The World's Not Waiting (For Two Tired Lovers In A Crummy-Ass Apartment Block)(7/?)

Hey Trickster!

Feel like going

Somewhere today?

Your illegitimate best

Friend

P. Pan Xoxo

Patrick looked at his phone sleepily and smiled at the screen.

"Illegitimate best friends huh?" Patrick yawned to himself as he got out of bed. "I like the sound of that way too much."

Patrick loved the way Pete had worded their relationship in such a hot way.

Patrick loved the way Pete put a lot of things.

Patrick loved Pete.

He knew he should be taking Andy's advice and trying to get over Pete and blah, blah, blah, but it was like a diet.

He would start tomorrow.

Apparently they had put on a pretty amazing show two days ago, since Joe had called yesterday to ask Patrick if he was okay, and he could hear Pete being lectured and beaten up by Travis in the background.

He couldn't help but feel a slight pang of guilt for causing Pete so much grief.

But that could have just been the pain from laughing so hard after he put down the phone.

"So, Pete wants to take me somewhere?" Patrick muttered to himself, lying back in his bed and grinning at the ceiling. "I'll bet he's going to make me go see Transformers or something..." and he turned on his side to look at his wardrobe

"What to wear..?" he pondered, gazing at the pile of dirty clothes, all of which would have been more than appropriate, and he wished he'd learned to use the washing machine when he was younger. Somehow, listening to a Smiths record seemed more important all those years ago. It still did now that Patrick thought of it.

He could bet Pete wouldn’t even know what a washing machine is let alone how to work one. But then, he had Kirsten to do all his laundry.

Kirsten.

God, he could bet she was pretty smug now, since her Petey was now safely tucked away from the big bad gay wolf. Well, he wasn't quite hairy or murderous enough to be a wolf. But the sentiment was still there.

Patrick suddenly remembered he needed to answer Pete's text and did so promptly. He wrote:

Sure thing Tink!

Just need to find some

Clean clothes and I’ll

Be over in a sec

Your dirty little secret.

Trick.x

X

Patrick knocked on Pete’s front door and fixed his hat ever so slightly before the door opened and Pete was stood in the gap smiling.

Fuck, he looked good.

He had on a lot of eyeliner and his hair was gelled to perfection. He was wearing a yellow t-shirt and tight black jeans and a studded belt and his hands were in his pockets.

"H-hey," Patrick stammered, then kicked himself mentally for stammering. "All dolled up I see?"

"Yeah," Pete laughed. "I scrub up pretty good when I’m in the mood. You don’t look too bad yourself!”

“Yeah well,” Patrick shrugged. “Plaid shirts get boring after a while.”

“Aw, I like the plaid!” Pete grinned. “You’re like a lumberjack! Only without the potentially fatal weapon and the whole killing trees thing going on.”

“Uh, thanks?” Patrick said unsurely.

They stood silently in Pete's doorway for a second.

“So, how did you get her royal highness out of the house today?” Patrick asked.

“Oh she had to go see her folks about something. I think they’re coming to visit next month.” Pete winced as did Patrick.

“Oh, joy.” He said sympathetically. Pete shrugged.

"So, come on in then." he said and moved out of the way for Patrick to go inside. Patrick sat down on the sofa and Pete hopped next to him.

"He looks incredible." Patrick thought longingly and sighed heavily. Andy would kill him for being so weak today...

"So, where are we going?" Patrick asked, in an attempt to focus his mind somewhere else. But he was drawn to the excitement that had just flashed in Pete's hazel eyes.

"Ah, you're a Glenview boy, right?" Pete asked with a grin.

"Um, yeah..?" Patrick answered unsurely.

"So, you are being given the exclusive Peter Pan tour of my neck of the woods." Pete revealed excitedly.

"I am currently living in your neck of the woods, Pete." Patrick stated and Pete shook his head.

"You don't know the best parts. All the back-alleys and parks I used to hang out in with all my friends, the old venues, vintage stores, and the best places to get a decent thing to eat that won't give your wallet a heart-attack." Pete explained. "I'll introduce you to all my old buddies and best of all you'll get to see the house I grew up in."

Patrick was stunned, and pretty damn honoured. He was being pulled right into Pete's world, into his past. He was going to see where he used to hang out, to meet his old friends, and his parents.

Patrick was going to meet Pete's parents?!

That wasn't the sort of thing you'd do with a dirty little secret...

