TheThreshold.10
Title: The Threshold.
Summary : The most popular boy in school walks through the door of a local shop. In the time it takes for him to walk back out, he's done something that will drastically change his entire world.
Author :
burgerking. I claim nothing but the story itself!
Rating : PG-13.
Author's Notes : There are still about four chapters left. Jesus, I'm sorry this is taking so long.
01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09
When Pete awoke the next morning, there were a few frantic seconds of confusion as he struggled to understand where he was. He could have sworn he felt someone shaking him, but who would be in his room so early in the morning? He blinked, trying to rid himself of the sleep that still blurred his vision. Had he always had blue bed sheets? Another blink.
“Patrick?”
In utter bewilderment, Pete squinted up at the blonde towering over him. Patrick bit his lip and smiled affectionately.
“Hey Pete,” he said softly, brushing the dark bangs from his friend’s eyes, “You awake?”
“Yeah…” Pete mumbled, as he sat up and took a few slow glances around the room. Finally, a smile crept onto lips. Oh yes, he remembered now… and the memory filled his stomach to the brim with butterflies.
“You should go soon,” Patrick said. He reached over the edge of his bed to retrieve the nearest baseball cap (which he then placed atop his sleep-tangled hair) and watched in surprise as Pete merely sank back down to the mattress and pulled up the covers.
“Five more minutes,” he demanded, once the blankets were covering his face. Patrick pulled them back down again.
“No way. Maybe that stuff works on your mom, but not here.” He gave the smaller boy a shove. “You’ve gotta get home and let your parents know that you weren’t kidnapped or something.”
“Cell phone,” came Pete’s simple response. The covers went up again. And then back down.
“I’m serious, Pete.”
Up. Down.
“Pete.”
Up. Down.
“Peter Lewis Kingston Wentz!” Patrick snapped, hands on his hips.
“The Third,” Pete added, unfazed. Patrick did his best to glare ferociously.
The covers went up.
Patrick cursed under his breath and stood from the bed. “I have a lot to do today, y’know,” he said loudly, as he opened the shades on his window. “And it’s all your fault, too.” He looked over his shoulder at the bed, and right on cue, Pete peeked out at him.
“What’s that mean?”
“That means I have to tell my parents that I’m not going to college,” said Patrick as he returned to his bed, “Or at least not the one I was planning on. And I should probably tell the college that, too.”
“Higher education is overrated,” Pete murmured; Patrick rolled his eyes before giving him another shove, one that sent him falling to the floor with a little yelp.
“So. Are you leaving yet?” Patrick asked with a smirk as he peered over the side of the bed. Pete glowered from his spot on the floor, but didn’t make any attempt to move.
“I could just sleep down here, you know.”
“What is it that you want?” inquired Patrick. “You wouldn’t be putting up such a fight if you didn’t want something.”
“True,” remarked the other. He got up onto his knees and folded his arms on the bed. His eyes met Patrick’s. “Kiss me off?” he asked.
Patrick laughed. “Ah, no.”
“Really?” Pete raised his eyebrows. “Why not?”
“Because I have a boyfriend,” replied Patrick, slightly annoyed.
“Seriously?” Pete finally stood up.
“Uh, yes.”
“…Even after the whole fight at Joe’s place?”
“Honestly, Pete, would I make this up?”
“You might. I mean, you did just cancel all of your plans on my account, so…”
“Don’t push it,” Patrick warned him, “I’m not about to let you mess up something else in my life.”
Pete frowned, genuinely hurt by this. “Alright, I get it,” he said, backing up to the doorway. In the back of his mind, he wondered why the door was open; Hadn’t it been shut the night before? “Um… Bye, Trick.”
“I’ll see you around, Wentz.”
The two nodded their goodbyes, and Pete vanished as if he had never been there at all.
Once the other boy was gone, Patrick slumped back onto the mattress and wondered why he kept letting Pete slip through his fingers - sabotage, perhaps? He sighed and cast a weary glance at his nightstand.
His cell phone was there, blinking, silently indicating that there was a new message waiting for him. He cocked his head to the side, curiosity piqued. Who would have called him? It was still only morning.
He reached out to grab the phone, and - after putting on his glasses - he read the diminutive screen carefully. New call from Joe, it said. He frowned.
