You and Me, Forever Young

Brendon stood like a lost child in his now vacant hotel room.

It had gone from tense and uncomfortable to eerie quiet, like a once occupied bed going cold.

Time went so much faster when one of your best friends was yelling at you.

It was almost equally painful right after, time moving so slow you couldn’t ignore every serrated thought in your head.

Three days was all it took to ruin Brendon's life.

Day one, his girlfriend cheated on him.

Day two, he went to Chicago and attempted to drink his weight in beer.

Day three, he finds out everyone thinks Lilly cheated on Bill with him.

It was an eye opener to say the least, seeing how insecure the world was, or paranoid at the most.

A conversation he'd had with Bill not too long ago popped up his memory.

They were in Australia together talking backstage at one of the festivals, talking about random topics to pass the time.

One thing Bill had said in passing was how he worried about the consequences of them getting married so quickly.

It was the perfect formula, early marriage plus baby plus touring, for insecurities to form.

Still, Brendon never thought it would lead to William actually believing he of all people would do that with Lilly, the girl he didn’t truly realize was head over heels for him.

From his hotel room far above the street all around him it was silent, surrounding him in his own little beige and floral world.

It was maddening to be so isolated in his misery, turning it into a zip lock bag and locking in the yummy goodness of his pain.

That may have been the reason he reached for his phone.

Knowing most of his friends were still either mad or otherwise occupied in fixing that, Brendon found himself dialing a number he had to get from Lilly's forgotten phone.

It rang a couple times before an unsure voice answered.

"Hello?"

Brendon felt a wave of calm wash over him just hearing her voice.

"Madi? It's me, uh, Brendon."

"Oh hey Brendon." Was it just him or did she sound suddenly happier? "Did anything happen while I was gone?"

He let out a bitter chuckle.

"You have no idea..." He muttered. "Will just left with Lilly running after him."

Madi was obviously confused by his abrupt statement, the tell tale sign being the silence on the other end of the phone.

"Wait... what? Explain from the beginning Bren."

This time he couldn’t pretend her calling him that didn’t make his heart flutter awkwardly, so much so he had to take a moment to regroup his thoughts.

Madi caught on to that before he could recover.

"Brendon? Are you still there?"

He shook himself out of it.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry. Uh well, Bill just showed up here looking like a wreck. He exchanged a few choice words with me, then he heard Lilly in the bedroom and she came out. I forget what she said but he took it the wrong way, like she had chosen me over him, stupid I know, and then he left. She ran after him and I called you."

There wasn’t a direct reply from Madi except for a deep sigh and some profanity muttered under her breath.

"Well do you know where they are now?" She asked.

He shrugged, despite them both being on the phone.

"There's no telling. I'm just hoping she caught up with him before he could do anything stupid and that maybe they've sorted things out."

Madi let out a bitter laugh. "That's the delusional way of thinking Bren."

The cynical edge in her voice sent chills through Brendon with the thought of her being too young too look at the world so bleakly.

"Madi don't think that way." He chided softly.

She was silent once more, something that bothered Brendon for a while, not hearing her voice.

"I can't help it." She whispered. "I don't want to put the blame one someone but even though Adam and I have come to a truce..."

"You still haven’t forgiven him." He concluded.

He knew she nodded in agreement just from a feeling he got on the other end of the phone.

There were no words for what they were both feeling at the moment, but it was the noise in the background that caught his attention.

"Are those sirens? Are you driving?"

She answered absentmindedly. "Yeah, you called me on my way to get lunch but I figured I'd turn around and head back to the hotel since it sounds like you need me."

"Well where are you then?" He asked, the sound of sirens intriguing him, like the way people slow down at the sight of a car accident.

"I'm actually out front, it's weird Bren, I think something happened."

Instantly he felt a panic (no pun intended) just by hearing her words, like a sudden premonition.

He didn't need to hear the words that came afterward, but he did anyway.

"Oh... oh god Bren... something has happened. It's... it's Lilly and Will."