Boys Will Be Boys

Brendon practically threw himself out of the classroom door. Longest class ever. He thought to himself. He ran down the corridor leading outside. When he exited onto the college campus, he saw the usual: Girls around their twenties, walking and talking in groups . Young men making fools of themselves, cars stopped at the over crowded intersection, the green grass yellowing in small patches all over.
Brendon never spent much time here; he wasn't very fond of crowded public places. He hurried in the direction or his apartment complex. He didn't need to use his car because of how close he lived to the campus. Before he could take ten steps, he heard an all too familiar voice.
"Hey Bren! Wait up."
Brendon smiled, it was his best friend, Jon. He turned around to be tackled into a hug.
~~~~~~~~
Back at the apartment, He and his best friend plopped onto his bed, side by side.
"What have you been up to?" Brendon asked

"You know, sleeping, eating. Living life to the fullest"

Brendon laughed.

"Brendon where's all your food, I'm hungry" Jon giggled.
"Oh you know, the bathroom"
"Fine, I'll find it myself" Jon pouted, sticking out his tongue
Brendon looked at his phone, it was 5:30. He sighed and forced himself to get out of the bed. He walked across the carpeted floor to the door and towards the kitchen. After almost walking into a few walls, he reached the kitchen where he found Jon standing over the table .
"What are you making?" Brendon asked, poking Jon's side.
"Uh sandwiches."
Brendon laughed " Is that the best you could come up with?"
Jon shrugged " You have no food" he explained with a smile.
Brendon motioned with his hands sarcastically and opened the pantry
"I didn't feel like looking everywhere and this was right in front of my face, I hope you like peanut-butter"
~~~
Story focuses on Ryan

Ryan sighed and leaned back against the cold, tile wall. He hated working. When he applied for this job last week he didn't expect his shift to start so early! Another customer walked up to the counter. She was a young woman, maybe in her twenties. He sighed again but remembered he had to smile for the customers. He plastered on that fake smile he knew so well and walked up to take the woman's order .
~~~~~
now back to Brendon

Jon and Brendon were laying on the couch watching a dumb show. Jon looked at his phone and said
"Hey, Bren. I gotta get going."
Brendon let out a pathetic whine "Aw, do you have to?"
"Yeah, my mom probably thinks I died"
They got up and Brendon walked Jon to the door. Jon kissed the top of Brendon's head.
"When are you going to come back?"
"When is it okay?"
"Any time, you know that."
Jon smiled and hugged Brendon. He called a cab and walked out the door. Brendon waited until the cab arrived to close the door and sink back into the couch. It was almost seven o'clock now and he hadn't eaten anything. Sighing, he got off the couch and walked to the bathroom. His hair looked half normal. "Close enough." he said to himself.
He walked to his bedroom and pulled open his closet. He pulled on a plain grey tee-shirt and left the same pair of jeans on. He grabbed the pair of beat up converse on his way out of the room. One more look in the mirror to check to see if his hair still looked human, and he walked out the door. He slid onto the front seat of his little car and drove off into the dark, welcoming night.

When Brendon arrived at the store, he pulled into a parking space near the front entrance. He stepped out of the car and started towards the sliding doors where a homeless man stopped him to ask for spare change. Brendon handed him two singles.

"God bless you, son"

Brendon smiled. He could have sworn he saw another figure, glaring at him from the shadows. He shrugged it off and continued. The building was ... Bright. He felt as if he might have needed a pair of sunglasses to prevent himself from going blind. He squinted against the bright light for a few seconds until his eyes adjusted.

The store wasn't huge, there was only about fifteen aisles. The people inside varied from innocent little elderly couples to young, energetic tattoo'd men and women which made Brendon look like he'd just stepped out of a wedding photograph.

He didn't mind, though. He was use to being the odd one out, growing up an only child with only a few people to call friends. He started to walk quicker, nervous for some odd reason. When he reached the aisle with all the snacks, he realized that he needed something to carry all of his things. He walked back to the doors and searched for a basket.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the person again. This time he could see more detail:
A man, maybe in his thirties. He was wearing a plain, oversize black hoodie and baggy blue jeans. His head was shaved bald and he looked about six feet tall. Brendon shivered at the thought of how much damage that man could cause. He picked up the basket and hurried away.