He could bet Kirsten had never been anywhere near Pete's parents and that made him almost swell with smugness. He'd have one up on her since everyone's parents loved him.

"What am I talking about? One up? Jesus Christ 'Trick, pull yourself together. Stop acting like you're competing for Pete!" Patrick thought, trying to stop himself from getting carried away, and then giggled slightly at the joke he’s made without noticing. "Heh... Com-PETE-ing..."

"Still there 'Trick?" Pete laughed, waving his hand in front of Patrick's face. Patrick shook himself back to reality and smiled at Pete.

"Yeah, that sounds awesome! Let's get going." he said. Pete looked at Patrick, straight into his eyes and said,

"Your eyes are blue today." and Patrick shrugged.

"They do that sometimes." he said flippantly. Pete didn't say anything for a little while, opened his mouth to say something, then closed it and continued walking. Patrick found this rather odd, but ignored it and continued out of the door.

"Second star to the right, here we come." Pete whispered in Patrick's ear before walking on in front of him. Patrick contained his shiver until Pete was far enough ahead.

XXX

"Second star to the right, here we are!!” Pete grinned as he and Patrick got off the bus. Pete beamed at the sky then looked at Patrick who seemed pretty disenchanted. But they weren’t at the right place yet, so that was okay.

The main reason they were out today was because Pete needed to talk to Patrick. Well, tell him something.

No, not that. He wasn't quite there yet mentally, but essentially that he, Pete Wentz was in-fact, bisexual.

Well, that was ore or less the only explanation as to why he had a girlfriend but wouldn't say no to 3 of his friends (Patrick, Mikey and Gerard...he was scary as fuck but really, who wouldn't?).

“Now where do we go?”  Patrick asked Pete who shrugged.

“Well it’s like 12 now so, how about we walk around the vintage stores for an hour and then we go eat?” he suggested and Patrick nodded. Pete smiled, grabbed Patrick by the hand, ignored the hundred-mile-an-hour beating of his heart and grinned,

“Straight on ‘til morning.”

X

“How much did that shirt cost?” Pete asked Patrick as they walked into a small store.

“Uh… Ten dollars.” Patrick shrugged. Pete nodded and sifted through the racks for a few seconds, before showing Patrick the exact same shirt, more or less brand new, for five dollars. Patrick grabbed it off Pete and stared at it, slack-jawed in amazement.

“Are you shitting me Wentz?!” he exclaimed and started looking at everything in the shop on an excited frenzy. Pete watched Patrick and laughed at how cute he looked, mesmerised by the prices.

“Who’s Speedy Gonzales?” a familiar voice asked Pete from behind him. He spun around and was met with a familiar devilish grin and curly brown hair.

“Dirty!!!” he exclaimed and hugged/speared the man into the wall.

“Ow! Wentz you bastard, I asked for an introduction not a beat down!!” Dirty yelled and pried Pete off of him.

“Uh, Pete, what are you doing?” Patrick asked with an armful of shirts, jeans, hats and bandanas.

“This is my buddy Dirty!” Pete grinned. Dirty waved, and then pushed down his bottom lip, revealing the tattoo on the inside of his mouth saying, “Dirty.”

“Uh, hi dude.” Patrick said unsurely. Dirty walked over to Patrick, stared for a little while, and then licked his face.

“What the fuck?!” Patrick yelled and rubbed his face clean.

“That dare tasted like pizza…” Dirty grinned and called out of the door,

“Told ya I’d do it Chris.”

“Hey Chris is out there?!” Pete yelled in excitement and grinned at Patrick. “Come on! Let’s meet some buddies of mine!”

Xxx

“You drank your own piss?! You’re more fucked up than I thought…” Patrick sighed and the group of Patrick’s friends laughed.

“Pete’s a bit of a whore for mindless fun, even if it is at his own expense.” A guy called Joe Chavez laughed and whacked Pete upside the head. Pete promptly took this as a challenge and attacked Chavez with all his strength, which didn’t look like a lot.

“I remember once he let me paint-ball his ass, the weirdo!” the guy, Hey Chris, who had dared Dirty to lick Patrick’s face, grinned. “He’s a pussy though.”

“I’m not a pussy, you dip shit!” Pete exclaimed and fought his way out of Chavez’ grasp.

