Imagine Knowing Him (Ryden)

Chapter 23

"Yes, daddy." I say sarcastically and he blushes embarrassedly. I smirk to myself and then make my way to the shower.

-

When I'm done, I dress up hurriedly and go to the front door to put on my shoes. Brendon comes to kiss me goodbye.

"I love you, no matter what." He says. What is going on with him today? I brush it off since, I'm in a rush. "I love you too, see you tonight. Can't wait." He chuckles and gives me one last peck on the lips.

Frantically, I look at my watch, I got 20 minutes, perfect. I run to the elevator. The taxi cab is already waiting for me. After I tell the driver the address to the studio, he takes off.

I got like 10 minutes till I'm there, so I take out a neatly folded paper from my back pocket and unfold it, revealing the lyrics I wanted to read.

When the Day Met the Night

I wrote that song a couple of weeks ago, after Brendon and I confessed our love for each other for the first time. He is my sun and I am his moon. It just felt right to write this dedicated to him. Obviously, it's gonna be on the next album, but I haven't showed it to anyone yet, not even Spencer.

Hopefully, today will be a good day for this, because we're nearly done with the album. See, that's how much Bren means to me, even in the good times with Dan, I literally never thought about writing a love song about him, I think I always knew something was off about him.

But Bren's different, I feel everything with him. I want him around every single second of the day. I should finally ask him to move in with me! I'm gonna do this tonight!

I arrive at the studio and pay the driver. As I step in the building I brace myself for what's about to come. What could this emergency meeting be about?

-

"So, guys, I really didn't want to scare you with the emergency meeting and not telling you what it is about, I just wanted to see your shocked faces when you arrived." Joe snickers to himself. Haha, Joe. When he recognizes no one laughs with him, he abruptly stops. "Kidding. Anyways, there really happened something, but it's not too bad. We got a couple of posts from yesterday night. I heard you got pretty shitfaced?"

We all look at each other kind of embarrassed, but it certainly isn't the first time that happened, we just never really had a meeting about it. I'm wondering if something worse happened than that creepy guy that hit on me. "Well, I heard about a little fight outside the club." My eyes widen. What?! Who got involved in a fight? But right as I finish that thought, I already know the answer. Pete. I look at him to see him looking at Joe, kind of unimpressed.

"That son of a bitch was hitting on my girl!" he starts to defend himself. Oh, Pete. "And he was punching me, so I just punched back, okay?" Well, kind of understandable, but I'm not Pete, I wouldn't have hit back.

"I'm not saying this to punish you in any way, Pete. I'm honest I would have done the same, and you are rock stars, so we can handle it. I just kindly suggest to keep it down the next time, okay? You're nearly done with the album and we wouldn't want bad publicity so shortly before it. After, you can do what you want, right?" Joe finishes his monologue. He is right though our release date is in one month. We all mumble an okay and then we sit in silence.

I take that opportunity to tell the guys, that I have something written for the last song we need for the record. They all look kinda relieved, because it solves some problems we have had lately. "But I need to finish some of the last lyrics to make it round. Oh, and I have a melody already as well, so tomorrow morning? To show it to you and record it? You will love it, it's definitely gonna make the album." I say confidently. They agree and then we part ways.

It's just about 3pm, so I ask Spence to come over to mine. "I wanted to show you the song. It's actually already done, I just wanted to show you without pressure first, before presenting it to the rest." I tell him sheepishly.

"Well, yea, I have to tell you something as well." He says, kind of uncomfortable. What could it be? "Okay, I have some pop tarts at home by the way. Just bought them for you." I say, while smiling genuinely. He tries to smile back, but it seems forced. I look confused at him and we walk quietly until we arrive at home.

Bren's of course already gone, so we go into the kitchen and I hand Spin the pop tarts. "So, what do you wanted to tell me?" I ask slightly anxious, because Spencer is a very direct person and now he starts to stutter. "Oh, er.. you can go first with the song." As if, when he behaves like this, I wanna know what's the matter immediately. "No, Spin, tell me. You're acting weird and that already since I met you in the studio. What's going on?" I say sternly, looking Spencer straight in the eyes.

He sighs loudly. "Fine, it's not about me actually, but since you haven't told me yet, I figured he haven't either. I know you would have told me, soo.. And I couldn't hold it from you, because I know how important it is for you and you deserve to know..." he starts to ramble and I still have no clue, what the hell he is talking about. "Spencer. I don't even know where you're going with that. Just tell me. What's wrong? Who are you talking about?" That's definitely not a normal Spencer James Smith behaviour, so what does that mean?

"I'm talking about Brendon." The confusion of my mind grows. "Bren? I can't exactly follow." I look at Spencer expectantly. "He's hiding something from you. Something that might change your mind about him. You know, there were also pictures from you and him posted yesterday. And some people commented."

He unlocked his phone to show me the website with the photo of us leaving the club his arm around my shoulder and me leaning in to whisper in his ear. I don't recall that scene. "It's not that bad." I say dismissively. "Ryan, I know you usually don't check your social media, but look at the comments." I take a look at the comments, over a thousand, but that's not unusual, neither are the comments where people call me Baby or Smol Bean or confess their love. But then I recognize some comments about Brendon, apart from the Who the hell is he and what does he think? comments, there are some others.

"Isn't that Brendon Urie? Fan #1?!"

"Wow, Bren, your dream coming true, finally Ryan's!"

"Cinderella story"

"How long was he stalking Ry for that to happen?"

I'm confused, what are they talking about? "Spence, what does that mean?" I ask him, not understanding a thing. "Ry, don't you get it? Brendon knew you before, he pretended to not know you, so that you would believe he likes you for you." I hear faint glass break inside of my chest, I guess that was my heart. "What?" I ask, still not fully comprehending what Spence just showed me. "I did some research, he has a ton of fan accounts, was on all our concerts and literally loves you since mySpace times."

I feel nauseous and my knees are getting weak. No, this cannot be true. My Brendon? My boyfriend? My everything? My sun? "H-hold on, these people have to be wrong! He wouldn't do this to me! He loves me and he knows it was important for me for him to not know me!" I try to defend him, it just must be a lie, there has to be a misunderstanding. Bren didn't know me before, he told me a couple of times. "Ryan, I'm sorry..." "NO!" I scream into Spencer's face. He looks kind of shocked, but also understanding. Lies, lies, lies. I have to talk to Brendon, he will solve everything. He will tell me these people were making a mistake. "I'm gonna talk to him." Spencer looks at me sympathetically. "Are you sure this is-" "Yes it is!" I take my jacket and put on my shoes. I can't take Spin's pity right now and know he will leave after I do. I slam the door without even saying goodbye. In my rush I don't recognize the piece of paper fall out of my back pocket.

BOOM! And it's out. Daaaamn... let's see what happens next. Love ya guys!