The Only Difference Between Brent Wilson and Jon Walker Is the Name

Jon’s jaw dropped. How could Patrick have figured it out? He obviously hadn’t thought that Patrick was smart enough to figure it out, but then, only Ryan had figured it out so far.

“What the fuck, Pete?” Brendon glared at the bassist.

“Hey, don‘t look at me, I didn‘t say anything!” Pete held his hands up in defence.

“I’ve been thinking it for a while.” Patrick said before Brendon or Spencer could retaliate. “The way you were acting and everything, and with Brent just disappearing off the face of the planet-”

“He did stay in touch.” Ryan interjected. “He sent texts.”

“Yeah, but Brent just upped and left. Even for Brent, it was weird. And it was just a guess for a few weeks. When Pete said that he wanted to come up here, I wanted to come along to talk to you.”

“Please, Trick, don’t tell anyone.” Jon said, pleading to the shorter man.

Patrick shook his head. “I wouldn’t. As I said, I just want to talk.” He asked how it had happened, when it had happened, how they had all reacted to it. Jon answered them all truthfully, knowing Patrick, being Patrick, wouldn’t breathe a word of any of it to anyone, not even under torture.

“Wow.” Patrick said at the end. “I never knew it was like that.” Then he turned to Pete. “And you, how the fuck did you not even tell one person about this?” Pete blushed, looking away from him. And that got Jon’s attention. He looked at Pete’s guilty face and something clicked in his mind.

“Pete, please tell me you didn’t…” He said, willing Pete to look him in the eye. “Not them, please…”

Pete was silent for a moment. “They said they were worried about you, that you had been acting differently.” He half whispered.

“No…” Jon shook his head, looking down.

“It just came out, I’m so sorry Jon, I really didn’t mean to.” Pete continued, looking up at Jon, an apologetic look on his face.

“No, that’s the thing Pete, you never do!” Jon snapped, standing up. He looked furious. “You told Tom and Bill and they’ve practically been ignoring me for the last month! I told you not to tell anyone, and you couldn’t even fucking do that right!” He shouted.

“Jon, I said I was-”

“Don’t even…” Jon shook his head. “Don’t say it, Pete.” He ran out of the cabin, slamming the front door on the way.

“For fucks sake Pete, he asked one thing from you, one fucking thing!” Ryan shouted before running out after Jon.

He looked over and saw the hire car still there, next to the car Pete and Patrick must have used, so that meant Jon was probably just in the forest somewhere. So that narrowed it to a few acres. He sighed and started off in a random direction. He had his cell on him, if Brendon or Spencer wanted to call him, they could. But if Pete tried to call him, he would have to try not to throw the phone at the nearest tree.

He ran through the trees, calling out Jon’s name. He tried calling him, but there was no answer. He didn’t even know if Jon had his phone with him. He kept running, kept calling Jon, kept shouting out his name.

He had been searching most of the day and he knew that the sun would be setting soon. It was about 10 at night and he hadn’t eaten for hours, and he knew Jon hadn’t either. He knew that Brendon or Spencer, or even Patrick if he and that traitor were still there, would have told him if Jon had returned to the cabin.

He decided he’d have to head back soon, he’d spoken to Brendon about 4 hours ago, but he hadn’t spoken to Brendon or Spencer since then. He was going to make one detour to by the lake, somewhere he hadn’t checked yet, then head back to the cabin to get Brendon and Spencer out searching too.

He kept shouting Jon’s name, his voice now hoarse from shouting for hours. He walked down the sand, the darkness almost upon the forest. Then he heard a splash. He squinted and saw a figure, standing near the water, throwing rocks in.

“JON!” He shouted, running towards the figure. About 20 feet away, he stumbled. “Ooph!” He hit the floor and just covered his face before he got a mouth full of sand. He laid there, his ankle painful, eyes closed. Then he felt a hand on his back, then trying to help him up.

“Are you ok Ry?” Jon asked. Ryan looked at him and nodded. He sat up, but he winced as he moved his leg and ankle. “What did you do?”

“It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.” Ryan told him. “It’s not you who should be asking if I’m ok, it should be me asking you.”

Jon sighed, looking across the water. “It was one thing, just one thing I asked him to keep to himself, but him and his big fucking mouth-”

Ryan put his hand on Jon’s shoulder, making him stop mid sentence. “Jon, today has been the only time I’ve seen you snap like that since you’ve been Jon.” He said gently, trying to get his words right.

“When you were Brent, you were angry so much, you fought about anything, and when you had fights with Brendon or Spencer… sometimes, I thought that one of you would start throwing punches, that someone would end up in A & E.” Ryan paused.

“I…” Jon stopped and looked at him, and Ryan looked right into his eyes.

“It used to scare me.” Ryan whispered.