Six hours and three phone calls later, Patrick found himself spinning idly in Joe’s computer chair. Joe was across the room, watching, and doing his damnedest not to smile. After all, he’d called Patrick over for a very serious discussion.
It had been difficult for Patrick to get out of his house that day; his parents were absolutely horrified to hear that he’d changed his college plans. To escape the nearly inevitable lecture, he’d poured the brown-nosing on extra thick, insisting that people with grades as good as his were sure to get accepted into whatever college they wanted - and besides, maybe if he took some time before continuing his education, he’d be able to make a better decision. Eventually, reluctantly, they agreed to let him make his own choices.
His first choice? Explain to his boyfriend that he’d just changed his life on the whim of another boy.
Sabotage, indeed.
But he still hadn’t told Joe about his change of plans - in fact, he really hadn’t done anything but spin in the boy’s chair. He was beginning to feel a bit nauseous.
“Patrick!” Joe suddenly barked.
Patrick quickly dug his heels into the carpet and the chair came to an abrupt stop, nearly throwing him out of it. He smiled, barely able to see Joe in the mess of colour that was swimming past his eyes. “Yes?” he replied.
“Come on, we have to talk. …I know that Pete was at your house last night.”
“Ohh,” Patrick said, as he slouched against the chair, half out of worry and half out of dizziness. “Okay. Well, Pete’s at my house a lot of nights.” A pause. “Wait, that just made things worse, didn’t it?”
Joe crossed his arms in front of his chest and relentlessly stared Patrick down. “He left Andy’s place to find you after I told him that you were leaving.”
“You told him?” echoed Patrick, attempting to turn the tables.
“I’m not done yet,” said the other, monotonously. Patrick bit his tongue. “Anyway,” Joe went on, “Later that night I stopped by your house to see how things had turned out. Your mom let me in, she said she thought that you and Pete were in your room, and that I could go right in and say hi.”
“Heh, she’s quite a lady, isn’t she?” remarked Patrick, who was suddenly feeling rather warm. Maybe he should open a window…
“That’s not the point,” groaned Joe, “The point is, I went to your room and I saw you two, Patrick. If it was me who had gone to your house, you would have yelled at me - but you slept with Pete!”
“Wait, wait!” gasped Patrick, “I didn’t sleep with him! I mean, I did, but that’s all that I did. Sleeping. That’s it! I didn’t even mean for it to happen.”
Then it seemed as if time had stopped, if only in Joe’s room. Sure, the sounds of the streets were pouring in through the walls, but for a rather long time, neither boy moved or spoke.
“It’s over,” Joe suddenly breathed. Patrick blinked several times, certain that he was dreaming. “You can have Pete. Whatever. It’s over.”
“But I’m telling the truth,” Patrick insisted desperately. He stood. “You know that I wouldn’t lie! You can trust me!”
“Actually, I can’t,” said Joe, a bit uncomfortably. “But I know who I can trust.”
Patrick scowled. “You’re going to talk to Pete.”
“Yep.” Joe stood now, too. “In fact, I think I’ll get right on that.” He turned and began walking down the hallway. Patrick followed behind.
“Don’t, Joe, please? I don’t want this to go any further than it already has. I’ll do anything - I’ll even join your stupid band.”
“Don’t call it stupid,” Joe said airily, as if that were the worst of his worries. He was at the front door, now, and he turned to face Patrick. “I’m not doing this to get back at you, Trick. It’s not, like, a punishment. I just need to talk to Pete and make sure that you’re telling me the truth.” He stepped outside.
“But… are you still breaking up with me, then?”
“Well, yeah.” A few more steps toward his car.
“Why?”
“Because I know perfectly well that this is exactly what you want.” He shrugged, and got into the car. Patrick didn’t argue any more after that, and not because Joe was already leaving; but because he was absolutely right.
“…And so I broke up with him, about an hour ago.”
Now it was Pete’s turn to discuss the night’s events with Joe, although he seemed to be reacting much better to it than Patrick had. Throughout Joe’s entire explanation of how he’d stumbled upon the two in bed, Pete simply nodded and even smiled here and there.
“I feel kinda bad that you broke up with him on my account,” Pete said truthfully. “I mean, we didn’t really do anything. He didn’t even kiss me.”
