Stars, Hide Your Fires [Peterick]

And The Four Right Cords Can Make Me Cry

Pete

I awkwardly pulled at the sleeves of my hoodie, hiding my wrists that held the bleeding lines that Patrick so carefully patched up.

I felt a hand rest on my bicep, catching my attention. I looked up to see Patrick, smiling warmly at me.

"You really need to eat, Pete."

"I'm not really hungry, that's all."

He gave me a serious look as his once warm smile turned into a slight frown. "Please, Pete. I already worry about you as it is. Don't give me another reason to worry more than I already do. Besides, you look like you haven't eaten in days."

I pushed around my helping of peas with my fork. "That's because I haven't. I've been too busy getting my ass kicked."

"What? By who?"

"It's nothing. Don't worry about it. I have under control."

Patrick stayed silent, shaking his head sadly. "This," he said, grabbing my wrist and pushing up my sleeve. "Begs to differ. Don't tell me some BS and hollow lies, Pete. I can tell when something's wrong."

I pulled my wrist away. "It's nothing, Patrick. Don't worry about it."

"How can I not worry when-"

"I said don't worry about it!" I yelled slamming my fists against the table.

Patrick looked at me, terrified with tears in his eyes. He quickly stood up and backed away.

"Fine, if that's what you want, then so be it. I'll see you around, Pete." He said sternly, walking away as I sat there, shocked by what I had done.

Patrick

I walked away from Pete and out the doors of the cafeteria before running at full speed outside, tears burning in my eyes as I fell to my knees in front of a tree and started to cry.

I cried for a number of reasons, not only because Pete's outburst terrified me, but for the fact that all this time that I had witnessed such vulnerability and I had experienced that before coming to school, I had no tears to cry and I could not cry beyond my vulnerable positions and I could not cry for my dried out aspirations.

"Hey, are you okay?"

I quickly dried my eyes and hid my face as I looked up at the person the voice was coming from.

It was Pete's friend, my band mate, the one with the fro... Andy, no his name was Joe. Yeah, Joe.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just came out here to think." I lied through my teeth, the bittersweet venom of my lie residing on my tongue.

"I can tell that you're not fine." He said, sitting down next to me.

"Then diagnose me, Joe. What is wrong with me?"

"Well, Patrick, you're scared by something. Maybe Pete's outburst in the cafeteria?"

"You saw that?" I buried my face in my hands and groaned as he nodded.

"Yeah, Andy and I saw the whole thing. Andy's calming Pete down as we speak."

"What's wrong with Pete? Who's been hurting him?"

He gave me a look as if he knew something before speaking, "That's not for me to say. It's none of my business, it's Pete's. He'll tell you when he's ready, in the meantime, just watch and wait, If you have to watch him unwind before he tells you anything, so be it. But I'll leave you with this, Pete wouldn't let you help him unless he really believed you were worth having around. Just think about that." Joe winked, patting my leg before getting up and walking away, leaving me with my thoughts.