Internet Scales (Patrick/Pete)

29 - Drummer in the supermarket

Patrick's POV

Over a few weeks, I had written about ten full songs. Pete had found a second-hand guitar in a charity shop. It wasn't great but I was something. Pete had decided that I was good at singing. I didn't know how he came to that conclusion but oh well. He had played guitar a bit back at home so he was on guitar. He had some chords for some of the songs I had written. We had one good song which was called it Sugar, We're Going Down. It was an okay song. But we had no bassist or drummer. 

We were walking out to get food and I saw Andy in the store.
"Hey Andy!" I ran over to him. 
"Hey Patrick! You okay?" 
"Yeah, I'm fine" I smile at him. "How are you?" 
"I'm not too bad" He tells me. 
"Good. It's been a while" Pete comes up behind me. He had told me about when they met on the bus.
"Hey Andy" Pete says.
"Hi Pete. Taking care of him?" They laugh.
"I can take care of myself..." I tell them and they look at me, Pete slinging his arm around my shoulder.
"Aww, it's okay Patty, we were just joking" 
"Yeah, yeah..." I nod. We stand talking to Andy for a while longer and Pete gets about our song.
"Yeah, we don't have drummer or bassist" 
"I can play drums, y'know, if you want me too"
"YES!" Pete shouts a bit too loudly and the people around us start looking. I start feeling really self-conscious and tug on Pete's sleeve like a scared child.
"Cool, come to my house later yeah?" Andy said.
"Yeah sure. What time?"

"About four?" Pete nods, I start feeling more and more nervous and pull on Pete's arm.
"Yeah, sure. See you later Andy" Pete takes me outside as fast as he can and we sit on the bench outside the store. 
"Are you alright? I was trying to have a conversation with Andy" 
"There was too many people watching us" I tell him, playing with the cuff of my cardigan. 
"Patrick, you're gonna have to get used to it"
"What if I don't want to be famous? I'll suck at it"
"Patrick, have to have some faith in yourself, Jesus Christ!" I look at the concrete beneath my feet.  "Patrick, look, I'm sorry" He says quietly. I get up.
"Forget it" I walk off.

I wasn't really sure where I was going, just somewhere. I walked for a while until I ended up on the abandoned side of town near McDonalds. There was a old kids playground and I went in and sat on one of the swings, swinging myself gently. There was a cool breeze, I could see my breath in the air. I didn't know where Pete was and to be honest, I needed to be alone for a while. I don't know what was his problem lately. He had just been a bit off.  Though so had I. I didn't want him to feel bad for what he said, he was right after all. 

I sat in the park until about half past three. We were supposed to be going to Andy's at four. I started to walk home. It had started raining by the time I was walking up my driveway. Pete was sitting on the doorstep and put the guitar down and ran to me as soon as he saw me, hugging me. 
"Where have you been?" He asked.
"I went to the abandoned part of town, there's a park there."
"I'm so sorry for what I said. I know its hard" I hug him back. He did sound genuinely sorry.
"It's alright. I acted awfully. Should we get to this band practice then?"