Summer's on Its Deathbed

When Brendon began picking up Alice from school, they both felt a bit odd. Brendon was on edge the whole of that first evening, because he’d never been given so much responsibility before and he didn’t want to screw it up. But as the days passed, he lightened up and was having a lot of fun with Alice. Her innocent, carefree nature was beginning to rub off on him.

One afternoon, they’d gone back to Brendon’s apartment which he was sharing with Spencer. Alice had never been there before, so her eyes were wide with wonderment as she stepped down the hallway.

“Bren!” Alice called, shaking Brendon’s arm.

He crouched down, so the two were eye level. “What is it, Ally?”

“Why is there a CD picture on your wall?” She pointed up to Brendon’s platinum plaque for A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out.

He carefully took the frame off of the wall and placed it on the floor in front of her so she could get a good look at it.

She began to read what it said slowly. ‘This is…presented,” she stumbled slightly over the longer word, “to Brendon Urie.” It took a second for information to sink in. “Wait…that’s you!” She near shouted, pointing at him forcefully.

Brendon smiled at her and nodded. “My band made an album that sold over one million copies.”

Alice began looking between Brendon and the plaque, moving her head back and forth as if she couldn’t believe he’d sold so many albums – to be quite honest, Brendon couldn’t believe it either.

“You’re famous!” she laughed, slapping his shoulder.

He shook his head, “Nah, I’m not famous, it’s just that quite a few people like to listen to the music me and Spencer make.”

In the way that only a young child could, she became disinterested in the fact that Brendon was ‘famous’ and wanted to change the subject. “Do you have any cookies?” She asked, walking further into the apartment in search of the cookies.

After placing the plaque back on the wall, Brendon followed her and found her in the kitchen, trying to reach up and open a cupboard. He picked her up and placed her on the counter before opening the cupboard looking for cookies.

“You’re in luck,” he smiled, pulling out a jumbo pack of Chips Ahoy! Her face brightened and she ripped open the packet and munched away.

“Can I come and see you play music?” She asked through a mouthful of cookie, swinging her feet back and forwards, clunking into the lower cabinets alternately.

Brendon thought. “Well, tomorrow, I’m going to make some new music with Spencer. So, how about after I pick you up from school, I’ll take you to the studio where we make our music?”

Alice clapped happily and grinned at Brendon – so he decided it was a good idea.

When she’s finished eating her cookies; Alice and Brendon going into the lounge to watch some TV - SpongeBob Squarepants to be precise and both have fun singing along with the songs. Brendon made sure she didn’t have any homework to do and she reassured him that she’d done it all at the weekend.

“Mrs Faversham gave me a gold star too – she said it was the best in the class!” Alice had told him proudly.

Yasmine was just finishing her shift at Target, when Tim, her manager called her into his office. Tim was a large, middle aged man; his receding hairline made him look at least a decade older than he actually was. As he walked back into his office, Yasmine saw the stain on which his stomach put on his pants, they were close to bursting at the seams. He told her to take a seat, and she did so, wondering what he could possibly want her for. Her mind was going into overdrive before he finally began to speak.

“Yasmine, you’ve been here for about two months now,” he began, straightening his tie which rested on his highly convex stomach.

Yasmine nodded, but she couldn’t stop her hands from shaking. He couldn’t be firing her, could he? She’d been a model employee. Every shift she was on time; she took on extra shifts whenever she could; she was great with customers. He couldn’t fire her, she needed this job.

He shuffled in his seat again. “I’m sure you’ve heard that Janine in leaving in a couple of weeks,” Yasmine could feel the heat rising from her feet to head; the shaking in her hands was near wild now. She had to slyly slip them under her legs so Tim wouldn’t notice. “Well, we need someone to take over her job.”

Immediately, all of the heat that had been building up, along with a large breath she was holding in, exited Yasmine’s body. A new job; which meant more money, which meant she would have a little more freedom when buying things for herself and Alice.

“It would mean more structured hours, quite a bit more money, and better bonuses – would you consider it?” He asked, leaning forward, resting his elbows on his desk.

“I-I’ll take it.” Yasmine said, although she wasn’t quite sure the voice was hers. It sounded, weird, a bit different. She left his office in an odd state, she was so sure that she was going to get fired, but then she was offered a promotion instead.

That evening Brendon had offered to pick Yasmine up from work, brining Alice with him and he was going to take them all out for dinner. She got into the car, Brendon and Alice were in the middle of singing along to a Bruno Mars song that was on the radio. Yasmine’s lips crooked up into a little smile as she saw how well they were getting along.

“Yazzy! Brenny’s going to take me to his music factory tomorrow!” Alice proclaimed from the
back seat, pleased as punch.

Yasmine’s eyes looked straight over to Brendon. “We’re going to go to the studio with Spencer and if Alice is lucky, we might make a little song while we’re there!” He grinned in his rear view mirror at Alice who grinned straight back at him.

Once they were in the restaurant, and seated at their table waiting for drinks, Yasmine decided it was as good a time as ever to tell them her news.

“As I was leaving work, Tim called me into his office.” She began, as Brendon looked at her curiously. “He…well, he offered me a promotion.”

“Really?” Brendon asked, throwing his arms in the air from delight. Yasmine nodded shyly and batted her eyelashes; Brendon reached across the table and hugged her, placing a kiss at the corner of her mouth.

Alice, however wasn’t paying any attention to either of them, since the waitress had presented her with a box of crayons she been carefully colouring in the flowers on the placemat. They both laughed at how oblivious she was to their celebrations. Brendon reached over and took Yasmine’s hand and rested their clasped hands on the table. He soothingly rubbed his thumb over her knuckles, she softened into his touch and smiled at how her life was panning out.