Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Patrick's POV

-Intro-

Tomorrow's the day. First day of new school. What was it even called again? Wyatt? No... Wi- Wi something... Winona, that's it. Winona High. What an interesting name. I like it though, seems to fit. So, first day of Winona High.

I'm a junior, so I really have no idea what to expect. 16-17 year olds are always kinda crazy I guess... Let's just hope I can make some sort of friends. Heck, if all goes well, I could even find myself a girlfriend. Maybe. I mean, to be honest I'm not all that into girls. Guys are actually really cute. Well, both are cute. Yes, both are cute. And of course there's those people who don't fit into that binary category, but I'm not physically attracted to them... Just girls and guys I guess. The thought of me, small little Patrick Stump, having a boyfriend? Now that's a wild thought. I'm just a joke of a romantic... Hey, that's a pretty cool sounding thing. "Joke of a romantic." I should make that into some sort of song or something. Just a joke of a romantic stuck to my tongue. Yeah, I like the sound of that. Just a joke of a romantic.

***

I wake up with a start, my alarm blaring in my ear. I slap the button to shut it up and groan as I crawl out of bed. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I look around my messy room in search of a decent first-day-outfit. Something that gives people an idea of what kind of person I am, but nothing that stands out too much.

I go for one of my many baseball caps, throwing on a long sleeved red and black striped shirt and a pair of dark jeans. I grab my flip phone, checking the time, then throwing it into my bag. I throw the notebook full of lyrics and doodles I had lying on my side-table in my bag as well, along with a few sharpened pencils, headphones and mp3 player. I slip on black socks and high-top black converse, then head downstairs.

I'm greeted by a 'good-morning' from my mom, who places a plate of breakfast on the table. I sling my bag over the back of my chair and bid her good morning.

"Morning." I say.

"So, you ready for your first day of school?" She asks warmly. I shove a pancake in my mouth, shrugging slightly, then nodding. "Great! Make some friends, alright?"

"Sure thing." I mumble sarcastically after swallowing my food. She laughs slightly, then goes back into the kitchen. I finish up my plate, returning it to the sink after a few sips of water. I check my hat and hair in the mirror by the door, then proceed to depart the house.

"'Kay, I'm leaving now. Bye." I call out. Just as I step out the door, my mom comes up behind me and hugs me, kissing the top of my head.

"Have a good day." She smiles, then watches me as I walk down the street. "You know which way you're going?" She calls out. I look back and give her a thumbs up, which she returns. I wave, and she heads back inside the house.

I pull out my mp3 and headphones, shoving the earbuds into my ears and clicking shuffle.

" Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road, time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go..."

I start humming along and keep my head low as I walk down the street. Winona High, according to directions I was given, is right down the street of my house. Just a few blocks, a turn up ahead on some street, then I'm there.

"So make the best of this test and don't ask why, it's not a question but a lesson learned in time"

I see the sign, one of the many 'Way's in town, this one called Gerard, and I recognize the name as the street I need to take a turn on. I turn left and continue walking down the street, seeing the high school not that far up ahead. My heart starts pounding in my chest, anxiety rising as reality comes into focus. I'm about to enter a new high school with new people and new teachers, and not to mention a whole new grade.

This is going to be a very interesting start.

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Chapter Text

Pete’s POV

I feel something hit the back of my head and I turn in my seat to see Brendon laughing at himself. I roll my eyes and pick up the paper ball he threw. Looking around to see if anyone is watching, I throw it back at him, my tongue stickin out in the process of concentration. It hits him right in the middle of his big ass forehead and he stops laughing. A smirk comes to my face and I turn back around in my seat.
I look around the room, examining who made it into my year without being held back or dropped. I see Gerard, sitting mainly quiet, at his desk scribbling in a notebook. Then there was Brendon of course, one of my closest friends since 1st grade. There was Mikey, new to the school but I know him from going to Gerard’s house. Dang that Mikey is pretty good looking if I do say so myself. That jawline, and that hair with his glasses. Ugh. I spot Ryan, oh what was his last name… Ross, I think. I don’t know him very well but Brendon’s mentioned how Ryan is always staring at him. There was Hayley Williams, another fine looking person, and Lynn Gunn, who hangs around Hayley a lot. Then there’s Spencer Smith, Frank Iero, Andy and Joe (another two of my good friends), Bob Bryar (who annoys me so much), Ray Toro, Taylor Jardine, and a bunch of other kids I haven’t really bothered to get to know.
All I basically know is there’s the classic groups. The “In Crowd” is what the popular type kids call themselves, which is kind of a fluent group. Some people join, but then others are strongly detested. Some are in the group just because they’re really liked, and then there’s the ones that are in just because they’re snobby and boss people around so they seem like they’re the alpha of the pack. Hayley’s one of the nice ones that everyone likes, she’s the one that attracts the classic jock guys, but she’s not really into them. She mainly just sticks with Lynn, who is also in the popular group. She has this really feisty attitude, and I don’t talk to her much, but she’s like half and half. She’s not really as sweet as Hayley, but she’s not really mean. Then there’s Alex and Jack, always messing around but still swooning the girls. They’re seriously such idiots, but I can’t help but be friends with them. There’s other kids that come and go, but I don’t really keep up with it all.
As for me and Brendon, and our little group of friends, we’re kinda the awkward ones out. The trouble makers with a few stabilizers. We don’t quite fit in with everyone else, but we match each other within our group perfectly. We’re just kinda there, and some people notice us, but it’s usually just because of something stupid Brendon did to get us in trouble. But it’s alright, my friends are great, and who needs fame anyway. Fame *less than symbol* Infamy right. Then there’s a bunch of kids that have probably been in the same grade as me for a while now but I just never really got around to knowing. I hear everyone getting settled in their seats, checking the time and noticing class will be starting soon. I get out my notebook, a pen and pencil, and act like I’m actually a good student. I mean I do try and get good grades, but it’s really hard to focus in a class with Brendon Urie in it. Noticing my pencil is broken, I reach back into my bag to get a new one, and while doing so, someone stumbles on my head, nearly flipping over me. I dart my head up, feeling myself bang the person in the jaw, then use my hands to steady the kid. “Holy shit, I’m so sorry.” I quickly apologize. I look up to see a rather short boy with long sideburns and stunning blue eyes standing there trying to gather his earbuds and mp3 player, his round cheeks turning red as he looks to the floor. “I-it’s alright.” He mumbles. He looks at me for a split second before turning away, then sitting in the seat across the break of seats down the middle, just to my right. I watch as he fumbles with his bag and stuffs his player and earbuds back into it, then pulling out a beaten up notebook and chewed pencil. He looks back at me, and I quickly dart my head away from my gaze. Brendon throws something at my head again, making me turn around and give him a nasty look. His eyes gesture towards the new kid, then he raises his eyebrows and gives me a smirk. I feel my cheeks grow hot and I roll my eyes, turning back around in my seat. I glance over at the new kid again, noticing how even through his rounded cheeks, his cheek bones are rather pronounced. “Pst. Hey.” The new kid looks up after a few seconds. “I’m Pete by the way.” I say, smiling. “Patrick.” He replies, a small smile coming to his face as well. He looks back at his notebook, then I whisper something again. “Nice of you to drop in.” I say with a smirk, gesturing to my head. He smiles awkwardly without speaking. “Oh, so you’re using the minimal talking tactic. Making me do all the all the work now are you. Make me do all the in-action flirting. I see how it is.” I joke, raising my eyebrows. He blushes, looking embarrassed, then opens his mouth to speak. “N-no, it’s not like that. I don’t even like guys, er, well, uh…” He stutters. I continue staring at how adorable his cheeks are when they get all pink, silently laughing to myself. “Yeah I got ya. But I’ll tell you a secret now ‘Trick, only a quarter of this classroom is straight.” I say in a sly whisper. I look back at Brendon to see a suspicious smirk on his face. Patrick eases a little, then tries at a laugh. “You wanna come over after school?” I ask in all seriousness. “Uh, yeah...okay.” He replies, slightly unsure. “Great.” I return. Damn, he’s so interesting. Pretty cool kid, I’m really growing to like him. Not just “like as a friend” but you know… Let’s see if we can shake it up a little with a bit of Pete-Wentz-charm-of-the-gay.

Chapter Text

Patrick’s POV

Pete. That’s a cool name. To go along with a cool kid.
I may have just made my first acquaintance here. He seems pretty nice. His eyes are so intriguing. They’re brown, but not just a classic brown, but like a super detailed piece of chocolate that’s been gently carved and molded and gilded with little strips of warm colored metals. He has a light layer of black eyeliner surrounding the bottom of his eye, which intrigues me as I don’t often see guys wearing makeup in public. I’ve always found it very attractive when someone expels gender roles, so to see Pete doing just that makes me happy.
Another thing that made me happy, was that he invited me over to his house after school, which no one’s ever done before, especially not on the first day of meeting me, let alone meeting me from on top of their head. This seems like a good start though. It could’ve been better, but I guess it could’ve been worse too.
I look around the classroom to get a feel of what kind of people i’ll be in class with the rest of the semester. I immediately get clique-ish vibes, noticing the “popular kid” group, the jocks, the nerds, the one’s that really have no group but just stay off to the side and don’t interact, and then whatever kind of group Pete has. I guess he and his friends seem like the nice-but-suspicious type. Pete’s personality didn’t come across as sweet and loving, but more as a playful friend that’ll make jokes and say rude things sarcastically, but if serious talk goes on then that playful friend will be there every step of the way. I like that.
A kid with black, shaggy hair catches my eye, as they’re scribbling in a notebook like I often find myself doing. I watch their shoulders move and muscles tense in concentration of what I guess to be drawing. I turn around in my seat to look to the back of my class and see the boy who I guess to be Brendon, as Pete has called him that a few times since my arrival. To my left there’s an empty seat, then another boy, casually observing Brendon. His hair is shaggy, similar to the drawing kid’s hair, but more straight, and a light brown color. He clads eyeliner, similar to how Pete applied it. Must be some sort of thing at this school. I like it.
I notice two girls over in the front of the class, making polite conversation. One has long, red-orange hair and wears a gray beanie, and the other has long, dark brown hair, put in a side ponytail and the front fluffs up on the top of her head. The red haired girl’s physique comes off as calm and sincere, but still energetic, while the other appears very hyper but at the same time laid back, sorta sassy and sly, reminding me of the way Pete sits in his chair observing his surroundings with a smirk. The brown haired girl appears to be sneakily flirting with the red haired girl, while the other just shrugs it off and stays at a “just friends” level, but a “really good friends” level. They would be cute together.
Suddenly, the noise in the classroom dies down a bit as the teacher walks in, bringing everyone back to their senses. Pete crumples up a paper ball and throws it back at Brendon real quick, while the drawing kid closes their notebook and looks up at the front of the room. The brown haired girl winks at the red haired girl, flipping her side ponytail and casually brushing her hair against the red haired girl’s face.
“Good morning.” The teacher says in an unenthusiastic tone.
“Morning.” “Good morning.” “Wasup.” A few students call out.
Class begins slowly, the teacher lecturing on history or something, and I find myself fading out, my mind racing with song lyrics, new expectations, anxiety, and thoughts of Pete. In the mix of lyrics and Pete, my brain comes up with something that sounds super cool.
“You put my head in such a flurry.” I think to myself. I quickly jot it down in my notebook, glancing over at Pete to see him messing around with his pencil, using his finger to carve indents into the wood. He looks very concentrated on his “work”, and I find myself staring at him for longer than I expect. He glances over at me, shaking me from my gaze and turning my cheeks pink. He winks at me, then continues working at the pencil and I look towards the front of the classroom, trying to focus on the teacher.
I get distracted again, by watching the two girls in the front of the class mess with each other. The red haired girl jots down notes and seems to actually care about what she’s hearing, while the brown haired girl has a smirk on her face while she plays around with the red locks of hair of the other girl.
I try and shake my thoughts, attempting to focus on the subject and manage to jot down a few things I think would be important to the lecture, but Pete is so stuck in my head, and I can’t get him out. “You were the song stuck in my head, every song that I’ve ever loved.”

Chapter Text

Pete’s POV

I fool around with my pencil while half listening to the lecture. I try to be a good student and take notes, but my mind often wonders to so many places. I’m pretty good at retaining information just off of listening though, so notes are mainly just to review what I’ve heard and test what I remember.
I feel the presence of eyes on me, so I look to the left and see Patrick staring at me. It’s not like a dazed off accidental stare, but a literal stare, purposeful and observant. Why he’s staring at me, I wouldn’t know. Probably just watching every student and trying to get to know people. Nothing special I assume. I mean, why would he have a crush on me? If he is actually gay, he’s not very comfortable about being open about it, so if he for some strange reason actually did like me, he probably wouldn’t express it, or tell me for that matter either. Regardless of the reason of his gaze, I smile back politely, my soul sparking up with a tiny glimmer of hope. There’s always the possibility I guess.
***
Class gets out, and I proceed down the hall to the lunchroom, planning to meet up with Gerard and Brendon as normal. I walk silently to the room, only for a few seconds before Gerard jogs to catch up.
“Hey man, how are you?” He asks subtly.
“Pretty good.” I reply. “What you been working on?” I ask, gesturing to the notebook in his hand. He blushes, then shoves the notebook into his bag.
“Oh, nothing much. Just a few sketches.”
“Oh, okay. Cool. So, what do you think of the new kid?” I ask, trying to keep conversation fluent.
“He seems pretty cool. I haven’t talked to him yet, but I heard him talking to you. I think he likes you.” Gerard explains. My heart skips a beat and my face lifts, which Gerard notices. “I mean, like, he likes you as a friend at least. I really have no idea about if he has a crush on you or whatever. Sorry I wasn’t clear.”
“Oh, gotcha.” I reply less enthusiastically. We continue walking to the lunchroom right as Brendon hops us behind us, scaring the living shit out of Gerard.
“You damn teenagers!” Gerard retorts.
“But Gee, you’re a teenager too.” Brendon points out. Gerard rolls his eyes and continues walking, ignoring Brendon. Bren playfully punches his arm, retrieving a smile from his frail lips.
We head inside, proceeding to the cafeteria bar. After getting our food, we proceed over to our usual table off in the corner, just as I hear a loud crash behind me. Startled, Brendon, Gerard and I both look back to see what had caused the noise. I see Patrick holding an empty tray, food splattered on the ground as well as all over his shirt. In front of him, I see a tall boy who I know to be named Ronnie, smirking at Patrick. Pat retrieves his mess from the floor without looking at the boy, then moves off to the side so people can get by.
“Hey, you guys take my tray to the table and I’ll be there in a few minutes.” I rush out, shoving my tray on top of Brendon’s. I rush over to Patrick, grabbing paper towels and helping him clean up. “You alright?” I say calmly.
“Yeah. Fine.” He replies sharply. I hand him some paper towels and help him clean off his shirt, then grab his tray and throw a few crackers onto it.
“I got an extra sandwich that I probably won’t eat, you can have it so you don’t have to get back in line.” I offer.
“Oh, okay thanks.”
“No problem.” I say, softly smiling. He gives me a small smile back, and then we head over to where Brendon and Gerard are sitting. By the time we get there, Andy and Joe have also joined us, and I notice Ryan sitting off by himself in a corner, still visible to us though, as he can get a glimpse of Brendon from where he sits.
“Hey, give me that sandwich on my tray.” I demand of Brendon. He tosses me the saran-wrapped turkey and lettuce hoagie roll and I hand it to Patrick. He simply nods in appreciation, then starts walking over to an empty table. “No, Patrick, stay and eat with us.” I say quickly, grabbing his arm. He looks at the hand on his arm, then back up at me, pulling his arm away. “Sorry.” I quickly apologize.
“No, it’s fine. Um, yeah. I guess I’ll stay with you guys.” He replies. We both sit down, him sitting on the edge of the bench, me sitting in between him and Brendon. Gerard sits next to Brendon, and Andy and Joe sit on the opposite bench. The boy I know as Frank walks by, and Gerard snatches his arm like a snake latching onto it’s prey.
“Frank. Sit with us.” He says bluntly. I don’t really know Frank that well, but I know he’s pretty good friends with Gerard. Gee moves over to the opposing bench, Andy and Joe scooting over, and Frank sits next to him. Brendon raises his eyebrows and sticks his tongue out slightly, making a suspicious face at Gerard. Gee blushes and tries to ignore Brendon’s facial expression.
“And I believe this may call for a proper introduction.” Brendon announces. I nod, then proceed to introduce people.
“So, Patrick, these are my friends, which you may have met in class earlier.” Patrick nods, looking over at Brendon. “That’s Bren, then that’s Gerard.” I say, pointing to the two. Gerard gives Patrick a polite wave, in which Patrick returns.
“I’m Joe.” Joe says bluntly.
“Andy.” Andy nods a hello, reaching out to shake Patrick’s hand. Patrick returns the shake, then sits back quietly.
“Oh, and let’s not forget Frank.” Gerard pipes up, grabbing Frank’s hand and raising it into the air. Frank blushes at Gerard’s touch, and I can see Gerard’s face growing hot.
“Hi everyone. I’m Patrick.” Patrick announces.
“Hey Patrick. Nice to meet you.” Joe replies politely.
“Good good, now we’re making some progress.” Brendon nods reassuringly. Patrick smiles at his new acquaintances, then we all actually start eating our food quietly, now just sitting in silence.

Chapter Text

Patrick’s POV

School's out for the day, and I seemed to survive. I met a gorgeous boy named Pete Wentz, and I think I made a few friends.
I head out the school entrance, closely following Pete as we’re going over to his house right now. I text my mom on the way there, letting her know I’ll be home late. Pete and I walk side by side, letting the surrounding city noises fill our silence. I keep one hand on the strap of my backpack and the other dangles loose by my side. As we walk, I feel Pete’s hand lightly brush my own. Coincidental or purposeful, I don’t know. I try not to make any sudden movements, but Pete notices my reaction and quickly grabs his own hand with his other.
“Oh, sorry. I tend to walk into people when walking.” He mutters. I smile a little then shrug it off. We continue walking, back down Gerard Way, then near the beginning of the street, a few blocks away from my own house, we reach his. It’s very similar to mine, but a little different paint job and overall look. We get inside and the basic layout is also similar to my house, just set up a whole lot different. It’s interesting to see what other people can do with the same setting that you have.
“Mom, I’m home.” Pete calls out. A woman looks up from the couch in the living room, pausing her TV show and standing to come greet Pete.
“Hey hunny. Who’s this?” She asks, hugging Pete and then gesturing towards me.
“This is Patrick.” Pete introduces. I reach my hand out and shake her hand, my hand trembling in the process.
“Nice to meet you Patrick.” She replies. I nod, then Pete and I head upstairs to his room. The upstairs is laid out differently than my house, so it’s interesting to observe. He turns a corner and heads past a bathroom and into a room which I’m assuming is his, then he just sits down on his bed and gestures for me to join him. I plop down next to him, slightly awkward, then we just sit in silence.
I observe the posters on his wall, then glance around his room. I notice a bass guitar sitting on a stand in the corner next to a desk, which has music sheets and lined paper, each having at least a small amount of writing, others completely filled in. “So, you play bass?” I ask, gesturing to the instrument.
“Oh, yeah that. Yeah, I play. Not that good though.” Pete shrugs.
“Could you play something for me?” I ask nervously. Pete lets of an awkward laugh but then retrieves the instrument.
“Uh, what do you like? I can play a little bit of Green Day, Guns ‘N Roses, then also some softer stuff…”
“Pick something random.”
He positions his hand, glancing from the guitar to me and then back at his hands. He tests a string, then adjusts the volume on the amp, tests the string again, positions his pick, then begins to strum out a tune.
It’s something I don’t recognize, and if I knew it, I would recognize it in an instance. This is new, maybe an artist I don’t listen to perhaps. It’s an amazing tune really, super catchy but also filled with heart and emotion and pop-punk vibes. I sit there, letting the sounds fill me to the brim, and I can’t imagine why Pete thinks he’s “not that good” because dang, he’s amazing.
Eventually he stops, then puts his bass back and comes back to sitting next to me on the bed. He plops down, making the mattress jump and making me nearly fly off the edge of the bed, so as he lays down on his back, he quickly wraps his arms around my stomach and brings me down too. Probably just to help me not fall off. I blush when his hands touch me, so I try to cover my face with my hands, pretending to wipe something from my mouth.
“So, was that okay?” He asks after a few seconds of quiet. For a moment, I don’t know what he’s talking about as my head is in such a flurry (AN: more song puns whoops), but then I remember the little bit of music he just played.
“Oh, yeah that. That was great! Don’t say you’re “not that good” because you’re actually really amazing.” I reassure him. Since we’re both laying down, I can’t see his facial expression, but I get vibes that he’s smiling.
“Really?”
“Of course!”
“Wow. Thanks.” He mutters in shock.
“Sure thing. So what was that anyway?” I ask, still curious about the unknown tune I had just witnessed live.
“Oh, nothing really. Just something I sorta pulled together.” He mumbles. My eyes grow wide and I sit up really quick.
“WHAT?! Wait, you literally wrote that yourself?” I ask, astonished.
“Yeah, it’s no big deal.”
“What, ‘no big deal’? That was seriously so great. I thought it was a professional song that I’d just never heard before. I didn’t know you write tunes! I write lyrics, but I haven’t gotten around to fitting them to music. That’s so cool.”
“Oh cool, I write lyrics here and there.”
“Really? This is so great! We should write something together!” I burst out with excitement. Pete doesn’t seem so excited, but when I mention “together”, his face lightens a little.
“Okay, that sounds interesting. Do you play anything?” He asks, his energy picking up a little.
“Yeah, I play guitar and drums.” I reply. “I’d love to hear some of your lyrics if you wouldn’t mind.” I add. Pete’s face drops so I quickly change the subject. “But, it’s okay too. Lyrics are very personal. I would know.” He relaxes a little, and I lay back on the bed, this time on my stomach so I can look down at him while he continues laying on his back. We lay there for a few seconds with no exchange in conversation, just awkwardly looking at each other or staring off into the distance.
“So.” He says blankly.
“So…?” I question.
“So, it’s only your first day at this school, so I don’t know if you know, but this weekend Hayley’s hosting a little dance party thing at some building she and her friends rented out. It’s on Saturday, starts at 6.” Pete replies.
“Oh, okay. I usually sit out dances, and I don’t really know anyone yet. Plus, who’s Hayley?” I ask, already feeling my palms start to sweat at the thought of going to a public get-together outside of school.
“Oh duh, you probably barely know anyone. Hayley’s the girl kinda near the front of the class. Red hair, beanie, always getting hit on by Lynn.” Pete describes. I instantly remember the energetic red-haired girl I was watching in the beginning of class, associating her with the name Hayley. The other girl with the brown hair must be Lynn. I nod in understanding, processing the names to faces. “But anyway, just thought I’d mention it. There’s probably going to be a lot of people there, since literally everyone knows Hayley, or at least a lot do and then the rest all know Taylor and the other kids in the “in crowd”. It’s what the popular kids call themselves and I personally think the name is hilarious. I think I’m going, then I get to hang out with Gerard and Brendon and such.” Pete explains. My brain races as I try to process everything, reconnecting names to the people I met earlier at lunch. I know who Brendon is, he’s one of the kids that wears eyeliner and is super good friends with Pete. Then Gerard is the kid I saw silently scribbling in a notebook. I don’t know who Taylor is, but I’ll probably find out eventually.
“Oh. Okay. I’ll think about it.” I say with a slight smile. If Pete is going, then maybe it won’t be so bad. Pete smiles at my reply, then playfully knocks me over so I’m laying next to him again.
“I think you’ll have a good time.” He reassures me.
“Okay.” My thoughts start racing again, and the tune he played me comes back into my head. I mentally incorporate lyrics with the tune, a little bit I just came up with on the spot.
‘Me and Pete, in the wake of Saturday.’

Chapter Text

Pete’s POV

I lay in bed, my thoughts racing. My head’s in a flurry, racing with different scenarios I keep imagining but assuming will probably never happen. Patrick Stump. Being my boyfriend. Kissing me. Laying in bed with me as we drift off to sleep. Writing songs together. Slow dancing in front of all the homophobes at Hayley’s dance. Shit this is all fantasy, I love these thoughts but hate them at the same time. Psh, who would even date me. No girl has ever admitted to having a crush on me, so how would any boy like me, let alone Patrick. He might be gay, telling from his awkwardness during our first talk including the subject of homosexuality, but who even knows. I’m not one to assume someone’s sexuality.
But imagine. Patrick’s small hands pressed into mine, his petite, frail body molded to my figure, his lips against mine as he soothes me to slip with his touch. And fuck don’t even get me started on sex. My mind’s a mess. How am I going to get through this school year with Patrick in it. Watch me do something stupid and fuck up everything that we’ve developed so far. Pete Wentz, the bisexual loser. Pete Wentz, the uncool emo. Pete Wentz, the weird kid that everyone hates.
Just once I would like to hear something else. Pete Wentz, the boyfriend of Patrick Stump. Pete Wentz, the cool kid that started a band with his friends. Pete Wentz, the guy with the super cool eyeliner. Pete Wentz, the kid who didn’t fuck up for once. Pete Wentz, just a normal guy with a normal life that no one has to be all nosy about. Damn, I’d promise you anything for another shot at life. Another shot to not screw everything up, a shot to have people not see me as some weird ass outcast. I just want to have a life worth living, something worth living for. Well, I’ve found that, just, would he do the same? They say the person you’d take a bullet for is behind the trigger, but maybe Patrick’s different. Maybe he’s on of the few people in my life that actually appreciate my existence. Maybe I’m not a waste of space. Maybe I can do something and actually make a difference. Maybe someone could actually fall in love with Peter Lewis Kingston Wentz III.

Chapter Text

Patrick’s POV

I lay in my bed, my thoughts racing. Pete Wentz Pete Wentz Pete Wentz. That’s all that’s on my mind. How is he so attractive? How is he so kind and caring and sweet and funny and literally everything I would want in a guy? Is he even human? Pete Wentz Pete Wentz PETE FUCKING WENTZ. Goddamn I’m in this deep. He probably doesn’t see me the way I see him. But, earlier today at his house. That was great. But why would he pull me onto his bed like that, or play a song that he wrote even though he clearly didn’t want to? Why did he invite me to something his friends would be at and he barely even knows me? It all seems suspicious… But no, he’s probably just that super nice kid who tries to be polite to the new people to get a good reputation and then eventually forgets about them after a while. That’s what always happens anyway. But Pete seems different. Maybe he is different. Maybe I should try whatever this is. Go to the dance party. Talk to people. Specifically Pete. See what happens. One night can change it all.

Chapter Text

Pete's POV

I wake up in the middle of the night, checking the clock to see it read 4:11 am. Shit. School in 2 hours. I roll onto my side, pulling the blankets up to my bare collar bones. I shift my legs, feeling a hard erection in my underwear. Now that I think of it, I was deep in sleep and dreaming about things. Certain things, with certain people. Crap that sounds creepy. But it's true.
I groan in annoyance then get out of bed, the cold clinging to my bare body as I only sleep in my underwear. I head to the bathroom, grabbing my phone on the way. I check any notifications, hoping for a text from Patrick or something, but then realizing I didn't even give him my number. I have multiple from Brendon, and I roll my eyes as I read through them.
12:03 am: hey, you awake?
12:47 am: helloooooo
1:33 am: bro did you die?
2:14 am: sorry, I just can't sleep. Bored as fuck. Text me later
4:01 am: BITCH WAKE THE FUCK UP I NEED TO TALK TO YOU
4:04 am: meet me like an hour before school under the cork tree

I sigh and I pull up his chat, my fingers moving slow as they press the letter buttons.

4:13 am: ok mert u there
wats th rush?

I type out the message, shortening words and making a few spelling mistakes but I'm sure he'll get it. Within a seconds time, he messages back

Camisado Kid (he entered his contact, not me) 4:14 am: I have some things I want to talk about ;) and want your opinion

Me: k sounds good :D

I don't get how he types so well, all of us have these shit phones with tiny ass buttons and no spell check. But I guess making faces with letters and punctuation is cool, they turn into cool little faces. I really like the little faces. (AN: MEME PETE AF)

I hop in the shower, wash up and change into my clothes for the day. I let my hair dry, then heat up my straightener (not like it ever works, every day I still wake up bisexual af) then swing into my regular routine. I slip on a pair of black skinny jeans, then straighten out the ends of my hair, standing shirtless in front of the mirror. I've always thought a tattoo right above my crotch would look cool as hell. Maybe I'll get one someday. I pull out my black pencil eyeliner, pulling down my eyelid and rubbing it around my eye in a line as straight as me. Looking at my finished product, I smirk and put the makeup away. I then pick up the hot straightener, running it over every inch of my charcoal colored hair. My layered bangs lay in front of my face, draping over my eye as they fall down, freshly pressed. I flip my hair to the side, keeping it straight and somewhat fluffed but not ruining the flat appearance.
Now I've spent half an hour getting ready, it's nearly 5 am. School starts at 6:50, so I might as well head over now to meet Bren so we have some time to talk about his 'stuff.'
I grab what I need for school and shove it my backpack, write a quick note for my mom and leave it on the kitchen counter. I quietly head out the door, bag slung over my shoulder as I fumble through the contents for my MP3 player and earbuds. Jamming the earbud jack into the slot, I scroll around my downloads and attempt at select a Green Day song, the music filling my ears instantly. I walk down the block, turning on Gerard Way, passing Winona High, and heading to the cork tree that Brendon and I hang out at and where he had planned to meet.
A few songs later and a readjustment of my hair, I arrive at the designated meeting area, peering my eyes through the dim lit morning in search of Brendon. I walk over to the large cork tree in the corner of the park, spotting a dark haired figure behind the trunk, facing away from me. I take out my earbuds and shove my music player into my bag and quietly approach the tree, trying not to make noise so Brendon doesn’t notice my arrival.
“HEY BREN!” I shout, launching my arms at his shoulders from behind. He jumps up from his position, turning around in terror and running a few feet from the tree trunk.
“HOLY SHIT GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!” He shouts, not realizing it was me that scared him.
“Bren, it’s me.” I say, walking into clear view of him.
“Oh. Sorry. But dude, don’t scare me like that.” He replies, walking back and playfully punching me in the arm. I laugh with a smirk as we walk back and sit down at the base of the tree. I sit down across from him, tossing my bag to the floor next to me.
“So, what’s the stuff you wanted to discuss.” I say, breaking the few seconds of silent.
“Oh yes. That stuff.” Brendon begins with a smirk. “So, you know I’m bi.” He starts.
“Duh, we’re both bi, you won’t shut up about how gay you are.” I smirk. He rolls his eyes and continues.
“Yeah, so, well. Um. IthinkIhaveacrushonRyan.” My eyes grow wide as I realize what he just smashed into one sentence.
“WHAT YOU LIKE RYAN OMG BREN.” I yell enthusiastically. He blushes and looks to the ground, looking more embarrassed than shy about it.
“Yeah, yeah whatever.” He shrugs off.
“No, that’s great. I didn’t know you liked him. You’re always making fun of him for staring at you, so I never put it together.” I explain. He lets out a slight laugh as if I was supposed to understand something obvious.
“Yeah. I’ve liked him for a little while now, I just didn’t want to admit it to anyone so I rubbed it off with complaining about him staring at me. Although I never minded the staring. He’s very cute when observant.” He trails off. “But anyway, yeah. That’s what I wanted to tell you. Because I wanted your advice on how to like, you know, talk to him and, uh, maybe ask him out ?” He explains. My eyes light up, as I’m always very excited to hook people up or help with dating advice.
“NICE OKAY I CAN HELP. So, just kinda go chill with it, listen to your instincts. You look great today, so that’s also helpful. So, instead of just letting him stare at you, you should go over to his table for lunch, just introduce yourself like you don’t know he’s been watching you the last semester. Act casual, just be yourself. It’s better if you do.” I advise him, trying to think of all the things I know off the top of my head.
“Awesome. I also know how to make a mean milkshake. Maybe he likes milk.” He smirks.
“Milkshakes?”
“Yeah, he always seems to get cartons of milk at lunch. Maybe he likes milkshakes. It’s worth a shot.” Bren suggests. I shrug in confusion but I figure he knows what he’s doing.
I check the time on my flip phone, the little pixelated numbers reading 6 am. “So, we have like 50 minutes til school, what do you wanna do?” I ask.
“Hm. Let’s talk about your love life.” Brendon says with a smirk. I blush at the thought of my own “love life,” instantly having a name pop into my head. “Who do you have a crush on?”
“Oh, uh, no one really at the moment.” I say, shifting in my position on the ground.
“Come on Pete, I know there’s someone.”
“No, really, it’s nothing big. I don’t think he even likes me.”
“Oh so it’s a he now is it. Tell me more.” Brendon scoots closer to me in excitement.
“Okay fine. Don’t you dare tell anyone though okay?” I demand, finally giving into his curiosity.
“Yes, I swear.”
I take a deep breath before answering. “Patrick.” I say in one quick word.
“Who?”
“Pat. Trick. Stump. The new kid.”
“OH. Him? Okay, nice. He really fell for you didn’t he.” He says, making a joke.
“Stop. Your jokes are terrible.” I say, gently kicking his leg.
“Not as bad as yours.” He throws back.
“True, true. I’ve taught you well.”
“So, anyway, are you gonna do anything about it?” He questions, moving onto the next topic.
“Nah, nothing right now. I’m trying to leave hints, but he barely knows me, heck he barely knows anyone. I invited him to Hayley’s party though.” I explain.
“Great idea, I should invite Ryan.” Brendon pipes up.
“Yes! A double date. Let’s do it. I dare you to ask him at lunch. Or in class.”
“Today?!”
“Yes today, doof. If you wait any longer he’s gonna get tired of waiting.” I point out.
“He’s been watching me for the past few months, that’s something we call patience. I don’t think he’s gonna get tired of me. Who wouldn’t?”
I roll my eyes and start picking at the grass surrounding us. I lay on my back, looking up at the top of the cork tree. ‘Lie in the grass…’ I think to myself, humming a random tune in my head.
“Uh, Pete, what are you doing?” Brendon asks. I shoot back up, nearly colliding with his gigantic forehead in the process.
“Oh, just thinking. Random lyric ideas coming to mind. Just sorta zoning out.”
“Nice. I do that too when thinking of lyric things.” We sit in silence for a few minutes before I break the quiet again.
“Have you ever written any full songs? Like have the notes out and the lyrics and all that?” I ask out of curiosity, knowing we both enjoy writing music.
“Nah, nothing really. I’ve gotten parts here and there, but I just feel like I’m lacking something. I’m not exactly the lyrical type, I’m more of an instrument kind of kid. I’ll sing, but I need that something special to get me lyrically inspired. How about you?” He replies thoughtfully.
“Sort of. I’m not much of a singer, not much of a musical writer, but I love coming up with lyrics. I guess we’re sort of the opposite.” I point out.
“Cool, yeah. Maybe we should work together in some music thing sometime?” He suggests.
“Hm. Maybe. Or maybe we just need to find the missing parts to us.”
“Sounds like a good plan to me.”
Out of the blue, I hear fast paced trotting on concrete. Brendon and I turn to face the main streets and see a silhouette of someone running by the park. I recognize the light brown hair and dark clothing, long skinny legs, tall figure. Brendon immediately stands up, grabs his bag, and starts running towards the boy’s direction. With his unexpected retreat, I quickly grab my stuff and follow him, struggling to keep up with his pace.
“Hey Ryan!” Brendon calls out. The boy looks behind his shoulder at where he heard his name being called, and in the process slows his pace as Brendon catches up. Ryan turns around and stops completely as his foot gets caught in a pothole of the cement. He trips in the process and falls over, hitting Brendon in the head with his bag and landing on top of the younger boy.
“Jesus, I’m sorry.” Ryan mumbles frantically, trying to recover and gain his belongings. Brendon scuffles around on the floor and helps Ryan, his cheeks growing red while doing so.
“Oh, uh no worries Ryan. Uh I mean random dude, psh I totally don’t know your name.” Ryan’s face lightens a little as he blushes, standing up and helping Brendon up while doing so.
“That’s alright Brendon, I kinda peep in on conversations you have, so I know your name too even though we never really talk.” He says trying to comfort me but coming off awkward and slightly stalkerish sounding. “Oh damn, that sounds bad. Uh, I’ll just be going.”
“No, Ryan wait. Are, uh you alright?” Brendon asks, holding onto Ryan’s arm so he didn’t leave. Ryan glances down at Brendon’s hand on his arm and pulls away, then looks back up at Brendon.
“Yes, I’m fine. I’ll be going now.” Ryan replies, more stern this time. Brendon’s face sinks slightly and he follows Ryan as he moves along.
“Okay sorry, I just felt bad you fell down because of me. You don’t have to be a jerk about it.” Bren retorts back.
“Listen. I said I’m alright. I bumped into you, big whoop. Another mess up for me. Now if you’d leave me in peace, I’ll be on my way, thank you very much Brendon.”
“Damn you sure have an attitude. I was trying to be nice. I was actually going to invite you to a party thing, since you don’t seem to get out much. I wanted to ask if you wanted to, uh, come with me?” At this, Ryan turns around and faces Brendon again. I stand a few feet away, watching this all go down.
“Brendon, you know why I always sit in the corner and watch everyone? Because I don’t like people. I don’t like going places and I don’t like hanging out with ‘friends’ and I’m not like most kids. I’m always the ‘depressed emo’ or ‘that gay over there’ or whatever. I’m done with people. And I know you’re trying to be nice. I know you’re nice. You’re just about the only nice person I kinda know. I appreciate the offer, but the answer is no. Now Brendon, leave me the fuck alone.” Ryan nearly yells at Brendon.
“Okay fine fuck you too.” Brendon replies, storming off, walking back towards me. I stand up from my position on the floor and walk towards Brendon as well.
“Geez what’s up with him?” I ask, wrapping an arm around Brendon’s shoulder.
“I dunno, maybe he’s in a bad mood. I thought he wasn’t like that.” Brendon shrugs, his eyes getting slightly watery.
“Yeah, maybe it’s just a bad day. It’s alright, there’s plenty of people in the school. You’ll find someone. You’re a great person okay Bren?” I try to comfort him. He wipes his nose on his sweater sleeve and rolls his shoulders.
“True. That one girl Sarah is pretty cute. I’ll try with Ryan some other day. But I’ll admit he’s kinda cute when angry.” Brendon pipes up, trying to look at the positive side of things. “I do kinda feel bad that he doesn’t want to socialize. I understand all the rude remarks, everyone here are pretty big jerks.”
“Very true. Don’t take it too hard.”
“Psh. Take it too hard.” Brendon smirks, making an innuendo out of what I just said.
“Your jokes are awful Brendon, stop.” I laugh, hitting his hip with mine. He bumps me back, nearly making me fall over, but I recover. I pull out my phone and check the time, reading 6:40 am. “Shit, we’re gonna be late!” I shout, almost taking off sprinting.
“What, no, it’s only 6:30.” Brendon replies. I mentally facepalm myself, remembering I set my phone clock early 10 minutes.
“Ha, well I set my clock early cuz you know I’m always late.” I shrug.
“Nice. Well let’s get to school regardless. I wanna see what Lynn has in store for Hayley today.” Brendon smirks, running in front of me. “Beat you there!” He calls out. I swing my bag over my shoulder and take off running after him. He may be interested in watching Hayley and Lynn, but I have someone else on my mind.

Chapter Text

Patrick’s POV

I turn around as I hear fast paced footsteps in the hallway, resulting in my hand sending a thick line of graphite across the random page of lyrics I was working on. I then see, oh what was his name, Ryan I think, run through the classroom door. He stops abruptly with a flushed face as he notices everyone looking at him. I meet his eyes for a second, noticing how vibrant brown they are, then break away from the stare. I slowly shift back to my regular seating position as Ryan slithers into his seat in my row.
I work my way with eraser to try and salvage what I can of the words drawn through them, but I guess it's still readable even with a giant line through it all. Lifting my pencil from the paper, I sit back a little and rest my arm.
“Sorry.” I hear a voice mumble from around me. I look up to see who said it, then lock eyes with Ryan as he stares at me. Man what is up with him and staring? It's kind of giving me the creeps. He breaks from my gaze and instead looks intently at his desk. “Sorry.” He says again, confusing me.
“Uh, why...are you sorry?” I ask.
“You didn't know? You didn't see me sneaking up on you and spying through your window?” He admits, guilt in his voice.
“What? No, I didn't see you. But why were you watching me?” I reply, still confused but now also surprised, almost scared of what other things he’s capable of. He's such a mysterious kid, way more than what I bargained for.
“Oh, uh, no reason.” He stutters. I raise my eyebrow at him, the question still unanswered. “I just admire your lyrics, and uh, it interests me hearing you sing in the morning…” Ryan slowly admits, his cheeks turning bright red. I feel my face going hot, thinking of all the things he could've seen while watching me, and thinking of how long he was there for.
“Uh, thanks for the admiration? But that's sort of invading my privacy, don't you think? We can walk to school together in the morning if you want though.” I explain, trying to get my point across but not be rude.
“Yes I definitely agree, I'm very sorry.” He apologizes again. There's silence between us, then he looks over my shoulder at my page of lyrics. “Your lyrics are really great though, and so is your voice.” He attempts at breaking the awkward silence.
I suddenly feel his warm breath on my neck, realizing how close he is to me. Before I can even move away, I feel his soft lips pressed against the sensitive skin of my collarbone.
And then Brendon and Pete barge in to save the day.
With their sudden entry, Ryan darts away from me, back into his seat, and I turn away from looking at him, shrugging my shoulders as if to erase what just happened. In a rush, Ryan gets out of his seat and runs out the door, nudging a teary eyed Brendon and a wide-mouthed Pete. I look back at my lyric page, then crumble it into a ball, realizing it’s shit anyway. Pete and Brendon go to their seats, and now I just sit in silence.

Chapter Text

Pete’s POV

The final bell of the day rings and everyone rushes out of their seats. Patrick and I don't have the same last class, so we usually just meet in the halls on our way out.
Today was different though, we didn't meet in the halls, in fact we almost didn't meet up until I nearly tripped over him coming out of the bathroom.
“Woah sorry kid. Oh, Patrick!” I say, realizing the boy I tripped over was my crush.
“Oh, hey Pete. No worries. Nice of you to drop in.” He says blushing, making the same joke I did when we first met. I blush too as he remembered my dumb joke, then allow a small smile to my face. He smiles softly too, sending butterflies into my stomach. “Oh and about Ryan earlier, I don't know what that was, he's just acting really weird around me but I don't even like him and I didn't want you to think-”
“Patrick it's okay. If you like Ryan that's fine, if you like someone else, that's fine too.” I cut his fast paced speaking in attempts to comfort him. He looks at the ground for a split second then back up at me, his stunning blue eyes locked with mine.
“Alright thanks. I actually do like someone else.” He mutters, his cheeks growing red. My eyes widen as I get a glimmer of hope that it might be me, but I highly doubt it.
“Oh. That's cool.” I reply with a cheeky smile.
“Yeah.”
We stand there for a few seconds before Brendon comes running down the hall and nearly crashes into me. “Pete we gotta go right now, your house.” Brendon stumbles out, not in a terrified kind of voice or in the voice like he just set a milk carton on fire and threw it in the trash, but more of a panicked and hurt voice, shaking like he's on the verge of tears.
“Yikes, I gotta go but I'll catch you tomorrow, Donnie.” I say quickly.
“Uh, it's Patrick.” He replies slightly confused.
“Yes I know that, ‘Trick, I was making a pun.” I say with a wink. He smiles then waves as Brendon drags me out the door, the two of us running to my house in a flash.
We arrive and I bang open the door, then we storm up the stairs with heavy breaths. I sit on my bed and try to catch my breath as Brendon slams my room door shut. He turns around to face me, his cheeks red and eyes glistening. I pat a spot next to me on my bed for him to sit, which he willingly does so. He leans into my shoulder and I gently ruffle his hair.
“Fuck. Fuck fuck FUCK.” He mumbles in a shaky voice. “FUCK RYAN, I THOUGHT WE HAD A THING GOING BUT THEN HE FUCKING KISSES PATRICK? WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!” He shouts, trying desperately to hold back sobs. “And he has to be so damn cute too.”
“I'm so sorry Bren, crushes really suck when they don't like you back.”
“Damn right. Agh this is so infuriating. It's going to be so fucking hard to get over this. I'm so damn crazy over him. I can't even describe it. I've held it in for so long and now it's all building up so fast and now I feel like I'm gonna explode. If I was as smart as I am crazy over him I'd probably end up a rocket scientist. Ha, that sounds like a cool song. I guess there's still a positive to trying to get over someone. Just write a shit ton of songs about them.” Brendon rants. I just listen intently and try and give him all the support I can.
“YES THAT SOUNDS SICK! You should totally write more songs. Writing songs about people are also super cool.” I reply, getting pumped up about music. Which then leads me to remember what I had planned to work on when I got home. “Oh speaking of writing stuff for people, you wanna hear somethin I've been working on.” I say, still slightly nervous about showing anyone anything I've written. If I was going to show anyone though, my first pick would definitely be Brendon.
“Hell yes!” He pipes up, his mood already lifting.
I get out my bass and hook it up to the amp, adjusting the volume and such. I take a deep breath then pick at the strings, missing the right sound for the first few notes, then starting over again. I finally get the groove of my song again, and the beat picks up. I then lead into the first verse, but I don't sing any of the lyrics I've written out. After a few more seconds, I stop and look back at Bren.
“Holy shit that sounds so cool! Do you have lyrics yet?” He asks excitedly. I hesitate before answering, then slide him the lyric sheet with a cringe.
“It's a work in progress.” I say. He skims them real fast then gives me a smirk.
“I see what's been on your mind lately.” He says with a win. I roll my eyes and position my hands to play again. I hit the intro beat and go into the chorus again, surprised when I hear Brendon attempt at spitting out the lyrics.
“You always fold just before you're found out, drink up, it’s last call, last resort but only the first mistake…” Brendon sings, the beat and tune not quite what I had imagined, but it sounds good.
“Wow that sounds great. You should totally sing more often.” I reassure him.
“You should totally write songs more often. Not bad, Pete.” He replies, smiling.
“Right back at you.” I say, winking.
“So what's this called anyway?” Brendon asks after a few seconds of silence.
“Oh, uh, I don't know. I don't have much of it done yet.” I explain.
“Ah gotcha. Well it's pretty cool so far. Really makes me wanna dance, you know?”
“Oh yeah, I totally get those vibes.” I agree. As I put my bass away I'm oblivious to Brendon reading other pages of lyrics until I turn around and nearly grab the papers from his hand.
“Hey. Private stuff.” I say, half serious and half joking. Brendon rolls his eyes but respects my request and hands the papers back to me. “So anyway, how you feeling now?” I ask, still checking in on his emotions.
“Eh, still pretty shitty about Ryan, but now I've got some inspiration to write a few lyrics.” He smirks.
“Nice!” I say, reaching into my desk to grab a stuffed toy. “Gopher it!” I say, thrusting the stuffed gopher in his direction. I don't even know why I have a gopher plushie, but I guess it comes in handy for times like these.
“My god your puns are terrible.” Brendon replies observing the stuffed toy before throwing it back at me. This continues for a few minutes, and then Brendon hits a lamp and sends it flying off my desk. “Whoops, I guess he really went for it.”
“Or you could say he Wentz for it.” I throw back. Brendon rolls his eyes again and proceeds to picking up the fallen lamp. He places is back on the desk, then pretends to make it talk by moving its shade. “Help, I've fallen and I lamp get up.”
“Okay these are terrible.”
“Yes I agree. I'm BrenDONE with making puns.” Brendon says as I nearly piss myself. I playfully kick his leg and he returns with a small punch to my arm.
“Well I'm BrenDONE with you. If you can't hang, then there's the door, baby if you can't hang, then there's the door.”

Chapter Text

Patrick's POV

I set my pencil down in the crevice of my notebook, yawning as I check the time on my flip phone. It reads 1:27am, which doesn't surprise me. I then read over the few scribbles of writing I've worked on, cringing at some yet pleased with others. I read over the multiple drafts of choruses and verses I have for what I titled “Saturday.”
(Italics) I'm good to go, and I'm going nowhere fast
It could be worse, I could be taking you there with me
I'm good to go, though it looks like I'm still on my own
Then there's a blank space for where my brain stopped, so I skipped to the chorus.
Two more weeks, my foot is in the door. Me and Pete, in the wake of Saturday.
I debate crumbling it up, but I leave it there since it has to do with Pete. I then turn the page and look over another thing I was working on, mainly in class though. I don't have a title for it yet though, so there's just little stars and things around the top of the page. I wish I could draw as good as Gerard, but I guess the decorative little doodles will do for now.
He said he’s no good with words, but I'm worse. Barely stuttered out a joke of a romantic stuck to my tongue.
Then another blank space.
Dance, this is the way they'd love if they knew how misery loved me.
I draw a cheesy heart around the word “loved,” just as something taps on my window, making me jump. I close my notebook with my pencil to keep the page I was in, then jump out of my bed and turn on the brighter light in my room. I head over to the window and pull up my blinds, nearly pissing myself when I do.
I quickly open the window and stick my head out, the cool late night air sending chills down my spine.
“Hey Patrick, sorry to wake yo-”
“I was already awake, it's fine, Ryan.”
“Alright. Well I was wondering if I could come in? I just want to talk for a quick second. I'm sorry.”
“Oh yeah, uh sure.” I move out of the way and help the taller boy into my room, a pretty odd thing to do at 1:30 am I must say. “So, what's up?” I ask cautiously, sitting back on my bed as he stands at the edge.
“I know I really fucked up. I just want to say sorry again. My brain’s a fucking mess but that's no excuse for what I did. I shouldn't have done something so physical without your consent first. I'm really sorry.” He blurts out in a shaky voice, his words slurring ever so slightly.
“Thank you Ryan. I really appreciate you saying that. I'm fine now, but yes I would like to give my green light before someone just goes in like that.” I explain. He nods slowly, then walks a little closer to where I sit. “But why are you here at an hour like this? Couldn't you just tell me at school? You didn't need to scale my house to come crash into my room.”
“Oh yeah, now’s probably not the best time for you. I just normally do things at this time, and I was up and-”
“Understandable.” I cut him off, partially annoyed but mainly just wanting to shut his voice off. He stands silent for a moment as I feel my heart rate pick up.
“So, uh. Really awkward question but, do you, maybe, uh like me?” I hesitate before answering, as I don't really know what to say. I've developed feelings for Pete, but I haven't really had a chance to get to know other people yet either.
“I don't know Ryan, feelings are confusing as hell. I have someone else in mind, but, you're pretty cool, I don't not like you…?” I try to explain, confusing myself even further. His eyes widen slightly and I see him adjust his hands, partially clenching his fists, but mainly just moving his fingers around in what I guess to be nervousness.
“Well, would you mind if I asked your consent to… Kiss you?”
At this I nearly choked on the saliva forming in my mouth. “Ryan, I barely know you, you barely know me a-”
“I've known you've lived here since the day you moved in.”
“Oh, well then, you know me without me knowing you then? Ha totally normal…” I say, mainly talking to myself but also out loud to him, laughing nervously. “Well, I've never kissed a boy before.”
“It could be a first time experience then.”
“That is a good point.”
“You can trust me.”
I simply just raise an eyebrow at him.
“Okay, well, you can trust me right now, in this moment. But of course, you don't have to. I want your consent first.”
“Just this once?”
“Just this once.”
“And it stays between us?”
“Of course.
“Alright.”
“Alright. Close your eyes.”
I close my eyes, my heart pounding as I realized what I'm doing. I'm allowing this boy to kiss me after he's literally been watching me day after day. He probably knows a shit ton of stuff about me, yet I can barely figure out his personality. He's so mysterious, yet I get vibes I might already know him.
Very inexperienced in kissing, I guess this could be a good teaching lesson?
As my heart races and my palms grow sweaty, I sit there with stiff and numb legs, every passing second feeling like an eternity.
Then his lips meet mine.
I don't know what to think, how to act, what to do. I've kissed like one girl within my life, and that was probably back in 6th grade when I thought I was straight.
Kissing like this is so much different. Not because the gender difference really, more just the experience. Every kiss will always be different, even if it's with the same person. This time is wild as fuck. I'm basically just kissing for the affection, not because of an emotional connection. It's really strange, I almost feel like I shouldn't be doing this. But yet it's an amazing feeling at the same time. I crave affection so much, in this moment I can't help but feel an attraction to him, even after hearing his creepy secrets.
I find myself melting into the kiss as he presses harder against me, his breaths picking up speed as he brings his body closer to me. I don't allow my mouth to widen all the way, just enough to breathe. On my part, I don't kiss back very heavy, but on his end, he's trying to get all the action he can. I can feel him pressing his body closer and closer to mine, pushing me tight against my bed and lightly grinding his hips into me. I give him a few more seconds, but I break away just before he had time to push me down on my bed. I look away from him, avoiding eye contact but I can tell he's staring at me. We stand in silence for a moment, catching our breath as well as sanity.
“I’m sorry I gotta go. I'm so sorry, Patrick.” Ryan quickly mumbles out, confusing me as to why he’s apologizing and why he's leaving so fast. Before I can say a word to him he's dashing out my window again, the slides down my roof. I run to the window and watch him run off in the dim lit night, my mind racing as I process the activities of tonight.
From this I've learned a few things:
1. I'm gay as fuck
2. Kissing is great
3. I don't have a crush on Ryan Ross

Chapter Text

Pete’s POV

It's nearly 2am and I can hear sobbing outside my house. Wait. Sobbing? At 2am? I guess it's not too out of the ordinary.

I peak out my window to see if I can find the source, and I see a dark, crouched silhouette near the side of my house. I open my window and stick my head to see if I could get a better view of the person, and also I if I can hear if it's kind of a physical pain cry or more emotional.
“DAMNIT YOU ALWAYS FUCK UP EVERYTHING. WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU ASK TO KISS HIM. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU.” I faintly hear the voice choke out. Even through the sobbing, and low volume since I'm two stories up, it almost sounds like… Ryan? Oh god he must've done something with Patrick again. Did Patrick, do something back? My mind starts racing as I think about the possibilities. Ryan said he asked to kiss him. Did Patrick say yes?

Thoughts racing through my head, I quickly pull on a pair of pants lying on my floor. Too lazy to find a shirt, I just grab the blanket on my bed and wrap it around my shoulders, then quietly sneak downstairs and head out the door, turning to the area I spotted Ryan. Apparently he heard me leave the house, as he now took of running, but in my direction. I guess he thought the sound was coming from the other house. In his hurry and in my hurry, and in the dark of the night and the emotional state we’re both in, we collide and fall to the ground. In the dim light, it's hard to make out faces, but I'm sure he recognizes who I am.

“Hey, what are you doing out at this time?” Ryan says, exhaustion in his voice and his words slightly merged together.

“I could say the same to you.” I throw back.

“Oh, just walking. I can't sleep.”

“Then why were you crouched next to my house crying?”

“Oh you saw that.”

“Ryan I live right here, how could I not see.”

“Oh, I didn't realize this was your house, all the houses look the same at night.”

“Why were you crying?”

“Oh, I'm not crying, just, uh, allergies.” I can feel the tension between as as Ryan keeps pumping out lies.

“Then what was the yelling that literally woke me up?” I say, getting agitated now.

“WHY THE HELL DOES THAT MATTER, I’M NOT THE ONE WATCHING PEOPLE THROUGH MY WINDOW!”

“Fucking LIES Ryan! You watch Patrick through his window, you invade his physical privacy, you asked him to kiss him?? And now I’M the one at fault for ‘watching people through windows?’ I know you weren't just walking around, I know you're eyes aren’t watery just because of allergies, I know my shit! I'll admit I woke up because I heard you crying and yelling, I wanted to come see what the matter was. If you’d have some fucking honestly Ryan, this would be so much easier.”

Ryan stands there stunned, his mouth slightly parted as another tear rolls down his face. He wipes his eyes on his sleeve, and then his nose.

“Hey uh what's going on?” I hear a voice call from the opposite direction of my house.

“Oh shit now you're awake too.” I mumble, half pleased but yet also annoyed to see Patrick joining the conversation. “Will one of you tell me what the fuck is going on with you two.”

Patrick and Ryan exchange glances, Ryan blushing and Patrick being struck with a look of terror.

“Well I, uh went over, and well-” Ryan starts.

“I let him kiss me.” Patrick mumbles. “He's admitted to watching me through my window, he kissed me at school, then he came back to my house and apologized, then asked permission to kiss me and I said yes.” He explains. His voice is filled with regret, while Ryan’s facial expression lifts, all at the same time my heart drops into my stomach. My hands clench up and I feel rage burning inside me. I know I shouldn't be jealous, but I can't fucking help it.

“Thank you Patrick I-” Ryan starts before I lash out at both of them.

“Well fucking fine, go ahead and have your cute little whatever. I thought we were actually getting somewhere, I played a song for you, Patrick, I invited you to hang out with me, I did all this shit and you-”

“What happened to ‘it’s alright if I like someone else, huh? I don't fucking know emotions anymore, everyone's so damn confusing, I can't figure out anyone, let alone my fucking self.” Patrick spits back, hurt in his voice.

“Hey hey, it's alright, let's just gently settle thi-” Ryan butts in. Both Patrick and I turn to him, each with different raging emotions.

“SHUT UP!” We say in unison. Ryan shrivels down into his shirt but goes silent. In fact we all go silent.

“It's probably nearly 3am at this point, we all need sleep. I'm tired of arguing over fucking emotions.” Patrick then says to break the silence.

“Fine.” I spit back.

“Okay well I'll be going then. I'm sorry I caused so much trouble.” Ryan says softly. He doesn't hesitate for us to answer before he runs off again into the dark, leaving Patrick and I there alone.

“I'm sorry Pete.” Patrick mumbles.

“I am too.” I mutter, then start walking back to my house, tears filling my eyes.

“No Pete, wait.” I hear him call in the distance, his voice shaky. I start to pick up speed but I'm then stopped when I feel a firm hand on my shoulder. I turn around to face him, nearly slapping him by accident. He holds me now with both hands on my shoulders in hopes I won't turn away again.

“What.” I say flatly.

“I want to go to Hayley's party, uh. With you.”

“Are you serious? After all this?”

“Yeah?”

Then a moment of silence between us.

“Fine. See you there, lunchbox.” I mumble, still slightly angry but my mood lifted slightly. I brush his hands off my shoulder and walk back to my house without looking back.

Chapter Text

Brendon’s POV (yes you read that correctly)

I actually get to school early, now this is a surprise. What’s even more surprising is the fact Patrick isn't here yet. Patrick’s always early, or at least earlier than my lateness. Pete’s also not here, but that’s pretty normal.

I walk into class and take my usual seat, the room only partially full. Hayley’s here as usual, Gerard scribbling at his desk. Lynn walks in shortly after me, taking a seat next to the enthusiastic blonde-red haired girl. I'm excited to see if she makes any progress with this.

I get out my notebook and a pencil, placing it on my desk and opening to a somewhat empty page. I scribble the date at the top, then scan the few things already written on it. Just a few random lyrics things, nothing too major.

(Italics) If crazy equals genius…

You can set yourself on fire, but you're never gonna burn

I’m not as think as you drunk I am

I rode this city in a shopping cart

It’s all just simply one liner things but it's progress I guess… Heck they might even go to a few different songs in the future.

“FUCK YES!” I hear someone shout suddenly. I look up to see an enthusiastic Lynn and a slightly frightened Hayley in the front of class. “Oh, sorry. I mean, yes, of course I'm coming. You throw the best parties, how could I miss it.” Lynn says, attempting to tone down her enthusiasm.

“Alright, awesome. Thanks.” Hayley replies with a smile, her cheeks a light shade of pink. “Maybe you could stay for the after party? Just planning on inviting a few people over to my house after.”

“Hell yeah, sounds like a plan, Hay.” Lynn replies with a smirk.

“Cool.”

I turn away from watching them when I hear someone enter the room, looking up, or well not exactly very high up since little Frankie walks into the room. “Morning Frank.” I mumble as he walks by. He simply waves, his face blank until Gerard looks up at the sound of me saying his name, making Frank smile to meet eyes with Gerard.

“Hey Frank.” Gerard says enthusiastically.

“Gerard.” The small teen says back, sitting down next to G. “So, uh. Drawing anything interesting?”

“Nah, nothing much. Just this random sunset sorta thing.”

“Ah, cool. Looks like a super early sunset.” Frank observes.

“Yeah, that sounds cool. Maybe I'll call it something like that. Early sunsets over… I don't know, but that was a start. Thanks Frankie.” Gerard smiles. Frank smiles back and scoots his chair a little closer to Gerard, placing his hand on Gerard’s desk. Gerard acknowledges Frank's hand, and seconds later places his hand on top of Frank’s smaller one.

‘Ugh those gays. Take it somewhere else.’ I think to myself. ‘Yeah, take it somewhere else and just fucking make out already.’ I think again, making a joke in my own head. I let off a silent laugh to myself, then look back down at my notebook, my pencil still in my hand. I think for a second before writing something else along with the other random things I've written down.

Swimming pools under desert skies...

I don't know where I’ll go with that, but it sounds cool. And Gerard and Frank’s whole sunset thing got me in the mood for skylines. I drift off in thought, then I'm brought back to reality when Patrick walks in, looking excited and flustered, not like his normal self. Right behind him is Pete, neither of them speaking to each other. They take their usual seats in pure silence besides the scuffling of their feet and unusual heavy breathing. I can almost feel the anxiousness streaming off of Pete and into the room. He didn't even say hi to me. Everything feels so off this morning.
a
“Pete. What's going on?” I ask.

“Honestly you do not want to know.” Pete says, his voice drained of his usual energy and quirkiness.

“If everything's being weird as hell right now, yes, I do want to know, Peter.” I snap back.

“Oh I'm Peter now?”

“Jesus Christ, what is up with everyone?” I ask, now getting annoyed. I drop it for a moment as I watch Ryan walk in. He keeps his head down, his arms wrapped tight around his books. I roll my eyes then turn back to Pete. “Tell me what the fuck is up or I'll… I don't know but I know where you live.” I say through gritted teeth, trying to sound threatening. He lets out an annoyed groan, then turns around in his seat to look at me.

“Well a funny little thing happened last night at like 2am. I guess Mr. Stalker Dude was over at Tiny Lunchbox Man’s house getting a little more than some lip to neck action.” Pete explains. I don't quite understand at first so he keeps going. “Then fussy pants sits outside my fucking house, yelling at, let me remind you TWO A.M., so I drag my lazy butt out of bed to discover Patrick and Ryan were kissing and Patrick said it was okay but then Ryan regretted it but Patrick doesn't like him and he wants to come with me to Hayley’s party or some shit?!” He says, frustration escalating in his voice. I see Ryan and Patrick avoid eye contact in our direction as Pete’s voice gets louder.

“Ryan and Patrick kissing?” I then question, part of me for some odd reason still hoping it wasn't true.

“Yep.” Pete replies. I try and force myself to ignore it, as I know Ryan already doesn't want to talk to me, but I still can't get over the fact he likes Patrick over me. I guess I'm not so sad of rejection anymore, just disappointed and annoyed.

“Well I hope to god he was worth it.” I mutter.

“Hopefully soon he can trade baby blues for wide-eyed browns.” Pete says, trying to lighten the mood while also hinting at his still admiration for Patrick's baby blue eyes.

“We’ll definitely see.”

I look back at my notebook, then nearly break through the paper as I scribble down a few ideas.

And now think of what you did, and well I hope to god he was worth it.

And then a slightly lighter thing comes to mind, so I put it down too.

This sure as hell ain't normal, but we’ll deal.

And for the rest of the day, I keep that line in my head. We’ll deal.

Chapter Text

Patrick’s POV

As soon as the bell rings, I frantically gather my stuff and head straight home. I really don't feel like talking to Pete today, I’m just so emotionally worn out. Also not in I went to sleep at like 4 am and woke up two hours later, I'm physically exhausted as well.

My head tells me I hear Pete calling my name in the distance, but I ignore it and walk faster. By the time I'm off campus, I'm nearly sprinting home with no intentions of looking back. I rush through my front door and stomp up to my room, collapsing on my bed. I then resize the light through my window is right in my face, so I shove my bag to the floor and head to the window to shut the blinds. As I do so, I nearly yank off the string on the blinds from pulling so hard and so fast, because out my window is none other than Ryan fucking Ross, but this time he doesn't appear to be peeking through my window, just walking by. I return to my bed and curl up into a ball, debating whether or not to scream into my pillow. And slowly I feel my pillowcase get damp. I lay there, silently sobbing, so confused and full of emotion.
“Why did I do that? I'm so fucking stupid oh my god. I don't like Ryan. Say it again. I. Don't. Like. Ryan. I like Pete. Pete is nice, Ryan’s just really creepy. I’d like to kiss Pete. I’d much rather kiss Pete than Ryan. Yes, this is the truth. I don’t like Ryan. I don't like Ryan.” I mentally talk myself through everything. I lift my head from my pillow and wipe my eyes and nose, then head to the bathroom to wash my face. I splash cold water over my face, it stinging slightly as it hits my eyes. I dry myself off with a towel, then dry my hands, heading back to my room right after.
“So now this Pete situation. How am I going to fix this. Shiiiiiittt I screwed up bad. Maybe he still likes me though? Aha, the dance. I said I was going. I'm nervous as hell but I'll do it. Maybe somehow fix it up there?” I keep talking to myself, my thoughts racing as I figure this out. One night can change it all. Maybe I'm not just a joke of a romantic. I can do this. I may be short, fast, and loud, but I’m Patrick Stump. I got my stitches stitched, I got my fixes fixed.

Chapter Text

Pete’s POV

“Saturday…” my pen hovers over the mainly blank piece of paper as I continue trying to write lyrics. I don’t know what’s up with my head, but I just haven’t been inspired lately. Hopefully after tomorrow I’ll have a few decent ideas. I check the time to see it’s 7pm, my stomach grumbling just on time to alert me to eat dinner. I toss the paper and pen onto my bed and jog downstairs in search of something to eat. Right as my foot hits the ground on the lower level of the house, there’s a knock on the door. I don’t think we were expecting guests tonight…? I peek out the little glass hole in the door, standing on my toes to reach. I see none other than the recognizable shaggy-haired Joe Trohman. Why is he at my house though?
Without further question, I allow him in.
“Pete I need to talk to you about tomorrow. I really need your help.” Joe spits out nervously. He’s usually quite confident about everything, so this is fairly new to see him worked up over something. Then it hits me that the dance party thing is tomorrow. Maybe he plans on asking someone. That someone being Andy? I can only hope.
“Oh, uh yeah. Of course. Just take a seat, I was about to get food until your ass barged in.”
“Whoops sorry, bad time probably. But now you’re stuck with me.” He laughs. I roll my eyes and dig through the fridge for some sustenance to hold me over while I talk to Joe about these pressing matters. I grab a cold slice of pizza, shoving it on a plate and into the microwave, hitting the buttons to cook it for 57 seconds.
“So, what’s up?” I ask as the microwave buzzes in the air. Joe takes a deep breath from the couch, running a hand through his fluffy hair.
“I wanna ask Andy to the dance tomorrow.” He mumbles. A smile comes to my face as my prediction was right.
“YESSSS I knew it!!” I shout, making him jump. Almost in unison, the microwave goes off, nearly making him fall off the couch. “Yikes sorry, I just got excited. You alright there little fro?” I ask. He sits upright and adjusts himself, nodding in reply.
“So, tell me all about it.” I say in anticipation, my theory being proved right. I take my pizza out of the microwave and begin devouring it even though it hurts my mouth. I walk over to the couch Joe’s sitting on, fluffing the cushions when I sit down.
“Well, I’ve had a crush on him for a while, and we lowkey flirt all the time, so I thought this dance would be a good place to get serious, ya know?” Joe explains.
“I was thinking the same thing! Or well, not with Andy I mean. I have someone else on my mind.”
“That new kid, Patrick?”
“Yep. Although he’s been doing some weird shit with Ryan so I don’t really know what’s going on between them. I’m still debating if my feelings for him are even more than platonic.”
“Oh yeah, Ryan’s pretty. odd. I have to admit.” Joe says, rolling his eyes.
“Yeah. Pretty. Odd.”
There’s a moment of silence between us as I take another bite of pizza, swallowing it within seconds.
“Anyway, while you’re here, do you wanna hear some stuff I’ve been working on?” I offer, knowing how much Joe likes music. Heck, maybe he’ll even start up a band someday. That would be fucking dooooopppe.
We head upstairs to my room, and I get my bass out while Joe finds a seat in my room. I stuff the last few bites of pizza into my mouth and fumble around for the sheet music I had put together so far, along with my lyric notebook filled with assorted things I’ve come up with over time.
“So, here’s my lyric things, you can dig through whatever seems interesting and I can show you how it goes.” I hand Joe the lyric notebook while plugging in my bass. He flips through the pages, carefully examining any new things.
When I brought Patrick over and played him my little clip I had put together of something I decided to call “Saturday,” I was nervous about showing him any lyrics, as they’re very personal to me. With Joe though, I feel so comfortable with sharing this with him, and he’s used to the kind of stuff I write. I’ve known him for a while, so we’re super close friends.
“How about this?” He finally says after a few moments of silence and flipping through the pages. He points to a page filled with tons of crossed out lines amongst a few things that I actually decided to keep. I scan the page, remembering how the tune went for that part, then nod and get my bass into position.
“So this one’s actually a kind of funny story. I wrote it a while back when I had a crush on, uh, Mikey.” I admit, remembering barely anyone knew about Mikey and I. We were some kinda lowkey thing, like I’d write stuff on his arm while he was sleeping when he’d stay at my house, he’d watch me practice in band, just kinda small things that we both noticed. Obviously, I’m past that now, but he sure was a cute little fella. Er, well, maybe not little. He’s taller than me.
“Mikey? As in Way? Gerard’s lil bro?” Joe asks, surprised. I just roll my eyes and nod. “Cool. So, let’s hear it.”
I then skip to the only part in the song I had assigned myself to sing, as I don’t normally like doing vocals in any of the stuff I write, although this song was an exception.
“The tombstones were waiting, they were half engraved. They knew it was over, just didn’t know the date.” I sing, my hand swinging up and down as I play the tune. I then hum how the rest of the vocal melody goes while I play the musical melody overtop, watching as Joe’s eyes fly across the page looking for more lyrics through the midst of scribbled out ones. I eventually stop after I finish the chorus repeat.
“That’s what I call, Bang The Doldrums.” I explain. Joe raises an eyebrow in approval, then sets the lyric book down.
“Sounds nice. You could probably put that on an album if you wanted. I always like the idea of actually making a full album of original songs, and naming the albums are pretty cool. Like this one could be, I dunno, I like stars, so maybe like “infinity on high” or something.” Joe rambles off. My eyes widen at the mention of making an album, and he seems to be super into it too.
“Yeah, that sounds super cool! We could even start a band! I know Patrick does vocals, and he writes some lyrics too. We would just need a drummer!” I say, getting carried away in excitement.
“Patrick singing? I must hear this. And who could be a drummer… There’s Spencer, but he’s good friends with Brendon, so it’d be kinda weird to invite him.”
“Wait, Andy plays drums right?”
“Oh duh! Yeah! We could get him to try out some stuff. We totally need to get this together.” Joe nods with his words.
“Yeah! We should mention it to Andy and Patrick at the dance!” I suggest. We agree on this decision, the both of us super excited to start this up. It probably won't get very far, but it will still be fun in the meantime. We can all finally put our musical talents to use. I wonder what we’ll call this band… heck it could be something simple as a TV Show character name…

Chapter Text

Patrick’s POV

I wake up with a start, like I tend to do nowadays, my eyes flying open and I frantically check the time as if I was going to be late for something. But it’s Saturday. No school. What do I have today that’s lingering in the back of my mind to make me wake up so fast? I glance over at my alarm clock and it reads 4:32am. Yikes.
THE DANCE. Or, party. I’m still confused on what it is exactly. I guess a mixture of both? This ain’t a scene, it’s a dance party thing. But yes, that thing. That’s what’s going on today. Dear lord I’m so anxious. So many people I don’t know will be there. But there will also be Pete. And Brendon and, Gerard I think his name is, then his… boyfriend? I don’t know, that small Frank guy. It’s cool to have someone else on the shorter height range, so I’m not alone wandering the halls with 5’11” Ryan Ross and 6’4” Dallon Weekes. Dear god I wish I was tall. Regardless of morning thoughts, I should get up.
I get out of bed and head to the bathroom, wash my face clean of evidence of sleep, brush my teeth, comb my greasy hair and realize I could probably use a shower. I hop in the shower and wash my hair, making sure to turn the water off in between shampoos. I’m such a nerd for saving water, but hey, it could be put to use in the future too maybe… Imagine going into a drought in say, I dunno, 2016, and then having to do this to save water. That’s a thought.
I finish up, then get dressed and ready for the day, nearly forgetting it’s barely 5 am. After my basic morning routine, I can’t decide what to do next, so I get out my lyric book. I then fumble through my backpack, looking for a writing utensil.
“Give me a pen, give me a pen.” I mutter to myself, talking to inanimate objects I guess, in hopes that my bag will magically spit a pen at me. With almost magic, I find a pen shortly after. I then look back at my lyric book.
I wonder if I’ll ever actually do anything with this stuff. Like, I can play drums, guitar, piano, bass, trumpet...and I guess my voice is okay.
Putting the thought to the side, I read through some of my most recent stuff, humming a random tune as I read them. Then again a few times till I kinda get a random tune that sorta fits.
"Dance, this is the way they’d love if they knew how misery loved me."
Sounds interesting. I apparently like this whole “dance” vibe I’ve been putting into random lyrics I guess. Maybe it could tie together into a song? And Pete writes stuff too, he plays bass probably better than I can. We did mention maybe writing stuff together. That would be pretty cool. Just nerves though.
Me and Pete, in the wake of Saturday. The line I created at the beginning of the week pops back into my head. It’s a Saturday now, finally. I’ll get to see Pete again, and hopefully I’ll be able to kinda, start fresh I guess. I’m so anxious to be someplace where I barely know anyone, but at the same time I can’t wait. I’m afraid I’ll mess something up with Pete, but yet, I don’t care what he thinks… as long as it’s about me.
Wow that sounds like it could take a dirty turn. I shudder as my stomach is filled with butterflies at the thought of certain things.
Why don’t you show me a little bit of spine you’ve been saving for his mattress, love.
I write the line down on the page with my other “dance” lyrics, as I’ve now labeled the page. I draw another heart around “love,” blushing as I do so. Taking a look at my lyric book as a whole, it looks like a teenage girl’s diary fantasizing about her crush, you know, all ‘pop punk’ as they call it, with the pink fur all on it, the key to keep it locked, a matching pink glitter pen that has a second side with invisible ink that’s only seen under blacklight. I like it. And I really like blacklight ink. I always find it so fun to hide messages within things, like highlight certain letters in a phrase so then when you put it all together it makes a whole different phrase.
"Fear is killing us. But true love can survive."
That’s a cool sounding thing I would love to hide in something else someday. Maybe it’ll be my own album. Who knows. I can dream right?
I flip through my book to find where I wrote that phrase before. Eventually I find a series of pages with doodles of boxes and odd shapes, drawings of people in suits and fingerless gloves with spiky hair, odd shapes and lights all around, along with assorted lyrics. It has a whole different vibe than the stuff I’m currently working on, but it’s still pretty cool. Still has a kinda punk vibe… just more soul to it. Huh. I like the sound of that. Punk vibe with soul. Punk n’ Soul. Soul of a punk. Soul Punk. I write that at the top of the beginning page of the new genre type vibe whatever you would call it.
Skimming through the pages in this section, I get a glimpse of random lyrics and more obscure drawings. Maybe Gerard would be interested in seeing all this art stuff.
I find a page that just has big words all over it.
"It’s gonna get better."
I had written it in huge letters, filling up the page, and then decorating around it. Seems like something I would do. I skip to another page, this one blank. My mind still on those certain things, I decide to think up something more upbeat and thrilling I guess you could say.
Brendon I don’t think is very religious, but he’s really into this whole ‘sinning’ stuff. He’s mentioned a few times how he “writes sins, not tragedies” whenever any mention of more depressing lyrics were brought into conversation. Sins. What could be a sin. Well, there’s a lot of things I can think of. What’s more artistic for a song though? Well, perhaps a desire instead of basic emotion. Of course there’s sad, happy, angry. Desires seem a lot more interesting to write about though. Jealousy, lust, consumption, greed.
"Consumption is consuming me."
That’s definitely interesting.
"Greed, one of the seven deadly sins."
There we go, tied the sin thing into it. How can I add even more sin though?
"You know, very rarely is good art born in the boardroom.
(Pop your white collars up!)
*insert grunts here*"
I make a note for myself in asterisks in case I ever want to try recording something of this. Anyway, enough of that.
Me and Pete. Saturday. Dance thing. Oh yeah, I should figure out how that’s going to work. What I should wear, if I should bring anything, all that. Yeah, I should get a move on that. Time’s ticking away.
Note to self: Set my clocks early, you know I’m always late.

Chapter Text

Pete’s POV

5:43 P.M.
I guess it’s not too early to walk in? I mean, people will probably already be here. People like getting places early. Like me. Well, not really. I’m actually late a lot of times. I wanted to be here early though. I wonder if Patrick’s here. He’s always at school way before me. I could totally see it. Oh gosh. What if he’s already inside, standing around awkwardly, not knowing anyone. I gotta go in and comfort him. But what if he’s not here. Then he just pulls up to the place and is the same situation as me. Shit this is hard.
My feet act for my indecisive brain, and I find myself fixing my greasy combed over hair and walk through the doors. I look around in search of Patrick mainly, but also looking if Andy, Joe, Brendon, anyone I know pretty well, to pop up. I see Hayley politely greeting people with hugs and her glowing smile. She looks very nice, her hair up in in a bun with her long bangs hanging at the sides. She wears a bright red dress, redder than her her naturally ginger hair color. I’m sure Lynn will have a trip tonight. I continue walking around, waving at people I’ve know briefly in classes from past grades, but I doubt they recognize me anymore. Then I spot Frank in the distance, wearing a grey coat with a black shirt and black and white striped tie hung loosely around his neck. His hair is combed to the side sorta like mine, but still sports the classic “emo” look. His gauges and lip ring still in, and he also decided to try red eyeliner today. Interesting. It works though.
Not seeing anyone else yet, I head to a table with assorted beverages and food. The punch bowl looks interesting. Just a plain crystal bowl filled with bright red liquid. I guess red is a common theme tonight, being in the punch, Hayley’s dress, Frank’s eyeliner. Or maybe just a coincidence.
“Hey Pete.” I hear a voice say softly out of nowhere. I nearly drop my spoonful of punch I had ladled, my eyes wild as I look around to see who called me. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. My apologies.” The voice says again, finally emerging from it’s hiding spot in a dark corner at the end of the table.
“Jesus Ryan, you sure are great at sneaking around.” I say, scoffing at the site of how well he’s dressed compared to a lot of people here, including myself. I feel my face get hot at the site of his perfectly styled hair, so I turn back to the punch and hope I still look okay.
“I could take that as a compliment.” He returns bluntly.
“Well, I’ll be seeing you around.” I say, then walk away, no longer wishing to talk to him and his great appearance. Just imagine how handsome Patrick will look. I’m sure he has an even nicer suit than Ryan. Maybe he shaved his sideburns for this special occasion. That would be a trip.
Almost as if on queue, I see the main door open and a short figure walk in, immediately recognizing it as Patrick. My gut tells me to stay calm and natural, but without even thinking it through, my legs are walking at a rather fast pace to greet him. I am, however, capable of stopping my arms from launching out and giving him an embarrassing hug in front of everyone. I instead stand in front of him awkwardly, observing every bit of his get up. His cheeks grow red when he sees me, and I feel my face get hot.
He actually does look really good. Maybe not quite the “Mr. Goody Two Shoes” look Ryan pulled, but really damn good anyway. His suit is grey, like a really silky silvery grey, a white button up shirt with really sharp triangle collar points, and a silky black tie. Only the few bottom buttons of his coat are buttoned, and they look kind of tight against his stomach and matching grey pants, but it’s actually really adorable. He wears his glasses, the lenses reflecting a glare into my face slightly, but I can still manage to keep a focus on his face. His hair is nicely combed, sideburns still perfectly intact.
“You look nice.” I say, the words falling from my lips before I can stop them.
“Thanks, Pete.” He replies, his voice nervous and high pitched. He quickly looks at my own outfit, then returns the compliment. “You too.”
“Thank you.” I return with a wink, trying to break the ice. He lets off a nervous laugh and forces a smile, then looks around the room.
“So, who else is here?” He asks, his bright blue eyes wandering the scene.
“Uh, so far all that I really know, that you would probably know, Hayley, Frank, and, uh, Ryan.” I say, hesitating on the last name. His expression changes from nervousness to almost terror, like he had just seen something pretty freaky.
“Oh. Okay. Cool.”
“Oh yeah, and me of course.” I say, gesturing to my self.
“Yeah. That’s good.”
“So, uh. There’s food, and this punch is pretty good. You want some?” I say, trying to bring up conversation and offering him my cup, which he stares at uncertainly.
“Nice, I’ll get something later. Thanks for the offer.” He says, a genuine smile coming to his lips. I fiddle with the inside pocket of my suit, Patrick’s eyes following my hands. I get out my Sidekick and check the time, 6:00 on the dot.
“Well, it’s 6 now, I guess a lot of people are late.” I announce, looking at the door again.
Then strolls in Joe, followed by a nervous Andy who fixes his silky salmon colored shirt. Joe smirks at the scene, seeming pretty confident. He looks back at Andy, who gives him a warm smile. Joe then scans the room and I wave him over, which catches his attention and the two of them head our direction. They approach us and Patrick turns to greet them, standing next to me now. He raises only half his arm in an uncomfortable wave, a slight smile and nod.
“Hey guys! Where did the party go?” Joe says at a rather loud volume.
“I know right, everyone’s late. How are you guys?” I say, smirking at Joe, then Andy.
“Pretty good. I think.” Joe replies, looking to Andy for feedback.
“Yeah. It’s great. Joe’s a super great guy, like, he’s dressed so nice, and you are all dressed nice, and this is fun. I hope.” Andy says, his voice still very high pitched. I wonder if he’s even hit puberty yet. Or maybe that’s just how his voice always sounds. It’s sounded the same for the past few years, so I dunno. I’m not one to judge.
“Well, I told Patrick just now that the punch has something to offer, so if you guys wanna get something to eat, the table’s right over there. I’ve seen Frank, Hayley, Ryan, Patrick of course, and now you guys. I think things are finally moving.” I explain. Joe and Andy nod in understanding, but remain where they stand.
“Alright let’s get this thing started!” I hear a loud voice shout. Everyone looks towards the center of the room to where Hayley, Taylor, and a few other people from the “popular group” stand. I see a somewhat tall silhouette holding a microphone, trying to get everyone’s attention. Probably where the voice came from. The figure doesn’t appear to be wearing a dress, but still holds a feminine stature. They speak again and the room almost goes completely silent to listen.
“So we got a makeshift stage up here, if anyone wants to come up and play something. I know I’m probably gonna be doing something later.” The voice announces. I hear some gasps and snickers of people who make a mental innuendo with what the voice just said, so the voice speaks again. “Guys c’mon, not that kinda “doing something.” But seriously, some of you with those fancy musical talents and lyric jazz you do, come up here and give it a go. We’ll pause the playlist just for you. Thanks.” The figure proceeds to place the microphone back in its stand, proceeding to walk off, then darts back to it as if they forgot something. “Oh, I’m Lynn by the way. Just, holler if you need anything, I’ll be helping Hayley run the show tonight.”
“Woah, that’s Lynn? She looks...Different.” Joe breathes.
“Yeah. But, it’s a good different.” Patrick pipes up. Joe smiles at him, and Patrick’s face gets flushed again.
“And people still don’t think she’s gay?” I say. Joe rolls his eyes.
“Some people still don’t think Ryan’s gay, so…” He points out.
“I guess some people are just in denial.” He laughs.
“So, that thing she said about lyrics. I have some stuff, maybe they’d want to hear?” Patrick says, shocking all of us. I didn’t think he would be willing to share such personal things in front of a crowd he barely knows. But hey, if it works for him, I’m down.
“Yeah Patrick, go for it! Do you have anyone to play the music or you just gonna go up there like you’re reciting a poem.” Joe says with a slight laugh.
“Oh, yeah. I totally forgot about music. Maybe I won’t.”
“I can play drums.” Andy says, finally speaking again. We all turn to him, Joe and I mainly growing wide-eyed since we had discussed we needed a drummer if we were gonna attempt at starting a band.
“No way! That’s dope!” I say.
“Yeah, I’m alright I guess.” Andy squeaks.
“Well, Patrick I think we got your band. You on vocals, I can be bass, Joe’s guitar, and now we have Andy on drums.” I explain. I can feel the energy between us all rise in the excitement of the moment.
“Yes!! This is gonna be sick.” Joe exclaims.
“Wait, but do we even have instruments here?” Patrick points out.
“I dunno, maybe. I could ask Lynn or someone.” I say.
“Alright, yeah. Do that.”
“K, BRB.” I walk over to where Lynn just was, awkwardly looking around at the people. Hayley turns to look in my direction, so I give a polite wave, which she returns.
“Hey! Pete, right?” She asks.
“Yep. I like your dress. It almost matches your hair.”
“Aw, thank you! You look pretty dapper in your suit. What can I getcha?”
“Well, Lynn had mentioned something about people playing up here tonight…” I start. At the mention of Lynn’s name I see her ears get red. She could literally just be a tomato with her red hair, red dress, bright red lipstick, and now reddening face. “Well, I had a few people who might play a few things tonight, we just don’t have our instruments here. Is there some in the back room or something?” I explain.
“Oh, instruments, yeah. That’s helpful.” I see her bite her lip, her cheeks going redder with every second. “I’ll, uh, ask Lynn. I’ll, be right back.” She says. I see her break into a big grin as she walks away, covering her mouth with her hand. She finds her way to Lynn, and I see the exchange conversation. Lynn stands super chill like she knows what she’s doing, casually just staring at Hayley. Hayley on the other hand keeps fidgeting with her hands, her face still noticeably pink from where I stand. I’ve never really seen Hayley get flustered before, she’s usually the super calm one. Interesting to see. There’s a first for everything I guess.
A few hand gestured and blushing facial expressions later, Hayley waltzes back towards me, ruffling with her hair. “Yep. Lynn should have you guys covered. When do you want to play?” She explains.
“Uh, I dunno, I’ll ask the crew. I’m guessing sorta near the end?” I reply.
“Alright, sounds good. We’re gonna get a crew in to set up an official stage. It’s gonna be super cool. I can’t wait to hear you guys!” Hayley says excitedly. I smile as she walks off, and I return to where Patrick, Andy and Joe still stand. They’ve now been joined by Gerard, who adds onto the continuing theme of red by sporting a vibrant, blood red tie and completely black suit. I wonder how long it’ll take until Frank bolts over here.
“K guys, Lynn got instruments for us! We’ll play near the end of the dance whatever, then we can also practice and organize what we’re actually playing. Also, they’re bringing a crew in to set up a legit stage.” I explain.
“Oh hey Pete, nice seeing you.”
“You too Gerard. Nice tie.” I say. I notice Patrick’s eyes widen a bit, but I try not to take it to heart. I hope I didn’t offend him. I mean, it’s okay to compliment other people too.
“Thanks. Same to you.” He replies with a soft smile. I then hear fast paced footsteps behind me, then see Gerard skip off frantically.
“Gerard!” I hear the familiar voice of Frank call out.
“Hey Frankie! It’s so great to see you.” Gerard says as the two embrace in a hug. Their faces are really close, and for a second I think they’re going to kiss. Frank notices us staring, so he blushes and pulls back from Gerard a little.
“Carry on.” He mumbles to us. I turn around and strike up another conversation with the three other people around me.
“So, we got this! But uh, what are we even playing?” I say. Patrick immediately flushes with energy, taking a step forward.
“Well, I’ve been working on some stuff the past week. Lyrics mainly but I got a few tunes in mind. I know Pete’s pretty good at tunes and lyrics too, so Pete, I was thinking now would be the time we kinda, do that songwriting thing together?” He explains, turning to me.
“Oh. Yeah. Lyrics. Uh.” I hesitate before deciding. Lyrics are always very personal to me, but it’s now or never. I want to help people someday with my lyrics, and now here’s the perfect chance. “Yes. Let’s do it.” I agree firmly. Patrick smiles, then turns back to Joe and Andy.
“Hey, I’m not too jazzy with words but my hands can think up some sick guitar stuff, so I could help a lot with the music.” Joe suggests.
“Great! And Andy, I heard you’re bomb with the drumsticks.” I say, turning to Andy. He brushes his long hair out of face and adjusts his glasses.
“Eh.” He says, shrugging. “Cool.”
“Alright we got this dooowwnn down in an earlier round.” I say.
“Hey, even that there sounds like a lyric.” Patrick says.
“Oh yeah, that’s sick.” I reply. “Well, I didn’t exactly prepare to be playing anything here, so I don’t have any of my notes or lyrics or anything, but I got a lot of it memorized.”
“Oh cool, that’s alright. I dunno why I brought it, but I have my notebook, so anything you remember I’ll write in my book too.” Patrick explains.
“Nice! So, we should go ask Lynn, like now, to go get used to the instruments. I’m sure there’s a backroom somewhere.” Joe suggests. We nod, then walk around to find Lynn. Then I spot her fluffy pulled back hair from behind, her suit coat and shiny pants shining slightly in the light of the room.
“Hey Lynn!” I call. She turns around to greet us, waving as we continue walking.
“Hey guys. Hayley told me you’d come looking for me. What’s up?” She asks.
“Well, we got the gang together, we just wanted to try out the instruments and stuff.” I explain.
“Do you have a back room we could go in and practice?” Andy asks.
“Oh yeah that would be helpful.” Lynn sighs. “Sure, follow me.” She leads us across the room and out another door, into a hallway and down to another room. She opens the door with a key on a ring of other assorted keys, then let’s us into a dark and slightly stuffy room.
The walls are lined with cheesy wallpaper with roses around the top as artificial border, floral patterned couches, and a large closet on the opposite end of the entrance. She walks in, turning on the lights, then heads to the closet. “Here’s the instruments. Seems fitting this used to be a music room. They kinda changed it up to be a lounge of some sorts, but they never took the equipment out. This facility is really great for parties.” Lynn tells us. She opens the door and reveals assorted instruments: horns, guitars, a really nice looking bass, a fold up keyboard, drum sticks, pedals, straps, and other band equipment.
“So uh, where’s the drums?” Andy asks cautiously.
“Oh yeah, right. Those are quite a big bigger, so they put them someplace else. Lemme roll ‘em in.” Lynn leaves the room for a few minutes, as we stand there debating whether to follow her or not. She returns shortly with a big cart on wheels, a large drum set placed on top. Andy rushes to help her, a look of satisfaction on his face at the sight of his prefered instrument.
“It’s great!” He exclaims.
“Yep, still in pretty good condition. You might need to tune up some things, but most of the stuff still sounds excellent. So, I guess that’s it. This room is somewhat soundproof, so bang around a bit and you shouldn’t be too audible. Just let me know if you need anything else. I’ll be around.” She winks, then leaves the room and shuts the door behind her. We all stare at the newly discovered instruments, then slowly grab the things we need. Patrick finds some music stands, while Joe starts attaching straps to the bass and two guitars.
“Why two guitars?” I ask.
“Oh, Patrick also plays guitar. He thought he might try it out tonight.” Joe replies continuing at his work. Wow, you learn something new everyday.
Andy fumbles around with the drums, then keeping it on the wheels, he rolls it over in front of the couch so he can sit down and still reach everything. I walk over to Joe, who hands me the bass. I sling it around my neck, adjusting the strap.
“You guys know if there’s any amps in here?” I ask. Patrick sets down the music stands then searches around.
“Oh, here.” He says, pulling back another door. He picks one up and he looks even smaller than normal, which is absolutely adorable. He toddles over to me, places it down, then fumbles with the attached cords. He plugs it into the wall while I plug it into my bass.
“Thanks.” I say, giving him a smile, which he returns.
I strum the bass, nearly blasting our ears out since I forgot to adjust the volume. Everyone jumps and Patrick rushes to turn down the volume. “Whoops, sorry guys.” I say with a grimace.
“Hey, at least the thing works.” Joe replies.
“True.” Patrick says. He turns up the volume slowly then gestures for me to play. I cautiously strum a string, the low sound vibrating smoothly in the air. I keep strumming as Patrick reaches a suitable volume, then I nod my thanks. I begin to tune it, noticing it’s actually still pretty much in tune. Joe and Patrick collect their guitars and also plug into sound things, and Andy tests the symbols and pedals.
A bit of time passes and soon enough we’re all geared up. “So, now we play, right?” Patrick says, adjusting his notebook on the stand in front of him, pressing it down again so it’s not towering above his small stature. “Let’s see, I got some random stuff in here that kinda goes together. We can try mixing that to make a verse or two, maybe a hook? We can add some of Pete’s stuff to add onto that, and then between all of us try and get a catchy chorus going. For music, I know Pete’s got some cool tunes down, and I can fiddle around with this guitar, but then Joe, you got the main lead with this, and Andy you help set the tempo and what not. What’s a theme we can kinda stick to? Like, kinda get us in a creative mood?” Patrick speaks clearly, looking so cute with his glasses, almost like one of those classic highschool movie “Nerd Kids” talking about a science formula.
“Well, we’re at a dance so that’s the first thing that comes to mind. Where there’s teenagers, there’s bound to be romance. So, kinda mix that together?” I throw out. We all exchange looks, mentally taking note of the idea.
“Sound cool to me.” Joe says, twirling a pick in his hand.
“I’m down.” Andy pipes up.
“Well then, let’s go for it.” Patrick sums us up. “I actually have some stuff that could fit in with all that.” He says, flipping through the pages of his book.
“Oh yeah, I do too. Somewhere in my head.” I say. I instantly remember all the lyrics aimed at Patrick, which I could pull off as part of the “romance” theme of the night.
“Aha, here’s some interesting stuff. I got this whole “Saturday vibe” stuff, but I dunno if it quite fits with the dance theme. I got some other interesting things but that seems like a completely different genre. Then here’s my dancey vibe whatevers. You guys can take a look and tell me what you think.” Patrick passes around his book nervously. Joe reads it over, nodding in satisfaction, then Andy adjusts his glasses and skims through it, handing it to me next.
Barely stuttered out a joke of a romantic stuck to my tongue.
“Woah, this could totally fit with my stuff. It’s got a whole kinda “hey i’m not too good at being positive, but let’s write a song and dance to it while we’re still teenagers in love. I like it!” I reply. Patrick’s face contorts in multiple different emotions, some uneasy but mostly pleased.
“Well, that’s a relief.” He breathes.
“Yeah. Well, I guess we now got the basics down, let’s get this party rolling.” I announce. And with that, no one sees the four of us for the majority of the night.

Chapter Text

Lynn’s POV

“...So, I guess that’s it. This room is somewhat soundproof, so bang around a bit and you shouldn’t be too audible. Just let me know if you need anything else. I’ll be around.” I say with a wink. The four teens nod in understanding and thanks, so I exit the room and shut the door behind me as I go. I think about all the music stuff that’s going on now, and it never occurred to me that maybe I could even play something up on the stage. I can sing, and I also know some guitar stuff, so I could just do a little random thing. Maybe an acoustic of some sort? I dunno. But maybe I could ask Hayley to join me. Now that’s a thought.
With my mind racing with ideas, I find my legs moving slightly faster back into the main room, looking around for Hayley. I’m usually pretty confident when talking to her, or well at least it seems to other people. I’m good at coming off cocky, as other people say. In reality, I’m just a really butch lesbian and just wanna get things done my way.
Eventually I spot the bright red hair and red dress from across the way, so I slow down my pace a little and try and act casual as I walk over to her. She seems to be in the middle of a conversation, but when she sees me approach, she bids the person farewell and proceeds to greet me.
“Hey Lynn, long time no see.” She says jokingly since we only saw each other a mere 10 minutes ago.
“Yeah it’s been forever.” I reply, rolling my eyes. She lets off a slight giggle, then returns to focus.
“So, uh. How you liking this whole, thing.” Hayley says after a few seconds of silence, gesturing to the room.
“Oh yeah, it’s sick. I can’t believe you pulled this off.” I pause, then realize I might’ve sounded rude. “I mean, I know you could’ve pulled it off, I just meant, uh, it’s super cool it actually happened. Um. Not that I didn’t think it was going to happen. Agh you know what I mean.” I spit out awkwardly, trying to maintain my cool. Hayley's cheeks turn a rosy red, matching nicely with her hair and dress, immediately making my insides flutter out of her cuteness. “Oh, yeah, anyway. About this whole stage and music whatever, I know some stuff on guitar and was thinking of maybe doing something? And I was wondering if you, uh, wanna join me?” I ask, trying to keep eye contact with her.
“Oh wow! Yeah, that sounds like fun. Uh, what do you wanna play? And like, what would I do. I can sing too. And a few other instruments.” She says, winking. I let out a small relieved sigh and my excitement kicks in.
“Cool! I know, you have an amazing singing voice. And I’ve heard you a bit on the piano. That’s cool about the drums though too. You wanna play an instrument tonight then?” I suggest.
“Yeah, sounds great! So, we’ll both be on vocals, you can play guitar, and I can do drums, piano, rhythm guitar…”
“Wow all at once, that’s some talent there.” I smirk sarcastically, making her blush again.
“You silly goose, you know I didn’t mean all at once.” She laughs, punching my shoulder playfully. I let off a small smile and we continue making our plans for the evening. Eventually, we decide we’ll both sing. We’ll do two songs, one where I take the lead vocals and the other she takes lead vocals. We’ll switch off instruments for both songs, so I’ll do guitar for mine and she does a low drum thing for rhythm, then for her song she takes lead guitar and I do rhythm guitar. It’s gonna be so lit.
***
About 30 minutes later, the stage crew has come in and started setting up our stage thing, and it looks sick as frick. Pete and them are still in the practice room, and I haven’t heard a peep from them yet, so I guess that’s a good sign they’re working pretty hard. I guess I should check on them anyway, since Hayley and I will need the instruments too. I tell Hayley where I’m going, then head off back to the music room. As I approach, I can hear a bit of sound coming from the thick doors. It sounds super cool, even if muffled. I knock on the door, even though I doubt they’ll hear it, then open the door slowly. The one with the fro, Joe I think, turns his head and gestures to the rest of them to tone down the noise. The singer, the new kid right, is in the middle of what seems like a really intense moment. His face contorts to hit the notes, and when Joe gestures for him to silent his vocal chords, he turns to me as well and his face goes bright red. He clears his throat and fixes his slick hair, as if it had moved with all that gel in it.
“Hey guys, just coming to check in.” I announce once they’re quiet.
“Oh, uh, hi. We’re doing great.” Patrick mumbles.
“Awesome. I was also wondering, Hayley and I wanted to use one of the hand drums, and the guitars eventually so…” I say, not exactly knowing how to ask for their guitars.
“Oh yeah, uh, sure. I think we’re almost done here, so we’ll hand them over in a bit.” Pete pipes up.
“And I think there’s a hand drum you can sit on, kinda those box types, in the closet over there.” Andy points to the closet, drumstick still in hand.
“Great, thanks guys! Also, you sound really good. I can’t wait to hear you guys play.” I say, heading towards the closet to retrieve the drum. I walk inside and instantly hear muttered laughs from Joe and Pete. “What’s so funny?”
“Oh, nothing. Just. You’re uh, in the closet.” Pete announces, bursting out laughing. My face gets red, but the joke is pretty funny.
“Not like you all weren’t.” I throw back with a smirk. Patrick blushes and Andy remains quietly focused on his drum sticks, Pete and Joe exploding again in a roar of laughs.
“Not bad, Lynn.” Joe says.
“Same to you.” I reply. “Well, thanks for this. I’ll be off now, and I think some stuff’s gonna play soon just a heads up. We don’t really have an order yet, but you’ll probably go after Hayley and I. Then to start us off, some band wanted to come in and try out some stuff too. They have their own equipment and whatever, so we don’t need to worry about that.” I explain.
“Woah nice, what band?” Andy asks, finally speaking.
“I don’t remember the name, Set… Set something. On Fire? I dunno, I’ll let you guys know whenever I find out.” I reply with a laugh.
“Alright cool. Well, we’ll just be in here, with this lonely empty closet, awaiting the next gay victim to it’s terrible fashion sense.” Joe says.
“Hey, we’ve got such good fashion sense, all the malls and whatever are probably jealous of us. Closets can good in that area.” Pete throws back.
“Huh, that sounds like it could be a song lyric. Maybe not this song, but another one.” Patrick announces.
“What, the thing about closets?” Pete asks, slightly confused and surprised.
“No no, the thing about fashion sense.”
“Oh, yeah. That could be something. Write it down.”
“Well, you guys do your stuff, I’ll be out here.” I say, bidding them farewell again. They wave, then get back into their swing of things.
I walk back to find Hayley talking to a group of four guys, geared up with instruments and in not the usual prom clothes. They were mainly dressed in layers, tight jeans with tank tops or t-shirts with flannels and jackets layered on top. I approached them and they all turned to greet me. One of the guys reaches out to shake my hand, which I accept and return the favor. He has brown hair with long bangs that kinda cover his eyes. He’s dressed in blue skinny jeans, a gray shirt, and a black jacket with the sleeves slightly rolled, revealing a ton of bracelets on his wrists. His ears are slightly stretched with gauges, and he also has a lip ring.
“Hi, I’m Cody!” He says, introducing himself.
“Lynn. Nice to meet you.” I return. I turn to the other boys, reaching my hand out to meet them all.
“Hey I’m Dan. Nice to meet you, Lynn.” The next person says. He has dark skin and hair, a slight beard forming along his chin. He, like Cody, also has guages. He wears a backwards baseball cap, a purple checkered shirt, and a black leather jacket on top. I nod to say my hellos.
“Maxx. With two X’s.” I shake his hand. His blonde hair is styled slightly similar to Cody’s, hanging over his face a little and fluffed up inside his hoodie.
“Hi, I’m Zach.” I shake the last person’s hand, observing he’s also dressed in layers, wearing a black t-shirt with a jean jacket on top, the side of his hair shaved and the other side left longer. Like Dan, he also has facial hair along his chin and slightly under his nose.
“Nice to meet all of you. Are you guys the band who’s playing tonight?” I ask.
“Yep! This is gonna be one of our first shows, so we’re super stoked about it.” Cody replies.
“Great! And uh, the band name?”
“Oh yeah that helps. It’s Set It Off.” Dan says.
“Cool, I knew it had ‘set’ in it.” I say, mostly to myself.
“So, you guys know where to go and how to navigate the stage and all, right?” Hayley asks them.
“Yep, gotcha covered.” Cody replies.
“Alright cool. So, you can go get set up and I’ll announce you guys, then we’re free to go!”
“Great, this is sick!” Maxx chimes in. They all head up to the stage and start preparing their stuff.
After Hayley sees them off, she turns back to continue conversation with me. “So, that’s the band I guess. They seem cool. I wonder what they’re gonna play. They mentioned they’ll play a few songs, so we’ll see when they get up there. Now as for us, we’re just doing the two songs right?” She asks me, sounding slightly nervous.
“Yeah, that sounds like the plan.” I confirm.
“Great. Also, which song is going first?”
“I dunno, you can pick.”
“Oh alright, thanks. Well, your song is a lot slower and mine is more upbeat, so you can do yours in the middle to kinda break up the theme a little, maybe it can be one of the slow dance songs or something. And then I’ll bring back the energy with my thing, then Pete, Andy, Joe and Patrick can go after us with whatever they got going. Sound good?” She says, planning everything out loud.
“Yeah, sounds great!” I agree.
“Great. This is so exciting!”
I was about to say something in reply, but was shortly after interupted by the loud feedback of one of the microphones on stage, making me jump and turn towards the stage. I see Cody grimace in apology, while Dan rushes to help him fix the sound. Zach fiddles with his guitar, looking up at Dan and Cody to see if they need assistance, while Maxx gets his drum area all sorted out. The noise dies down and it looks like they’re just about ready to start. Cody steps up to the mic while Dan gets back in his place. Cody clears his throat, making noise in the microphone and causing a few people to turn their heads.
“Hey, uh, we’re gonna play some stuff. So uh, give us a listen if you want. We’re Set It Off.” Hayley lets off a little “whoo!” and claps, and I clap along too. Maxx starts on the drums, then Zach and Dan join in with the guitars. “This is an original, I wrote it about a girl back home. We’re not together anymore, but she’s still pretty cool in my book, haha.” Cody says with an adorable sounding laugh. There’s a few more seconds of instrumental, then he fidgets with the mic nervously.
“Welcome to the story of my life. It’s too short to not think about anything that’s right for me now, and that’s you being by my side, and I’ll put up my dukes and give it a try…” Some people seem to have acknowledged the live music and turned to watched the show, while others still talk amongst themselves. I soon see Pete and Patrick come around the corner, followed by Andy and Joe, Joe having his arm casually draped around Andy’s shoulder. I wave at them and they return the gesture, walking over to join us in front of the stage. They then turn and watch the band perform, Joe turning to the others and mouthing “wow, they’re good!” The chorus picks up beat and Cody’s mouth moves super fast to spit out the words, flipping his hair a little and rocking nervously on his feet. The people watching the band seem to get into the mood and start dancing a bit, and I see Hayley next to me moving her head to the beat, her red hair swaying with the music. I just watch her as she’s so in the moment, and luckily she doesn’t notice me staring. The chorus finishes and I look away, the music filling the air while Cody catches his breath and starts the next verse.
“No one compares to a girl I knew, make my days seem brighter and the skies more blue.” I smile at the lyrics, thinking of how they remind me of Hayley. She notices me smiling and turns to me, blushing slightly. “So I’ll wait forever even if I have to, and so just sing on baby, we’ll make it through.” Hayley rests her head on my shoulder, so I wrap my arm around her. I lean my head down and plant a kiss on her amber hair, watching her cheeks rise and glow pink as she smiles. She turns her head to look up at my face, and I stare down back at her, a smug smile on my face. She stands on her toes and pecks me on the lips, causing my ears to heat up. I turn away from her and continue watching the band, my smile still wide across my face.
Huh. Our first kiss. The song seems pretty fitting.
“I just wish I could be nearer to the girl who makes time disappear.”

Chapter Text

Hayley’s POV

“I saw you, yeah you, you’re breaking down. I hope you, yeah you, you come around.” Lynn sings, her voice the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard. I didn’t think I’d fall in love with my best friend, but here we are. Her voice rings out into the night, a few people gathered around the stage to view our act, mainly people out on the dance floor, slow dancing and being adorable couples. It’s always nice to see some romance in the air, I would know. The song we’re playing, Lynn slaying the hell out of the vocals, makes the mood all the better. I gently tap the wood drum, keeping a low and steady beat with her vocals and beautiful guitar strumming. It all sounds fantastic, especially since this is an acoustic performance. I try and keep my focus on the beat, but I can’t help my eyes when my vision constantly drifts to gaze at Lynn, just how adorable she looks, all dapper in her suit, her hair shaved on the side and curly in the long ends. She’s honestly such a handsome girl. She’s amazing.
“I took all this love I found, and I hope that it’s enough. Is it enough?”
The song goes by slowly, my nerves present the whole time. Although being up on stage with Lynn calms me, and the sounds we’re making together is more than worth it. I try and train my thoughts on the notes and rhythm, occasionally harmonizing with her lead vocals. For once, my gaze shifts away from Lynn and instead into the crowd, watching the partygoers and observing them. I see quite a few straight couples, but to my pleasant surprise, I see many boys with boys. From what I can see, only Lynn and I are the main “lesbian couple,” even though technically I’m not lesbian, I’m polysexual. She on the other hand is straight up lesbian, so I guess it’s close enough, right? One couple in particular catches my eye, they seem so content with each other and don’t really care if anyone else is watching. One boy is dressed in a handsome gray suit, white shirt and red tie, tall, with olive skin, brown eyes and dark hair. His partner, also very tall, say 2 inches shorter than the boy in the gray suit, has brown hair in a messy fringe that goes just below his chin. He’s very slim, cladding a black suit coat, white button up, black tie, and gray dress pants that match the color of his partner’s suit coat. They dance together softly and intimate, the taller boy’s hands on his partners hip and another having linked hands together. They look into each other’s eyes, then let off small smiles occasionally. The taller boy seems more confident, standing tall and giving more smirks than mellow smiles, while the shorter boy seems more on edge, looking around at his surroundings occasionally and brushing his long hair out of his face. They’re super cute together, I can’t help but get a warm feeling inside at the sight of them.
I can hear the song coming near towards the end, Lynn super into everything she’s doing. “Don’t you shut this down, don’t you give this up…” I watch her as she gets to the ending of the lyrics. And with the last few lines, she looks up from her guitar and looks at me, almost singing to me. “Before you came around I was lost and out of place. You’re the only love I found and I’m hoping you’ll stay.” She sings with a soft smile. I blush and smile back, hitting the drum a little harder than I probably should have. “Please stay.” She sings, just regularly like it goes in the song. “Please stay.” She then repeats. It sounds like she’s just giving more emotion to the song, but her face says she’s saying more. Through the written lyrics of the song, she’s still sending me a message. “Please stay.” She sings out again, even more powerful and so full of emotion. I keep eye contact with her and simply nod my head, my eyes slightly glistening from the emotions of the moment. She returns the soft smile, seeming satisfied, and then we close out the song with the fairly long musical outro. I glance back at the tall, male couple, and I see the shorter boy leaning his head close to the other boy’s face.
“You’re amazing Bilvy, you know that right?” I can fairly make out, mainly lip reading what the taller boy says. The slim boy nods and smiles, then stands on his toes ever so slightly and leans in to kiss his lover. The taller boy grabs his partner, Bilvy, I’m guessing a nickname, and lifts him slightly off the ground, hands on his hips, then gently spins around. Bilvy grabs the shoulders of his partner, holding on for dear life as the two gently spin around.
“Gabe, I’m gonna fall.” He says with a laugh. The taller boy, I now know to be Gabe, gently slows to a stop, both of them laughing and slightly red faced. They lean in for another kiss, Gabe stroking his partners long hair.
Lynn and I then come to a close with the song, and people applaud us, including Bill and Gabe. Lynn shines with pride, brushing her hair out of her face as she waves to a few people. I smile and nod my thanks to the crowd, and their clapping eventually dies down. I look to Lynn, who winks at me in congratulations on the performance. I blush and smile back, then we get up to set up our next song.
“That was a little something I wrote for a special someone.” Lynn says, smirking at me. “It’s meant to be an acoustic, so it was pretty cool to play it how I intended. I like to call that Only Love.” Lynn explains. She passes by me, pecking me on the cheek as she goes. I hear a few enthusiastic cheers from the crowd and I feel my ears start heating up. I then proceed to the microphone, bringing it down to reach my height. Lynn sets up her guitar, while I get mine prepared as well. While Lynn finishes up, I take to the microphone to announce the next song.
“So, uh, how are you all doing tonight?” I ask, getting back into my enthusiastic host-type mood. I hear some cheering, some waving, glasses of punch raised in the air. “Awesome. I’m glad you all could make it, this has turned out really great so far. Anyway, that was a pretty cool song my girlfriend just sang, amiright?” I say, realizing I just said “girlfriend” to everyone here. Lynn doesn’t seem bothered by it, and to my pleasant surprise, neither does anyone else. Instead it’s a quite positive reaction. Some cheering and clapping for us, a few miscellaneous things called out that I couldn’t quite pick up. “Thanks you guys, you all are great. So anyway, we gotta get this party going someway right? So here’s something more upbeat. These acoustics are great, so we’re still sticking to that for this, but I got something else up my sleeve. Some, business I guess you could say.” I say with a wink. On that note, both Lynn and I start up our instruments. The mood immediately lightens up and already sparks with more energy.
“I’m in the business of misery, let’s take it from the top. She’s got a body like an hourglass, it’s ticking like a clock…” Lynn and I immediately pick up speed and energy in comparison to Lynn’s slower and more emotional song. At the sound of this faster paced song, I see more people come to the dancefloor. Some simply talk lightly and discuss the music and the night, but I’m very pleased to see quite a few people start dancing, just as we all should be doing at a dance party. Lynn and I constantly exchange smiles and small laughs during the song, which helps ease my nerves since I’m the main one in the spotlight now. It’s nice to see other smiling faces, dancing and enjoying a song that I’m singing. Who would’ve thought I’d be here performing my own song in front of school people I’ve known since kindergarten? It’s a pretty great experience.
I see Frank grab Gerard’s hand in the distance and pull him to the dance floor, Frank immediately breaking out into a silly dance while Gerard stands there with red cheeks and looking flustered. He smiles at Frank’s moves but continues standing still, looking around to see if anyone is watching. In another section of the room, I see Brendon talking to some other boys, one of them I know as Dallon. Brendon gestures towards the stage and makes tiny dance moves in his spot, which gains a laugh from his surrounding crowd. I then see Pete and Joe returning from the food table with a plate containing multiple slices of pizza, followed by Patrick with one slice and a few pieces of fruit, then Andy with an odd looking vegetable dish and a cup of punch. Joe cheers at the music, making Lynn and I smile again. I look around to the other areas of the room and spot Ryan just chilling in the corner, a few others scattered around the room exchanging smiles and conversation, some looking awkward and slightly uncomfortable but a lot of them seeming to have fun. Near the front of the stage area, I see Gabe and Bill again, not slow dancing anymore but instead jamming out and making some pretty cool dance moves. Gabe goes down the floor, bending his legs wide as he goes and nearly lands with his back on the ground, but pulls himself back up before he falls. Bill gasps at him in amazement, then tries for himself, which he in turn ends up sprawled on the floor. Gabe helps him up and Bill brushes off his clothes, his cheeks turning red. He stands up straight and positions himself, then goes sliding off across the floor, making Gabe chase him, running too fast and crashing into Bill.
Everyone continues with what they’re doing, and as the song starts winding down, I can see Patrick fidgeting a little out of nervousness, since they plan to play after Lynn and I finish. Pete reassures him, while Joe lightly hits his shoulder to encourage him. Andy smiles at Patrick, giving him some advice, then turns to Joe looking a little nervous himself. I’m looking forward to their performance so much, I’m sure they’ll be the ones to really get this party going.
“Cause God it just feels so, it just feels so good.” I finish the last line of the song, Lynn and I close up the musical ending. The crowd cheers, then I see Pete, Patrick, Andy and Joe head up to the stage to star situating their set. They hug Lynn and I, and we exchange smiles and words of luck and congrats on good performances and what not. Lynn and I take off the instruments they won’t need, as they start bringing up the ones they do. I run off the stage, more of a skip I would say, followed by a very smiley Lynn. We head back to the music room to put away our things, trying to carefully put away the instruments through our hyper actions and sudden rush of adrenaline and energy. As soon as I put my guitar down, Lynn’s pulling me around to face her, and in an instant, our faces are pressed together once again. She walks me against one of the walls, her hands having a firm grip on my waist as she walks her hips up to mine, her neck craning down to meet my face. I guess my song lyrics were pretty accurate for right now, cause damn this is the greatest feeling ever.

Chapter Text

Patricks POV

‘Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in breathe out.’ I think to myself. My hands shake at the microphone, my guitar strap around my neck with the instrument behind me, looking out at the people anticipating our performance. It’s now or never, this is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. It seems so fast how it all started, yet it’s super amazing. I only just started this high school and now I’m playing some jams in front of my fellow students? On stage with some really great (sometimes assholes though) friends. It’s pretty sweet. But also nerve wracking as hell. Literally, we’re about to perform a song we all wrote in a matter of hours. How crazy is that?
“Pretty sick, right?” Pete whispers behind me, as if he could read my mind. His breath is warm and heavy on the back of my neck, giving me the chills for multiple reasons. Out of lack of verbal words, I simply nod, then feel his hand on my shoulder. “We’re gonna be great, ‘Trick.” He reassures me. I turn to face him, his beautiful whiskey colored eyes staring back at me, wide with excitement.
“Yeah. Alright, let’s do this.” I whisper back. We each get into position, and I bring the microphone down a tad since it’s rather high for me after Hayley and Lynn’s previous performance. I simply nod to Pete to let him know I’m set, which he then returns and looks to Andy and Joe for the same signal. They each understand it's a green light, and I see them ready at their spots. I swallow the bulge of nerves in my throat and glance at the crowd. I let off a nervous wave to the crowd, getting a few smiles in return. Hayley and Lynn stand close to each other near the front of the stage, giving me silent encouragement as they mouth words of positivity. I see another seeming-to-be-couple, two tall boys, much taller than me. One with dark hair and tan skin, the other with paler skin and long brown hair. They seem to be excited for our act as well. The noise in the room is still rather loud, some people not noticing another act is ready to perform. I lean forward and cough into the microphone lightly, not getting much reaction from the noisy crowd. The tall boy with brown hair cups his mouth and turns to face the crowd.

“Attention! Attention! May I have all your eyes and ears to the front of the room, if only for one second?” He shouts, his voice almost playing out in a sing-song tone, for sure grabbing people’s attention. He looks up at me and smiles, which I return along with a nod of thanks. Now all the eyes and ears are definitely on us. In my daze, I stand there doing nothing until I hear light clapping from behind me. My head darts back into reality and I turn to see Joe start clapping, which Andy shortly adds on by tapping his drumsticks together, followed by an enthusiastic Pete, and me following up once I catch on. We each get into the groove, clapping louder and to a beat. I look to the crowd to get them to join, Hayley, Lynn, the tall male couple, and a few others add on, smiling. I start really getting into the beat and I feel my body shake as I dance ever so slightly, my guitar bouncing against my back since it’s slung behind me while I sing. I then hear more clapping up front while it lessens on stage as Pete and Andy take to their opening instrumental measures. Andy starts up his drumming while Pete starts the prominent bassline. It seems as if people are flooding in now, a ton of people I’ve never seen before, I didn’t even know they were at this facility tonight. They all look really excited and into the mood, which in turn brings up my mood and boosts my confidence. Alright, here we go. I think to myself in a split second. Next thing I know, it’s my turn to finally open my mouth to the world. Er, well the school at least.

“She said she’s no good with words but I’m worse, barely stuttered out a joke of a romantic stuck to my tongue.” As I sing the last few words of the line, I use my finger to gesture to my tongue, running it over my tongue and pulling it back into the air kinda like those hiker people do to test the wind. In spite of the lyrics I had in mind, being “He said…” for the first line, I’ve it changed to feminine pronouns so the audience doesn’t flip. Although a majority didn’t seem too bothered by the obvious gayness within other performances tonight, but I’ll just play it on the safe side anyway.

Joe then starts up his prominent guitar riff, amping up the energy. “Weighed down with words too overdramatic. Tonight it’s “It can’t get much worse” verses “No one should ever feel like…” With that, I swing my guitar around to play it, catching it and getting in on my measures right on time, the crowd cheering as I do so. “I’m two quarters and a heart down, and I don’t wanna forget how your voice sounds. These words are all I have so I’ll write them, so you need them just to get by.” Another dramatic guitar riff from Joe, and Pete is suddenly at my side, rather close to me. It’s only a few seconds, but while he continues to play for the brief instrumental break before the chorus, he leans in and attempts at kissing my neck, which I detest since he’s distracting my timing and guitar notes, so I take a few steps away as he continues striving for my neck. It’s a sweet gesture (and seeming to be pretty popular with the crowd) but right now isn’t the best time.

“Dance, dance, we’re falling apart to half time. Dance, dance, and these are the lives you love to lead.” The chorus drops in and I’m filled with adrenaline, hitting my guitar strings with every ounce of energy I have. In my peripheral vision I can see Joe dramatically spinning with his guitar, his coat flying around to reveal his shirt underneath, Pete in turn doing the same on my other side. “Dance, this is the way they’d love if they knew how misery loved me.” I finish the end line of the chorus, pleased to see quite a few people moved by the lyrics and taking the dance floor to rock out to our song.

I see the two tall boys attempt to kiss, the slightly taller teen taking his partner’s face in his hands and leaning in, but they’re pushed to the side as someone pushes past. The slightly taller boy flips off the person who pushed past, while his partner turns around to give the passerby a stern look. “Hey, watch where you’re going!” He shouts, loud enough I myself can hear over the instruments.
“Oh I’m so sorry, Bill.” The person snickers sarcastically, obviously not really sorry.
“It’s William.” The lanky teen spits back. He turns back to his partner and instead of trying to kiss again, they break into dance.
I see some more dancers hit the floor, more conversations striking. Some really awkward looking conversations catch my eye and making me feel better about my own lack of social skills.

The second verse comes up and we’re back at it again with the instruments, easing into our first ever performance as a… what even would you call this? Band? Nah, that sounds too technical and far fetched. Or, maybe not too far fetched, I mean we did just write a song together. I guess we’ll see how this turns out. Each of us seems to have our own take on the performance, each of us doing pretty dang well. There’s lots more spinning from Joe and Pete, a lot of the gold and red balloons flying off stage. If Pete and Joe hadn’t kicked the balloons everywhere, I wouldn’t even have noticed them.

The second verse goes on, then coming up to the chorus again. It’s a pretty catchy song, it’s so great to hear it on these big speakers. And then the bridge. Now, I’m pretty comfortable and in the mood, so I decide to get a little flamboyant and what not. Before the full on switch to the bridge, there’s a different lyric that helps the transition, and I use that as my time to add my own spunk to the physical performance of this all.

“Why don’t you show me a little bit a spine you’ve been saving for his mattress, love?” I sing with sass like Gerard Way, one of the sassiest emo kids I’ve come to know at this new high school. On the word “love,” much like I wrote many times in my notebooks at home, I make a giant heart shape with my hands, imagining a pink ribbon making the heart in the air. Joe jumps into the air again with another dramatic spin, and we take to the chorus again.

Now comes the longer instrumental break between lyrics, transitioning into the different sound of the bridge. The instruments sound amazing, it just brings a smile to my face. To my left, I see Pete let his bass loose around his neck, Joe crouching to the floor. Pete almost flies into the air as he jumps over Joe, almost landing on me. He settles his footing as Joe gets up again, then Pete does the weirdest “dance” I’ve seen tonight. His hands perch up, almost as if he were pretending to be a chicken. His mouth drops a little and he simply shakes violently in his position, letting his wrists fly around, then swinging his head down at the end. It makes me laugh, and get a few giggles out of the crowd as well.

“Why don’t you show me a little bit of spine you’ve been saving for his mattress? I only want sympathy in the form of you crawling into bed with me.” I sing the lines of the bridge, repeating the previously sassed up line from a few measures ago. There’s another short instrumental transition from the bridge back to the chorus, and right at the end Pete quickly grabs Joe’s guitar and literally licks the neck of the guitar, leaving even Joe surprised at the act. Pete swings his head down again as Joe runs back to his original position (or maybe just away from Pete) and the chorus comes back into action. The song is coming to a close, so we all have to make a dramatic finish. Andy seems to spike up the drum energy, while Joe takes to Pete’s jumping methods and launches himself off one of the speakers and back onto the floor, continuing to add random jump-and-spins. I play around with the vocals, adding random trills, different notes, all that good stuff.

“Dance, this is the way they’d love if they knew how misery loved me.” I finish up, adding some umph on the “meeeeeeee” part. I drop my guitar and let it hang around my neck, attempting to strike a dramatic chicken wing type pose like Pete did, then I throw my playing hand into the air like I could imagine Gerard doing during one of those songs he showed me….”Destroya,” was it called? Pete strums out the bassline from the beginning, Andy matching his beat similar to the bass, and Joe swings his head down like Pete did so many times. The clapping returns, the crowd up and at it, whooping and cheering louder than before. The dance floor kind of breaks up, letting only a few people on to show off random moves. It looks like those moments when people form lines and let people show off their moves as they walk through the lines, except it was a group around the rectangle floor rather than neat rows. Some of the balloons that Pete and Joe kicked off stage are being tossed among the crowd, flying everywhere and up into the tall ceiling of the facility. Pete suddenly raises his bass up to his face, continuing to strum the classic tune. And now comes the strong finish.
“Dance, dance. Dance, dance. Dance, Dance.” I sing, repeating the ever so strange word chosen to explain the rhythmic movement synced with music. Literally the last few measures of the song, lyric wise anyway, is just the same word repeated sixteen times. That’s kind of a lot. But it surprisingly fits the song rather well.

And with the last breath out of my mouth, the last hit of the drums and cymbals, last guitar strums from Joe and I, the last beat of the bass, the song comes to a close. The group of many enthusiastic people in front of us have smiles on their faces, many of them out of breath just as I am, cheering so loud I’ll probably have ringing in my ears later. It hits hard, realizing that I helped produce this reaction. With the help of some amazing new friends, a few crazy ideas, and repeating some basic words a few times, we wrote a song, performed it at this event, and I actually made an impact on people. Who would’ve thought in a week I could become this whole new Patrick? It’s an amazing feeling, and I feel so accomplished. Just a joke of a romantic stuck to my tongue? Yeah, maybe. But I’m also a whole lot more now. I guess the saying is kinda true after all... “one night can change it all.”

Chapter Text

Pete’s POV

“You guys were amazing!” Hayley says enthusiastically, hugging us as we leave the stage. Lynn stands next to her with a pleased grin.
“That song was lit! You guys killed it.” She says.
“Thank you, thank you. It was a team effort.” Joe replies. He ruffles Andy’s long hair, gaining a small smile from the shorter boy.
“Thanks you guys.” Patrick says with a slight blush.
“I told you you’d do great.” I say to Patrick.
“We all did great.” He says in return.
“Yeah, we really nailed it.” Leaving the instruments on stage for whichever act wants to go next, we depart from the scene of the music, blending into the rest of the crowd in search of some of our other friends. I spot Brendon’s group of the night over in a corner sitting in what i’m assuming was an attempt at a circle. I send him a wave, which he notices and returns, standing up to greet me, as well as Andy, Patrick and Joe.
“Damn that song was great! Patrick, you have an amazing voice! You all slayed the instruments. It worked together really well!” Brendon exclaims, talking in his usual fast paced tone.
“Thanks man.” I reply. “So, uh, what are you guys doing?” I ask, now observing the setting. Also in the circle sits Frank, Gerard, a boy I don’t know too well but I know to be Dallon, and another face I’m not so familiar with, but I know he talks to Brendon a bit.
“We’re playing truth or dare. How classic, I know. But it’s really fun! You should join us.” Brendon explains. I look to my other three friends, seeing if they’re up for the game, in which they nod and we all sit down.
“Oh, hi! I’m Spencer by the way.” The boy I didn’t know too well says as I sit down. He reaches across the way to shake my hand, then Patrick, Andy, and Joe’s.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Pete.” I reply.
“Hi, I’m Patrick.”
“Andy.”
“I’m Joe. Pleasure.”
“So, we all know each other now, right?” Brendon asks, receiving nods from all of us. “Alright, let’s get back into this. Who’s turn is it?”
“Uh, Dallon’s I think.” Spencer says. Dallon clears his throat, looking at the circle to see who to ask next.
“Okay Spence, truth or dare?” Dallon asks Spencer.
“Hmm. Truth.”
“Lemme think. How far have you gone with Linda?” He asks, raising an eyebrow. Spencer blushes the question, hesitating before answering.
“Not sex, if that’s what you want to know. Our relationship is still developing, we’ve only made out so far.” Spencer replies. Brendon seems to have a look of disappointment as if he wanted to hear some juicy facts, but seems approving of the answer.
“Damn we got a straight here. That’s a first.” Frank says, popping into conversation.
“Eh, I could swing both ways, but this one girl’s really got my heart right now.” Spencer smirks.
“Whatever floats your boat, my dude. Girls are pretty hot. And feminine boys. And masculine boys. And… okay enough about me.” Frank realizes he’s rambling and stops himself.
“‘K Spencer, your turn to ask.” Gerard says, the mom friend of the group that keeps things going.
“Hmmmm. Frank, truth or dare?”
“Dare.” Frank replies almost immediately.
“Ooooh, taking the dare.” I say, seeing the glimmer of enthusiasm and adrenaline in Frank’s facial features. He winks at me, then we all anticipate Spencer’s dare.
“Okay Frankie, I dare you to….kiss Gerard.” He says, breaking out into a cheesy grin.
“Easy.” Frank says, confidently. He turns his head to Gerard, who’s already sitting rather close to him. He cups Gerard’s jaw in his hands, quickly bringing their mouths together. Gerard’s eyes are wide as he didn’t expect the suddenness of the kiss, but he quickly melds into Frank’s movements with no hesitation. He brings his own hands onto Frank’s shoulders, bringing the two of them closer. Frank leans forward, a little too forward since now the two of them spiral to the floor, Gerard landing on his back and Frank’s small body on top of him. They break away, quickly attempting to sit up again. “How was that?” Frank asks, looking back at Spencer while Gerard nearly sits on Frank’s lap, smiling like a kid in a candy store.
“Awesome.” Spencer smiles.
“You didn’t mind, right?” Frank then asks Gerard.
“Of course not, silly. We’re practically boyfriends already.” Gerard replies, launching his face forward to plant his lips on Frank’s.
“Alright alright, get a room.” Joe says, laughing. The two pull away, both extremely red in the face.
Before an awkward silence ruins the moment, there’s a loud feedback from the stage, making all of us jump and turn our heads towards the sound.
“Damnit what’s up with this audio shit tonight. Sorry about that.” A somewhat deep voice says through the microphone. I recognize the face of the speaker ever so slightly, as he and his partner were dancing to some of the other songs earlier near the front of the stage. I forget his name though, I think he’s in a year above me since I’ve never seen him until tonight. His tall boyfriend is also onstage with him, brushing his shoulder length brown hair out of his face as he attempts to help with the sound adjustments. They exchange brief conversation, then set up the rest of the stuff for their set.
“Hmm, looks interesting. I’m excited to see how they sound.” Dallon says.
“Oh yeah, I saw them earlier, it’ll be interesting to see their mouths making words instead of making out.” Brendon says with a chuckle.
“Huh, the other tall boy with the brown hair helped get the crowd quiet earlier before our song. That was nice of him.” Patrick says calmly, finally easing into the group and conversation.
Another boy gets on stage with them, surprisingly even taller than the two others. I’ve seen him before, Travie McCoy I think. And soon enough, they’re set up and ready to go.
“So, we all kinda wrote this together, then I asked my good friend-” The boy who was speaking before starts, but is stopped when the boy with long brown hair gently punches him in the arm, giving him a suspicious look. “Sorry, boyfriend.” The speaker corrects himself with a roll of his eyes and goofy grin. “I asked him if he could sing, he said he has a “somewhat okay voice” but damn is he full of shit. He sings like an angel.” The brown haired boy blushes at his boyfriend’s words, Travie rolling his eyes at their flirtiness onstage. “Then I asked my bud Travie if he could help us with some stuff on this, which he gladly accepted. Fun fact, he wrote his part in the shower in like 15 minutes. Crazy man. But enough of this long ass introduction. My name is Gabe, this is William, that’s Travie, and this little jam is called Bring It.” The speaker, Gabe, finishes. He swings his instrument, my eyes pleased to see a bass, around into position, while William fiddles with his guitar. Just like the song Patrick, Joe, Andy and I performed, this song has a rather prominent bass intro, which flows throughout the room and gets people’s attention. Our game is paused for the moment as we listen intently to this next song.
“Time’s are strange, we’ve got a free upgrade for snakes on a plane, fuck ‘em I don’t care.” Gabe sings with a smirk. “Pop the cheap champagne, we’re going down in flames. Hey!”
Then the next part, Travie and William join in on the vocals, an interesting mix with Gabe’s voice, but it works. “Oh, I’m ready for it. Come on, bring it!” Which they repeat three times. “Oh, I’m ready for it. Come on…” And then Gabe and Travie drop out, letting William’s voice reign the air. “So kiss me goodbye. Honey, I’m gonna make it out alive. So kiss me goodbye. I can see the venom in your eyes. Goodbye.”
Then it goes to the second verse, giving Gabe the main vocals. The chorus repeats, and then the bridge, where Travie takes the lead. The variety of all three of their voices is really interesting, as well as the different moods and styles just within the song. Gabe has a smooth kind of voice but also has pops of electric vibes. William’s voice is in the much higher range, not as rough as Gabe’s but instead really clean cut I guess you could describe it as. Travie has a whole other sound, which is visibly expressed in his part, which is a rapping segment.
“Ladies and gentlemen, these snakes is slithering with dollar signs in they eyes with tongues so reptilian. This industry’s venomous with cold-blooded sentiments. No need for nervousness, it’s just a little turbulence.”
He has a really great sounding voice, and he nailed his rap, which surprisingly fits well into the song. To think he wrote that in just 15 minutes. Then again my friends and I just wrote a full song in a few hours, so I guess we’re pretty talented too.
There’s a brief instrumental break with the prominent bassline, then goes back into the higher sounding part of the chorus that William sings. It finishes up with the “Oh, I’m ready for it” part, then starts to fade out. It ends on a strong note with Gabe strumming the last few notes of the bassline, and it stops abruptly. The crowd cheers, as well as our little circle in the back here. The three on stage join in a group hug, then William pecks a kiss on Travie’s cheek. Gabe and William hop off stage, leaving Travie up there by himself. He then heads to the center microphone, adjusting the stand to his height.
I turn my attention back to the circle, each of them doing the same. “Well, that song sure was a jam.” I say.
“Yeah! I did not expect, what was it, William’s voice to sound like that.” Andy says.
“It was a nice sound though.” Patrick inputs.
“Yeah of course, not knocking it at all. It worked really well in the song actually, just unexpected.” Andy finishes up.
“Well look who’s talking, first time I met you, you seemed like a rough n tough guy from appearance, then hearing your voice sounded like an adorable little fairy.” Joe laughs, making Andy blush.
“Oooh, looks like another couple.” Dallon says in a sing song voice. Joe’s face turns red now, and he licks his lips nervously.
“Pshh, whatever.” Joe shrugs off. Andy looks at him with puppy eyes, leaning close to him to tease him.
“You know you wanna kiss me.” Andy says, trying to make his voice even higher than normal.
“Shove it.” Joe spits back.
“In my ass.” Andy throws back with a suspicious wink. At that, Joe bites his lip, then quickly pecks his lips onto Andy’s.
“HA I KNEW IT!” Dallon says, causing Patrick to jump at the sudden outburst. Brendon and I just smile at them, glad to see them finally kiss after so long of lowkey flirting but never making a move with each other.
“God, enough of this. Yes, I’m absolutely love struck with this adorable fairy boy, can we move on?” Joe says with a sarcastic laugh.
“Oh fine, if you insist. So, who’s turn?” Frank asks. “Oh, right, mine. Let’s see. Uh, Brendon, truth or dare?” Frank asks Brendon.
“Dare.”
“Okay, uh…” Frank starts. Almost as on queue, Travie on stage seems to fit the mood with the best dare ever.
“Hey all, I’m Travie. You just witnessed a fine ass song by some of my lovely babes, William and Gabe. Now I’m gonna need a volunteer for this next song though, anyone up for it?” He announces. Frank’s smirk gets wider on his face, turning away from the stage and back to Brendon.
“I dare you to be his volunteer.” Frank decides. Brendon looks half horror struck, half excited. He stands up, looking at Frank as if he was being serious.
“Oh, okay, um. I’ll be back later then?” Brendon says awkwardly. He waves to us and pushes through the crowd to the stage, eventually getting to the front. We watch as he raises his hand to volunteer, then Travie notices him with a toothy grin. He welcomes Brendon up on stage, Brendon awkwardly standing next to the taller boy. And when I say taller, boy do I mean taller. Brendon, landing at 5’9, the kid I always thought to be quite tall compared to myself, now looks like a tiny ant compared to Travie. He must be, what, 6’5 or something. Standing with Gabe and William, they all kind of even each other out, but now Brendon standing there makes their heights a lot more noticeable.
“Hey thanks for volunteering bud. What’s your name?” Travie asks Brendon.
“Uh, Brendon.” He replies.
“Woo, everyone say hi to my new pal Brendon! Give him a hand.” The crowd rises up in noise a bit, a few claps and shouts of excitement, so my circle joins in, since Brendon is pretty much one of our closest friends. Well, one of mine at least, I bet Patrick still doesn't know him very well.
Brendon waves and smiles awkwardly at the people, seeming. to be more used to the spotlight on him now.
“So, Brendon. What we’re gonna do here is sing a little something I wrote. Your part is pretty easy, I’m sure you can catch onto the lyrics pretty fast.” Brendon then nods in understanding. “So your part just goes like this.” Travie then steps away from the microphone a bit and instead talks directly to Brendon. From the back of the room, I can’t hear what he’s saying, but Brendon seems to get it. Travie pats him on the back, then they head to their mics. “You got it bro. Now start us off. I don’t really have a band yet for them fancy instruments, but this track thing should hopefully do.” Travie says, fiddling with one of the big sound machines on stage. He presses for the track to start and the music starts pumping through the room. Brendon is clearly nervous, but he’s doing a pretty good job at hiding it. I dunno how he knew when to come in, but he seems like a pro at the song already.
“You gotta keep on keeping on, even with the feeling that you’re gonna keep losing. You gotta come back strong. Oooooh oooh.” His voice sounds amazing on the speakers. I’ve heard him sing just to me, like when we play random songs in my room or when he shows me a demo he came up with, but right now he has a somewhat different sound. A more modern and older sound. It sounds nice.
Travie smiles at Brendon, letting him know he did a good job, then proceeds with the rest of the song until Brendon comes back in to do his part again. Eventually the song finishes, everyone applauds, leaving a blushing Brendon to walk off the stage and join our group once again.
“Dude you nailed it!” I say, hugging him as he comes back and sits down, a little out of breath and sweaty. Everyone else in the circle also applauds him, giving him high fives and what not.
“So I’d say I dominated that dare pretty well then, huh?” He asks, mainly to Frank.
“I sure would say you did!” Frank then replies smugly.
“So, Brendon. On the topic of games. This whole party thing I think will be coming to an end in a bit, maybe after a few more songs. I know Hayley, Tay and Lynn had mentioned something about an after party of sorts. Do you think you could arrange a game for me?” I say with a wink, the perfect plan in mind to help move things along with Patrick, as well as bring some more fun into the night.
“Sure thing bud, as long as it’s not too crazy for Hayley ‘n all.” Brendon replies, never protesting to a game.
“Alright. Why don’t we let these fellas continue on with their game, you and I go get a refreshment or something and I’ll give you the deets. That alright with you guys? I have an interesting surprise planned for us later.” I explain to Brendon, then to the group. They nod, Patrick looking slightly uneasy, but I hope he’s alright. “Be back in a bit bud. You’ll be fine.” I say to him with a wink, rustling his still gelled hair. He seems to relax a bit at my touch, then Brendon and I head off, my hopes high my “plan” will be somewhat successful.

Chapter Text

Pete’s POV

Brendon and I arrive at the snack table, Brendon taking a handful of M&Ms while I go for another slice of pizza. We then chill off to the corner a bit, watching people for a few minutes as we eat, Brendon now filling a styrofoam cup with the chocolate candies and pouring them into his mouth like a drink.
I see Travie, who’s now left the stage to be replaced by four other boys. They seem oddly familiar, but I can’t place their names. Travie wanders off through the people, stopping when he finds Gabe and William, hugging them both in greeting. William pecks his cheek again, making Travie blush visibly even from where Brendon and I stand. Gabe rolls his eyes sarcastically at the sight, then gently pushes William against Travie, who quickly catches William so the shorter boy didn't fall. Then their lips lock in a kiss, Gabe blushing behind them, his face seeming pleased.
“Man, they’re all for PDA’s, aren’t they.” Brendon says through a mouthful of candies, watching the trio of teens as well.
“Boy are they. They’re cute though.” I reply. “But one question though, why was William so hooked on Gabe earlier on stage, now he’s full blown for Travie while Gabe encourages them? Aren’t Will and Gabe together?” I point out, slightly confused by the situation.
“Ah yes I’ve seen that before. Probably a polyamorous thing. William’s probably into both Gabe and Travie, Gabe’s probably chill with it so he’s encouraging William to also go for Travie, Travie’s perfectly chill with liking them both. The whole thing with poly relationships is openness within a multiple partner relationship. I could say I’m poly myself, I could see being with multiple open partners. But I guess for right now I just have my eye set on one person. It works though.” Brendon explains, seeming to be an expert on it all. Now it makes sense, and it’s actually quite heartwarming to see how open the three of them are about it in public.
“Oh, nice. That’s cute. I ship it.” I say.
“Mhmmm. That’d be a wild ship name though.” Brendon points out.
“True, true. So, anyway about the game idea. There always seems to be pretty wild games at teenage parties. Truth or dare, spin the bottle, never have I ever… there’s this other game I’ve heard of that I thought would be pretty cool. It’s called Seven Minutes In Heaven.” I explain to Brendon with a smirk.
“Hmmm, sounds fun. How do you do it?” Brendon asks, gulping down a few more M&Ms. I then go through the process of explaining the game rules, a smile coming to Brendon’s face as he gets what I’m getting at. I mean, I guess it could be a really casual and safe game if people wanted it to be, but for those who want a little something extra, I’d say it’s a mighty fine way to spend a little extra one on one time with your crush. Not that I mean for me. I’m totally thinking of helping some of my other dudes. Okay maybe that’s a lie, maybe I am thinking of myself in the situation as well. It’s whatever though, just a game.
After Brendon and I have talked, we head back to the circle we departed a bit ago, seeing them stand up and prepare to move someplace else. I wave to Patrick again, who seems to be super comfortable now. He’s smiling and slightly sweaty, but looking content and like he’s having a good time. It’s so interesting how just one night can open up so many new things. You can meet new people that could become life long friends, you can snap back at some rude bitches, just have an overall good time. It’s quite amazing actually what just one few hour segment can do for a person. I mean heck, I thought I was somewhat known at Winona High. I got a decent group of friends, but after tonight, I know quite a few more people I could find myself hanging out with in the future.
“Hey Pete! We’re planning on hitting the dancefloor for the last few songs of the night. Wanna join?” Patrick asks once I’m in audible range.
“Hell yeah, let’s make what we can with what’s left of the night.” I say, smiling in return.
“Alright, let’s go.” The group of us wander and mingle in with the rest of the crowd, watching the band set up on stage.
“Hey guys, we’re back! The band and I were hungry so we took a break to get food. Unfortunately we didn’t have too much cash on us, so we just shared a pizza on the curb. Pretty wild. But anyway, here we are again! We got two more songs for you to finish up the night. In case you missed us earlier, we’re Set It Off! I’m Cody, these are my boys Maxx, Dan, and Zach.” The boy onstage announces. Now their faces lock into my head. After we finished up the writing stuff, they were the ones playing when we came out to join the excitement. The song they played was really great, I’m excited to hear the two other songs they have in store.
“So, I heard someone say that Mr. William Beckett is in the house tonight! Hey bud, if you’re still here, we could play that song we did together. Bill? You here?” Cody, the boy speaking calls out into the crowd, searching for the tall, long haired boy. William pops up, waving his goodbyes to Travie and Gabe, then heads up to the stage to greet Cody.
“Great to see you, man. We’re gonna do the song?” William asks.
“Yup. If you’re up for it.” Cody returns with a wink.
“Let’s do it!”
“Alright! This next one’s called Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing.” Cody explains. Immediately, the instruments startup, Maxx starting it strong with a bang of the drums, so powerful he bounces in his seat. The guitars start up as well, giving a prominent introduction tune. There's a few measures of instruments, Cody and William tapping their feet and fidgeting with their microphones a bit, then Cody starts up the vocals.
“Beware, beware, be skeptical of their smiles, their smiles of plated gold. Deceit so natural, but a wolf in sheep’s clothing is more than a warning. Ba ba black sheep have you any soul? No sir, by the way, what the hell are morals? Jack be nimble, Jack be quick. Jill’s a little whore and her alibis are dirty tricks. So could you tell me how you’re sleeping easy, how you’re only thinking of yourself? Show me how you justify telling all your lies like second nature. Listen, mark my words one day, you will pay, you will pay, karma’s gonna come collect your debt.” He sings the first verse, then into the chorus. After the chorus it goes back to a bit of just instruments, which sound a lot different than the other songs played today, but it sounds really good. He then turns to William, who seems prepared for what’s next.
“Take it, Beckett!” Cody says quickly after a few seconds of musical break. William takes that as his queue, immediately starting the next verse.
“Aware, aware you stalk your prey, with criminal mentality. You sink your teeth into the people you depend on, infecting everyone, you're quite the problem.” The way he enunciates his words is really great, he puts a staccato and spice to the “infecting” part especially. I could totally see working with him on some stuff, maybe have him sing with Patrick or be in a music video.
“Fe-fi-fo-fum, better run and hide. I smell the blood of a petty little coward. Jack be lethal, Jack be slick. Jill will leave you lonely, dying in a filthy ditch.”
Cody steps back up to the mic to join back in on the chorus, which they both sing for. The bridge has a completely different feel, slowed down a lot and actually pretty calm considering what the rest of the has been. Er, well I thought.
“Oh mY GOD. Who am I kidding? Let’s not get overzealous here. You’ve always been a huge piece of SHIT! If I could kill you, I would. But that’s frowned upon in all fifty states. Having said that, burn in hell!” That was a dramatic turn. The song goes back to the chorus, then eventually ends. Everyone on stage is bursting with energy, and the crowd around me is super hyped, jumping around and headbanging in the air. Even Brendon and Patrick next to me are feeling the beat.
“Karma’s gonna come collect your debt. Jazzy!” The song finishes off. Cody and William hug each other, Cody blushing slightly when William smiles at him and leaves the stage. Maxx tosses his bleached hair out of his face, looking super pumped and excited, sticking his tongue out to a few people near the front of the stage, making them squeal with excitement. Dan and Zach exchange gestures and smiles to tell each other ‘good job’ and what not. The crowd cheers, then Cody turns his attention back at performing, smiling at all the people excited to hear his band’s music.
“That was a blast. You guys are so great today!” He says. “So, this next song is something new, I wrote it with my good friend, one of my biggest inspirations actually, which is really cool. Props to Mr. Alex Gaskarth!” He explains, gesturing to someone near the front of the stage. I immediately recognize the name, as he and his best friend Jack, probably boyfriend too considering how gay they are together, are in some of my classes. I don’t talk to either of them much, they’re kinda the “jocks” of the school and try and show off to girls, even though they flirt with each other. It’s a strange mix, but I guess it works for them. Jack stand next to him, his skunk-like hair brushing against Alex’s shoulder as he leans on him. I normally see them wearing hoodies and beanies, their “classic scene kid” hair styles always a mess in their faces, but tonight they’re both dressed up in suits, Jack spiking his hair up to reveal the blonde streaks, almost making him look more skunk-like than normal. Alex looks really clean cut, his brown hair swooped to the side but still fluffy, black suit and bowtie. It’s always interesting to see how different people dress for certain occasions.
“So uh, we’ve never played this live before, but uh, we’ll see how it goes.” Cody finishes with a small laugh. Alex gives him a thumbs up, making Cody visibly blush from the stage. The speakers start with a strange electric sound, slowly rising in volume. Dan and Maxx have microphones, so they suddenly join in on backing vocals.
“Ba da, ba ba da da.” They start. Then Cody takes over the main vocals.
“Well I’ve been stuck in my head wonderin’ what’s it gonna take to break the mold. I’m searchin’ for something, that fire, that lighting I used to think was uncontainable.” It’s a different sound than their previous song, but it’s really great. Zoning out of the lyrics, I turn my attention to Patrick who’s standing with Joe awkwardly. An adorable awkward might I say. Joe seems really into it, watching Dan and Zach mainly shred on the guitars. He moves his hands as if he’s playing too, making energetic faces and throwing his fist in the air and mouthing “set it off” in a silent cheer. Andy watches Joe in admiration, trying to feel the beat of the music. Brendon’s lost in his own world at this point, so I kinda just leave him to himself. I then walk up to Patrick, getting a feel for his thoughts on the night so far. He pulls at his gray suit a bit, adjusting it since it’s probably stifling hot considering the material. When he sees me next to him, he eases a little, but is still clearly nervous. He smiles and gives me a small wave, which I then return. And surprisingly, he makes the first move at conversation.
“H-hey. Um, so. Uh. I-it’s a dance, y’know, and uh. Kinda, uh, wonderin’ if you wanted to, uh, dance?” He asks, making nervous gestures with his hands while doing so. It warms my heart that he’s trying to connect with me, so how can I turn him down? He’s Patrick Stump afterall.
“Uh, yeah. Sounds great!” I reply, smiling warmly. He smiles back, letting out a sigh of relief. “So, uh. I mean it’s not the best slow dance song, but we can make do.” I take his hand in mine, dramatically spinning him around, which he stumbles a bit in the process. I help him gain his footing, and he grabs my shoulders for support. Our faces are lined up, (well, lined up as they could be, considering the slight height difference) and his glasses are on the edge of his nose. I use my free hand to slide them back up, making him blush at my touch. “You’ll get the hang of it.” I reassure him. We readjust our hold on each other, my hands at his squishy hips and his arms stretched slightly upwards to hold onto my shoulders. He looks at our footing awkwardly, hoping not to step on my feet. And then to the energetic beat of the song, we sway side to side, a fast paced slow dance I guess you could say.
And almost as if the song could tell what I was thinking, the lyrics ring out. “Let me show you something new!” Hm, I guess when Cody said “this next song is something new” he literally meant it. Damn puns.
In the distance, I can see Joe and Andy messing with each other. Andy walks up right behind Joe, just staring at the back of his head, wondering what to do. By the time Joe turns around, Andy looks away and walks a few steps back, like he was never doing anything. Then Joe casually leans against him, planting a swift kiss on Andy’s neck and making the shorter boy blush. Now almost surrounding Patrick and I, a group of fellow party goers seem to be forming a semicircle, being still for the most part on the outer edges, with enthusiastic dancers in the center. In the midst of everything, someone knocks into Patrick, pulling the two of us apart to separate ends of the “dance oval.” We’re right in the action of what almost seems to be a mosh pit, just dancing instead. There’s someone spinning on their head, another person doing something with their arms and shaking their butt. And soon I’m surprised to see Patrick joining along, flailing his arms everywhere as he attempts to fit the mood. A few people lock hands and skip in front of Patrick, pushing him back to the “walls” of the dance pit. He stumbles a little, but he’s really great at picking himself back up. More dancing occurs, and I just stand there, watching the action mainly.
Suddenly I see Joe being pushed into the center, falling to the floor in the process, confused but soon catching on, standing back up and breaking down a few moves, which Andy encourages enthusiastically. He smirks at the viewers, now confident with what he’s doing. A few moments pass and he skips back to the safety amongst the rest of the crowd as Travie then takes to the center, a baseball cap now covering his fro. He waves his arms, then does some sorta robot type move with his legs, the blue fabric of his unbuttoned button-up flowing to the sides as he moves. Many people cheer for him, so I guess he’s a pretty big deal in his grade.
While I'm busy watching his moves, someone knocks into me, sending me into the middle of all the action. I wasn't expecting the sudden movements, and I normally don't like showcasing myself in a large group of people, so I stand there awkwardly, scratching my neck and looking at my surroundings. The energy still remains, and people are staring at me to do something, so I take a deep breathe and try and get my brain to sync up with my legs.
‘One night can change it all.’ I say to myself mentally, trying to drown my anxiety of what people will think of me. I mean, if Patrick can muster up enough courage to flail around in front of all these people, I can put myself out there as well. I don’t have much time to think things through, so I start with a similar move as Travie, moving my hands and legs in sync almost like a robot. Not really thinking about what i’m doing at this point, I then scatter across the floor with shuffling feet, waving my arms around kinda how people do that weird wavy thing with their arms out to the side like a wiggly noodle.
Across the way I see Patrick’s been pushed into the action again, and he’s back at it with the frantic arm flailing, looking like an adorable blur of long sideburns, messy sweaty hair, and a gray suit. I return my attention to the crowd around me, back at the weird leg and arm sync motion, and people from the surrounding group come into the center...joining me? Now that’s a first. They're doing the same of moves as I am, laughing and giggling and full of energy. I don't even know them. I can see Joe and Andy encouraging me, Hayley and Lynn smiling in the distance, Brendon just watching in awe. Feeling the best of the music, I start bobbing my head along, adrenaline rising in me by the second. I start a new dance move and start jumping, probably looking like one of those Super Mario Brothers dudes when they jump a block. My “backup” dancers join me in the odd jumping move, all of us in sync with the music.
Taking another wild move, I stand mostly still, twitching and spazzing out in my place while letting my mouth drop open and tongue stick out slightly.
The song sounds like it’s coming to an end, so I finish up my moves back with the psychedelic robot thing with a tad of jumping, then finish strong, the other people around me stopping when I stop. The room explodes in cheers, mainly for the band onstage, but some are for me too. Patrick is the first to run up and hug me, sweaty and cheeks rosy red, both of our hearts beating and he’s looks so happy, just utterly gorgeous. He looks amazing when he’s happy. He hugs me for a long time, arms wrapped tightly around my back, and I return the gesture, easily melding into his short and soft frame.
After a few moments, he releases the tightness of our hold, looking up to me with a glowing, red face. It hits me in the stomach just how adorable he is, the classic burst of butterflies exploding throughout me. “You're so handsome.” He says randomly, making me blush at the compliment.
“Aw man, thank you. You look fucking adorable right now.” I reply, flustered with my words. We keep eye contact for another few seconds, the noise around us dying down slowly. He then stands on his toes and pecks me on the cheek, and before I can react, he walks away as if nothing happened. I touch the spot of my face he just kissed, trying to process what just happened. I feel my face is extremely hot right now, so I can imagine that my cheeks are finally red enough to match the other dark red colors throughout the room. This shoe night he been a wild adventure, full of new experiences and doing tons of uncertain things, but I've learned so much and changed so much within a matter of one night. And one thing I know for certain, I’m so fucking gay for Patrick Stump.

Chapter Text

Patrick's POV

It's been a few hours since the massive dance pit thing that went down for the last song of the night, followed by the super cheesy, super long, super gay hug with Pete. I feel a better connection with him after tonight, and it's pretty comforting actually.

Once other guests of the dance had went home, a group of people stayed behind to help clean up, but also stayed for the afterparty thing Hayley, Lynn and some girl named Taylor had been planning. I remember Lynn being super excited in class one day when Hayley had brought it up, she scared the crap out of me when she yelled out unexpectedly. So, here we are now though. The wide spaced room trashed with popped balloons, stranded confetti, paper plates and styrofoam cups. All the classic party things you could imagine, sprawled across the stage and floor. It was honestly such an amazing night. And to think I almost didn't come. I'm actually glad Pete had convinced me to join in, it turned out with some great results. Heck yeah I was anxious half the time, but I guess it's nice to stretch out of my comfort zone every so often.

So now, for this afterparty thing, Brendon has a "surprise game" planned. I'm half excited, half dreading what it will be, knowing the kinda stuff Brendon comes up with. He explains the rules and how it all works, and it reminds me of those classic teenage sleepover movies where they all play kiss the bottle and end up being coupled up by the end of the night. It seems endearing, but also nerve racking at the same time. But despite nerves, I take a go at it anyway.

"Alright you guys, ready to pick the first two victims?" Brendon chimes in with a suspicious grin once everyone understands the layout of everything. He reaches his pale hand into one of the now empty snack bowls, which is filled with pieces of paper, each one bearing a name of someone in the room. I wait hesitantly, my heartbeat pounding in my ears.

'What are the chances of it being me out of all these people? Highly doubtful I would say.' I tell myself, trying to calm myself. I knew I had put my name in, and I thought it would be a good way to kind of get to know some more people. Now, new regrets are dawning on me.

"Gerard!" Brendon calls out. Gerard walks up to Brendon, leaving a pouty Frank behind. "And your partner...Andrew M." Brendon calls out the second name. I guess there's multiple Andrews here.

'Oh boy, got through round one.' I tell myself, thankful my name wasn't picked, at least in the first round.

A boy around the same height as Gerard comes to the center, not seeming familiar with Gerard but being polite in greeting anyway. They nod a hello, then Brendon confirms the rules with them. They head to the designated room, similar to the one we were practicing our song in earlier, then Brendon starts a timer once they shut the door.

I look back around the room, seeing Frank in a corner with his arms crossed and looking slightly anxious and still pouting. A taller boy with big, fluffy dirty blonde hair walks over to greet him, kind of shy but waving a polite hello. Frank turns to him, his face lightening a little and soon they're off in conversation. The taller boy seems to be explaining something, blushing as he does so. Frank nods in understanding and seems to be more comfortable now.

Brendon's timer dings, meaning seven minutes are up. Brendon knocks on the door, then Gerard and the other boy head out, looking just the same as they did when they went inside. Frank rushes to Gerard's side, while the boy who was talking to Frank stays put, but waves to the other boy, Andrew.

"So, what did you guys do. You didn't kiss right, Sisky told me Andrew was his boyfriend so you guys totally wouldn't do that would you?" Frank rambles off. Gerard kisses the top of Frank's head with a small laugh, then strokes the shorter boy's black hair.

"Aw Frankie, of course not. We just talked like new friends. Apparently he's super into graphic design, so we just talked about art the whole time. He seems like a really cool friend." Gerard explains, putting emphasis on "friend." Frank sighs with relief, then stands on his toes to peck a kiss on Gerard's cheek.

Brendon returns to the center of the room, ready to pick the new pair for the game. He grabs a paper out of the bowl greedily, opening it so fast he nearly rips the paper. He squints his eyes to read the handwriting and then reads: "Peter Lewis Kingston Wentz III!" Pete, bringing a cup of punch to his mouth, stops in his tracks and nearly spews the drink out.

"You had to say the full thing." He grumbles at a beaming Brendon. "Fine. Who's it gonna be stuck with me for seven minutes."

Brendon reaches his hand in again and proceeds to pull out another paper, unfolding it more careful this time. A small smirk comes to his face as he reads the name, opening his mouth with a grin as he reads it out loud.

"Trick, you up for the challenge?" He says, looking around the room to meet my eyes. My heart drops into my stomach as I realize what just went down. Me. And Pete. In the same room. For seven minutes. And we can do anything. I'm not sure if nearly pissing myself is out of excitement or nervousness. I emerge from my stationary position in the corner of the room, walking towards Brendon, Pete at his side. Pete's emotions are so hard to read, but he seems to be feeling similar to my own feelings. We've been pretty chill at hanging out throughout the night, little flirty hints here and there, so I guess this short time of privacy could be a chance to take a bigger step, which is both exciting and terrifying at the same time. It's now or never I guess.

"Well, see you two in seven minutes. I'll start the timer when you shut the door." Brendon tells us with a wink. Pete and I walk to the designated room without a word between us, barely even a glance. I can almost hear his own heartbeat in my chest.

Pete walks into the room first, and I follow right behind. Brendon shuts the door as soon as my foot leaves the doorway. Then it's just quiet. Or, well, mostly quiet. I can hear Pete's breathing, shallow and slightly shaky. A chill runs down my spine as I remember all the drama between us the past week, my head running through all the worst possible outcomes of the current situation.

Now I got all this ringing in my ears but none in my fingers, and I'm unsure of what to do next. My legs get shaky from standing in one place, so I venture around the room awkwardly. The setup is similar to the one we used to practice in earlier, having a beat up couch, sliding doors on the closet, that really scratchy and hard carpet which is stained and torn up in places. Popcorn ceilings, and the smell of dust and old wallpaper lingering through the air.

"Well, we only have seven minutes in here. You just gonna walk around or do you wanna actually make use of this time?" Pete finally breaks the silence. I turn around to face him, his shoulders tense but leaning back against the wall.

"Oh, uh yeah. Sure. I mean, there's not much we could do I guess... so. Like. Talk?" I fumble with my words.

"Yeah. We can...talk." Pete grumbles.

"So like, you're totally gay right. I mean, I kinda get the vibe and we sorta mentioned it, but just confirming." He rushes out, slightly awkward.

"Uh, yeah. I'm bi." I mumble.

"Nice nice, so we're two in the same. Although I'm more of an "above the waist" kinda gay. But there are some good looking fellas out there, seem like they're worth a go." He says, smirking.

"Oh. That's, cool."

"The stuff we played was dope! It was most of your lyrics. I love it!" Pete says, trying to bring up a more comfortable conversation topic.

"Oh, thanks. I write a lot of stuff randomly, and I guess it all blends together more than I realize. Your bass skills are super amazing. That-" I make a hand movement as if playing the instrument, humming the tune of the bass part I'm referring to, "part is great, I just keep playing it in my head. The four of us work really well together." I explain, nerding out about music again. Pete's face lights up as I talk, making me blush a little.

"Aw thanks little dude. We totally need to write more stuff together, the four of us. I wonder if we could get a band going, watch it grow to be this huge thing and we go out and tour with some of our other buds, visit huge venues..." Pete goes on, fading out into imagination.

"Yeah, sounds cool. It sounds like a large stretch though."

"Eh, true. But lemme tell you something 'Trick. This culture we have set before us really strikes something in me, in a ton of people. We're growing up to think things are impossible cuz they haven't been done yet, and that's really discouraging. Everyone thought the car was impossible before the car was invented, everyone thought flying was impossible before the airplane. Everyone's gonna think this band is impossible because it's not created yet. I like to think of it in terms of basketball. Right now, I'm no good at basketball, shooting baskets, all that. Your last failure is the last thing that happens to you before your first success. Each day you can try and jump an inch higher, and an inch higher the next day. It's kind of a flawed analogy cuz I'm really fucking short, but...you just gotta stay confident. Soon, we could be playing sold out shows in Irvine, California, then we'll be shooting the fucking basket. Don't let people shoot your fucking dreams." He explains. I take in every bit of his words, process them to heart. I've never heard him get super deep like this, it's nice.

"Yes. You're so right. Thanks, Pete." I say, trying to sound like I care, which I actually do care a lot, I just don't always sound it. There's a bit of silence for a moment after a heartfelt conversation, then it goes back to basic topics.

"So anyway, how are you liking it at the new school? We got some weirdos around, but I guess it's alright."

"Oh yeah, tell me about it." I say, starting to get a hang of just back and forth conversation. "It's pretty chill. Kinda weird moving and meeting new people. But you're nice, so that's a plus." I admit, feeling my face get hot.

"Aw thanks, 'Trick. You're a pretty cool dude too."

Silence rings out again, and I scoot a little closer to him, strangely enough.

"So, about the whole Ryan thing." I bring up, regretting mentioning it as I rub my neck.

"Yeah, I'm sorry I kinda went all wild about that. Just, you really caught my eye, falling gracefully over my head like an angel without wings."

"So, like a person."

"C'mon, you ruined the moment." Pete laughs, lightly punching my shoulder. I fake a slight fall, and as I recover I move closer. He watches me as I stand up straight again, his eyes focused on my face. I look to the ground and there's a few seconds of silence again.

"But really, sorry if I made you feel bad or anything, I'm so awkward with everything."

"It's alright. Feelings are confusing as hell. I get you."

"Alright, thanks, Pete."

"No thanks Pete, HA MEMED IT!" He suddenly shouts, making me jump slightly. "Yikes, sorry. That's just kinda been a joke for me. I don't know why. Everyone just says "thanks, Pete" and then laughs and it's turned into a thing the kids now call 'memes.'"

"Huh, interesting concept." I observe with a slight laugh.

"Yeah. Oh, have you seen these cute little faces you can use when texting? They're sick as frick!" Pete exclaims excitedly, getting his flip phone out of his pocket. He opens up a chat with Brendon and shows me how he types little faces.

"Oh yeah, those are super cool!" I say, catching onto his excitement. I play off getting close to him due to having to look over his shoulder at the phone, it's a super sly move. I feel our bodies press together out of "accident," and it sends butterflies into my stomach. We stand there for a moment, neither of us saying anything, then slightly shift positions back to the wall, my shoulder still touching his.

"So, uh, what's your favorite little face?" He asks, his voice slightly more high-pitched and nervous sounding.

"I like the :D one." I say, my face imitating the super smiley emoticon. "What's your favorite?" I say in return. He looks nervously at the ground, then back up, directly into my eyes. I'm suddenly surprised by the way his eyes look in this light, illuminating out of his sockets, a speckled, hot whiskey color.

"I like, uh, this one..." He says, then puckers his lips and makes a smack noise. I laugh at the noise he makes, and he smiles too. "Can you make that smiley face again?" He asks me, so I make the same face again, getting a blushing laugh from him.

"Can you, uh, do yours again?" I ask him back.

"Oh yeah, sure." He puckers his lips again, and I stand there awkwardly, letting off a nervous sigh.

"I can make it too." I say, puckering my own lips as my "plan" I didn't realize I had, slowly starts to fall together. And it seems we both are thinking the same thing, so within seconds, our puckered lips are pressed together.

***

Holy smokes. I just kissed Pete Wentz. Well, still kissing him actually.

"Helloooo, times u- oh, shit sorry. Didn't mean to ruin the moment." Brendon chimes in, barging through the door and interrupting Pete and I. I dart my head away from Pete, now looking at Brendon, my face probably red as Frank's tie. I wipe my mouth, Pete looking wild-eyed and frozen in shock.

"Well, uh, I guess seven minutes are up. So we can get outta here." I suggest awkwardly.

"Yeah, cool." Comes Pete's reply. There's moment of silence before Brendon then bursts out.

"I CALLED IT, YOU GUYS ARE SO GAY, I SHIP IT!" Brendon shouts excitedly, making me jump at his sudden energy.

"Yeah, I guess we are." I say with a small smile, looking over at Pete. His normally caramel colored skin is now a rosy pink in his cheeks, almost making his eyes more prominent. Stunning.

We exit the room, and he slyly wraps an arm over my shoulder, fluffing the top of my hair, the gel now finally wearing out a bit. A beaming Brendon leads us back to the main room, and we resume the rest of the game. Frank rushes over to us, a slight hop to his step with eyes full of so many questions.

"Yes, we did kiss. I know that's what everyone's gonna ask so might as well say it loud and proud. PATRICK AND I KISSED OKAY, NOW YOU ALL KNOW!" Pete suddenly shouts with a laugh. I bite my lip and try and avoid eye contact with people for a moment of embarrassment.

A majority of the room doesn't even react besides rolling their eyes or turning their head to the direction of Pete's voice, but there are a few small claps and verbal exclamations. Pete waves at them elegantly, pretending to "screw in the light bulb" as people call it. I let out a small laugh, then feel the arm he has around me tighten and pull me into a sideways hug.

This Saturday turned out way better than I had ever imagined. Pete's right, don't let people shoot your dreams. If you wanna try something, go for it. It could turn out to be something amazing, like it is right now. Me and Pete, in the wake of Saturday.

Chapter Text

Ryan's POV

I stand by the punch bowl, just merely observing the passerbys, trying to get a hint at what's in the chilled, red liquid in the bowl.

The heels of my feet ache from maintaining this stationary position in the corner of the room. I've spent most of my time this evening merely observing the partygoers and attempting at solving what's been put into the ruby liquid that everyone is greedily indulging. I've made so many mistakes this school semester, so my goal here tonight is to attempt to make up for my actions. I plan to steer clear from the adorable boy with rosy cheeks and beautiful baby blue eyes.

As hard as it may be, as my nature has grown so attracted to his existence, I must hold back. No one here can see what goes on inside my head when I'm alone, all the thoughts and fantasies of my own life, along with a life filled with Patrick Stump. It's a strange concept honestly, it racks my brain and thoughts with how obsessed I've become with him so quickly. And seeing him with Pete. that Wentz used to be one of my closest acquaintances, and now we've drifted off. Seeing both of them together strikes jealousy into me. It reminds me of a lyric I saw Patrick write in his notebook: 'Watching you two from the closet, wishing to be the friction in his jeans.' Patrick's a stunning writer, and I admire his work greatly, as well as his whole being. But I have to move past him, he's not the right one. But if he's not, then who is?

I break free from my thoughts when someone walks by as if on queue, heading again to the pristine bowl of punch. I observe the boy carefully, watching as his detailed hands fiddle with a cup, struggling to remove the styrofoam container from the stack. His hands are so light and careful, smoothly ladling a spoon of the red liquid into his collected cup. The digits of his fingertips lightly grasp the ladle, whereas his other hand holds a firm grip on the cup.

After observing him for a few moments longer, his face is recognized with a name stored in my brain; Brendon Urie. I've seen him around, and he's tried to become a casual friend with me, but I angrily detested. He seemed very disappointed, and in turn hurt and aggravated as well. I do apologize for my actions, but I don't believe I've said it to his face. That is another thing I should consider doing tonight, as he's quite an interesting being, one that sparks my interest.

Without further thinking, I remove myself from my spot in the corner, walking towards the punch table in hopes of casually playing off approaching him. I grab a cup myself and pour some of the liquid into the vessel. He glances over at me, neither of us saying a word. But the silence only lasts a moment.

"Hey Ryan, you actually moved and did something. Nice job." Brendon says, nudging my shoulder with his arm. I flash my eyes towards his, meeting his gaze for a moment then quickly refocusing on my cup.

"Oh, uh. Thank you? This punch seemed to be popular with the guests, I thought I might give it a swig." I explain awkwardly, forcing a polite smile to my face.

"Good choice. I'm taking a break at narrating that game. Hayley's taking over for me so now I get to stock up on this stuff. They always know just what to put in here." The silence rings in the air between us for another moment, our steady breathing and my pulse pounding in my ears being the only sound.

"So, I wanted to say sorry." I finally spit out bluntly.

"What?"

"Sorry."

"For what?" Brendon turns to face me, taking a sip from his cup. I can read on his face and from his tone of voice he knows what I'm referring to, he's just pulling the clueless card to see if I'll own up to anything. Which is indeed my intention.

"For everything. I've been so caught up in so many things, this whole school semester, the past few months, this whole last week." I explain, my voice dragging on.

"Oh. Uh. Thank you."

"You're a really good guy, Brendon. So is Pete. And so is Patrick." I find my voice trailing off at the thought of Patrick, and Brendon seems to notice.

"Thank you. I'm glad you and Patrick are getting along." He says flatly.

"No, that's the thing. I mean, Patrick's a great person, he really is. He just doesn't... feel the same. Like, you can get your hopes so high, fantasizing about how you think someone is perfect for you, but in turn, you get to know them and they're just not the same, they don't see you like you see them."

"Oh boy, lemme tell you about it." The younger boy groans, rolling his eyes, bringing the drink to his lips once again. I watch him this time, observing his every move. His pink lips are plump, grasping the rim of his cup as he drinks the red liquid. His copper eyes scrunch up a little as he swallows, his Adam's apple bobbing slightly.

"Oh, you feel the same?" I ask, curious. With my phrase, he chokes on his drink, spewing a light mist onto the floor before meeting my eyes, wide with shock.

"Are you kidding me? You honestly don't know?" He asks, the tone in his voice saddened and upset.

"Uh, no? Who is it you, uh, have a crush on?"

"Look at me Ryan. Look me in the eyes." I do as he says, my heart pounding from sudden anxiety. His eyes shine a beautiful color, like round, brown jasper stones sunken into the pale sockets of his face, a dark purple eyeliner traced around the edges, much like I do myself. "See my eyes? With your "psychic powers" or whatever fancy shit you do, look at me and see if you can tell." I for one, do not have "psychic powers," but I do have a good sense of people right off the bat. I'm a people watcher, a visual learner. I pick up things just by watching it for a little bit. Disregarding his comment, I stare into his eyes, nearly being swept away in the exotic color. In certain lights, his eyes look light, like whiskey, but right now, they look dark enough to blend with his pupils. They shine back at me, the creases in his eyebrows and eyelids letting off emotion, his irises glassed over with moisture. From the awkward lighting in the room, it shines on his eyes in a way I can see my own reflection.

"It's me." I say with sudden realization, the physical appearance of myself in his eyes now hitting me as a metaphor. "It's been me for a while. You've been trying to hint at it, but I've ignored you and just gotten upset. I was so carried away with my own feelings, I wasn't even being a decent platonic friend to you. And now I've hurt you."

"Whoop, there it is." He says, blinking away tears and looking away from me.

"I'm sorry, Brendon, I don't know how I never picked up on it."

"You can pick up that Hayley is gay even though she's never told you, yet you can't even tell when I'm physically flirting in front of you? Wow, what a catch, Ryan, what a catch." The soft fingertips of his free hand rubs under his eye, surprisingly not smearing the pristine layer of makeup. He sips his drink, lifting it all the way up to get the last of it, a few drops of the red liquid sliding down his neck. He throws the cup into a small trashcan a few feet away, successfully landing it in the bin. Knowing I screwed up this apology, I turn to walk back to my spot in the corner, but suddenly feel a hand on my wrist. I turn back to Brendon to see him holding onto me. The way his eyes look now, changing so fast within seconds, strikes panic into me. I attempt to wriggle my arm free, spilling my drink in the process, but his grasp is tight. "Brendon." I say, grunting.

'If you love me, let me go.' I mentally think to myself.

As if he could read my mind, he looks down at my arm and immediately sets my wrist free, cringing at the site of the red and irritated skin.

"O-oh, I'm sorry. I just didn't want you to go." He stutters, his voice filled with regret.

"Actually, I'm the one who needs to be sorry." I reply, not needing his apology when I've been the jerk the whole time.

"No, no it's fine, look what I did, I-"

"Brendon, it's fine, I'm such an asshole to you, and Pete, and Patr-"

"Shut up."

"No."

"Then I'll make you." He spits, a mix of emotions in his voice but anger reigning the dominant expression. He indeed shuts me up, as his lips are now pressed to mine, leaving me mentally speechless and physically unable to speak.

And I let him.

And I kiss back.

And it hits me all of a sudden, an instant burst of lights and emotion, adrenaline and arousal, realizing, finally, this is who I've been waiting for. Brendon Boyd Urie. The sun to my moon, the day to my night.

And apparently he feels it too, well, has felt it for a while actually, but now his dreams and fantasies finally becoming a reality right before his eyes. And also right before his lips for that matter.

Nothing else matters from the night, the past week, past months. All my previous doubts and thoughts of the strawberry blonde teen now dissipated. Baby blues have been traded with beautiful, wide-eyed browns. This is what's right, this is the boy for me.

So we stay like this for a while, lost in emotions and physical attraction. I acknowledge this isn't the best place to be making out, in a room with so many other people around us, invading our privacy and intimacy of the moment, but yet it's perfect at the same time.

All I can focus on is Brendon, everything Brendon. The way his lips dance so perfectly in sync with mine, the way his soft fingertips play with the hem of my shirt and gently brush the skin underneath, every detail about every second with him.

He's then walking our hips backwards to the punch table, banging into it with unexpected force as he presses his body against mine. Not that I'm not enjoying the moment, but I feel we're getting out of hand in such a public setting. I break my lips away from his, keeping our faces connected with my skin against his rather large forehead, both of us breathing heavy.

"Hey don't, uh. About that game you were hosting. Maybe Hayley could uh, "accidentally" pull both our names?" I suggest in a whisper. A smug smile comes to Brendon's face, then he grabs my wrist again and pulls me to where Hayley stands, about to call the next names for the game.

"Got the names, it's me and Ryan, see y'all later." Brendon calls to Hayley, rushing the two of us into the room without another word or look around at the crowd. I feel my face heated up from so many things happening at once, but I trust his actions and let him take the lead. He shuts the door as soon as we're inside, and the next seven minutes with him made me realize why this game is one of his favorites. And boy, is he good at playing it.

Chapter Text

Patrick’s POV
And so the rest of the night is pretty comfortable. Just about everyone’s grouped up, exchanging small talk, laughs, occasional kisses. I’ll say it’s one of the best after parties I’ve been to. Alright, the only after party I’ve been to, but it’s definitely a memorable first.
There’s light music in the background, probably off a playlist Hayley or Tay made. Some pop-punk jams we could all appreciate. The scene is pretty somber compared to the hype of a few hours ago. The games have settled down, no more loud screaming when “a ship becomes canon” or whatever. It’s really natural for me, and I feel comfortable and at ease for once, which is surprising since I’m normally not too big on large social events. But this proved to shock me on multiple levels. A few weeks ago before moving, I would never have guessed to meet new friends so quickly, meet someone I instantly had a crush on who also happened to like me back, to meet intriguing personalities, and discover a whole new side of my own personality and interest. Who would’ve imagined me, introverted Patrick Stump to be making a fool of myself in front of tons of people at a dance party and not even care? To make out with someone as amazing as Pete Wentz, to meet two spunky lesbians, two dudes who love music as much as I do, an enthusiastic gay kid with a forehead to match the size of his heart, and a whole bunch of other great people. It’s been a wild ride for sure, but it’s all paid off in the end. I can tell I have a lot more in store for the rest of the school year I’ll be in at Winona High. And I can only hope it’ll be just as great as this single week has been.
***
Several months later
“Well, I think we’re getting the hang of this, ‘shooting the basket’ thing.” I say to Pete with a smile. He smiles back, pecking me on the lips with his.
“Yep, it does appear that way.”
“Well, let’s not stop here, we still have a long way to go. Back and at ‘em, boys.” Joe says, breaking Pete and I out of the trance we put each other in with our eyes. Funny how often we end up doing that.
“Oh, right, sorry.” I say, blushing and returning back to the note stand of pages, now filled with a lot more lyrics and notes than that day back at the dance. We’ve come so far, I sure hope all this work makes an impact someday. I’ve stuck with this school, pleased with the teachers, class material, students enrolled, all that. I have some really great friends, and look what it’s come to. Pete, Andy, Joe and I actually did go through with forming a band. We don’t really have a name yet, or any idea what other stuff we’re going to record. We plan on sticking with that “Dance, Dance” song we played at the dance, and we also are gonna try and come up with some tunes for assorted lyrics Pete and I already had written in random notebooks. We practice during free time at school, since there’s a really nice music room we can use. We also try out recordings in each other’s houses, although the setup and sound quality isn’t too ideal. It works for now though. In fact we’re working on one of our new things at my house, in the garage with some speakers and material Hayley managed to get us hooked up to. It’s pretty great, doing something we all love to do, and doing it together as best friends.

“So, let’s take it again.” I say, getting the recording device out for another go-round at the audio recording. “Take 3 on… what are we even calling this?” I say, talking into the recording device, looking at the others for any suggestions.
“Hmm...Saturday.” Pete says after a moment of silence. I get looks of approval from Joe and Andy, then nod towards Pete in satisfaction.
“Saturday it is.” I return with a small grin, remembering the day of the dance, everything leading up to it was all about “Saturday.” Saturday was the day that solidified my friendships with a lot of people, my relationship with Pete, my new interest in actually hanging around other people, some really great things. I guess that’s why the lyrics mention “Saturday” so much, so it only seems fitting that’s the name of the song. Even if the song lyrics aren’t based around those specific events, I love metaphors and this is kind of a metaphor for how great that day was, and putting it into how great other days can be as well.
“Take 3 on Saturday, named by Pete.” I speak into the device. Joe starts at the guitar, followed by Andy messing around at the drums and Pete dropping in with the bass. “I’m good to go, and I’m going nowhere fast…” I sing like we had practiced. The moment is so pure, just singing into the late afternoon with my best friends. Who would’ve thought starting a new school, moving, going through all the ups and downs of change, would eventually lead to this. It’s so amazing, I honestly can’t even believe it’s real.
We keep going, no errors so far, and we come up on my favorite line, one I’ll always treasure no matter what happens with this band or this record. It will always have a special place in my heart, I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.
“Me and Pete, in the wake of Saturday.”

Fin.