Irresistible - Pete Wentz Fanfic (Part 2)

Chapter 16

“Have you got everything?” Mandy asked, eyeing the luggage in the trunk of Pete’s car sceptically. I nodded. “Yes, mum” I moaned and rolled my eyes. Pete laughed and shut the trunk, rolling his eyes at Mandy as well. “You never know what might happen. What if there’s something’s wrong with the baby all of the sudden?” She genuinely seemed worried which got me a little more scared as well. Pete shook his head and gave me that look which only he can pull off to make me calm down. “Nothing’s gonna happen to the baby, I’ll be sure that we take a lot of breaks and that you get enough food and everything, don’t worry, as you two may recall, I have done this before.” Mandy and I grinned.

“Have a good trip, guys” Gabe said and hugged me before pulling the door to Pete’s house shut and throwing the key at him. Pete dropped it into the top pocket of his leather jacket and gave Gabe a sort of bro-hug, then sat in the car, starting it already. I quickly hugged Mandy and assured her that everything would be fine, obviously also assuring myself. She opened the door for me and I rolled my eyes at her again before sitting down next to Pete, buckling up and leaning back in my seat, taking a deep breath. I could do this without any awkwardness, without any crushing and without any panic attacks because of the baby. I was stronger than my hormones.

Pete drove out of the street and into the busier streets of L.A., blasting Blink-182, as he usually did in the car. “Thanks for agreeing to drive with me again, by the way” I said because I figured it would be a lot more effort for him since he usually just booked a flight and instead, we would drive for ages now when we could’ve had it so much simpler. “It would be no good for anybody if you had a problem or a panic attack on a plane, Charlie, so don’t worry” he said softly, patting my thigh for a second. I smiled. “Yeah but you could’ve just said you’re flying and let me figure out how to get to New York myself.” He shook his head while I was still speaking. “You know I wouldn’t do that. But I hope you understand that it’s important we do all the stuff there. We can put the first magazine together there and publish it, I’ll advertise it and then when the second issue comes out, everything will be clear with the people at the headquarters and we can send it from L.A. so you girls can work from there.”

I watched his profile from the side as he was driving and speaking. I loved listening to him no matter what he was saying when he was just speaking calmly, now especially because he was making it all work out for me and I was so endlessly thankful. Me and the girls had agreed that we’d take him out for dinner for doing all of this for us. “It really is so amazing of you that you’re doing this.” “Hey, let’s not have that again” he said, blushing slightly so I dropped it because I didn’t want to make him feel uncomfortable.

We sat in silence for a while and I looked out the window at the cities the scenery and the other cars rushing by on the freeway. “Pete?” I asked after a while, looking at him again. Not taking his eyes off the road, he replied. “Yeah?” “I’ve never been to New York.” His eyes widened slightly and his lips curled into a smile. “What?” I asked, laughing nervously at his smug expression. “You have to allow me to show you around” he said, almost begging now. I smiled. “That’s what I was just going to ask, if we’ve got time to see the city, I mean, I’ve never had the opportunity.” He smiled and squeezed my hand that was on the side of my seat. “Of course, there’s always time for that. Don’t worry about anything, we can have all the time in the world.” “Oh, so you can make everything work? Just like that?” He laughed. “Hell, yeah. You know me, Miller.” I smiled to myself, happy that we were falling back into our old rhythm from when we had just been friends and friends only.

“Do you think Gabe and Sofia are going to work out?” Pete asked after a few minutes. I bit my lip. “I don’t know, I hope so.” He nodded and took a deep breath. “Me too. They’re quite the weird couple though.” I laughed. “They are. But I mean, what did people think about us?” I asked, already regretting it once I had closed my mouth again. But I didn’t let it show, I just stayed silent until he replied. “I don’t know, nobody ever said anything to me.” I sighed. “Maybe we were doomed from the start” I half-joked but I was also serious. Then again, if it had been so weird, wouldn’t any of my friends have warned me? “It was a good time though, right?” he said, concluding. I nodded and looked at him from the side, smiling. “It was. That’s why I want to go back to the way we were before we became a thing.” He smiled too but his fists on the wheel clenched and I could see his veins becoming more visible. I didn’t ask and just looked out the window.