Three Phantoms of You [bxb]

Too Much to Unpack

Kiev:

Wake up.

I say as I try to shake Nolan by the shoulders, hoping he'll get awakened from whatever bad dream he's in.

He's sweating like a child who's been asked by his mom to stay in line at the grocery store while she gets something. Yeah, that's about right. I don't even know what he's dreaming about; however, I can tell how terrifying it is from how he looks.

I usually like seeing him all sweaty and panting, but not in this way.

"Kiev?" he asks as he finally opens his eyes.

Nolan is nonetheless shocked to see me and pushes me away as if he just saw a ghost. What's his problem? Trauma much?

I sit in the space beside the bench, waiting until he calms down. It took about a couple minutes before he did, and he finally glanced at me horridly. "Honestly, what the fuck did you even dream about?" I ask. "I'm not a ghost. God, stop looking at me like that."

He probably realized how concerned I'm getting as he attempted to relax his body more and look at me less scared but rather somber. "Yeah, sorry. Just a bad dream," he assures.

I burst into a laugh even though I tried to keep it in, and he looks at me confused. "Dude, in public? Good thing you texted me," I say.

"I didn't," he answers, confused; however, I wouldn't be caught lying to him, so I showed him my phone, screening our conversation.

Asshole: I'm at the park
Asshole: meet me

He examines it for a few seconds before handing it back to me. "And so I did?" he questions, uncertain.

I shrugged because that isn't necessarily what I came here for. I came here for answers.

We were walking out of our last class together when I received his text. Odd, especially since Nolan was with me.

I tried telling him about it, and he forced me to go, which is why I'm here in the first place. He didn't bother coming, though, because he said that the other him wouldn't probably come out if he saw him.

"I know who you are," I say.

I probably worded it wrong with the way he looks at me. "Me?" he asks.

Goddamn it. I don't really know how I'm going to confront him about all of this, yet I need to. I mean, I did manage to bring the other Nolan into this without problem, so I shouldn't worry about how this would work out.

"I meant like-Look, I know you're not Nolan," I start. "There can only be one of you, and somehow there are two."

It doesn't really make any sense at all. I just want him to confess to me straight up; however, I received the opposite of it.

"No." What?

He takes my hands with his, looks down, and sighs as if it's a sign of sincerity. "I'm the same Nolan. And yeah, I know this is really weird right now, but fuck it, I'll explain to you," he says.

I'm nothing more than Confucius confused at the moment as I wait for his explanation. God, this better not be bullshit because I'm tired. "I'm warning you now that it's kind of not normal. Uh, so don't freak out, okay?"

Nolan finally looks up to me with eyes full of conviction as I give him a simple nod, hoping I'll try to be as understandable as I can, like just him when I told him about all this earlier.

"So, you know, there are like three versions of the same people here in the world. We call them phantoms, and each one is assigned their own role. All three can't interact with each other, but one phantom can see one of his, which is the phantom in the spectating. Are you getting it?" he cuts and asks me.