“Really?” Joe looked down at his hands, which were folded neatly in his lap. “Well… I guess he wasn’t lying, at least.”
“Ah, Patrick wouldn’t lie to you. He holds you in high regards, man.” Joe looked up again.
“Not as much as you, though.”
“No?”
“No.” Joe shook his head. “He’s been in love with you for the longest time.”
Pete propped his head up in his hands, his elbows on the mattress. “Get outta here,” he muttered in disbelief.
“It’s funny that none of us believe each other today,” Joe said, grinning. “I’m being 100% serious, though.”
“Then why did he ask you out?”
“He didn’t. I asked him.”
Pete narrowed his eyes. “Okay. Then why did you ask him out?”
“I don’t know. I wanted to protect him, I guess? You’ve gotta understand, we’re always getting pushed around by the popular kids. I didn’t want you to, like… change him. I didn’t want him to become the kind of person that we all hate.”
With a frown, Pete replied, “I’m not like that.”
“I know that now,” Joe said, rolling his eyes. “I know that you’re a decent human being. Sometimes.” Pete smirked. “And I know that you’ve got that crazy poetic side to you, which is comforting. …I guess that if you and him decide to get together, I’ll be okay with that, because you two make each other so damn happy. It’d be disgusting if it wasn’t so cute.”
Pete laughed and nodded graciously to the other. “Well, I’m glad I have your blessing… Will you be escorting your daughter, Patrick, on our wedding day?”
“Of course!” Joe said, forcing his smile into a pseudo-scowl. “But boy, you’d better have a Jewish wedding.”
“Huh. I was thinking of just having it in Vegas.”
“Oh, okay, that’s good too.” Pete snickered and held his hand up for a high-five. Joe complied. “So what are you waiting for, anyway? Aren’t you going to go talk to him? You can take my car, if you want.”
Pete nodded and replied, “Thanks, dad.”
And so, some time later - maybe it was fifteen minutes, maybe a half hour, Pete really didn’t know - he arrived, once again, at Patrick’s door.
“Hey,” the older boy greeted him, sounding surprised but pleased, “What are you doing here?”
Pete grinned. “I believe you owe me something from this morning.”
Summary : The most popular boy in school walks through the door of a local shop. In the time it takes for him to walk back out, he's done something that will drastically change his entire world.
Author :
burgerking. I claim nothing but the story itself!Rating : PG-13.
Author's Notes : There are still about four chapters left. Jesus, I'm sorry this is taking so long.
01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09
When Pete awoke the next morning, there were a few frantic seconds of confusion as he struggled to understand where he was. He could have sworn he felt someone shaking him, but who would be in his room so early in the morning? He blinked, trying to rid himself of the sleep that still blurred his vision. Had he always had blue bed sheets? Another blink.
“Patrick?”
In utter bewilderment, Pete squinted up at the blonde towering over him. Patrick bit his lip and smiled affectionately.
“Hey Pete,” he said softly, brushing the dark bangs from his friend’s eyes, “You awake?”
“Yeah…” Pete mumbled, as he sat up and took a few slow glances around the room. Finally, a smile crept onto lips. Oh yes, he remembered now… and the memory filled his stomach to the brim with butterflies.
“You should go soon,” Patrick said. He reached over the edge of his bed to retrieve the nearest baseball cap (which he then placed atop his sleep-tangled hair) and watched in surprise as Pete merely sank back down to the mattress and pulled up the covers.
“Five more minutes,” he demanded, once the blankets were covering his face. Patrick pulled them back down again.
“No way. Maybe that stuff works on your mom, but not here.” He gave the smaller boy a shove. “You’ve gotta get home and let your parents know that you weren’t kidnapped or something.”
“Cell phone,” came Pete’s simple response. The covers went up again. And then back down.
“I’m serious, Pete.”
Up. Down.
“Pete.”
Up. Down.
“Peter Lewis Kingston Wentz!” Patrick snapped, hands on his hips.
“The Third,” Pete added, unfazed. Patrick did his best to glare ferociously.
The covers went up.
Patrick cursed under his breath and stood from the bed. “I have a lot to do today, y’know,” he said loudly, as he opened the shades on his window. “And it’s all your fault, too.” He looked over his shoulder at the bed, and right on cue, Pete peeked out at him.
