The Music Or The Misery (FOB FanFic)

Chapter 13

Alex sunk back into the elevator, crossing his arms over his front and staring at Patrick's baffled face as the doors slid shut. He leaned forward and pressed the 72 button.

He descended down twenty-eight floors and walked out into the hallway, down to the only room with double doors. He knocked twice before the person inside called him in. He grasped the doorknob and pushed the door open.

Standing across the room was a girl, wavy light brown hair that reached down to the middle of her back, dark brown eyes that stared down at the city stories below her with her hands pressed up against the glass, much like a child would outside a toy store. Only difference between her and the child at the toy store is that the child was happy. The girl hadn't been happy for months, in fact, she was enraged and her dark red lips were curled downward into a frown.

She wanted to hear music again. She wanted to watch a movie again, or a television show. She wanted to write again. She wanted to live in a world where people were free to be creative, express themselves in a way only they could.

That's why she was doing all of this. That's why she recruited Fall Out Boy and that's why she hired Alex and Gabe to train them.

"Has Gabe showed up yet?" Alex questioned from across the room.

"No," She answered softly.

"Well, I guess Gabe's not our only loss today. It appears that Wentz is also no longer with us," Alex informed, walking up beside her.

"What do you mean he's 'no longer with us'?"

"He left."

"He left?" She repeated, glancing over at him. Alex nodded his head, keeping his gaze locked outside. "He just left?"

"Maybe it's not such a bad thing he left, though," Alex tried to rationalize, "I mean...the guys seem to be doing just fine without him. And anyways, Pete's head wasn't in the game at all. It was only a matter of time before he threw in the towel and gave up."

The girl shook her head before pushing herself away from the window and walking over to her desk, where she picked up the phone and dialed a number.

"Who are you calling?" Alex inquired, rejoining her side.

She glared back at him, "Who do you think?"

"What are you going to tell him?"

"I'm telling him that this plan is falling apart, and if we don't step up our game, we're going to lose the others too. We've already lost Pete and Gabe. We lose another and we're going to live in this miserable world forever."

"We're not losing any others, Mara," Alex growled, grabbing the phone from her and slamming it down on the receiver. "The guys we still have here are in it till the end. I'm, like, a hundred and ten percent positive."

She put her hands on her hips, "And how are you so sure of that?"

"Because...they've got Joe. He seems to be the driving force of the group...which makes sense since he was part of that whole underground scene. And on top of that, Patrick knows it's you."

Mara's eyes grew wide, "He...He knows?" Alex slowly nodded his head. "How'd he find out? I thought you-"

"I know. I know Gabe and me promised you that we wouldn't say anything, but Pete forced me to tell him. I'm sorry. But he threatened to leave if I didn't tell him and...and I told him to tell Patrick, thinking that it would give him more of a reason to stay because they were all going to leave after last night's incident."

Mara looked at Alex with eyes glistening with tears, "Well? Did it?"

"I-I don't know. He seems to still have some feelings for you, but...he has doubts it's really you behind all of this. And I'm not sure if knowing it's you is going to make him change his mind."

She pulled out her chair and sat down in it, putting her head in her hands.

"Hey, tonight we're going out. Maybe you could follow us or something," He suggested, sitting down on the corner of her desk, "I know you want to see him again, Mara. Now's your chance. Bump into him. You can make it seem like some freaky coincidence. He doesn't need to know about all of this unless you want him to."

She lifted her head up out of her hands and glanced up at her co-conspirator with eyes glistening with tears.

The singer placed his hand on her shoulder, "Maybe if you tell him yourself, it'll mean more than hearing it secondhand from his friend. You never know."

*****

At little before midnight, Mara was sitting in her car, watching as the three band members and Alex left the building and got into the van. She waited for them to turn the corner before starting her car and pulling away from the curb.

She followed them around town until the van came to a stop and was turned off. She parked a little ways away and watched Patrick, Joe, and Andy scatter about the city with spray paint cans in hand. She couldn't tell who was who, though, seeing as they had masks over their heads.

Mara swallowed hard, debating whether or not she really wanted to go through with this. Part of her yearned terribly to see Patrick again. Words couldn't even describe the pain she went through after leaving him. It was a daily battle within herself between going back and apologizing or staying strong and keeping up with everything she'd been working up for. But part of her was afraid to reveal herself. She'd wanted to keep this a secret for as long as possible, preferably until after the ban was taken down and all artistic forms of expression were made legal again. But Alex had disclosed to her that Patrick already knew, so, it was only a matter of making him believe.

She exhaled softly before opening the car door, her high heels making a clicking sound as she set foot on the pavement. The sound her shoes echoed through the silent night and she froze. Luckily barely anyone was around to hear, and the people who were around didn't care.

She closed her car door behind her and took off her high heels, starting to sneakily make her way in the direction one of the three escaped. She only hoped it was Patrick.

After walking a couple of blocks, she found the person outside a store, shaking the spray paint can before aiming it at the storefront window and creating the volcano.

Mara cleared her throat and the person snapped his head in her direction, dropping the paint canister to the ground. She stepped forward and asked, "Excuse me? What are you doing?"

The person hooked their fingers underneath the ski mask and pulled it off his head, and just with Mara's luck, it was none other than the man she wanted to see. She tried her best, but failed to hide the smirk her lips had curled up into.

"Mara?"

Author's Note: I'm so sorry this is two days late, I've just been really busy these past few days and haven't had the chance to update. Anyways, thanks for reading! I hope you liked it! -Rachael