Team Jon: Hell Hath No Wrath like a Woman Scorned
Not Like Jason (Despite the Medea)



Ryan hated his Classics teacher with a passion. If he were to explain his hatred for her in a way that she would understand, it might go something like this: “My hatred for you burns even hotter than the sun that melted Icarus’ wings.” Unfortunately, Ryan supposed that even if he did work up enough courage to say that=2 0to her, she might just swoon over his Greek mythology reference and miss the point entirely.

However, that didn’t stop him from letting everyone else know about his feelings towards Dr. Frost.

“You don’t understand, Spencer,” Ryan explained to his best friend once again on the second day of the new term. “She’s completely scatterbrained and her assignments are ridiculous.” He crossed his arms across his chest defiantly. “I hate being smarter than the teacher.”

Spencer just laughed. “It’s so hard to be you, Ryan Ross,” he deadpanned. He threw a white shirt at Ryan. “Put this on. There’s a black-light party at ΣAE tonight.”

Ryan looked down at the overly-large white shirt lying by his foot. Spencer couldn’t throw worth shit. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Just put it on,” Spencer ordered.< span style=""> “Haley said she was going to be there, and I can’t go by myself.”

The shirt was easily two sizes too big, and when Ryan held it up against himself, he couldn’t help the way that his nose scrunched up. “Why don’t you just get Jon to go with you?”

“He’s got some thing going on tonight, I don’t know. Plus, I know that you don’t have anything better to do.”

Ryan grumbled and eyed the shirt again. “Don’t you have anything a little less linebacker?”

Spencer sighed but went to his closet. “Maybe one of my sister’s shirts got in here by accident.”

“Shut up. Not funny,” Ryan complained, but when Spencer threw a plain white v-neck over at him and he held it up against himself, he hummed in contemplation.

“You’re such a girl.” Spencer shook his head.

Ryan pulled the shirt over his head and smoothed out the wrinkled lines. “Whatever. I look good.”

* * *

It only took Ryan twenty minutes at ΣAE to remember why he hated frat parties. The strobe lights and the black light were giving him a headache, though it could have been the blaring techno, and he had reservations about anyplace that had a stripper pole in the middle of a bomb shelter. “It’s soundproof,” one drunken Brother had told Ryan when he asked about why they would have a party in a bomb shelter. “That way the cops won’t come.”

He couldn’t help but think that someone would close the door out of the basement and he would be trapped down there with drunken frat boys and slutty sorority girls.

Ryan looked around the room, annoyed. Spencer had left his side as soon as they got there, spotting Haley with some of her fellow Sisters standing20by the wine coolers. That was another thing Ryan hated about fraternity parties: boxed wine.

He took a sip from his red cup, quickly gulping down the Franzia as he finally spotted Spencer.

“Can we go now?” Ryan asked Spencer, not really caring that he was interrupting his conversation with Haley. Spencer could yell at him later. Right now, all he wanted to do was get out of this rape trap.

Haley smiled at Ryan. “Hey.”

Ryan nodded at her once and turned his attention back to Spencer. “Well, can we?”

“We just got here,” Spencer complained. “Can’t you at least try to have fun?”

“You call this fun?” Ryan asked, and to prove his point, a drunk girl stumbled into him and spilled her drink down the back of his shirt. She muttered an apology and started to dab at the spil l with her hand, but Ryan glared at her and told her to fuck off.

“Maybe you could try being a little nicer to people,” Spencer suggested. “Not be such an asshole.”

“Oh, fuck you, Spencer.”

Spencer shrugged. “Well, I drove us here, and I’m not ready to go. You can either wait a little bit longer, or get one of the pledges to drive you back. Jesus, lighten up a little. It’s college. Live. Make mistakes. Have fun.”

“Whatever,” Ryan growled and stormed off through the grinding crowd. He made his way over to a long table that was set up with alcohol and stopped in front of one of the Brothers. “Can I get a shot of vodka?” he snapped, trying to resist breaking the black light directly in front of him. Stupid theme parties.

The guy manning the drinks looked up apologetic ally at Ryan. “We’re only supposed to give the hard liquor to girls.”

Ryan huffed. “Are you kidding me? Listen, I really need a fucking drink right now. My best friend is ignoring me for some girl, who while she may be nice, right now is really pissing me off. My dad cut down my allowance again, and I have a Classics teacher who would probably like to see me lit up as a Roman Candle.”

“Wow,” the guy let out, eyes widening. He looked over his shoulder. “I guess I could give you one shot.”

“Thank you.” Ryan grabbed an empty shot glass and set it in front of himself. After a minute, he looked up impatiently. “What are you waiting for?” He banged down the glass.

The boy was looking over Ryan and grinned. “Calm down, I’m getting to it, but you have to dance with me first.”

Ryan blanched. “Excuse me?”

The boy blushed a little, but didn’t relent. “I was asking you if you want to dance.”

Looking the boy over, Ryan couldn’t see the downside to this scenario. The boy was a little shorter than him and had big brown eyes that were currently pleading up at Ryan. His hair was a little chaotic, but the flyaway pieces framed his face. Plus, when he turned around to answer a question from one of his Brothers, Ryan could see that he had an amazing ass.

“Yeah, okay,” Ryan agreed, and the boy smiled. “But the shot first.”

The boy set a shot glass back up in front of Ryan and filled it up. “Do you need a chaser?”

Ryan laughed. “No.” He threw the shot back, and then grabbed the boy’s hand, pulling him around the table

“I’m Brendon, by the way,” the boy shouted over the loud techno as Ryan dragged him across the dance floor.

“Great.”

“Aren’t you going to tell me your name?”

Ryan shrugged. “Does it really matter?” He found an open spot on the dance floor and pulled Brendon back up against him, gripping his hips and swaying to the beat.

“I’d like to know,” Brendon insisted, looking over his shoulder at Ryan, and in the flashing brightness of the strobe light, Ryan could see him wet his plump lips with his tongue and a shock ran through him.

“Shut up,” Ryan said, and he took one of his hands off of Brendon’s hip to tilt the boy’s head further back until he could join their lips together.

