Brandon was laying down with Neveah. It was the next day, the afternoon after the open mic night, and everything had been going well. They got to sleepover with Neveah for the night while Sami slept over with Zakk, and he was finally spending some quality time with Neveah, with no worry of her leaving to do schoolwork. For once, he felt like things were falling into place, and he felt at peace. He was holding her close to him while they watched a movie together.
"Isn't this nice, baby?" Neveah gave a big smile as she held onto his arms.
"This is so nice. I'm so glad you convinced me to take a break for my studies."
"It is Saturday, after all." He told her. As they continued watching their movie, there was a knock at the door. Brandon looked over to Neveah as she got up to answer the door.
"Were you expecting anyone?" He asked her. She began to peer through the peephole, then gasped as she opened the door. Brandon's eyes widened and his heart beat out of his chest as he saw who walked in as Neveah went in for a large embrace.
"Riley?" Riley let go of Neveah and looked over to Brandon.
"Oh, hey, B! Didn't know you would be here. I guess that means it's the perfect time to tell you." Neveah's face went beat red as she giggled over to Riley.
"Tell me what?" Brandon began to slowly sit up as he braced himself for what Riley was about to say. Riley looked over to Neveah as she began to hold onto his arm.
"Should I go ahead?" He asked.
"Yes!"
"Okay." He looked over to Brandon. "Well, all those days where we were rehearsing together, and she was ignoring you? We were falling hopelessly in love with each other."
"WHAT?!" Brandon began to pull at his hair.
"Riley and I have so much in common, and I was beginning to realize that our love ended in high school. I realized I looked at you as nothing more than a fling."
"Neveah, you don't mean this, do you?" Another knock came from the door, which made Brandon jump. She came walking right into the room, but stopped as she saw what was going on.
"Oh, I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?" It was his mom. Brandon couldn't believe his eyes.
"Mom?" he exclaimed. "How is this possible? You're dead!"
She walked closer to him.
"Anything's possible, Brandon. This is just your subconscious telling you something is wrong. You're experiencing too much stress, and now you're being reminded of everything upsetting you while you're awake and while you're asleep."
Brandon's breathing began to get heavier and heavier, and he felt himself sinking. He was sinking into the bed as Riley and Neveah laughed, and he had his arms around her as he kissed her, and he was sinking and sinking until-
Brandon leaped out of bed, practically sweating as he tried to catch his breath. He grabbed his phone as he looked at the time — 8:30am. He had been out since 2am, but he didn't think anyone had noticed. Neveah was already long gone, something he didn't notice in his exhaustion. Zakk and Sami were still here, sound asleep. As Brandon picked himself up, he could feel the world spinning under him from the hangover he had. He groaned as he put his hand over his head in pain, and squinted as the light came beaming into his eyes. quickly looked down at his phone at a text from Neveah.
Neveah
Had to go back to the dorm to change. We agreed to make an appearance at the TDArts open call, remember? 9:00am, dance hall.
Brandon looked up at the sleeping pair, totally forgetting they had agreed to help. He was wondering how Sami hadn't forgotten, but ignored it for now as he walked over to the pair. In his hangover state, he felt faint as he got up too quickly. He was too nervous to wake Zakk up, which he compared to waking up a sleeping bear, and went for Sami.
"Sami," he whispered as he rocked her shoulder gently. "Sami…" She slowly started to stir awake and looked up at Brandon.
"Brandon? Everything okay?" she asked groggily.
"We have that open call appearance to make in thirty minutes." Her eyes widened as she let herself out of Zakk's grip.
"Crap. I totally forgot." She started rapidly grabbing her stuff as she walked out of the door. "I gotta get ready. I'll meet you there!"
"Wait, what about Zakk?"
"I'm not waking him up." Sami mumbled as she walked out the door, leaving Brandon to do the deed. He sighed as he tried to figure out how to wake him up without unleashing some beast, and thought of an idea. He got his phone out and started blasting the loudest alarm he could find in his alarm list, which startled Zakk right away.
"Shit. It's Saturday. Why the alarm?" He asked. Brandon covered his ears, as his screams were like drills into his brain.
"We have to make an appearance at the open call." Zakk looked at him.
"Ah man, I don't wanna go to that shit," Zakk said.
"Me neither, but we gotta." He sighed as he still sat in the covers. Brandon began to take off his shirt as he looked through the drawers for a clean shirt. He decided on a plain black shirt and put it on as he looked for his sunglasses. If the sun from inside was giving him a massive headache, he didn't want to know what it would feel like outside.
"Dude, what's with the glasses? It's November."
"They make me look cool," Brandon lied.
"You look like an ass."
Brandon sighed as he took the glasses off, knowing he couldn't lie to Zakk.
"I went to a party last night when everyone fell asleep, okay? And I may have drank a little. Well, a lot. And now I have a massive hangover. Your booming voice isn't exactly helping either."
"Aw man, you went to a party and didn't tell me?" Zakk asked.
"Not the point. Just please don't tell Neveah, okay?"
"Why, did you do something you regret?" he asked. "Cause Neveah's my friend too and I won't hesitate to beat the shit out of you."
"No," Brandon said. "I don't know how she feels about me drinking, and I don't want her to think I had tried to escape. So let's just keep this on the down-low, okay?"
"Fine. Can you throw me a shirt and some pants?" Brandon pulled out one of Zakk's drawers and looked for the first two things he could find, and threw them over to him. Zakk got up and walked over to their bathroom.
