the book back.

“Stop it, Gees.” I groaned and looked between the two of them. “Seriously, I don’t like the feeling of being motherly all the time. Brendon, look here is some markers and paper, let your ADD kick in and draw something awesome.” I stated pushing papers and markers into his hands.

“Oh alri—Hey, I don’t have ADD.” He caught up and frowned.

“Sure you don’t,” I heard Ryan mumbled grumpy.

“Oh you handed me glitter,” Brendon’s face brighten as he held the tiny bottle of silver glitter in front of his face. He shook it and watched a few of the specs dance to the ground. He then turned quickly and rushed out of my room.

“I’m going to regret that, aren’t I?” I asked and looked over to Ryan.

“I gave him gum and look where it ended up,” Ryan whined. “Just… cut it.” He said and covered up his face.

I raised my eyebrows and pulled the chair that Ryan sat on away from the desk and rested my hands on his shoulders. I gave them a tight squeezed before going off and grabbing a towel, I wrapped it around his shoulders and looked at the blue gum in his beautiful brown hair. If I were to mess this up, it wouldn’t matter right? It’s just hair; it’ll grow back. How hard can cutting hair really be?

I looked the problem in front of me, it wasn’t a math problem but it felt like one. Grabbing the piece of hair that gum grew fond of, I cut just blew it and tossed the gum into the trash can near my desk. Now that the main problem was solved it was all about giving Ryan a good look and not some pathetic one. With the hair on the top of his head was starting to form some kind of a Mohawk and the sides starting to get short, I thought it was coming out nicely. But what worried me was Ryan’s reaction.

An hour or something later, the scissors were resting on my desk and I was carefully taking the towel off Ryan not wanting to add to the mess on the floor. I watched as he quickly headed for the restroom and I followed quietly and set the hairy towel on the counter. Ryan’s head was moving about as his eyes tried to get every angle of it.

I locked eyes with him through the mirror, scared of his emotionless face. It changed after a few seconds and he seemed pretty pleased with the turnout. He turned to me and brought into a tight hug like I just gave him the gift of seeing or something. I hugged him and laughed a bit.

“I love it, thank you.” He whispered into my hair and led me out of the restroom. “Brendon come look at my hair!”

“I… Um, okay!” I heard Brendon yell from somewhere downstairs. I heard his feet ran up the stairs and I watched as his eyes bugged out of his head for a second. “Holy crap, you look hot.” He said and approached Ryan. “Anna, you have to cut my hair.”

“Uh no, I’m not going to cut your hair.” I said and walked into my room.

It took a lot of arguing to come to the agreement that Brendon wasn’t going to get a haircut from me even if he got gum in his hair. He left my house a bit mad but seemed to get over by the end of the walkway where he gave me a big smile and a wave goodbye.

By this time Ryan and I were in his room watching a movie. The butterflies played in my stomach as his fingers brushed against my hand that rest on the bed next to me. His fingers managed to wrap around mine within time and before I could get too comfortable, there was a loud slam of the door making Ryan let go and leap off the bed. The heavy footsteps of boots climbed the stairs and stopped in front of Ryan’s door.

I watched the dark figure flick the lights on and stare directly to Ryan; with a few unsteady steps his large fingers were grabbing a hold of Ryan’s shirt. His father stared at him with a familiar drunken stare, he opened his mouth to say something but his attention was shifted to me.

“What are you doing here, Anna?” He asked and let go of Ryan. “You should be getting home; your mom is probably worried.”

“Okay….” I said slowly and got off the bed, I looked over to Ryan worriedly. I left his room and heard the angry mumbles; I heard the contact of a hand connecting with flesh. I turned around going back to Ryan’s room, I watched as his small frame fought to stand and his hands trying to get himself free, his brown eyes hiding behind his tightly closed eyelids.

“Leave him alone!” I yelled, tears fighting to escape. His father pushed Ryan down and his eyes set on me. The burning feeling I felt on my cheek turned into pain, I was too shock to come to realized that I got slapped. I was waiting for more to come from this slap, blood perhaps. But it was only the tears making the thought of blood.

“Try that again and see what happens.” He said through his teeth, “And I thought I told you to get home. This doesn’t concern you, leave.” His father gave me a rough push out of the room and the door was slammed closed behind.

I didn’t like the fact I couldn’t do anything, but my eyes showed me something I was right about. This was only the beginning.