Brendon responded eagerly, pressing his ass further back against Ryan and arching up to open his mouth to Ryan’s prodding tongue. He knew that Brendon couldn’t be comfortable, head arched back like that, so Ryan spun him around, hungrily attacking Brendon’s lips once he was standing straight again.

It had been far too long since Ryan had given in to the rough slide of lips, the biting kiss that left him bruised and wanting for more. He let his hand fall down and he cupped Brendon’s ass, grinding hard against his leg as he kissed him, grinding Brendon back against him.

Ryan was getting lost in the music, the dull thud of the beat, and the frenzied movements of Brendon’s tongue. He let all the stress wash out of him as he gripped Brendon closer, but when the music stopped, the trance was broken, and he unwound himself from the other boy, backing up slowly.

“Thanks for the shot. I should get going now.”

Brendon’s eyes were wide and open, and Ryan forced himself to look away: the boy was too innocent to fuck with.

“How are you getting home?” Brendon asked anxiously. 8 0‘Cause I’m a pledge, and if you don’t have a ride, I can take you back to your dorm.”

Ryan sighed and looked around the room. Spencer was dancing with Haley, laughing, having a good time, and he really didn’t want to be cruel and ruin his best friend’s chances. “Yeah, that’d be cool, just let me tell my roommate.”

“Okay, I have to go get my car anyway,” Brendon told him. “Just come out front and I’ll pick you up.”

“Sure,” Ryan waved him off and he set out through the crowd to talk to Spencer. He tapped on his shoulder, and when Spencer turned and saw Ryan, he let out an exasperated sigh.

“God, Ryan. I’m not ready to leave yet.”

Ryan resisted a glare. “I was just coming to tell you that I found a ride home and you don’t have to worry about me.”

E2Oh,” Spencer said, somewhat apologetically. “Okay, I’ll see you back at the dorm later then.”

“Somehow I really doubt that.” Ryan smirked and quickly left before Spencer could swat at him.

He successfully bypassed a surprising amount of drunk people, even managed to sidestep gracefully as one girl clearly reached her limit and started heaving. Upstairs, out of the bomb shelter, the house was a lot better lit, and without the annoying black lights or strobe lights, Ryan could already feel his headache going down. Though, that could have been the vodka.

After passing by three couples heavily making out, and a couple more wasted partygoers, not to mention one extremely maudlin drunk, Ryan finally made his way outside. A ridiculous purple minivan was waiting by the curb, and despite all of Ryan’s frantic wishing, Brendon’s head popped out of the window and waved him over.

“Purple?” Ryan dryly asked.

“It was free and it works,” Brendon e xplained, though he was blushing a little. “Get in.”

Ryan grumbled, but made his way around the dented front of the car to slide into the passenger seat next to Brendon.

“What happened to the front of your car?”

Brendon looked away and shrugged. “Um… Tree branch?” It was obvious that he was lying, but honestly, Ryan didn’t care enough to call him out on it. “What dorm am I taking you to?”

“Manly,” Ryan answered, glaring a little as Brendon laughed. “What?”

“It’s just that you’re wearing a v-neck,” Brendon pointed out. “I find it a little ironic.”

Ryan crossed his arms over his chest. “Just drive.”

Brendon put the car into gear and started off down the road, switching r adio stations obsessively until he finally settled down on some classical jazz. “I’m a music major,” Brendon explained after Ryan quirked up his eyebrow.

“I’m not judging,” Ryan said, holding his hands up in surrender.

“Good, ‘cause you’re wearing a v-neck, so I wouldn’t take you seriously,” Brendon bounced back. “But it looks good on you, so it works,” he amended.

“Um, thanks,” Ryan said, and he blushed a little, and then flushed even redder when he realized he was blushing over some dorky freshman. “You can just drop me off here,” he said when they neared his dorm, pointing to the corner. “Thanks.”

“Hang on,” Brendon yelled before Ryan could make his way out of the car. He was digging around for something, and when he sat back up holding a yellow highlighter, he looked triumphant. “Yeah, well, black light party,” he explained.

“What?”

Brendon grabbed the bottom of Ryan’s shirt and pulled him closer, holding the fabric taut as he opened the lid to the highlighter. “So, I’m going to be bold and write my number, and hopefully you’ll call me.”

Ryan stared incredulously as Brendon finished writing with a swirl of his hand, but he shook his head. “Yeah, sure.” He opened the car door.

“Wait, I still don’t know your name,” Brendon shouted after him as he walked into the dorm building. “How will I know it’s you when you call?”

Ryan really didn’t think that was going to be a problem.

* * *
“I put a bunch of different myths in this bowl and I want each of you to pull out a slip of paper,” Dr. Frost said, beginning Ryan’s Monday morning class. “Once everyone has their myth, then I’ll tell you what the assignment is.

Ryan groaned, but pulled a slip of paper from the bowl when it was passed to him. He opened the slip and read over it. Great. Medea.

“What’d you get?” Jon whispered.

He held up his slip of paper and Jon laughed. “Fail. I would offer to switch, but mine is so easy. Pyramus and Thisbe. It’s like Romeo and Juliet but better. There’s lions.”

Ryan flicked Jon off, thankful for Dr. Frost’s turned back, and let his head drop down to his desk. Of course he would get a myth all about some vengeful bitch who killed her children and chopped people up all because some guy screwed her over. Ryan hated Dr. Frost. Even if there was no way she could have made it so that Ryan picked Medea, he still had his doubts.

“Everyone have their myths?” she asked cheerily. That was another reason Ryan hated her. It was Monday morning. “Great. I want you to find a way to relate the theme of your myth to everyday life, to the life of your fellow classmates.”

“Oh, fuck me,” Ryan muttered under his breath. He raised his hand. “How are we supposed to relate it to our classmates exactly,” he asked a little condescendingly. He thought it was a stupid assignment.

Dr. Frost smiled. “Excellent question, Ryan. This assignment isn’t only to improve your knowledge of mythology: I also want you to expand your comfort zone. Meet new people, explore different subjects. I’ve set up a link on the college database where you all can post your themes and ask people to respond with personal stories. Contact these people, interview them, and then, I want you to write a paper due in three weeks explaining how the theme of your myth is still relevant today.”

“Cheer up, Ry, this should be fun,” Jon said while Ryan was silently fuming. Ryan glared.

* * *

“This is the stupidest idea ever,” Ryan grumbled to Spencer. “What do I even write?” He was sitting at his computer, trying to think of something to put down on the database for his Classics assignment. “Ever thought of burning someone alive with their wedding dress?”

Spencer snorted. “It’s not that hard. Just write something out there about girls who have been screwed over by guys. I’m sure you’ll get a bunch of responses.”

“Whatever.” Ryan didn’t really care, so he asked Spencer to repeat what he said and typed it in.

* * *

Ryan’s inbox was full. =0 A

“Holy shit, look at this,” Ryan yelled to Spencer. There were pages after pages of emails all responding to his database post. “How the hell am I going to respond to all of these?”

Spencer shrugged. “Just send out a mass email or something. It’ll probably be easier to do this whole thing in person.”

“I have to talk to these people?” Ryan replied incredulously. “I don’t think so.”

“You can’t just make shit up, Ry. It won’t be so bad.”

* * *
“Have you seen my blue v-neck?” Ryan yelled over to Spencer. “I can’t find it anywhere.”

“Did you look in your closet?”

“O f course I did, moron. And I looked in my dresser and under my bed. I even looked in my laundry basket.” Ryan sighed. “I can’t find it!”

“Why don’t you just wear my sister’s white v-neck again? It fit you pretty well.”

Ryan huffed, but pulled it out from underneath a pile of magazines. “I haven’t washed it yet,” he said, inspecting the shirt.

“Suck it up, either wear it dirty or stop bitching and put something else on.”

When he held the shirt up to the light, he could see faint marks on it, and then he remembered. If he looked hard enough, he could just barely make out a scrawled phone number and a loopy looking B with squiggles after it. He threw the shirt to the ground.

“Maybe I’ll just wear that black shirt instead.”

* * *
When Ryan entered the room, Spencer took one look up at him, quickly glancing from his game of Guitar Hero with Jon, and frowned. “What’s up with you?”

“Men are assholes,” Ryan said. “I just spent two hours talking with about thirty different girls, and dude, I was ready to cut my own dick off after about twenty minutes.”

Jon laughed. “Don’t go all extreme on us.”

“Seriously, men are the scum of the earth,” Ryan repeated.

“Sucks to be you,” Spencer chimed in, “unless I’m mistaken, gay guys and other men kind of go together.”

Jon cracked up in agreement, but Ryan pushed him over. “Shut up and move over. You suck at this game.”

* * *

Dr. Frost’s office had pictures of puppies on the wall. Ryan liked puppies, sure, but glossy posters on the wall were too much, in his opinion.

“So how are you coming on your project?” she asked Ryan.

“I’m done,” he said and handed her a folder with his report in it.

She flipped through the papers, making humming noises every so often, before she put the folder down on her desk. “This is good, Ryan, but I think you’re missing the whole point of the assignment. You have too broad of a focus. It would be better if you just concentrated on one girl’s story. That way you can fully understand her pain.”

Ryan resisted telling her how stupid that idea was and gave her his attempt of a smile. “Sure. I can do that.”

“Do you know which person you want to focus on?”

He looked down at the list of names briefly, running his fingers down before stopping on one. “Lindsey Myers,” he told her.

Quickly scrolling back in his head, Ryan tried to think if he remembered anything about this Lindsey Myers. Nope. He’d have to bullshit.

“Her story really touched me,” Ryan continued as convincingly as he could.

Dr. Frost smiled. “Then it’s probably good that you talk to her. I’m sure that she could use a friend right about now.”

Ryan couldn’t keep the fake smile on his face any longer, so he nodded tersely, thanked her for her time, and gathered up his papers. When he got outside her office, Ryan scanned down and found Lindsey’s phone number and quickly dialed it. Really, he just wanted to get this stupid project over and done with.

The phone when to voicemail. Ryan left a message.

* * *
“I can’t believe that you’re actually dragging me to a party,” Jon said laughing. “In all the years I’ve known you, Ryan Ross, you have never wanted to go to a fraternity party.”

After his meeting with Dr. Frost, Ryan had been pissed, stressed out, and really needed a release. He wasn’t really planning on going out to a party, but then that damn white v-neck caught his attention again, and he couldn’t help but think of dark brown eyes and plump lips against his own.

He didn’t call the number on the shirt, but he knew that Brendon was a pledge for ΣAE and would be at the party tonight. Even if last time the boy’s innocence had put Ryan off a bit, he figured that he could overlook it. If Brendon was willing, he couldn’t be that pure.

“I just feel like unwinding a little,” Ryan told Jon.

“Unwinding as in what? I thought you were scorning all=2 0men everywhere.”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “Shut up and turn in here,” he directed.

Jon chuckled but followed Ryan’s point and turned into a surprisingly full restaurant parking lot, especially considering the restaurant closed hours ago. “Is that why you got all pretty? Is there some boy you want to impress?”

“No,” Ryan growled. He looked down at his outfit. He didn’t look any differently than normal. Okay, maybe he had spent a little extra time on his hair and had carefully lined his eyes, and maybe he was wearing his tightest jeans with his brand new red shirt, but that didn’t mean anything. Sometimes it just felt good to look nice.

“Whatever you say,” Jon allowed.

They made their way up to the frat house, and Ryan had barely stepped inside the already-dirty kitchen when he heard someone calling out a loud greeting and his arm was20tugged forward.

“Hey!” a voice cheered, and when he turned, Brendon was smiling up at him. “You never called me,” he admonished, his grin dropping a little, “but you’re here now, so all is forgiven.”

Jon clapped Ryan on his back as he made his way into the party. “Sure, Ryan, there’s no boy.”

“Ryan.” Brendon grinned. “You told your friends about me, Ryan.”

“I didn’t-”

“And now I know your name. See, I knew this was going to be a good day,” Brendon chirped. “Well, it started off as a bad day, but now it’s definitely looking up.” He smiled at Ryan. “Do you maybe want to go somewhere and talk?”

“Um, I just really came here to dance,” Ryan explained, but Brendon’s big eyes were staring up at him, so hopeful. “Yeah,” he caved. “We can talk.”

He ended up making out with Brendon in the back of his stupid purple minivan.

* * *
When Lindsey had called him back, they had decided to meet at Starbucks. Jon worked there and gave Ryan coffee free of charge, so he figured that even if the girl turned out to be completely incompetent, he could at least get a free drink out of it.

He recognized her right away from his line-up of girls. She was pretty, really pretty, with blonde hair and bright green eyes that stood out against dark, full lashes. “Thanks for meeting with me,” Ryan said as he took the chair across from Lindsey.

She smiled at him, a little cautiously. “Well, I think that I’ve been getting on my friends’ nerves talking about my ex. It’ll do me some good to get a different perspective, you know?”

“Sure,” Ryan agreed. “Well, why don’t you start by telling me about the breakup? I mean, if you don’t mind just diving right in.”

Lindsey shook her head. “No, it’s cool. Well, we had been dating for four years. All of high school, actually, and he’s the reason that I came to this school. I wanted to go to Brown, but he wanted to go here.” She sent Ryan a faint smile. “I know, it’s stupid to follow your boyfriend to college, but I didn’t know then that we wouldn’t be together.”

Ryan did think that it was a little stupid to follow someone to college, ignore your own desires, and succumb to someone else’s, but he didn’t mention it.

“We had been going out for so long that I could tell that something was wrong with him right away. During the summer, he had gone to some stupid music camp or something, and when he came back…. He was different.&nb sp; Distant and just different. He also had this look. He could never lie, not to me. So, when I confronted him, he told me that he had cheated on me. With a guy.”

She took a second to let it all sink in.

“Then he broke up with me. Told me that he loved me, but he wasn’t in love with me. Told me that he couldn’t be because he was gay. Can you fucking believe that?”

Lindsey’s voice was getting louder, and Ryan could see her eyes welling up with tears. He really hoped that she wouldn’t start crying. He didn’t know how to deal with that.

“And he’s here. I see him all the time. A couple of days ago I even saw him making out with some guy.” A shiver ran through her. “It was disgusting.”

Ryan grimaced but kept20his mouth shut. He didn’t need to be friends with this girl, just needed her for a grade. He looked back down at his sheet of questions that related to the myth and cringed. “Have you ever thought about revenge?”

She laughed, choking and breathless. “I beat the hood of his car in with a baseball bat,” she admitted. “But really, it doesn’t matter, that car was so ugly already. I’m still so mad at him. I want him to suffer like I have.”

“Maybe you should just forget him,” Ryan suggested. “Move on and find happiness with someone else.” He kind of felt bad for this guy, coming out as gay and then having your car smashed by your ex-girlfriend. It couldn’t be easy.

“I thought about telling his parents,” she said, ignoring Ryan. “They would flip out if they knew. They might even cut him off,” she mused.

Ryan frowned. “I think that might be a little extreme.”

“He broke my heart,” Lindsey said. “The least I can do is return the favor. Brendon Urie doesn’t deserve to be happy.”

Suddenly, it all clicked in Ryan’s brain: the dented car, kissing another guy at the party, Brendon.

Shit.

* * *

Ryan never hated Fall Out Boy more than when it was waking him up from a mid-afternoon nap. He grabbed his cell phone and opened it quickly to stop the music. “Hello?”

“Hey, Ryan!” a voice cheerfully chirped into his ear. Ryan held the phone out a little bit away from himself.

“Who is this?” he asked groggily. He didn’t recogn ize the number on the screen.

“It’s Brendon. Your friend Jon gave me your number the other night.” Ryan swore mentally. Stupid Jon. “I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go out sometime?”

Ryan stalled. If he admitted it to himself, Brendon wasn’t all that bad, plus, it couldn’t hurt to find out his side of the whole breakup story. Maybe ask him a few questions about Lindsey.

“Um, Ryan?” Brendon coughed into the phone. “Did you hang up or are you just not going to answer my question and I should take your silence as a no?”

“No, I’m here,” Ryan said. “Yeah, ok. We can go out sometime.”

He could practically see Brendon’s grin by the way his voice perked up. “Awesome. That’s awesome. I can pick you up Friday at seve n where I dropped you off that one time, yeah?”

Ryan sighed. He didn’t have a car, and Spencer wouldn’t let him use the Volvo anymore since he accidently ran into a mailbox, so it seemed like there wasn’t any other option but the bright purple minivan. “Sure,” he resigned.

“Great. This is going to be so perfect, just you wait, Ryan.”

“Uh huh,” Ryan mumbled into the phone before he closed it shut, turned back over in his bed, and went back to sleep.

* * *
The purple minivan wasn’t that bad. The radio worked and so did the air conditioning, plus it made Brendon easy to spot so Ryan didn’t have to worry about hanging out on the corner for twenty minutes.

“So where are we going?” Ryan asked as he buckled his seatbelt in.

Brendon grinned. “Lebanese food,” he said. “It’s going to be awesome.” His smile dipped a little. “Wait, you like Lebanese food right? Or at least don’t have something against trying new things?”

“No, it’s cool. I don’t really mind where we go.”

“Good, ‘cause I really like this place. Almost as much as you. Have I told you how much I like you yet?”

“Um…” Ryan flushed red. He didn’t really know how to respond to that.

“Well, I’m telling you now,” Brendon cheerfully informed Ryan. He coughed. “I think this is the part where you tell me how much you like me,” he prodded. “Go on, I’ll act surprised like I didn’t have to remind you.”

Ryan stuttered over his words. “I…well…what?”

“It’s okay, you don’t have to say anything. I know you like me. It’s not like you make out with every guy in the back of their minivans.” Brendon’s eyes widened and he turned his head sharply towards Ryan. “You don’t do that, right?”

“No,” Ryan defended and then grabbed Brendon’s hands on the steering wheel straightening them out. “Pay attention to the road!”

“See, I knew you cared.”

Ryan huffed, but couldn’t help the small smile that spread across his face. “Well, maybe I like you a little,” he relented.

“I can work with that,” Brendon informed him and he quickly turned the wheel of his van, expertly curving into a tiny parking space that should in no way fit a minivan. “We’re here!”

Brendon’s reckless maneuver had stunned Ryan into a scared kind of stillness that only broke when Brendon yanked open his car door. He held the door open for Ryan and closed it soundly behind him.

“I can open my own door,” Ryan objected.

“Of course you can,” Brendon responded, patting Ryan on the back. Still, when they got to the entrance to the restaurant, Brendon held the door open for Ryan and waited for him to pass before following behind.

The inside of the restaurant was loud. There were tables set up around the edges of the room and there was an opening in the middle. Clanging music was playing overhead, and decorating the drapes on the wall, there were strands of Christmas lights, bright against the dark, lush fabric. As the hostess led them to their table, Ryan took in the colorful artwork and the intricate beaded pillows decorating each chair. He hated to admit it, but the restaurant was kind of cool.

“How’d you find out about this place? ”

“It’s awesome, right? My friend Greta takes belly dancing classes from the owner and brought me here once.”

Ryan smirked. “Your friend Greta?” he asked suspiciously.

“Well, maybe I took a class or two too,” Brendon admitted sheepishly.

“Don’t be ashamed.” Ryan grinned. “I could tell when we were dancing.”

Brendon blushed and looked down. “The hummus is really good here,” he commented, eyes scanning the menu.

It was cute the way that he was embarrassed, cheeks flushed bright red, and Ryan couldn’t help but want to kiss him at that moment, smooth away his flyaway hair and hold him close. Ryan coughed, pulling himself out of his thoughts. “Hummus is good,” he agreed.

* * *

The dinner had gone surprisingly well. Ryan didn’t have to struggle to keep the conversation going, and once he had gotten past the overenthusiastic way that Brendon talked about everything, he could tell that he was actually pretty bright. They had talked about everything from movies and music to the latest on the election (Ryan was backing Obama while Brendon still had hopes for Romney, but Ryan suspected that was just because he was a Mormon too). Before Ryan knew it, the check had come (covered by Brendon) and they were back in the purple minivan.

He knew that he should somehow slyly ask Brendon about Lindsey, but he couldn’t bring himself to ruin the easy flow that they had fallen into. “Do you have plans later?” Ryan carefully prodded.

Brendon’s grin was blinding and Ryan found himself smiling back.

He ended up giving Brendon a hand job back in his dorm room. At least it wasn’t in the backseat of the minivan, so Ryan figured that it was a step up.
&nbs p;
* * *

“Who was that guy?” Spencer asked as he twisted spastically to activate Star Power, cursing when he missed one of the orange notes.

“What guy?” Ryan was watching the boxes in the corner carefully. He had almost caught up to Spencer. As long as he didn’t miss anymore notes, he would finally beat him at Guitar Hero.

“The guy who you were making out with when I came home last night.”

“Brendon,” Ryan responded. “Just some guy I’ve been hanging out with.”

Spencer raised an eyebrow, still keeping his attention fully on the tiny flying discs of color. “I thought you were put off men by all those heartbroken girls. What’s that one girl you’re interviewing? Laura?”

“Lindsey,” Ryan corrected, his stomach twisting uncomforta bly. “And I’m just hanging out with this guy. Don’t worry about it.”

“Whatever,” Spencer responded.

Ryan knew that the song was almost over, and he was still a couple hundred points behind Spencer. “Hey, Spence,” he said, knowing that it would throw him off, but mostly telling him because he knew that it just might help if he had some outside advice. “What would you do if I told you that Brendon is the guy who fucked Lindsey over?”

“What?” Spencer turned so quickly that his plastic guitar fell out of his hand. “Are you crazy?”

Ryan grinned as he finished the song. “Probably,” he admitted.

* * *

The thing about Lindsey, Ryan came to realize after their third meeting together, was that while she seemed nice, she was secretly a vengeful bit ch.

“So I had one of his guitars at my house because he was always leaving everything there and he has like eight guitars so he always kept one there anyway,” she told Ryan as they were drinking coffee, sitting in the plush armchairs of the local Starbucks.

Even from a good thirty feet away, Ryan could feel Jon staring at them. After he told Spencer, he and Jon had sat him down to talk about his “relationship issues” and how he always “sabotaged his own happiness”. Just because he was semi-dating the guy who broke the girl’s heart who thought that they were becoming best friends didn’t mean that he had issues.

“Anyways, he called me yesterday, asking if he could have the guitar back,” she continued, waiting a second for Ryan’s nod to show that he was paying attention. “So I stopped by his room and gave it to him. After I broke it, of course. You know, it’s actually a lot more difficult to break a guitar than it looks. The first crack is pretty easy, but to get it into pieces, you re ally have to work at it.”

Ryan stared at her, unbridled horror on his face now. “You broke his guitar?”

She shrugged. “He broke my heart. If anything, he’s getting off easy.”

Just then, as Ryan was slowly beginning to discover that maybe Lindsey wasn’t as sane as she once claimed, his phone rang. Looking down at the screen, his stomach flopped.

“It’s okay, you can get it, I don’t mind,” Lindsey said, swirling a spoon in her coffee, looking far more innocent than someone who vandalized ever should.

The screen kept lighting up, flashing the name Brendon, but Ryan hit ignore, his body tingling a little as the noise for voicemail went off seconds later.

* * *
Ryan frowned as Brendon took a lick of his ice cream. “You know, you do have your own,” he pointed out.

Brendon shrugged and took another lick. “Yours tastes better.”

“If you wanted Strawberry, then you should have ordered Strawberry. It’s not my fault you went for Moose Tracks. Everyone always underestimates the classics.”