Hey Chris started to go into a long spiel about “Why Peter Lewis Kingston Wentz III (lol) open bracket closed bracket, is a pussy” while being attacked by Pete who was in turn getting attacked by Chavez and another man that called himself “Problem Guy”. Patrick found the whole thing nothing short of hilarious and especially loved the way Pete looked so happy with there guys, even if he was getting the crap beaten out of him.

Once Pete and Patrick had said goodbye to all of Pete’s friends, Pete continued with the tour of Wilmette. Patrick ended up with two bags of vintage store goodies (most of it was hats) and when they went to have lunch, Patrick swore it was the best two-fifty he’d ever spent in his life and started contemplating moving closer to here when he falls into bankruptcy. Patrick noticed Pete’s expression while he started planning out where to live and asking Pete about the best alleyways to sleep in without getting mugged or raped. It was almost, an adoring smile.

Maybe like, Pete… adored him?

He was being stupid again. While he and Pete were walking down the road, eating ice creams, talking about the stuff they used to do when they were younger and observing all the skaters, emo kids, the “punk kids”, the real-should-have-been-born-in-the-80s punk kids and all the gangsters hanging out in the street. Patrick would have called them the new generation if it didn’t make him sound like his dad.

He had to stop himself making false hope. It would only make everything ten times worse. He was having a great day today and he didn’t want to spoil it.

“Here we are!!” Pete exclaimed suddenly. Patrick looked up and saw they were stood in front of a huge house.

Pete lived here?! Why would you leave??

“Wow.” Patrick said, slightly awestruck. “Nice house.”

“You’re acting like it’s the Taj Mahal or Big Ben or something.” Pete laughed.

“Big Ben’s not a house.” Patrick corrected Pete.

“Tomato, tomato…” Pete shrugged and they walked up the steps to ring the doorbell.

The door was opened, and Patrick sincerely hoped the man stood in the door wasn’t Pete’s dad, or there would be some serious explaining to do.

“Bob Bryar? What are you doing in my house?!” Pete exclaimed.

Phew!

“Oh, hi Pete. I saw your mom out doing some shopping and she looked like she needed some help so I brought it in with her and just stayed for a while.” Bob shrugged.

“Who’s at the door Bob?” a female voice called from inside.

“Some dudes.” Bob called back with a grin on his face. “One of them is claiming to be your son or something and I think the other guy is his boyfriend.”

Patrick blushed and looked at his feet and Pete opened his mouth to say something but was stopped by his mother giving him a huge hug when she realised it was him.

“I haven’t seen you in ages, honey!” she said happily.

“A year.” Pete said quietly. “Sorry mom.”

Pete’s mother let go of him and then smiled at Patrick.

“So, you’ve finally come out then, huh Pete?” she grinned. “Well, at least he’s cute.”

Patrick went even redder and explained,

“We’re uh, we’re just friends…”

“I’ll bet.” Bob snorted

“How do you know Pete?” Pete’s mom asked Patrick.

“I’m a friend of a friend.” Patrick shrugged.

“A friend of Travis?”

“A friend of Joe.”

“I like you already.”

Patrick laughed and looked to Pete as a signal for,

“What did Travis do?”

“Something to do with a party at my house in 9^th grade, alcohol and a fire… I’ll tell you later.” Pete grinned. “Let’s go in.”

The four of them entered the house and Pete looked around expectantly. Patrick was about to ask what he was looking for, when he realised by Pete’s excited yell of,

“HEMMINGWAY!” and ran up to the large dog lying in the living room.

“I didn’t know Pete had a dog.” Patrick said to no one in particular. “And with such a cool name too.”

“He wanted to bring Hemmy with him.” Pete’s mom told Patrick. “But you’ve seen Pete’s house. It’s too small for big old Hemmingway.”

This was true, but Patrick was convinced they, or Kirsten in particular, could have afforded a bigger place easily.

Pete did mention something about Kirsten hating dogs.

Patrick walked over to Pete and Hemmingway and smiled down at the two of them as they were both lying on the floor.

“Look Hemmy, this is Patrick that I was telling you about!” Pete said quietly to Hemmingway. “You’re going to love Patrick, ‘cause I do, and I hope he loves me as well. We’re all just like a family, you know, Hemmy. A little dysfunctional, but that’s what families are all like, right?”

Patrick smiled at this and could feel his heart fluttering.

Pete loved him.

Loved him.

“Stop doing that you idiot!” Patrick mentally scolded himself. “There you go! Making things up again! He meant like a brother!”

