After what happened the other day, Pete feels bad, but only for a second. He knows that as much as Patrick would like to say that he didn't enjoy that, he knows that's probably the most action he's gotten in his entire life. And he's more than glad to contribute to his currently boring sex life.
He's attempted to see if Patrick is home, but he's not, wondering if he's holding a grudge against him about yesterday. He's not sure on what he's supposed to do, it's not like he wants to apologize, but he just assumes that he's out with friends to clear his conscience.
But Pete gets tired of waiting, too long. And besides, it's really too hot inside and out to just be sitting by his windowsill like a lonely dog, waiting for his master to come back. I'll just screw off to the pool instead of waiting around for him like a loser, he thinks, deciding to get ready. I was gonna go to the pool anyway. I don't need him.
-
He's not at his regular local pool, he's at some place he found a while back with a few friends last summer. It's kind of far from his house, but it's worth the bike ride there. It beats being compacted like sardines in his nearby pool, fermenting like human soup. Yuck. Here, there's maybe less than a handful of people, two of which are Joe and some other guy he kept in touch with now frequently, Andy.
"I told the little guy that we'd be at the pool today, but I have a feeling he's at the wrong one," Joe says outwardly, surveying the poolside, he's not there. "He's your boyfriend. I shouldn't have to text him our whereabouts and private locations."
"First of all, this isn't a private location. Maybe if you travel some fourteen miles in the other direction you'd find that fancy ass country club, you know, the one with the decked out snack bar. And two, no one said you had to text him, Joe," Pete points out before diving into the pool again. Joe rolls his eyes, he doesn't even know why he has Patricks number.
"Look, anyway, I just told him that were here and-oh look, speak of the devil. Christ, he's got a friend," Joe whispers back as Pete wades out of the pool. Patrick is in jeans and an old Bowie t-shirt, with a short, swooping haired kid striding next to him.
"Hey. I didn't really want to swim today, sorry-"
"But I'm here! Hey! What's up, Trohman? Long time no see?" The kid grins, cutting Patrick off and outstretches his hand, Joe stifles a smile.
"Hey, Brendon," Joe holds out every letter on his name, unenthusiastically. "Fancy seeing you here, huh?"
Brendon isn't sure what this means but he's no talk right now. Stripping off his shirt and ripping off his pants, that left him shirtless and in the board shorts he happened to be wearing. Brendon canon balled into the pool, splashing Patrick a little.
"Hey, how've you been?" Pete ignores Brendon yelling and swimming, directing his full attention to Patrick. Patrick shrugs and looks down, shoving his hands in his jean pockets. He's not sure what's wrong, but he feels like this should be taken up in private.
"Yeah, I'll just go," Joe says, clearly uncomfortable.
Pete directs Patrick off to the side, where neither of them say anything for a while. "Are you okay? Is it what I did yesterday? Because if it is, I'm so sorry, I don't want you to be uncomfortable," Pete starts apologizing, but Patrick isn't looking up.
"No, it's not that, it's just..I don't know. I'm having an off day. Look it's okay, you can have fun today-"
"It's not okay, Patrick. You're obviously upset, and I'm obviously not going to drop this. Now, I'm not going to make you tell me what's wrong, but if you want to, that's alright," Pete cuts him off, firstly because he's not sure what he did wrong, feeling like a creep for probably making Patrick feel uncomfortable yesterday.
"Okay, so here's the thing, my dad doesn't think I should hang around you anymore, but I've tried to tell him that you're alright. I don't know if he's going to eventually step in and make it his business but if he does, I think it's best if you just leave me alone," Patrick fesses quietly. Pete can't believe what he's hearing.
"What do you mean, 'shouldn't hang around'? I'm sorry, but I'm not leaving you at all. Look, maybe we could run away together, I could get us a place, could keep you at home, teach you things you actually need to know about life, not the bullshit they teach in school," Pete's mind races for answers, Patricks eyes light up a little when he says 'run away'.
"I guess that could work, but I don't know still. If I ever decided to come home, my dad would probably think less of me, call me names, disown me," Patrick ponders, drooping his shoulders.
"I don't care, I love you, I'll take care of you, even if I'm not that great at taking care of myself. I'll protect you, you know that, right? Just let me know when you decide, the earlier the better; I could have Joe help me find a place in the city or something, sounds good?" Pete offers, and just that gives Patrick a little hope.
He smiles at the ground, taking his hands out of his pockets to fidget with his fingers. "Yeah, that sounds cool."
With good timing, Joe comes rolling over, wet and slightly pissed off. Pete snorts, looking him up and down. "What happened to you? You lose a fight to Poseidon?"
"Oh, real funny. