The Calendar

Brendon fiddled with his pencils, anxious for summer. Endless days filled with his three favorite people: Ashly, Spencer, and Jon. He couldn’t wait.

The teenager pulled out the little pocket calendar he carried with him everywhere, little ‘x’s on days past, double-checking that all the names this year were blurry. That meant he didn’t know them. He didn’t have to feel guilty about people he didn’t know dying. Then again, it could be that poor, starving, third-world child that died because he didn’t donate those ten bucks.

But he tried not to feel guilty.

At last, the final bell rang. Class was over for three months. Three months in which Brendon would be staying with Jon’s family and would always be minutes from his girlfriend, at most.

The seventeen-year-old flipped to the very back of the calendar, where multiple years continued, unseen by others. Ashly was going to pass in seventy years, age 86, from a painless cancer. His ex-boyfriend Dallon was going to die the same year, in his sleep. Spencer and Jon hadn’t shown up yet, which confused Brendon but led him to assume that either he would die before them or they were both vampires.

He didn’t completely doubt the latter theory.

“Mr. Urie!” Brendon jumped at the stern tone, only to be met with Spencer’s obnoxious laughter and a mischievous grin from Jon. “Hurry up, dude. Mom’s waiting.”

Brendon smiled and nodded, jumping up and giddily throwing everything into his now-useless backpack. It was summer! “I’m soooo excited!”

“You get excited about everything,” Spencer pointed out, snorting.

“True. But summer excitement is best.”

The three walked through the corridors together, saying their goodbyes to everyone before climbing into Jon’s mom’s car, tossing their backpacks into the trunk along with their other bags.

Mrs. Walker beamed at all three as they squeezed into the backseat, Spencer squishing himself between Jon and Brendon- who assumed this was caused by Spencer’s maaaajjjorrr crush on Jon.

“So what are the Smiths doing this summer?” Mrs. Walker asked, to which Spencer was eager to reply.

“My best friend Ryan-” He was quick to correct himself. “One of my best friends, Ryan, is staying with us all summer! He’s gonna stay in the guest room right next to mine. I’ve known him since forever.”

“He cool?” Jon immediately asked, and before Spencer could answer, Brendon spouted off a list of questions.

“Is he our age? Does he play any instruments? What about guitar, does he play guitar? Are his eyes brown or blue? Does he wear Converse, or is he like, uptight sorta guy? Is he a partier?”

"Shut up, Bren," Spin giggled. "Yes, he's our age. He plays guitar and writes lyrics and poems and stuff. Brown eyes. He's… got his own fashion sense. And no. He could disappear in an empty room if you didn't keep an eye on him."

"Wow."

"Yeah. But I've known him forever. He's like a brother, y'know?"

The other two hummed their acknowledgment and agreement. Brendon added this to his list of things to be excited about because of summer.