Fall Out Girl (FOB FanFic ft. All Time Low)

Chapter 3

-Patrick's POV-

I texted PJ the address and closed my phone, turning towards Joe and Andy. "Well, the address is sent. She should be here any moment."

"I can't believe we're actually doing this," Andy muttered, "I mean, I'm really excited that PJ will be joining us, but...what about Pete?"

"She's only temporary," Joe reminded the drummer, "When Pete's ready to come back, we'll thank her for the memories and tell her we no longer need her services. I'm sure she'd understand. I mean, she knew what she was signing up for when she auditioned."

"Let's just focus on the now, guys," I interjected, "We'll deal with that when the time comes. Let's just get PJ into the flow of things and play a couple songs with her, get her comfortable."

*****

The three of us were waiting anxiously in the studio, a blanket of silence over the three of us. There wasn't the usual small talk, but that's because Pete usually was the one to start it. He hated silence. So we were just sitting there, Joe on his phone and Andy tapping his drumsticks on his legs.

That's when there was a knock on the door. I looked up from staring at the floor (since I really had nothing better to do) and saw PJ standing in the doorway, her guitar case in hand. And standing behind her was Alex Gaskarth from All Time Low.

"Hi," She greeted shyly, doing a small wave of her free hand.

"Hey," I replied, standing up. Andy and Joe followed suit. "Glad you could make it."

"Glad you could give me this opportunity," She retorted, meeting us half way, "I don't think you understand how much this means to me."

"It means a lot to us too," Andy told her, flashing her a friendly grin.

"Be sure to be nice to her," Alex chimed in, pulling PJ close to him and kissing her on the cheek. "She's one the best bassists out there."

"Oh stop, I'm nowhere near one of the best bassists out there," She replied, blushing in embarrassment. I smiled.

"Well, good thing we're only looking for a temporary replacement, huh?" Joe said, laughing afterwards to make it seem like he was joking. The room went silent.

I think out of the three of us, he was most against allowing PJ to join the band. I mean, I think we all were. None of us wanted Pete to go, but he insisted that he needed a break, or else the band would break up. And I could see why he would think that, because one out of the four of us taking a break was better than all four of us disbanding. So if he needed to take a little break for the sake of the band's integrity, so be it.

PJ giggled, "Yeah..."

"I'm sure we won't have any problems," I assured Alex, "PJ seems like a really cool person. And from her audition, she may just be one of the best bassists out there. I can honestly say she was the best one out of the fifty-something that tried out, so...I'm really excited to see what working with her is going to be like."

PJ just smiled at us.

"Well, I best be on my way," Alex announced, looking at - who I could only assume was - his girlfriend, "Call me when you're ready to be picked up." She nodded her head in understanding. The two of them kissed before he left, saying goodbye to the three of us.

I cleared my throat and PJ glanced back at me. "So...you didn't mention you were dating Alex Gaskarth."

"Yeah..." Her cheeks grew even redder than they already were.

"How long have you two been dating?" Andy inquired.

"About a year," She rubbed behind her neck, "Can we, um, not talk about him and me, though?"

"Why?" Joe questioned.

"Well you didn't invite me here to talk about my relationship with Alex Gaskarth, did you?" She laughed nervously.

"No, we didn't," I replied. I didn't understand why she didn't want to talk about him. It was like she's ashamed to be dating him or something.

"So what do you need me to do exactly? Go on coffee runs? Read you to sleep with Algebra? Walk your zebra?" She said jokingly. The three of us laughed along.

"No, we just wanted to get you comfortable playing with us and stuff. You know?"

"Okay, cool!" She exclaimed, grinning eagerly.

*****

After rehearsing for a little and joking around, the four of us decided to call it a day. As we were walking outside to leave, I noticed PJ lingering by the building.

"What are you doing there? Aren't you going home?" I called back to her.

She looked up from her phone and shouts back, "Oh, yeah! I'm just waiting for my ride!"

"I can take you home if you'd like," I offered, walking towards her.

"That's really nice of you, Patrick, but Alex said he was on his way. I probably should just wait here."

"You sure?" I slipped my hands into my pockets, "I can take you home real quick. And we can get to know each other a little more, you know, since you barely told us anything about yourself other than that your name was PJ and that you're glad we could give you an opportunity like this. Oh, and that you're nowhere near the one of the best bassists out there, which I highly disagree with."

She chuckled, "Someone's really eager to get to know the new girl."

"I just...if we're really going to go through with this...this whole temporary replacement thing, I want to make it as not awkward as possible," I admitted to her, "You get me?"

Just then, a car pulled up behind me and the passenger window rolled down, revealing Alex in the driver's seat. He leaned over the center console, a wide smile stretched across his face, "Hey, Patrick!"

I waved to him, "Hey, Alex."

"How was she? She didn't cause any trouble, did she?"

"No, she was fine," I retorted, the corner of my lip twitching upward, "She's actually really fun to hang around."

"You're pretty fun to hang around too," PJ interjected, joining my side and flashing me a smile, "I'll see you tomorrow, Patrick?"

I nodded my head. She smiled before approaching Alex's car, throwing her guitar case in the back seat and hopping in the passenger seat. She and Alex both waved goodbye to me before they sped away. I dropped my hand to my side and heaved a sigh. Something seemed a little off...

Semi-Important Author's Note: Hey guys! So I know in the last chapter I said that this book was going to be updated every Thursday...but since I'm going to/I've posted the sequel to "The World's Not Waiting For You" (depending on when you read this), that book is going to be updated every Thursday and this book is going to be UPDATED EVERY SATURDAY instead (hopefully...this is one of those books I'm still a little shaky on). Cool? Cool. So next update will be next Saturday and then every Saturday after that. Anyways, thanks for reading and I hoped you like this chapter! -Rachael