The Untitled Diary of a Girl Named Bones

After that lust-filled kiss behind the McDonald’s, Ryan and I wandered back to our friends. Of which, most had left in the boy’s car, while Aimee and Brendon sat on the trunk of the girls’ car, talking.

We drove the boys home. Ryan gave me a kiss on the cheek, which caused a flurry of butterflies that felt more like bats flapping around in my stomach. When that feeling washed over me, I hated it. It made me feel powerless. The whole point of our mission was to make them powerless.

At first, I wrote it off as merely lust. I mean, I just had a vigorous make-out session with one of the four most wanted guys in school. That would make anyone swoon, right?

So, I was thinking that the feeling was just some kind of feeling of victory; I was that much closer to making our pact worthy.

Only thing is, two weeks later, I’m craving that feeling. The whole ‘ginormous birds are flying around my innards’ feeling. You’d expect me to say that I hadn’t talked to Ryan in fourteen days. But, really, the girls and I had hung out with them nearly every day for the last two weeks. I was being encouraged by Aimee and Erin to just “freaking ask him out already!”, but Brittany said to just let what happens, happen. I like to be a lot more conventional, so I don’t like making the first move with a guy.

Well, then again, there really has already been a first move. Hah. That whole making out in a field thing sort of counts, right? Ugh. How confusing can this get?

Anyways, tonight, or Friday, was the first night of an annual carnival that our town had held for probably the last ten years. There was always that wonderfully greasy carnival food (Mmmm…..Corndogs and elephant ears), games, rides and local, unsigned bands playing until 1 AM starting at 7PM. A couple of geyser bands are playing from 6 PM to 7, for the old folks that need to be in their nursing homes early. But tonight was special because our own personal bandboys were playing. Yes, good old Brendon, Jon, Spencer and Ryan were working their magic on a captive audience tonight, at 10 PM.

Let’s hope they don’t blow it or something.

So, Brendon, much like the over-eager puppy dog that he is, wants to go to the carnival early, so that he can ride rides and whatever else it is that he likes to do at carnivals. Personally, I don’t like the rides, so my best bet is to sit out, and watch everyone enjoy themselves. Chances are I’ll follow everyone around taking pictures.

But, before we could go to the carnival, the boys were practicing for their big debut. The twist is: that we, the lowly peasant females were invited to watch. This is significant because nobody, and I mean nobody, had ever been invited to watch any one of the concerts. The most that I had heard of their musical talents were Spencer tapping pencils on his desk in class, or Brendon humming quietly along with the radio.

As expected, Brittany the normal, law-abiding driver brought us to Ryan’s house, which is where all of the music equipment-y stuff is set up, it seems. We were greeted at the door by a hyperactive puppy named Rose, and Jon. Jon was dressed in shorts, flip flops, and a wrinkled t-shirt. Typical.

“Hey guys – I mean girls”, he tried schmoozing.

“Sorry, Jonny, it doesn’t work on the best of us”, I explained.

He gave a false look of despair. He then ushered us down to Ryan’s basement, where loud yell/screams were being produced. Jon wandered down as if it was completely normal, but we were reluctant. Erin and I exchanged glances. Brittany and Aimee looked as if they had no intention of going down there.

“Let’s go, darling”, Erin said to me. I linked arms with her, and we went down, just as another ear-splitting shout was produced. I covered my ears as we emerged into the dim dwelling that was Ross’ basement. And the source of screams was pinpointed.

Spencer was currently pinning Brendon to the ground with his knee on his chest. Brendon was screaming like a chicken having a nightmare about Colonel Sanders and a KFC fryer.

Spencer was shouting at Brendon, over Brendon’s screams. Something about a dollar. The girls filed in, and sat on a couch that they were directed to on one end of the basement. The boys puttered around, setting up, tuning guitars, and in Brendon’s case, avoiding Spencer’s stink-eyed stare. When Brendon noticed our appearance, he walked over and gave Aimee a shy kiss on the cheek.

“Awwwww”, Brittany, Erin and I cooed as if we were synchronized.

Wait. No Ryan? I craned my neck, to see over Brittany and Erin’s fat heads, only to spot him with headphones on, intently staring down a piece of paper in the corner of the basement.

His tongue was sticking just a tiny bit out from the side of his mouth, and he was squinting. He looked as if he was concentrating so hard, that he couldn’t hear Brendon’s pleas for help, or even notice us come in, and invade their practice space. He was running a pick absently over the guitar’s strings, but the guitar wasn’t connected to the amp, and only made that little metallic noise of plastic on metal.

A loud crash came from the drum kit, causing all attention to snap (even Ryan’s) to Brendon kneeling on Spencer’s stomach.

“Say ‘Mercy’!”

“Never!”, Spencer wheezed from under Brendon’s skinny ass.

“Say it!”

“No.”

“Fucking say Mercy, or the drumstick gets it!”, Brendon held up one of Spencer’s favorite sticks. Spence’s eyes grew to be about the size of a couple of tennis balls.

“Mercy”, he muttered.

“What? I can’t hear you!”, Brendon practically sang out of giddiness.

“MERCY!”, Spencer shouted, and threw Brendon off of him, flipping him over, and ended up sitting on Urie, Master of all things Graceful.

He thus commenced to threatening to hit him in the throat, and ruin his “precious singing voice”.

I glanced at Ryan, who was sitting with his face in his palm, shaking his head. I giggled, and Ryan’s head shot up, and he looked in my general direction. He gave a coy half-smile and waved.

I waved back from my spot on the couch. Ryan went back to fiddling with his guitar. I sighed.

Do I like Ryan? Or am I just fooling myself? Am I just happy that our pact is working, or do I really want something to happen? Why does this suck so much?

Brendon was saying random things into the microphone, testing the sound. Aimee gave Brendon a longing look. He winked at her. She heaved a sigh. I gave her a knowing look.

My attention turned back to the boys. The first thing I noticed was Brendon and Ryan. They were huddling off to the side, muttering to each other. Ryan gave a smile, they high fived each other, and walked to their designated spots. Spencer was behind Ryan, Brendon and Jon.

Ryan shot a smile towards us, and Brendon walked up to the microphone somewhat nervously.

“Hey guys, this is the first time we’ve ever had an audience, so bear with us”, he said, smiled, and looked back at the guys.

A catchy musical intro started up, Spencer giving the drums his all, and Jon and Ryan looking deep in concentration. I watched Ryan as he hit the opening chords. His messy hair flopped into his face a bit, and his tongue stuck out the side of his mouth, as if he were six, and trying to draw a perfect circle. I giggled. He looked so cute.

“Well, she’s not bleeding on the ballroom floor…”

And to say the least, I was fucking amazed.