Jealous Orchard

"Ryan!" Morgan called waving her arm in the air. I turned around from my Animal, fries and Coke to see Ryan jogging up to us.

"Hey, Brendon," he said clapping me on the back and then walking around the table to Morgan.

"Hey, kid," he said wrapping his arm around her shoulder and kissing the top of her head.

She made a face of disgust as she shoved him away.

"No way you can have a beffy kiss and call me kid!"

"You are in fact a child to me."

He sat down next to her while picking up her sandwich.

I sat there laughing at her annoyance of being called a child and Ryan's enjoyment of teasing her. I have long gotten over the fact that Morgan has gotten closer to my best friend, than I actually have. I only wish that Ryan wasn't as good as keeping secrets when it comes to the things Morgan tells him. He always says if I needed to know, she'd let me know, but there's always a part of me that can't help but wonder if they are keeping secrets.

"So what do we owe this great appearance?"

"We should wait till the other guys get here."

"Aw, way to be a tease," Morgan groaned grabbing at her sandwich, but only to have Ryan lean away from her.

"Come on, give me back my sandwich."

"Get another. I haven't eaten since this morning."

"Aw, you poor thing," she patted his head while standing up.

"Give me some money," she said holding her hand out to him.

"What? I'm not your boyfriend. Ask Brendon."

"No, I bought my burger, I want my money back."

Ryan groaned while he put the burger down and reached in his back pocket for his wallet. He handed her a ten dollar bill, and shooed her with his hand. She pinched his cheek before walking back toward the order window.

"So, are you going to tell me what's going on in your head?"

"We have to wait. It wouldn't be fair."

He took another huge bite of the burger, causing mustard to spill out the other end.

"What is so important?"

"Just wait!"

"Okay, seriously, I'm starving and you made me go get another burger. I'm a growing girl, I shouldn't have to wait for my food," Morgan complained walking back to the table.

She came and sat on my side of the picnic bench. She scooted closer to me so her leg was touching mine.

"You don't want to sit next to me?" Ryan asked her.

"He's nicer to me."

She shrugged her shoulders while picking up her burger.

"Oh, there's Brent and Spencer," Ryan said looking past the two of us.

Morgan and I both turned around to see both of them walking toward us. Brent looked like he had just rolled out of bed, and for some reason Spencer had an unusual smile on his face.

"Now, why is my favorite drummer look so happy today?" Morgan questioned him, as he sat down next to her.

"Because I know the important news."

Morgan's head quickly turned to Ryan direction, and she glared at him with a pouting face.

"He knew before me?!" she exclaimed jabbing her finger in Spencer's face.

"Okay, one what happened to me being your favorite drummer, and two I've been his best friend for forever, you've only known him about five months. I deserve to know before you."

"I don't like your reasoning. Time is nothing. Have you seen Ryan's funny birth mark?"

We all turned to look at her with questioning glances.

"God, Morgan!" Ryan groaned holding his hand to his forehead.

"Wait, wait. You have a funny birth mark that none of us have seen, your band mates, but Brendon's girlfriend has seen it?" Brent questioned.

"How have I've missed? I mean I've particularly see you naked!" Spencer shouted, clearly upset be the secret birth mark that he has never seen.

"That's not the point guys! It's just a birth mark, nothing more! Now, we need to get back to the reason why we are here."

"Ryan dropped out of college," Spencer blurted out with a smug look toward Morgan.

But after it came out everyone was silent. I stared at Ryan with a questioning look. I had no idea why this was good important news, but yet he still had a small smile on his face as he lightly shook his head at Spencer.

"Wait, I'm sorry if this is a stupid question, but I don't see how this is a good thing. Dropping out of college that is," Morgan stated breaking the silence.

She leaned forward with her elbows on the table and staring intently at Ryan.

"Well, Morgan, I realized that this Panic has been getting rather large on Purevolume, and I decided to take it upon myself to take the next step for the band," he said proudly.

But Morgan didn't look convinced.

"Which would be?"

"Taking this more serious. We can't be a band when I'm an hour and an half away, and only have practice when i come down about once a month."

Morgan stayed silent after that and started picking at the fries in front of her.

"Well, I think this is great. Now we can actually try to get some gigs," Spencer said picking up Morgan's burger and taking a bite, but this time she didn't protest, she simply moved out of the way so he could grab it.

"I know. I'm thinking that we should take up Morgan's idea of sending the links around to people, see if we can get noticed."

"That would be so awesome," Brent gushed smacking Spencer on the back causing him to dropping the burger in his lap.

Brent burst out laughing as Spencer tried to get the stains off his pants.

"So Morgan, it's alright if we crazy at your house tonight? Have a sleepover?" I asked tilting my head in her direction. But she kept staring at her fries, and moving on in a figure eight style through the puddle of ketchup.

"Morgan?" I asked nudging her slightly.

She looked up at me with her green eyes wider than ever.

"Hm?"

"Are we still sleeping at your house, and then ditching tomorrow."

"Yeah, I guess, if you still want to."

She shrugged her shoulders and went back to her figure eights. I stared at her for a few seconds before wrapping my arm around her waist. I leaned into her and kissed her on top of her head, hoping she wasn't going through another one of her girlie mood swings. When I looked up, Brent was still laughing at Spencer who was still blotting his pants, but Ryan was now also twirling his fries through his ketchup, avoiding eye contact with everyone.