Dead End Love - Chapter Seven
Title: Dead End Love - Chapter Seven
Pairing: Pete/Patrick
Rating: Whatever cursing is....
Summary: The hardest part is trying to conquer the inner demons. (Post!Logos.)
Notes: The tone seems to cut down a bit, but lighten back up in places
Dedications: To Petrick, my
glorious beta. To Brandie, my favorite PxP writer right now. To Jubey,
who currently has just gone through surgery (<3 you tons Sugah!) And
to all you faithful readers, commenters and lurkers! I <3 you guys!
=D
Drama Status: This has humor and some serious aspects.
“Gee, I’m really sorry your mom blew up, Ricky. Doctor said she’ll be okay she just can’t have any spicy foods for a while.”
“Was it Thai?”
“No, Mexican.”
Patrick just stopped what he was doing and looked over at Andy, he
never called Patrick that unless he was in a really foul mood. Andy
unceremoniously dropped the bags on the card table and tossed the keys
onto the counter. It seemed like his vibe was clearly sending out
special shock waves to all three of us by the way Joe moved away. It
looked like Andy had an invisible lightsaber in his hand and it was
aimed directly to neuter him.
Patrick, ironically enough, seemed to be the only person who may have
picked up on Andy’s vibe, but chose to ignore it to keep the mood
light. He laughed a little belatedly, and motioned for him to sit down.
Huh, I guess if I could reach, I’d flip my ‘Fake It’ switch located
somewhere on my back out of reach.
“You in the mood for poker?”
Okay, so I was trying to help things out too, sometimes he’s really
poor at hiding what’s on his mind. This would be just the thing to help
him maneuver around it without actually making it seem like he was
intentionally avoiding the conversation. If it ever came to that…
“Strip. Poker.”
There goes Joe adding in that strip part to it. I think he really does
want to see us naked. And he says he’s not into guys, especially since
he’s got a cute little robot girlfriend. That little liar. That’s okay.
I’ll give him a show all right.
Andy just stiffened when Joe said it. There’s some sort of tension
going on, not sure what though unless.... Nah, Andy’s not into Joe like
that. And dude, Joe’s totally not gay. The Birdcage scarred him for
life, which was in fact my fault….
“We can play something else.”
Patrick had a sweet suggestion, I think he picked up on Andy’s not
wanting to play that. Aww, I was kinda hoping for some extra action.
Then he moved a little in his chair, the wince flashed across his face.
His knee must be bothering him. Did he even take his pills today? I’d
completely forgotten to ask.
“Yes, he took them, Pete.”
I looked up toward Andy. His gaze was fixed on me for a moment,
something hard in his eyes reflecting my half worried ones. I couldn’t
figure out what he was thinking. In a moment that look disappeared,
something more gentle taking its place. Even his features softened as
if he was trying to dismiss his mood. I don’t know if anyone else saw
the change except me though.
“Dinner’s getting cold.”
He headed towards the bathroom, not looking at us again.
“Aren’t you going to eat?”
“I’m not hungry anymore.”
With that, he shut the door and there was silence amongst us. Joe was
the first to dig stuff out. Apparently he seemed to dismiss anything
about Andy. I for one, was concerned. I might have been the only one to
catch that look, but I wasn’t going to just let it go. When it comes to
Andy, he’s more private than the rest of us, and I do respect it
because we have that distinct understanding. But if he can’t trust me
enough to tell me, then it must be something that involved me.
We ate mostly in silence while we waited for Andy to come back. He was
always for the Oriental stuff. Mostly because you can eat a lot of
stuff without meat and it still tastes good. I remembered that one time
I tried this veggie burger and it was so nasty. Kind of reminded me of
the boiled bacon from Better Off Dead, except that burger wasn’t blue and green and just all around nasty.
Patrick gave me a weird look, before speaking up about how long it was
taking Andy. The water wasn’t running, so he couldn’t be taking a
shower. Joe suggested he had to take a shit. It does NOT take a guy
fifteen minutes to go to the bathroom no matter who tells you. I
suggested we just leave Andy to his plot devices and we should clean
up. Joe was quick about agreeing with me on the idea.
