After All, I'm Your Secret Admirer~!!

Ch23 - Ring-a-Ling

A/N

chapter has mentions of suicidal thoughts! please be safe!

END A/N

Paige wakes up around 12. His phone is ringing.

He reaches out and grabs it, rubbing his eyes before reading the caller ID.

It was Brandon!

Paige scrambles to answer. "Hello!?" he shouts. "Brandon?"

"Hey man," Brandon greets. He sounds... sad? "Um... can I come over? I wanna talk."

"Of course!" Paige says immediately.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Leaf asks.

"YES," Paige thinks back. "I am not about to stop Brandon from visiting after last night! Maybe he'll actually want to talk to me and I can fix everything!"

"...Maybe."

"Cool," Brandon says. "I'll be over in a bit, okay?" And with that, the line goes dead.

+++

Paige waits downstairs on the couch, staring at the door. When it finally clicks and opens, Paige jumps up.

"Hey," Brandon waves, shuffling in. "Hope I didn't take too long."

"No way!" Paige smiles hopefully. "I... I'm happy you came at all!"

"Yeah. About that," Brandon says, looking away and rubbing the back of his neck. "I... I came to apologize for yesterday."

"Does that mean you believe me now?" Paige gasps. "A-about the person in my head? About Leaf?"

"Is that their name?" Brandon asks. "The one who you swapped with? Leaf?"

Paige nods, eyes watery. "Oh my gosh, Brandon. I'm so happy." He sniffs. "I thought I had messed up our relationship forever..."

"What?" Brandon gasps. "Dude, no, don't cry." He sits next to Paige on the couch and gives him a side hug. "It was my fault. I'm the one who didn't believe you." He squeezes Paige's shoulder. "It was a misunderstanding, dude. And I am so sorry about it." He pulls away to look Paige in the eye. "I'll listen to whatever you gotta say about this from now on, okay? Trust."

"Trust," Paige smiles. "So, would you like to meet Leaf properly? There's something they want to say to you."

"What."

"You've gotta say sorry!" Paige insists.

"Oh my god. Fine. Whatever."

"Yeah," Brandon says. "I'd love to hear whatever they've got to say."

Paige nods and then promptly checks out of reality, moving out of the driver's seat. "Go on," he motions, looking at Leaf. "Your turn."

Leaf groans but complies, blinking into reality. "Um," he says in his voice. "Hi."

"You're Leaf I guess, right?"

"Yeah," the other answers. "That's me." He sighs. "I'm sorry. About blowing you off for a week. I wasn't thinking."

"It's..." Brandon murmurs, one cheek filled with air. "It's... alright."

Leaf sighs. "Look, I know you're probably really upset at me right now. 'Cause you think some stranger you don't know took over for your best friend for a week and busted shit up."

"Don't swear!"

Leaf suppresses the want to roll their eyes. "I understand how that's... a lot to take in at once." They look off to the side and grab their arm with one hand. "But... you do know me. Better than you probably think."

"What do you mean?" Brandon asks, looking genuinely interested. It makes Leaf's heart lighten just a bit.

"Well, you see..."

Leaf explains about when the three of them were young, Leaf and Paige would switch out a lot. There were times when Leaf was there that Brandon would be none the wiser, even if someone could straight up tell him. About how when Paige got mean all of a sudden, that was them, not Paige. About how Paige could seemingly go from looking like he was about to fall asleep to being full of energy. That was the two of them swapping with one another.

Leaf even tells Brandon about the fight.

"Did they ever talk about my awesome final hit?" they smirk. "It was an uppercut."

"An..." Brandon's eyes widen. "No way. There's no way... you couldn't have used Bad Brandon's signature uppercut." He shakes his head. "No way."

"Yes way," Leaf nods. "I could never forget that. You saved us so many times with that move."

Brandon is quiet for a long time after that, gears in his head almost visibly turning.

"...I really do know you," he says finally, "I remember like, all those times you mentioned. And... and you know about Bad Brandon." His face contorts. "God damnit. I'm... I'm so sorry for freaking out so badly yesterday."

"Eh," Leaf shrugs. "I can't say I really understand why you immediately jumped to conclusions, but I can understand the actions."

Brandon bites his lip. "I... I thought you were making fun of me."

"Making fun of you?" Paige pushes in, voice returning to its natural tone. "Brandon, why would we be making fun of you?"

Brandon sighs. "How do I look as an older brother telling you about all my issues, huh?" he chuckles a bit.

"Like someone who trusts me to help?" Paige pouts. "Brandon, I tell you everything. It... honestly makes me a little upset that there's something wrong with you and I haven't heard about it yet."

"Oh..." Brandon breathes. "I... I hadn't thought about it like that."

"Well?" Paige prods, bumping into Brandon. "What's eating you? You can tell me anything, Brandon. You know that."

"Yeah..." Brandon smiles a small smile. "I guess I do, huh?" He leans against Paige with a heavy sigh. "You can't freak out when I tell you this, okay?"

"Okay," Paige nods. "Go on."

"Paige..." Brandon mumbles. "Have you ever wanted to kill yourself?"