Focus on Ryan

Ryan sighed, got up from the couch where he was watching a reality T.V. show, still in his work attire and walked to the kitchen. He didn't know why- there was never any food. He was always too lazy to grocery shop for more than one day at a time. He sat at the kitchen table, contemplating whether or not to go to the store. There was SOME food there, but he'd need to go to the store at some point.

He decided that he should go. Walking towards his room, he tripped over a pair of shoes and nearly landed on his face. He caught himself on the wall and continued, more carefully this time. When he reached his room, he threw himself onto the bed and groaned. He was way too be bothered to get changed and drive all the way to the store. He yelled at himself and got back up to go to the wardrobe in the corner.

He decided on a plaid button up shirt and a pair of light blue jeans. He pulled the shirt on and secured the buttons then removed his work slacks to replace them with the jeans. He walked over to where his old beat up black converse rested between the wall and the wooden leg of the bed and slipped them over his feet.

Focus on Brendon

There were a few things in the shopping basket : soda, bread, chips and mac and cheese.

The diet of an Olympian he thought sarcastically.

Focus on Ryan again

Ryan ran out the door and onto the sidewalk barely lit by a few street lights. He lived close to the store so there was no need to drive. A few people gave him a funny look, maybe because of what he was wearing, but he didn't give it much thought.

He arrived at the small, brightly lit store. It was surprisingly crowded considering it was getting late and normal people would be at home, maybe getting ready to go to sleep by this time. There was the usual homeless man that asked for spare change. Ryan politely said with a warm smile

"I'm sorry, but I don't have any change right now. If you're still here when I'm done shopping, I'll give you my change then, okay?"

The man smiled and agreed. Ryan noticed a man standing in a corner, near the store entrance that gave him the chills. The man gave him a death-stare which caused anger to boil up inside of Ryan. The man was twice his size, though so he decided it was safer to just ignore him. He stepped into the store and waited for a second to let his eyes get use to the bright lights.

He picked up a shopping basket from the white tile floor and started to walk around. He started to wander around, picking anything that looked good up and putting it in the basket. When he got too lazy to get anything else, he started towards the nearest open cash register.

Focus on Brendon

In the check out line beside his, he noticed a familiar looking boy. He knew the face but not the name. He couldn't exactly say where he'd seen him, either. Frustrated, he took his things and started to walk out. Looking around, he noticed that same man, staring at him through the shadows. He quickly walked towards his car. He turned around a couple times as he hurried to his car to make sure that the man wasn't following him. One of the times, he noticed the boy wearing the plaid shirt again, walking out of the store.

He was concerned for the boy but he didn't want to seem weird, so he kept walking. When he reached his car, he could have sworn he heard a familiar voice

"Leave me alone!"

"Not until I get what I came for, bitch"

Brendon heard a muffled yell. His protective instincts kicked in and he threw his bags into the back seat, spun around and ran in the direction of the voices. He heard yet another scream, this time it was more desperate. He ran as quickly as his legs would allow, when he reached the scene, there were two people. It was the same man and he was on top of a boy. Brendon threw himself onto the man and knocked him to the ground, striking him in the face multiple times. The man attempted to fight back but Brendon was too mad to allow it.

The man gave up, pushed him off then ran off. Brendon quickly went to check on the boy, his heart pounding through his chest.

"Oh my god, are you okay? please be okay." Brendon said in a panic. He put out a hand to the boy and pulled him off the ground. The boy threw himself against Brendon and hugged him, sobbing into the crook of his neck.

"Shh, you're going to be okay. I'm here. You're okay."

Brendon wrapped his arms around the boy comfortingly and buried his face in his hair. When the boy looked up, face stained and cut, his eyes widened.
The boy was Ryan.