Joe took care of the un-eaten boxes and put them in the fridge. He
pursued for a washcloth to clean up the table, Patrick took care of the
forks and spoons we used. Andy was the one who used chopsticks so we
just left them on the counter. As soon as we had moved the
chopsticks from their original spot on the counter, Andy emerged from
the bathroom. Joe averted his eyes and kept his mouth shut. For a
record of maybe two minutes.
“You sure you don’t want to play strip poker?”
This time Andy didn’t stiffen like before. He looked directly at Joe
before going to the fridge. He didn’t say anything. I don’t think he
needed to. Whatever he did in the bathroom kept him in check when he
came back out. Thing was, I have no idea what his secret is. He
certainly didn’t have that look like you do when you get off in the
bathroom, plus his clothes were the same when he came back out. Maybe
he just really needed to pee…
“Why are you so fixated on strip anything lately?”
His voice was flat and kind of muffled because the door was open and he
was leaning in to get the rest of the boxes we had JUST put away. He
shut the door and moved to get the chopsticks. When his hands couldn’t
reach, he turned and leaned to reach better.
Joe didn’t answer at first, and I felt myself looking over at Joe with
the same look Patrick probably had on his face. Really, Joe wasn’t into
guys, but why all of a sudden the interest in stripping games? It made
no sense, especially to me. I know Joe well enough to know he doesn’t
prefer guys at all. And the strip thing… yeah it got me curious as hell
too. I still haven’t forgotten his joke about the orgy in the
ambulance.
“Fine, we’ll play regular poker.”
Joe mumbled his response. He grabbed a pen and started doodling on the
piece of paper that was sitting atop the Phase Ten Dice tin box. He
didn’t look over at Andy, even as he sat down next to him. There was
tension all right. A lot of it. The kind you could see, but you can’t
tell what kind of tension it is.
“Hey, Andy, why don’t you chill here tonight?”
He probably just needed a break from Joe. Seriously, even I would want
to get out if I had to share an apartment with him for too long.
Luckily, Patrick and I mesh so well that it’s not an issue for us.
“I just spent the afternoon on your couch.”
“Fuck my couch. Use my bed.”
He looked over at me and I gave him a half grin and a wink, he did
laugh though. He should know me by now that I just don’t invite anyone
to my bed. You need special VIP access to get in there. Andy could use
it, I was planning on staying in Patrick’s room anyway. It was our
ritual until the wee hours of the morning, so it wouldn’t be a problem.
“How can I say no to that?”
“Um let’s see…”
“Don’t continue on with that thought.”
I pouted for a brief moment before he cocked a smile at me. That was
the Andy grin I was looking for. I knew I could make him smile! Boo and
yah. Three cheers for sweet… uh… smiles…
Joe grumbled under his breath after Andy was finished with dinner.
Mostly because the three of us unanimously agree he could do the
cleaning up. My only reason was just because it amused me to watch him
grump about it. Patrick played around with the deck of cards before he
started shuffling. When Joe sat back down, he dealt us each our hands.
So our game of poker started.
At some point in the later half of the evening, I just hit my extra
weird side as they’ve so dubbed the ‘Wendy.’ Sometimes I’d wear my
little crown, sometimes I can’t explain my extremely weird mood. I
think it was because I ended up telling lame jokes, bad stories… and on
occasion some good ones. Like this one:
“I was hit by a car once…” “Did you DIE!?”
Joe cracked up. And the best part about reciting those two lines, it
always got Joe to laugh hard enough to have anything he just drank to
come back out. In his case it was orange soda. That has GOT to sting,
possibly far worse than that time he was trying to gargle salt water
for a sore throat. Sometimes, I can be such a bastard.
“You never get tired of that that story, do you?”
I laughed and held up my hand to Andy and waved my cards before putting them out for them to see.
“Heck no. It just won me this round.”
Which was true. Patrick and Andy were smart enough to fold. Joe just
exposed his hand and well since he was too busy laughing, we couldn’t
continue on with the next round. But that was okay, we were four guys
who were just having one hell of a poker night.
I think it was almost 9 AM when we finally quit. Joe just couldn’t see
the cards without complaining that the numbers were blurry. Andy looked
like he was half-awake and still ready to keep on going for another
hour or two. Patrick had gone to bed about an hour and a half ago
before we called it quits completely. That’s okay, we’ll do this again
sometime… and I’ll get my pants back…. Eventually…
You can find the previous chapters here:
Chapter Six
Chapter Five
Chapter Four
Chapter Three
Chapter Two
Chapter One
Pairing: Pete/Patrick
Rating: Whatever cursing is....