“It’s not the Strawberry,” Brendon said, rolling his eyes as if Ryan should have known better. “It’s the fact that it’s yours that makes it taste so good.”

“That is such a line,” Ryan responded, but he was smiling. It seemed around Brendon he was always smiling.

“It is not,” Brendon insisted. “It’s the truth.”

“If you want to kiss me, you can kiss me, Brendon. You don’t need to make up excuses about ice cream superiority.”

Brendon leaned in close and Ryan subconsciously tilted his head to the side, but Brendon swooped down and took another big lick of the ice cream.

“Tease,” Ryan said indignantly, but then Brendon’s lips were there on his own, cooled by the ice cream, and when he opened his mouth and slipped his tongue inside, Ryan had to admit that coming from Brendon, it made the ice cream taste even better. He let out a satisfied hum, and when Brendon pulled back, he was smiling.

“Told you.”

Ryan couldn’t help himself; he kissed Brendon again, a short teasing kiss. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” Brendon agreed.

He had meant to ask Brendon about Lindsey, but somehow, something very different slipped through his lips. “What are we doing? I mean, are we just hanging out or dating or what?”

“Wow. Um…Okay.”
  ;
“Never mind, forget it,” Ryan said quickly, wishing that he had never asked the question at all. Stupid mouth running away with him.

“No, it just took me off guard, you know, ‘cause normally, I’m the one who’s trying to pull things out of you. But we’re definitely not just hanging out. At least, I don’t think we are. I guess we’re dating. I was hoping that we were moving towards, you know,” he looked embarrassed, “boyfriends.”

“Yeah?” Ryan asked, and even though he was fully aware of the stupid grin on his face, he couldn’t do anything to get rid of it.

“I just didn’t want to rush into anything because my last relationship didn’t end so well.”

Ryan grimaced. That was an understatement. Still, he knew that this was his chance. “What happened?”

Brendon=2 0sighed. “I was dating this girl all throughout high school. Friends of the family, all that. God, my parents loved her. But, the thing is,” he whispered, suddenly looking around, ridiculously furtively, “I’m kind of gay, so the whole girlfriend thing wasn’t really working for me. So, I told her. She wasn’t only my girlfriend, she was my best friend. I mean, we spent four years together, but when I told her, she went all crazy. It just…hasn’t been easy for her to let go, I guess. I still wanted to be friends, but then she started going like movie scary ex-girlfriend on me. She even broke my favorite guitar.”

Ryan knew that it would be the perfect time to tell Brendon all about his project, tell him that he had met with Lindsey, but he kept his mouth shut and put a comforting arm around Brendon. “Don’t worry, you have me now.”

* * *

“Boyfriend?” Jon asked, grinning ov er at Ryan. “You owe me five bucks, Spence. I told you that this one was different.”

Spencer grumbled. “Why did you have to go and get all mature?” He begrudgingly handed Jon over the money. “You owe me, Ross.”

“What? Aren’t you happy for me?” Ryan grinned. The truth was, he was happy. For the first time in a long time, Ryan didn’t feel like cursing someone out every five minutes, and he firmly believed that Brendon had something to do with it.

Spencer just shook his head, but Ryan could see a hint of a smile.

“How’s your Classics project going, Ry?” Jon asked him, and Ryan’s grin fell, mind flooding with memories from his last meeting with Lindsey where she had told Ryan that she was one step away from outing Brendon to his parents. Apparently, she had heard about Brendon’s new boyfriend. Even though he had known the seriou sness of the situation, when Lindsey had used the word ‘boyfriend’, Ryan hadn’t been able to help the warm rush that had passed through him.

“It’s fine,” Ryan said just a little defensively.

“Looks like you and Lindsey are getting pretty close,” Jon commented. “She seems to really trust you.”

Ryan frowned. “Don’t be an asshole, Jon. It’s not my fault that her ex-boyfriend turned out to be gay and is a really great guy.”

“No, but it is your fault that you haven’t told either of them,” Spencer pointed out. “Ry, judging off of the stories that you’ve told me, Lindsey doesn’t seem like the most forgiving person in the world. She probably won’t be happy if she finds out about you and Brendon from someone other than you. You may not own a guitar, but you have a bunch of other stuff that she could mess up.”

“It’ll be fine,” Ry an assured them. “After the project is over, I won’t have to talk to Lindsey anymore. Plus, this is a huge campus, what are the chances of her ever running into Brendon and me together?”

Jon snorted. “When you say shit like that, you can almost guarantee she’ll walk in on your two making out or something. You just jinxed yourself.”

Ryan waved him off. “Don’t preach your superstitions to me.”

* * *

Ryan hated being wrong, and the one thing he hated even more than just being wrong, was being proven wrong by someone else who could throw it back in his face. The second that he and Brendon walked into the stupid smoothie store that Brendon had an obsession with, he spotted Lindsey, and Jon’s stupid smug voice popped into his head. I told you so.

He tried to let his hand slide inconspicuously from Brendon’s, but Brendon simply tighte ned his grip and smiled at Ryan when it started to slide out. “Smoothies are amazing,” Brendon chirped. “Almost as sweet as you, my amazing boyfriend.”

Thankfully, Lindsey hadn’t spotted them yet. “Why don’t we try a different smoothie place, Bren?” he suggested, trying to direct his boyfriend out of the store. “We should be fair and try that new place on Main Street.”

“You’re so democratic.” Brendon beamed. “Some other time, promise. But today I’m really in the mood for the Mango Berry Mix-up.”

Ryan was silently hyperventilating. He knew that if Lindsey saw him and Brendon together, she would flip out, so he pulled out his last desperate attempt: the truth.

“Brendon, we can’t stay here, your ex-girlfriend is going to flip out.”

Brendon9 9s grin flashed from confusion to mild panic. “What?” His head swiveled around, and when he caught sight of Lindsey, he instinctually pulled his hand away from Ryan. “How did you know that was her?”

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Ryan pleaded.

“Wait, Ryan, you need to tell me what’s going on.” He stood his ground. “How do you know my ex-girlfriend?”

Ryan fumbled over his answer, and it didn’t help that Brendon’s face was looking somewhat devastated.

