Mediocrity 50% [Brallon: Deja Vu, Book 1]

6.5

Dallon was up unusually early for a late September weekend. Typically, Ry had gotten up much earlier before him, but today was not one of those cases. It was Ry's birthday today and he had taken off work. Sometimes he had real estate showings on the weekends. Dallon was in a stellar mood that morning, but he did feel a twinge of guilt for waking up his best friend on a morning when his alarm had purposely not been set. It was almost 10:30, though, and Dallon had planned some birthday shenanigans that were scheduled to happen in about an hour.

Dallon smiled to himself, shook his head, and knocked on Ry's door. "Rise and shine, friend of mine!" He opened the door and took a step inside, leaning on the door frame.

Ry opened an eye. "You're awfully chipper this morning. What did you and Pete do that you're trying to cover up? And feel the need to hide from me, the person most likely to bail you out of jail."

Dallon rolled his eyes. He did feel exceptionally light that morning, no longer teetering on the edge of a depressive cliff. It was his best friend's birthday and Brendon had acknowledged that he and Dallon were indeed friends, dispelling some of his self doubt and insecurity. He'd accumulated it while feeling somewhat left out, with everyone migrating into pairs. Introversion sometimes had its cons. But with this new development, feeling accepted, how couldn't he feel something close to happiness?

Plus, it was Ry's birthday and Dallon was determined to be a good friend today. He hadn't felt like a very good best friend lately, just a drain on Ry's mental health.

"Happy birthday." Dallon's tone posed it like a question.

"Did we switch overnight? Are we in a different dimension? Are you the extrovert now?" Ry asked, sitting up and pushing away the covers on his bed. Dallon chuckled, smiling at him.

"I scheduled something with our friends, by the way. For your birthday. It's not anything super big, but still. I'm getting us all together for your birthday." Dallon added.

"Yep. It's official. You're me now. We switched." Ry said matter of factly. "That's good, by the way. Thank you. You've been struggling for a while now, I can tell. It's a good step forward for you to do something that's not sleeping."

Dallon didn't say anything in reply. He hadn't meant to make it that obvious. He especially didn't want Ry to worry about anything on his birthday. He was good today, though, and he would keep being good. He couldn't guarantee Ry tomorrow, but today he would try for his sake.

They were going to hang out at the diner that Dallon, Pete and Patrick often went to, grabbing lunch. Dallon had said that after that, Ry could decide to do whatever he wanted. He wanted them all to go to the bowling alley later too, just to commemorate some memories. The last time they had been to the bowling alley in town was when they had all met for the first time. Dallon, Ry, and Spencer had used to go there in high school and whenever they were all home from college as well. They had stopped over these past few years, but it was odd to think that they were so close to having seen each other before meeting. A lot of things had changed since then. Brendon had more acknowledged friends now. Back then, he hadn't expected to grapple so much with who he trusted and who he wanted to trust.

Brendon had been surprised to see Dallon organizing the meetup. He was so introverted. And quick to blame himself for anything that went wrong, Brendon thought, thinking about Dallon's first reaction to Spencer trying to get them to talk at the art show. It did make sense, with Dallon's personality, to step out of his shell for Ry's sake, however.

He and Dallon had been texting each other one on one almost everyday now, since the night of the art show; conversations upon conversations. He hadn't known that Dallon used to write anything and everything. Songs, vignettes, short stories. It was interesting to see him so creative. Dallon had promised to show him some old stuff he was embarrassed of from late high school after some coercion on Brendon's part.