Summary: The hardest part is trying to conquer the inner demons. (Post!Logos.)
Notes: The tone seems to cut down a bit, but lighten back up in places
Dedications: To Petrick, my
glorious beta. To Brandie, my favorite PxP writer right now. To Jubey,
who currently has just gone through surgery (<3 you tons Sugah!) And
to all you faithful readers, commenters and lurkers! I <3 you guys!
=D
Drama Status: This has humor and some serious aspects.
“Gee, I’m really sorry your mom blew up, Ricky. Doctor said she’ll be okay she just can’t have any spicy foods for a while.”
“Was it Thai?”
“No, Mexican.”
Patrick just stopped what he was doing and looked over at Andy, he
never called Patrick that unless he was in a really foul mood. Andy
unceremoniously dropped the bags on the card table and tossed the keys
onto the counter. It seemed like his vibe was clearly sending out
special shock waves to all three of us by the way Joe moved away. It
looked like Andy had an invisible lightsaber in his hand and it was
aimed directly to neuter him.
Patrick, ironically enough, seemed to be the only person who may have
picked up on Andy’s vibe, but chose to ignore it to keep the mood
light. He laughed a little belatedly, and motioned for him to sit down.
Huh, I guess if I could reach, I’d flip my ‘Fake It’ switch located
somewhere on my back out of reach.
“You in the mood for poker?”
Okay, so I was trying to help things out too, sometimes he’s really
poor at hiding what’s on his mind. This would be just the thing to help
him maneuver around it without actually making it seem like he was
intentionally avoiding the conversation. If it ever came to that…
“Strip. Poker.”
There goes Joe adding in that strip part to it. I think he really does
want to see us naked. And he says he’s not into guys, especially since
he’s got a cute little robot girlfriend. That little liar. That’s okay.
I’ll give him a show all right.
Andy just stiffened when Joe said it. There’s some sort of tension
going on, not sure what though unless.... Nah, Andy’s not into Joe like
that. And dude, Joe’s totally not gay. The Birdcage scarred him for
life, which was in fact my fault….
“We can play something else.”
Patrick had a sweet suggestion, I think he picked up on Andy’s not
wanting to play that. Aww, I was kinda hoping for some extra action.
Then he moved a little in his chair, the wince flashed across his face.
His knee must be bothering him. Did he even take his pills today? I’d
completely forgotten to ask.
“Yes, he took them, Pete.”
I looked up toward Andy. His gaze was fixed on me for a moment,
something hard in his eyes reflecting my half worried ones. I couldn’t
figure out what he was thinking. In a moment that look disappeared,
something more gentle taking its place. Even his features softened as
if he was trying to dismiss his mood. I don’t know if anyone else saw
the change except me though.
“Dinner’s getting cold.”
He headed towards the bathroom, not looking at us again.
“Aren’t you going to eat?”
“I’m not hungry anymore.”
With that, he shut the door and there was silence amongst us. Joe was
the first to dig stuff out. Apparently he seemed to dismiss anything
about Andy. I for one, was concerned. I might have been the only one to
catch that look, but I wasn’t going to just let it go. When it comes to
Andy, he’s more private than the rest of us, and I do respect it
because we have that distinct understanding. But if he can’t trust me
enough to tell me, then it must be something that involved me.
We ate mostly in silence while we waited for Andy to come back. He was
always for the Oriental stuff. Mostly because you can eat a lot of
stuff without meat and it still tastes good. I remembered that one time
I tried this veggie burger and it was so nasty. Kind of reminded me of
the boiled bacon from Better Off Dead, except that burger wasn’t blue and green and just all around nasty.
Patrick gave me a weird look, before speaking up about how long it was
taking Andy. The water wasn’t running, so he couldn’t be taking a
shower. Joe suggested he had to take a shit. It does NOT take a guy
fifteen minutes to go to the bathroom no matter who tells you. I
suggested we just leave Andy to his plot devices and we should clean
up. Joe was quick about agreeing with me on the idea.
Joe took care of the un-eaten boxes and put them in the fridge. He
pursued for a washcloth to clean up the table, Patrick took care of the
forks and spoons we used. Andy was the one who used chopsticks so we
just left them on the counter. As soon as we had moved the
chopsticks from their original spot on the counter, Andy emerged from
the bathroom. Joe averted his eyes and kept his mouth shut. For a
record of maybe two minutes.