Just when Ryan didn’t think the situation could get much worse, he heard it.

“Brendon?”

Despite common sense, despite the instinctual flight default set into Ryan, he turned around when Lindsey spoke.

“Ryan?”

She left her small group of friends and walked towards them where they were still standing by the door. Brendon was looking between the two of them, and Lindsey’s own head movements mirrored that of her ex’s. Ryan was staring down.

“What are you doing here with Brendon?” Lindsey asked scathingly.

Brendon straightened up. “How do you know my boyfriend?” he demanded.

Lindsey’s mouth fell open in shock. “Boyfriend?” She glared at Ryan. “What the hell, Ryan? I tell you about my asshole ex and you decide to go fuck him?”

“We’re not…” Ryan muttered, “We’re not like that. It’s not just that,” he admitted, and when he looked up, Brendon wouldn’t meet his eyes.

“Then what is it? You better explain to me right now,” L indsey seethed. “I deserve an explanation, and I’m sure Brendon would be interested in knowing what you and I talk about. Especially since it’s mostly about him,” she added nastily.

Brendon shook his head. “You know what? I don’t even want to know. I’m sick of you fucking up my life, Lindsey, and honestly, Ryan, I can’t deal with this type of bullshit anymore.” He turned to leave, but Ryan grabbed his sleeve.


“Brendon, I’ll explain everything. I can explain all of this. It was all just a stupid school assignment-” he started, but Brendon cut him off.

“Ryan, just don’t,” he said and left the smoothie place. Ryan watched as he got into his car, that stupid purple minivan that Ryan had started to grow fond of, backed out, and drove away without a glance back.

“So, what was that all about?” Lindsey demanded.

Ryan turned on her, anger flaring up. “Just because you fucked up things with Brendon doesn’t mean that I’m going to let you ruin what we have. So do me a favor and leave him and me the fuck alone.”

He pushed her aside and stormed out of the smoothie shop.

“Where do you think you’re going?” she yelled after him.

“To go after him, what else would I do?”

Ryan knew it was surreal, standing in the middle of the parking lot, yelling at his boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend, but right then, nothing mattered. He didn’t care that he was probably kissing a good grade on his project goodbye, he didn’t care that Lindsey had proven to be somewhat maniacal and she would probably do something about all this later. All Ryan cared about at that moment was Brendon.

“I can’t believe that you would do this to me. I thought we were friends,” Lindsey said, glaring at Ryan.

=0 A
“Lindsey, I’m going to give you some good advice so you might as well listen. Brendon is gay. He didn’t leave you for a stupid reason; he left because it wasn’t being honest to stay in a relationship that he wasn’t interested in anymore. And it sucks, I’m sure it was terrible, but you need to get over it. Move on. You’re a great girl when you’re not being all creepy ex-girlfriendish, and you’re not going to win him back. I’m not going to let you take him from me.”

She stared at Ryan for a second, too stunned to speak.

Ryan was still in a rage, but when he calmed down a little, and looked around the parking lot, he grimaced. “Do you think maybe you could drive me back to campus?”

* * *

It had been three days and Brendon still wasn’t picking up his phone. Ryan didn’t know where Brendon’s dorm was, so he couldn’ t stop by, and he never ran into Brendon on campus. But Ryan wasn’t ready to give up: he had even taken a liking to stalking by the Music building whenever he had some free time. Still, it had been three days and no Brendon.

To make matters worse, his Classics project was due in approximately three minutes, and Ryan hadn’t put any more work into it. In fact, he was pretty sure that Lindsey had probably done something to sabotage his project. He hadn’t heard anything from her either, not since she refused to drive him home and made Spencer come pick him up. And the kicker was: he knew that she had Dr. Frost’s email.

“Nervous?” Jon asked when Ryan walked into the classroom, only carrying a thin folder with his preliminary notes from his first few meetings with Lindsey.

Ryan sighed. “I’ve resigned myself over to the fact that I’m going to live a very complicated life and will most likely fail this class.”

“Fatalist,” Jon scoffed.

“Realist,” Ryan responded just as Dr. Frost entered the classroom, looking way too cheerful for a Monday morning. Again.

“Good morning class!” she chirped, and no, Ryan was not one of the few people who repeated the sentiment back to her. No way in hell. “Please turn in your papers up here,” she said, patting the side of her desk, “and we can continue on with our discussion about The Illiad.

Ryan followed the steady stream of students up towards Dr. Frost’s desk, but unlike the others, he simply didn’t drop his folder down, but waited by the side until she noticed him and asked if he needed any help.

“I just wanted to warn you that my paper isn’t really complete in the fullest sense,” Ryan disclaimed, but Dr. Frost interrupted him.

“Don’t worry, I got the email that Lindsey sent me.”

“What?” Ryan asked, heart beating faster. There was no way that this email was a good thi ng.

Dr. Frost smiled. “I thought it was very clever having her write it. A kind of redemptive Medea, if you will. I was so moved by her story, and I was pleasantly surprised when she informed me that you helped her move on. I think that you really grasped the concept of this project. Some myths are more warnings than anything else, what can happen when people are too obsessed over the tiny details of life. Life is all about moving forward, not dwelling on the past.”

Ryan was pretty sure that the look on his face was no-question-about-it shock. Still, he knew how to take advantage of a situation. “That’s exactly my philosophy,” he stated.

“Having it from her perspective made the whole assignment that much more intimate. Of course, I’ll still be needing your notes.”

“Of course,” Ryan said, nodding, still a little bit in a daze. He didn’t know what had made Lindsey have such a sudden change20of heart, didn’t know why she had decided to help him out.

He walked back to his desk in a confused daze.

“What’s up?” Jon asked, concerned. “Did she bitch at your about your project?”

Ryan shook his head. “No, apparently Lindsey wrote me a fucking masterpiece,” he responded disbelievingly.

“Huh, imagine that.”

* * *
Getting a hold of Lindsey had proved to be a lot easier than getting in touch with Brendon: she had actually answered her phone when Ryan had called. They had agreed to meet at the campus Starbucks, and Ryan even promised her a free coffee (that is if Jon was willing to shell over two free ones).