“What’s that mean?”
“That means I have to tell my parents that I’m not going to college,” said Patrick as he returned to his bed, “Or at least not the one I was planning on. And I should probably tell the college that, too.”
“Higher education is overrated,” Pete murmured; Patrick rolled his eyes before giving him another shove, one that sent him falling to the floor with a little yelp.
“So. Are you leaving yet?” Patrick asked with a smirk as he peered over the side of the bed. Pete glowered from his spot on the floor, but didn’t make any attempt to move.
“I could just sleep down here, you know.”
“What is it that you want?” inquired Patrick. “You wouldn’t be putting up such a fight if you didn’t want something.”
“True,” remarked the other. He got up onto his knees and folded his arms on the bed. His eyes met Patrick’s. “Kiss me off?” he asked.
Patrick laughed. “Ah, no.”
“Really?” Pete raised his eyebrows. “Why not?”
“Because I have a boyfriend,” replied Patrick, slightly annoyed.
“Seriously?” Pete finally stood up.
“Uh, yes.”
“…Even after the whole fight at Joe’s place?”
“Honestly, Pete, would I make this up?”
“You might. I mean, you did just cancel all of your plans on my account, so…”
“Don’t push it,” Patrick warned him, “I’m not about to let you mess up something else in my life.”
Pete frowned, genuinely hurt by this. “Alright, I get it,” he said, backing up to the doorway. In the back of his mind, he wondered why the door was open; Hadn’t it been shut the night before? “Um… Bye, Trick.”
“I’ll see you around, Wentz.”
The two nodded their goodbyes, and Pete vanished as if he had never been there at all.
Once the other boy was gone, Patrick slumped back onto the mattress and wondered why he kept letting Pete slip through his fingers - sabotage, perhaps? He sighed and cast a weary glance at his nightstand.
His cell phone was there, blinking, silently indicating that there was a new message waiting for him. He cocked his head to the side, curiosity piqued. Who would have called him? It was still only morning.
He reached out to grab the phone, and - after putting on his glasses - he read the diminutive screen carefully. New call from Joe, it said. He frowned.
Six hours and three phone calls later, Patrick found himself spinning idly in Joe’s computer chair. Joe was across the room, watching, and doing his damnedest not to smile. After all, he’d called Patrick over for a very serious discussion.
It had been difficult for Patrick to get out of his house that day; his parents were absolutely horrified to hear that he’d changed his college plans. To escape the nearly inevitable lecture, he’d poured the brown-nosing on extra thick, insisting that people with grades as good as his were sure to get accepted into whatever college they wanted - and besides, maybe if he took some time before continuing his education, he’d be able to make a better decision. Eventually, reluctantly, they agreed to let him make his own choices.
His first choice? Explain to his boyfriend that he’d just changed his life on the whim of another boy.
Sabotage, indeed.
But he still hadn’t told Joe about his change of plans - in fact, he really hadn’t done anything but spin in the boy’s chair. He was beginning to feel a bit nauseous.
“Patrick!” Joe suddenly barked.
Patrick quickly dug his heels into the carpet and the chair came to an abrupt stop, nearly throwing him out of it. He smiled, barely able to see Joe in the mess of colour that was swimming past his eyes. “Yes?” he replied.
“Come on, we have to talk. …I know that Pete was at your house last night.”
“Ohh,” Patrick said, as he slouched against the chair, half out of worry and half out of dizziness. “Okay. Well, Pete’s at my house a lot of nights.” A pause. “Wait, that just made things worse, didn’t it?”
Joe crossed his arms in front of his chest and relentlessly stared Patrick down. “He left Andy’s place to find you after I told him that you were leaving.”
“You told him?” echoed Patrick, attempting to turn the tables.
“I’m not done yet,” said the other, monotonously. Patrick bit his tongue. “Anyway,” Joe went on, “Later that night I stopped by your house to see how things had turned out. Your mom let me in, she said she thought that you and Pete were in your room, and that I could go right in and say hi.”
“Heh, she’s quite a lady, isn’t she?” remarked Patrick, who was suddenly feeling rather warm. Maybe he should open a window…
“That’s not the point,” groaned Joe, “The point is, I went to your room and I saw you two, Patrick. If it was me who had gone to your house, you would have yelled at me - but you slept with Pete!”