"I'm gonna take an Advil and meet you there. Promise you won't be late," he said as he got up.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll make it," Zakk said from the bathroom before peeking his head out.
"Hey, man?" Brandon stopped to listen to him.
"Yeah?"
"If you don't want Neveah to know you were drinking, you might wanna brush your teeth. Your breath stinks."
Brandon walked into the bathroom and started the process in their tiny dorm bathroom. It was a small bathroom, just a sink and a toilet. If they wanted to shower, they had to go to the communal washrooms. He took some mouthwash after a minute of brushing and rinshed and spit for a bit. After grabbing his Advil, a half-empty water bottle from the floor, as well as his keys and wallet, he walked out the front door.
He eventually made it to the dance hall with minutes to spare. Neveah and Sami were there waiting for him and Zakk, who hadn't arrived yet.
There was a line of hopeful contestants practically going out the door.
"If only they knew the psychological impact this show has had on us," Brandon told them.
"Speak for yourself, I was on two seasons," Sami said. They all laughed as Neveah looked over to Brandon and kissed him.
"I'm sorry I didn't wake you, you just looked so cute while you were sleeping," she said as he wrapped her in his arms. "Hey, why are you wearing sunglasses?"
"It was just a little bright out this morning."
"We're inside now, let me take them off for you."
She began reaching over to his face.
"Noooo, I want to keep them off-" Brandon tried not to react to the pain in his eyes when he saw the bright light around him.
"Those are some beautiful eyes you have," she said as she kissed him. As they let go, Zakk came running over.
"Where is the prick? Figured he'd get to us by now."
"Who?"
Before Zakk could answer, they heard the doors behind them open up. The Chris McClean was standing behind them, smiling.
"Hey, there you are!" He paused as he gave them a thinking face, then looked down at his hand. "Sami, Zakk, Brandon, and Neveah." He put his hand behind his back and gave a fake smile.
"You forgot our names, didn't you?" Brandon asked.
"Not the point," Chris says. "We've got fifty losers here who want to be on season 4-"
"-I can't believe the show even got a season 4-" Zakk muttered. Chris decided to ignore this.
"Just go in there, smile, say something positive about your time in Total Drama, then go. Capisce?"
The four of them nodded as they followed Chris back into the dance room. The crew waved and put on their happy faces as the aspiring teens and young adults auditioning for Total Drama Arts cheered for them. They could recognize a few people from their classes as they looked around.
"As a special treat and motivation for your auditions today, please join me in welcoming four of our alumnus from Total Drama Arts!" The four smiled as waited for the crowd to calm down before Chris looked back at them. "Say, what words of wisdom do you have for these contestants who want to sink their teeths into this game?"
Neveah stepped up first.
"Be yourself, and find some great allies you can trust," she said.
"Don't be afraid to stab a bitch in the throat, metaphorically speaking, of course," Zakk said. He added the last part after Sami gave him a look.
"Recognize when other people are putting on a persona when talking to you," Sami said. Brandon was at a loss of words when it was his turn.
"Oh, uh…" He chuckles. "I guess don't vote the wrong person out. Sorry again, Sami."
"It's okay." She says back to him awkwardly. Sami and Brandon laugh with each other.
"But hey, even if you don't win, we do have a pretty great life post-Total Drama!" Neveah explained. Chris walked up in front of them and began to shoo the four away.
"Yeah, yeah, there we have it, folks. Mediocre advice from mediocre contestants!"
As he escorts them away, the four of them begin to wave, and they can hear Chris murmur, I knew I should have called one of the winners, before bringing them outside of the dance hall. There were no thank yous, just a door slamming shut on their faces. Chris got right back into business as soon as the doors closed behind them.
"Well, that was fast," Sami said.
"We woke up early for that?" Zakk exclaims.
"Are you surprised?" Neveah said to him. Zakk shrugged his shoulders.
"Well… what now?" Sami asked. Brandon looks over to Neveah.
"Do you have any plans?" He asks her.
"I cleared my whole afternoon for this," she said to him. "Do you want to go somewhere?"
"I would love nothing more than-" As Brandon smiles at her, her phone begins to ring and she answers it. Brandon's heart starts beating.
"Hello?" She pauses as she listens to someone speak with her on the other line, and has a shocked look on her face after they speak. "You're joking." She pauses again as she listens. "That really stinks. No, I'll be right over. I'll see you soon. Bye." She hangs up the phone and looks upset as she turns herself to Brandon.
"Everything okay?"
"We have this big mid-term project due soon and our files were compromised," she informed him. "I have to go see Riley and re-record some stuff. It'll probably take all day." Brandon knew this moment had to be too good to be true. He put on a brave face.
"Maybe we can see each other tonight." Neveah didn't have much of a hopeful look on her face.
"I'll text you, okay? I have to go get my stuff. I love you!" She kissed him goodbye and began to run off, leaving Brandon with Sami and Zakk.
"Dude, you can't catch a break," Zakk said bluntly. Sami punted him in the arm.
"Do you want us to hang out with you?" she asks.
"I'm gonna go back to bed," Brandon told her. "I'm getting tired."
Sami felt bad, as she could sense that he was feeling down about this.
"Text us later if you wanna meet up, all right?" Zakk says. "I'm going over to Sami's."
"Sounds good," Brandon says.
The three of them begin their walk, with Brandon going to his dorm alone. When he reaches his dorm, he unlocks the door and climbs straight into bed, hoping he can forget the entire morning as he drifts back to sleep.