“You sure you don’t want to play strip poker?”
This time Andy didn’t stiffen like before. He looked directly at Joe
before going to the fridge. He didn’t say anything. I don’t think he
needed to. Whatever he did in the bathroom kept him in check when he
came back out. Thing was, I have no idea what his secret is. He
certainly didn’t have that look like you do when you get off in the
bathroom, plus his clothes were the same when he came back out. Maybe
he just really needed to pee…
“Why are you so fixated on strip anything lately?”
His voice was flat and kind of muffled because the door was open and he
was leaning in to get the rest of the boxes we had JUST put away. He
shut the door and moved to get the chopsticks. When his hands couldn’t
reach, he turned and leaned to reach better.
Joe didn’t answer at first, and I felt myself looking over at Joe with
the same look Patrick probably had on his face. Really, Joe wasn’t into
guys, but why all of a sudden the interest in stripping games? It made
no sense, especially to me. I know Joe well enough to know he doesn’t
prefer guys at all. And the strip thing… yeah it got me curious as hell
too. I still haven’t forgotten his joke about the orgy in the
ambulance.
“Fine, we’ll play regular poker.”
Joe mumbled his response. He grabbed a pen and started doodling on the
piece of paper that was sitting atop the Phase Ten Dice tin box. He
didn’t look over at Andy, even as he sat down next to him. There was
tension all right. A lot of it. The kind you could see, but you can’t
tell what kind of tension it is.
“Hey, Andy, why don’t you chill here tonight?”
He probably just needed a break from Joe. Seriously, even I would want
to get out if I had to share an apartment with him for too long.
Luckily, Patrick and I mesh so well that it’s not an issue for us.
“I just spent the afternoon on your couch.”
“Fuck my couch. Use my bed.”
He looked over at me and I gave him a half grin and a wink, he did
laugh though. He should know me by now that I just don’t invite anyone
to my bed. You need special VIP access to get in there. Andy could use
it, I was planning on staying in Patrick’s room anyway. It was our
ritual until the wee hours of the morning, so it wouldn’t be a problem.
“How can I say no to that?”
“Um let’s see…”
“Don’t continue on with that thought.”
I pouted for a brief moment before he cocked a smile at me. That was
the Andy grin I was looking for. I knew I could make him smile! Boo and
yah. Three cheers for sweet… uh… smiles…
Joe grumbled under his breath after Andy was finished with dinner.
Mostly because the three of us unanimously agree he could do the
cleaning up. My only reason was just because it amused me to watch him
grump about it. Patrick played around with the deck of cards before he
started shuffling. When Joe sat back down, he dealt us each our hands.
So our game of poker started.
At some point in the later half of the evening, I just hit my extra
weird side as they’ve so dubbed the ‘Wendy.’ Sometimes I’d wear my
little crown, sometimes I can’t explain my extremely weird mood. I
think it was because I ended up telling lame jokes, bad stories… and on
occasion some good ones. Like this one:
“I was hit by a car once…” “Did you DIE!?”
Joe cracked up. And the best part about reciting those two lines, it
always got Joe to laugh hard enough to have anything he just drank to
come back out. In his case it was orange soda. That has GOT to sting,
possibly far worse than that time he was trying to gargle salt water
for a sore throat. Sometimes, I can be such a bastard.
“You never get tired of that that story, do you?”
I laughed and held up my hand to Andy and waved my cards before putting them out for them to see.
“Heck no. It just won me this round.”
Which was true. Patrick and Andy were smart enough to fold. Joe just
exposed his hand and well since he was too busy laughing, we couldn’t
continue on with the next round. But that was okay, we were four guys
who were just having one hell of a poker night.
I think it was almost 9 AM when we finally quit. Joe just couldn’t see
the cards without complaining that the numbers were blurry. Andy looked
like he was half-awake and still ready to keep on going for another
hour or two. Patrick had gone to bed about an hour and a half ago
before we called it quits completely. That’s okay, we’ll do this again
sometime… and I’ll get my pants back…. Eventually…
You can find the previous chapters here:
Chapter Six
Chapter Five
Chapter Four
Chapter Three
Chapter Two
Chapter One