He shook himself again and sat down to look Hemmingway in the eyes. Hemmingway rested his head on Patrick’s lap.

“I told you that you’d like him, Hemmingway.” Pete smiled.

X

"I'll see you guys later, okay?" Bob said to Pete and Patrick as they were heading for Pete's room.

"How come you're going?" Patrick asked. Bob pointed to the window and outside the house a very tall man with dark hair and amber eyes was waiting, looking kind of bored.

"Mikey's in Chicago?" Pete asked in disbelief. He hadn't seen Mikey in years although they regularly talked via e-mail.

"Oh," Patrick grinned with a flash of mischief in his eyes. "That's Mikey huh? You haven't got bad taste I must say."

"Fuck off." Pete spat and glared at Patrick.

Did everyone figure it out apart from him? Patrick wasn't even there!

“I maintain the fact that you look like your dad, Wentz.” Patrick insisted as they walked up the stairs.

“Nah, I think Andrew looks more like him.” Pete shrugged.

“But you look like Andrew!” Patrick said and Pete raised an eyebrow.

“Whatever,” he said flippantly. “So, which of your parents do you look like?”

After careful contemplation, Patrick decided,

“My mom.”

Pete looked at Patrick and tried to envision what his mother must look like, and before he could stop himself he blurted out,

“Your mom must be really pretty then,” and looked at the floor quickly.

"Um... okay?" Patrick said unsurely, "and thanks."

"Look! This is my room!" Pete exclaimed, changing the subject abruptly and rushing into the second door on the right.

"Pete, you have a serious Peter Pan obsession," Patrick laughed. "Like, serious."

The room was exactly as Pete had left it. The shelves were stacked with toys and books, the sheets were neat and straight and everything was put away tidily.

Okay so one thing had changed, but it was still the same room.

Patrick was looking at one of Pete's transformers, when Pete decided it was time to talk to Patrick. He took a deep breath, mustered up some courage and began.

"Uh, 'Trick?" Pete called to Patrick quietly.

"Yeah, Tink?" Patrick responded, not looking up from his investigation of the transformer action figure.

"I kinda, made a self-discovery yesterday." Pete shrugged. "I'm like, bisexual." then he mentally kicked himself for sounding so flippant.

Patrick nearly dropped the transformer.

"You're what?! How?" he exclaimed.

"I don’t know, it just kind of makes sense. I think it was something you said to me a few days ago that got me thinking about it."

"More like something he sang that fucking convinced you." his subconscious added. Patrick's eyes were wide and anxious.

"A-are you serious? Something I said?" he stammered worriedly. Pete nodded.

"Fuck... why did you listen to me?" Patrick moaned and sat on Pete's bed with his head in his hands.

Pete hadn't expected this at all. He went over to sit next to Patrick and put his arm around him. Patrick stiffened slightly.

"'Trick, you didn't force me or anything. This was kind of my own decision." Pete said as comfortingly as he could but Patrick shook his head.

"I did it on purpose, I-... I might not have realised it but I did it on purpose. I wanted my own way..." he tried to explain but, Pete was just as confused as ever.

"How would you be getting your own way?" he asked.

"It's just..." Patrick sighed, "It makes sense to me."

"Well make it make sense to me." Pete persisted but Patrick shook his head.

"No. Out of all people I cannot tell you this." Patrick said firmly.

"Dude, you can tell me anything at all." Pete said softly. "How bad could it-..."

Pete was interrupted by Patrick crashing his lips into Pete's own.

"Fucking hell!" Pete thought.

The butterflies in his stomach must have fluttered up to his heart because it was going at a million miles an hour and before he could pull himself out of shock long enough to kiss back, Patrick pulled away, his eyes wet with tears.

"That's how bad." Patrick sobbed and stormed out of the room and most likely out of the house.

Pete just sat on his bed, then threw himself backwards and roared,

"Why didn't I kiss back?!"

Xxx

Patrick should have spent more time watching where he and Pete were walking.

He was probably spending more time watching Pete.

After wandering aimlessly for a few minutes, Patrick found a bench and sat on it. He'd stopped crying now and God did he feel like a baby, but he'd gone and fucked up probably he best friendship he'd ever had.

"Why me?” he thought. "Why the fuck does someone up there hate me so much?"

Patrick held his head in his hands and just sat in silence, wondering how he was going to get home without having to go back to Pete.

"What are you doing here?" an unfamiliar voice asked from behind Patrick.

8