The Music Or The Misery (FOB FanFic)

Chapter 11

-Patrick's POV-

I stared at Pete for a little, taking in all that he had said, before bursting out into laughter. Pete cocked his eyebrow. I calmed down from my laughing fit and crawled off of the bed, standing up, "That's funny, Pete. That really is."

"Dude, I'm serious. Alex told me himself!" He tried to convince me, standing up as well so that he was eye level with me, "Mara is 'Boss'. She has been this whole time! And it makes perfect sense!"

"No it doesn't!" I yelled at him, keeping his gaze before beginning to pace back and forth, "Mara is a writer. She's not some...some master manipulator who recruited two of our friends to bring the four of us together to train us to take down the ban. I mean, sure, she was affected by the ban like everyone else, so I guess there's a slight chance that it might be her, but she wasn't affected like we were! She moved on!"

"Moved on from you," He mumbled under his breath, crossing his arms. I shot him a glare. At the same time, the door to my bedroom cracked open and Joe peered his head in. "Patrick, I'm telling you-" Pete started to say when I cut him off.

"And I'm telling you, Pete," I poked him hard in the chest, "Mara wouldn't do something like this. It's just not like her. So stop making this sick joke, Pete. I'm not laughing, it's not funny anymore."

"What about Mara?" Joe questioned, entering the room and closing the door behind him.

"It's not a joke!" He cried, ignoring Joe's question and pushing me away from him, "Mara is the one who did all of this, Patrick. Just think about it!"

I shook my head and turned away from him.

"Don't you remember?" He continued, walking up behind me and turning me around to face him, "The first day we arrived, Alex told us that Boss would be happy, especially to see you. Plus, Boss had to be someone close to us if they knew all our favorite music."

Anyone could've googled us and somehow found our favorite artists, I'm sure we've said it before in an interview or something, I wanted to interject but kept to myself.

"And then your dream! Your dream, goddammit! You said you dreamed of us meeting this Boss person and you felt like you knew them. It was probably her, Patrick, it all adds up!"

"Dreams are dreams, Pete, they don't mean jack!" I retorted.

Pete rolled his eyes, "Whatever. You believe what you want. But what about the pep talk on that roof tonight? Gabe told us that Boss has faith in us. And if Boss is Mara, she obviously picked us over other bands because she knows or at least strongly believes that we are capable of taking this ban down! You said it yourself the first night we were here!"

"Anyone can have faith in anyone," I crossed my arms.

He glared at me, "Okay. Fine. What about this: Why else would Boss want to keep their identity a secret if they weren't closely related to us? Hmm?" I remained silent. "It's her, Pat! It's always been her! Just admit it!"

"No!" I shouted at him, bringing Andy into the room, "Why should I?"

"What's going on?" Andy inquired worriedly. Joe shrugged his shoulders in a beats me kind of manner.

"Because Alex told me!" Pete screamed at me, disregarding Andy's - as well as Joe's - presence, "I pretty much forced him to!"

"And you trusted him?" I asked, beginning to approach him, "You know, the only reason he told you that - besides you having supposedly forcing him to - was because he knew you'd tell me. You can't keep your mouth shut for the life of you, Pete, and that's where you-"

Pete slapped me across the face with so much force that I fell to the ground.

"Pete!" Andy shrieked as I clutched my stinging cheek in my hand.

"You know what, Patrick?" Pete yelled, anger boiling up inside of him as his chest rapidly rose and collapsed, "I'm done. I'm fucking done. I told you what Alex told me because I thought knowing who was behind this was Mara might be your motivation to keep fighting, like Bronx is mine. But maybe I shouldn't have even told you...it's obviously not enough to give you that extra oomph to bring back music, bring back the arts. So why don't we all just go home? Might as well, since it looks like we're just giving up." And with that, he walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him with a loud *bang* that echoed through the whole floor.

I looked up at Joe and Andy who were looking down at me pitifully.

*****

A little after the whole argument, Andy and Joe told me I should apologize to Pete for being irrational. I really didn't think I was being irrational, but the four of us couldn't be at odds right now. We couldn't, not if we wanted to bring back music. Which I did. I wanted to get the ban lifted. Music was the only thing I cared about in my life and that still hasn't changed.

"...have you ever thought about how stupid that is? Music is illegal. That's almost as stupid as saying murder is legal..."

I cared about Mara too, but she broke up me. Left me high and dry. Didn't even take her things with her, never came to take them back.

"...I just want you to do what you love, babe, that's all..."

And I think that's why I was so angry about Pete shitting me like that.

"...You used to be so...so passionate about things, and now you're acting like you couldn't care less..."

Pete and I have had fights before. Many fights. But none like this. The stuff we said when we were fighting usually was never personal. But this time that's all this fight was. Personal.

"You should say sorry, Patrick," Joe advised me, the three of us still in my bedroom, the two of them still standing over me as I sat on the floor, my back against the backboard of the bed.

"Yeah," Andy agreed, crossing his arms over his chest.

"But maybe he's right," I muttered, glancing up at them, "We are giving up. All of us. Maybe we should just go home."

"No," Joe objected, "I'm not giving up. You guys might be, but I'm not. Yeah, innocent people died tonight because of us. It's tough to accept that. But do you realize how many innocent people have died because of the ban? The damage caused by that stupid thing is way more than the damage we caused tonight. I'm sick and tired of playing underground, away from my friends and family. I want to play with you guys. And if we give up, then I'm never going to be able to do it again. So, please, let's not go home like Pete most likely did and just...get this thing over with. It's not going to be easy, but it's going to let us be a band again. Don't you guys want that?"

I bit my lip and averted my gaze away. Joe frowned at me.

"Andy?" He croaked, desperation in his voice.

"I don't like killing people..." Andy murmured.

"We're not killing them. The police are. And do you think I like it? Or Patrick? Fuck no! But what do you say?" He stuck his hand out, "Are you guys in or not? Because I really don't want to go back down there and I don't want to not see you guys ever again."

Andy hesitantly placed his hand down on top of Joe's. The corners of his lips curled up before he looked down at me, anticipating my hand next.

I sighed, "Joe, I don't know..."

"Do it for Mara, Pat," He tried to persuade me, "If she really is this 'Boss' person, she did all of this for you. Now it's up to you to take down the ban for her."

I rolled my eyes before slowly rising up to my feet and putting my hand on top of the two of theirs. Joe grinned widely at me. I smiled back ever so slightly.

Author's Note: I have no idea what I'm doing with this book anymore... -Rachael