When he finally caught sight of her in the surprisingly busy for mid-afternoon Starbucks, Lindsey looked more relaxed than Ryan could ever remember seeing her.

“Hey,” he greeted, setting down one of the coffees in front of her (Jon was feeling especially generous).

She accepted the coffee with a timid “thanks” and silence overtook the table.

“So, I guess I should thank you,” Ryan said finally. “I don’t know what you said, but my professor thinks I’m some sort of genius now.” He gave a small chuckle and even resisted from saying something snarky like, finally she recognizes my brilliance.

“I really think that I should be the one thanking you,” Lindsey insisted. “You were right. I was being stupid and immature, and Brendon is really a great guy. He didn’t deserve what I put him through.”

“You didn’t tell his parents, right?” Ryan asked warily.

She shook her head. “No, I figured that he should be the one to do that. It’ s his decision. It’s his life. And yeah, it still hurts, but when I was so mad at him, I forgot that Brendon has always been my best friend, and I miss him.”

“I miss him too,” Ryan admitted. Upon her look, he added, “He still won’t talk to me. I know it’s probably awkward for you, but I just saw in Brendon everything you did. I couldn’t help but fall for him. He kind of snuck up on me, and before I knew it…There wasn’t any other option for me than to be with him.”

She smiled nostalgically. “Brendon has a tendency to grow on people.”

Ryan nodded. “And he’s really sweet.”

“And funny.”

“And this is probably not helping you at all, is it? Going over all of Brendon’s good qualities?”

Lindsey lau ghed. “I’ve been focusing on his faults for so long, it’s kind of nice to remember why I fell in love with him in the first place,” she admitted. “But it probably isn’t helping you much either.”

Ryan sighed. “I just know that if I could talk to him, I could straighten everything out,” he said, “but he won’t answer his phone.”

“Why don’t you just go to his room,” Lindsey suggested, “you know that he’ll have to come back there.”

“I don’t know where he lives!” Ryan exclaimed dejectedly.

“But I do,” Lindsey pointed out, and she gave a little smile. “I must be crazy, Ryan Ross. What kind of girl helps her ex-boyfriend’s new boyfriend?”

“An amazing one?” Ryan responded hopefully. “Will you tell me?”

“I’ll do be tter than that,” she said, standing up. “Come on.”

* * *

“This is ridiculous,” Ryan said once he and Lindsey were standing outside of Brendon’s dorm room. “He’s going to freak out when he sees both of us here.”

Lindsey shrugged. “It’s not like he can run away,” she pointed out. “Plus, this is something we all need to talk about. Like it or not, Ryan, but you forced your way into Brendon and my personal lives. And, I guess, I pushed my way into yours too.” She pushed at Ryan’s shoulder. “So suck it up, be a man, and knock on the damn door.”

As soon as Ryan knocked on the door, he heard Brendon’s voice yell “Come in!” through the weak plastic. After an eye roll from Lindsey, Ryan opened the door and walked in, closing the door shut behind Lindsey.

Brendon was sitting at his desk, eyes wide, as he took in Ryan and Lindsey standing together underneath his Aladdin poster. “Oh.”

Ryan stared at Brendon. Brendon stared back, then stared at Lindsey, who sighed in exasperation. “God, seriously, you both are pathetic.”

Both boys winced and opened their mouths to object, but Lindsey silenced them with the raise of a hand. “I’m going to make this really simple,” she said. “Ryan and I met because he was doing a report on girls that had just been dumped by their boyfriends. He didn’t know you and I had dated until after he met you and started to like you. And while he didn’t tell either of us about the other, I’m sure it was because he was just scared of losing you or some stupid thing like that.”

“Well-” Ryan tried to interrupt fruitlessly.

“And I’ve been terrible to you, Brendon. I know I ha ve, and Ryan helped me see that I shouldn’t blame you for something you have no control over. Really, I just wish that you could forgive me and I could have my best friend back. Because even if we can’t be together, I still want you in my life.” She finished with a big burst of air. “Yeah, that’s it.”

Brendon stared at her, still unable to speak.

“I’m just going to let you ponder all that,” Lindsey continued. “I know that you’ll probably need some time to think about it. So I’m gonna go now. I’m pretty sure that you and Ryan will be wanting some privacy anyway.” And without another word, she turned and walked out the door, leaving Ryan alone with a very stunned, very quiet-looking Brendon.

“I’m sorry,” Ryan said. “I should have told you sooner, but she’s right, I didn’t want to mess things up with you. I don’t have the best track record with relationships, and I couldn8 0t bear losing you. And it sucked not being with you.”

“It was only like three days,” Brendon pointed out, but his eyes were cautious and his words seemed testing.

“I don’t care. I don’t want to not be with you. You’re kind of….I’m sort of…Yeah…” he stuttered. “You’re important to me.”

“Yeah?” Brendon asked a little timidly. “So you weren’t just using me as a part of a scheme that you and Lindsey cooked up?”

Ryan actually laughed at Brendon’s question. “That’s ridiculous. Is that what you thought? Oh, Brendon.”

“Hey, she’s done some pretty crazy shit,” Brendon reminded. “And sometimes I just couldn’t believe that you’d actually want to be with me. So, of course, I thought it was too good to be true.” His words were careful, but Ryan could see his posture soften as he moved closer to Ryan.

“You give me too much credit. If anything, I’m lucky to have you,” Ryan admitted, blushing.

Brendon grinned, and Ryan let out an internal sigh of relief. “You’re a secret romantic, Ryan Ross. You didn’t get me flowers, did you? Is there a horse drawn-carriage waiting for us outside?”

“Shut up.” Ryan blushed. “There’s no carriage, but if you kiss me right now, I’m pretty sure that’ll be cliché enough.”

“Fine,” Brendon relented, “but I’m expecting you to serenade me later or something. I’m really letting you off way easy.”

“Brendon,” Ryan warned, but Brendon just smiled and kissed him.

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