Folie

Act III, Scene 4

In the midst of the crowded audience, Brendon caught a glimpse of the grading committee in front of the booth. Separated from everyone else, they seemed to rise above the house floor, supreme magistrates whose high judgement had the power to make or break Brendon's degree. Everyone around them disappeared as he focused on the committee, the anxiety building upwards, threatening to drown him once again...

"Baby, it's okay. You'll do great," the voice said as Brendon felt a hand on his shoulder.

It really amazed him how much of an effect Dallon had over him.

"Thank you, Dally. I needed that," Brendon replied, offering a thankful smile.

"Anytime."

"God, I'm so nervous," they could hear Patrick say as he walked towards them, Joe and Pete in tow, "by the way, I still think it's pretty cool they asked you to do two performances and even moved you to the main stage. Isn't that kind of unusual for a thesis performance?"

"Yeah," Brendon blushed, "the theater department kind of really likes me."

"They love you," Dallon corrected, "because they know how great you are."

"Definitely," Patrick agreed, and Pete and Joe nodded in agreement.

"We're all pretty great," Brendon said, "we're going to kill this performance!"

"Fuck yeah!" Pete shouted, and the others hurriedly shushed him.

"And," Brendon added, turning to Patrick, "don't worry about it. I'm nervous too. Just take that anxiety and channel it into your character. Channel all your emotions into him. You'll do great, I know it."

"Places everyone!" Spencer called on stage.

Brendon and Dallon kissed each other good-bye and wished everyone luck before they went to their places.

"You'll do great, lunchbox," Pete said as he hugged Patrick, then went to his place.

"I believe in you, 'Trick," Joe agreed, and placed a kiss on his cheek, "see you on stage."

Patrick felt his eyes begin to well, overwhelmed with the love and friendship that surrounded him.

---

No greater sound exists to a performer than the sounds of applause and accolades after toiling over their work for months. The roars of the audience cheering, the words of thanks the performer receives from each patron, the stories about how the fruits of the performer's labor changed a person's life - this is what every artist lives for.

As the sounds of raucous cheers filled the theater, Brendon, surrounded by his friends as they bowed for the final curtain call, couldn't help but begin to sob. For the first time in awhile, though, tears of joy, not anxiety, flowed down his face.

After the curtain call, one of the committee members, Brendon's favorite directing professor, ran onto the stage and took Brendon into his arms

"Brendon, that was astounding! That was professional-level work, right there! I have never before seen a student single-handedly put on such a large work with such quality! Congratulations!" he shouted.

"Thank you so much, professor. Does this mean I passed the thesis?"

"Passed? You exceeded the entire rubric! You did a lot more than pass. And you two!" he exclaimed, turning to Patrick and Pete, who were standing nearby, "I know you're not theater students, but you need to make a career writing musicals, with this man directing them!"

Brendon began to cry again, and immediately felt embarrassed, but how could he help feeling emotional at a time like this?

"It was a great honor having you study here, Brendon, thank you," the professor said, and left to rejoin the committee.

After he left, Dallon, Patrick, Pete, and Joe, all took Brendon into a group hug.

"You did great, Bren," Dallon said, kissing the top of his head.

"Thank you, but I can't take all the credit. You all did so great too. Thank you so much," Brendon replied, "and also, what was that during the intermission, Patrick? Like, damn that was good. I'm glad Pete insisted I add in that song, even if it was at the last minute," he said, feigning annoyance.

"Well, after that weird night us three had, I just felt inspired, what can I say?" Pete responded.

"Yeah, I need to be more careful around you, Pete. I can see what Patrick meant every time he would say that with you, any of our words could be used against us in one of your poems," Brendon laughed.

"What was the song called, again?" Dallon asked.

"'Young and Menace'," the other four responded.

"Right, right. Well, should we go to the cast party now?" Dallon asked, turning to Brendon.

"Sure, but actually, could I ride with you, Pete? I just wanted to ask you something. You're cool with that, right Dallon?"

Both agreed to the plan, and Dallon left. Before Patrick and Joe turned to go, Patrick reminded Brendon about his composition recital the next week, then they left as well, leaving Pete and Brendon alone.

"Hey, so, I realized that we never really talked about the kiss we had like, a month ago now. I just got so distracted with school and the musical and everything, and I'm really sorry about that."

"It's okay, I was kind of avoiding talking about it, just because the whole thing kind of confused me."

"Yeah, it wasn't expected. Well, look, I wanted to be honest. I think you kind of figured this out anyway, seeing as how Dallon and I are kind of dating now-"

"Yeah," Pete chuckled, "that did help clear some things up."

"I was really vulnerable and in pain," Brendon continued, "and you were being so nice and I confused validation with attraction-"

"Hey, it's okay. You don't have to explain," Pete interrupted, "I kind of have to admit something to you too. I finally realized why I was so confused all semester - with you and with Patrick. It's because I'm ace."

At first, Brendon didn't respond, as he processed Pete's words. Then, in the flash of a lightbulb, everything about Pete suddenly made sense.

"Oh! That explains so much!"

"It does?" Pete asked. They were now outside, in front of Pete's car.

"Yeah. I don't really know how to explain it, it's just, suddenly all the things I've noticed about you over our friendship make sense now. Well, this is a relief! Now we both don't have to feel bad about the kiss."

They both laughed at this as they got into Pete's car, and then Pete spoke again.

"Well, now that that shit's sorted out, wanna' go to this party?"

A/N: Lowkey forgot to close things off between Pete and Brendon about their kiss, so I edited Act II, Scene 9 in addition to writing in this scene between Pete and Brendon. Lol oops.

Also, next chapter is the last one for this book, making this my first complete fanfic and my first completed chapter story. Thank you all so much for reading this! I just wanted to announce that in addition to the Peterick mystery I'm writing next, I'm also going to start writing a Brallon story too. Hopefully, I can do both at the same time, lol, but we'll seeeee... Keep a lookout for them!