“Wait, wait!” gasped Patrick, “I didn’t sleep with him! I mean, I did, but that’s all that I did. Sleeping. That’s it! I didn’t even mean for it to happen.”
Then it seemed as if time had stopped, if only in Joe’s room. Sure, the sounds of the streets were pouring in through the walls, but for a rather long time, neither boy moved or spoke.
“It’s over,” Joe suddenly breathed. Patrick blinked several times, certain that he was dreaming. “You can have Pete. Whatever. It’s over.”
“But I’m telling the truth,” Patrick insisted desperately. He stood. “You know that I wouldn’t lie! You can trust me!”
“Actually, I can’t,” said Joe, a bit uncomfortably. “But I know who I can trust.”
Patrick scowled. “You’re going to talk to Pete.”
“Yep.” Joe stood now, too. “In fact, I think I’ll get right on that.” He turned and began walking down the hallway. Patrick followed behind.
“Don’t, Joe, please? I don’t want this to go any further than it already has. I’ll do anything - I’ll even join your stupid band.”
“Don’t call it stupid,” Joe said airily, as if that were the worst of his worries. He was at the front door, now, and he turned to face Patrick. “I’m not doing this to get back at you, Trick. It’s not, like, a punishment. I just need to talk to Pete and make sure that you’re telling me the truth.” He stepped outside.
“But… are you still breaking up with me, then?”
“Well, yeah.” A few more steps toward his car.
“Why?”
“Because I know perfectly well that this is exactly what you want.” He shrugged, and got into the car. Patrick didn’t argue any more after that, and not because Joe was already leaving; but because he was absolutely right.
“…And so I broke up with him, about an hour ago.”
Now it was Pete’s turn to discuss the night’s events with Joe, although he seemed to be reacting much better to it than Patrick had. Throughout Joe’s entire explanation of how he’d stumbled upon the two in bed, Pete simply nodded and even smiled here and there.
“I feel kinda bad that you broke up with him on my account,” Pete said truthfully. “I mean, we didn’t really do anything. He didn’t even kiss me.”
“Really?” Joe looked down at his hands, which were folded neatly in his lap. “Well… I guess he wasn’t lying, at least.”
“Ah, Patrick wouldn’t lie to you. He holds you in high regards, man.” Joe looked up again.
“Not as much as you, though.”
“No?”
“No.” Joe shook his head. “He’s been in love with you for the longest time.”
Pete propped his head up in his hands, his elbows on the mattress. “Get outta here,” he muttered in disbelief.
“It’s funny that none of us believe each other today,” Joe said, grinning. “I’m being 100% serious, though.”
“Then why did he ask you out?”
“He didn’t. I asked him.”
Pete narrowed his eyes. “Okay. Then why did you ask him out?”
“I don’t know. I wanted to protect him, I guess? You’ve gotta understand, we’re always getting pushed around by the popular kids. I didn’t want you to, like… change him. I didn’t want him to become the kind of person that we all hate.”
With a frown, Pete replied, “I’m not like that.”
“I know that now,” Joe said, rolling his eyes. “I know that you’re a decent human being. Sometimes.” Pete smirked. “And I know that you’ve got that crazy poetic side to you, which is comforting. …I guess that if you and him decide to get together, I’ll be okay with that, because you two make each other so damn happy. It’d be disgusting if it wasn’t so cute.”
Pete laughed and nodded graciously to the other. “Well, I’m glad I have your blessing… Will you be escorting your daughter, Patrick, on our wedding day?”
“Of course!” Joe said, forcing his smile into a pseudo-scowl. “But boy, you’d better have a Jewish wedding.”
“Huh. I was thinking of just having it in Vegas.”
“Oh, okay, that’s good too.” Pete snickered and held his hand up for a high-five. Joe complied. “So what are you waiting for, anyway? Aren’t you going to go talk to him? You can take my car, if you want.”
Pete nodded and replied, “Thanks, dad.”
And so, some time later - maybe it was fifteen minutes, maybe a half hour, Pete really didn’t know - he arrived, once again, at Patrick’s door.
“Hey,” the older boy greeted him, sounding surprised but pleased, “What are you doing here?”
Pete grinned. “I believe you owe me something from this morning.”