Few good things came out of high school, in Ryan's case. There was a small amount of education, sure, particularly in English class when he learned to organize his generally god-awful writing sometime, or in the A/V club where he got to get out of class thirty percent of the time just to take pictures of other people actually being productive. To be fair, he did actually learn a lot about cameras and equipment and building a piece like the yearbook, but it was still mostly a waste of his time, something to put on a college application or a resume. He wasn't particularly sporty, either, although he did occasionally join in on games outside of P.E. class just to avoid going home (and he wasn't that great). Mostly, though, he attributed his survival to one person rather than any club or extracurricular, and that was Brendon.
Ryan wasn't totally reliant on other people, and in fact tried to stay away half the time, so his first three years of high school were spent going between friend groups or dodging calls from whatever individual was trying to befriend him that quarter. He wasn't anti-social, not necessarily. It's just that he generally didn't have the patience, and sometimes he was sure people had no idea what they were getting themselves into; his home life was chaotic, his identity was pretty against-the-grain in all aspects, and he was usually apathetic to what was going on in other peoples' lives. None of these were particularly good makings of a friend. When he was in his senior year, however, and the best candid he'd ever taken was conveniently starring Brendon, he kind of clocked all their similarities instantaneously.
Not that Brendon was obvious about himself, necessarily. Ryan wore tiny gauges, for fuck's sake, he knew what obvious looked like, but Brendon was the sort of confused that he felt kind of bad for, and he eventually almost forcibly began to associate with him. Accidentally ending up walking alongside him in the halls, taking photos for the yearbook constantly, et cetera. He did eventually just straight up ask to be friends, which worked out pretty well in the end, 'cause Ryan's tiny crush came to fruition and they managed to start dating before graduation where everything would just get harder. They lasted through that, too, though, luckily enough. Sometimes Ryan let himself get carried away in the belief that they'd be legitimately long-term - not just a couple months, like most people, but they could last until a real anniversary, or something.
As much as he liked to think about that, it was probably unlikely or at least a very difficult goal to reach, all things considered. Something made them both incredibly awkward around one another. Ryan had always thought himself to be comfortable with his own identity, but putting it all into practice with another person proved much more difficult than he expected; Brendon seemed to be the same, though Ryan wasn't sure he'd ever been comfortable with it. Actually, he didn't know a lot about how Brendon felt. He wasn't closed off at all, but it was just a subject they'd subconsciously decided not to discuss, or something. Anyway, that was the beginning; it was getting much better lately, particularly since graduation. Neither one of them had to force initiation anymore. Their kisses weren't so offset and short-lived. Ryan could actually look at him when they were talking about anything romantic, so on and so forth.
With that in mind, when he got a Snapchat from Brendon just saying 'meet me,' his thoughts didn't immediately jump to negatives. Flipping through his story while on the way over, though, pretty lackluster compared to usual and without any cheery captions, he started to worry. Ryan practically smelled Desert Shores before he saw the lakes at all and wished they lived anywhere but Nevada so that they had a little more variety, but alas. The docks along Lake Jacqueline were about all that sufficed in reasonable driving distance. He checked his phone again and opened the new notification from Brendon, his lips twitching up knowingly at the picture of the water, and he wandered on over to Brendon's part of the docks. The place was eerily quiet around now and the sky, indigo-purple and just as lonely feeling, barely illuminated his boyfriend; nevertheless Ryan didn't have to search much for him at all. In fact, in an effort to be super ultra funny, Ryan took a picture of Brendon from a distance and sent it to him.
Ryan dropped down into a pretzel just beside the water, barely acknowledging Brendon at first while he batted at it a little. He thought better of touching some probably bacteria-infested waters real quick, instead wondering how to ask if something was wrong without sounding annoying. He didn't bother. "Hey, Bren," he said, trying to keep his voice soft for the sake of blending with the environment around them. "Everything okay?"
Ryan wasn't totally reliant on other people, and in fact tried to stay away half the time, so his first three years of high school were spent going between friend groups or dodging calls from whatever individual was trying to befriend him that quarter. He wasn't anti-social, not necessarily. It's just that he generally didn't have the patience, and sometimes he was sure people had no idea what they were getting themselves into; his home life was chaotic, his identity was pretty against-the-grain in all aspects, and he was usually apathetic to what was going on in other peoples' lives. None of these were particularly good makings of a friend. When he was in his senior year, however, and the best candid he'd ever taken was conveniently starring Brendon, he kind of clocked all their similarities instantaneously.
Not that Brendon was obvious about himself, necessarily. Ryan wore tiny gauges, for fuck's sake, he knew what obvious looked like, but Brendon was the sort of confused that he felt kind of bad for, and he eventually almost forcibly began to associate with him. Accidentally ending up walking alongside him in the halls, taking photos for the yearbook constantly, et cetera. He did eventually just straight up ask to be friends, which worked out pretty well in the end, 'cause Ryan's tiny crush came to fruition and they managed to start dating before graduation where everything would just get harder. They lasted through that, too, though, luckily enough. Sometimes Ryan let himself get carried away in the belief that they'd be legitimately long-term - not just a couple months, like most people, but they could last until a real anniversary, or something.
As much as he liked to think about that, it was probably unlikely or at least a very difficult goal to reach, all things considered. Something made them both incredibly awkward around one another. Ryan had always thought himself to be comfortable with his own identity, but putting it all into practice with another person proved much more difficult than he expected; Brendon seemed to be the same, though Ryan wasn't sure he'd ever been comfortable with it. Actually, he didn't know a lot about how Brendon felt. He wasn't closed off at all, but it was just a subject they'd subconsciously decided not to discuss, or something. Anyway, that was the beginning; it was getting much better lately, particularly since graduation. Neither one of them had to force initiation anymore. Their kisses weren't so offset and short-lived. Ryan could actually look at him when they were talking about anything romantic, so on and so forth.
With that in mind, when he got a Snapchat from Brendon just saying 'meet me,' his thoughts didn't immediately jump to negatives. Flipping through his story while on the way over, though, pretty lackluster compared to usual and without any cheery captions, he started to worry. Ryan practically smelled Desert Shores before he saw the lakes at all and wished they lived anywhere but Nevada so that they had a little more variety, but alas. The docks along Lake Jacqueline were about all that sufficed in reasonable driving distance. He checked his phone again and opened the new notification from Brendon, his lips twitching up knowingly at the picture of the water, and he wandered on over to Brendon's part of the docks. The place was eerily quiet around now and the sky, indigo-purple and just as lonely feeling, barely illuminated his boyfriend; nevertheless Ryan didn't have to search much for him at all. In fact, in an effort to be super ultra funny, Ryan took a picture of Brendon from a distance and sent it to him.
Ryan dropped down into a pretzel just beside the water, barely acknowledging Brendon at first while he batted at it a little. He thought better of touching some probably bacteria-infested waters real quick, instead wondering how to ask if something was wrong without sounding annoying. He didn't bother. "Hey, Bren," he said, trying to keep his voice soft for the sake of blending with the environment around them. "Everything okay?"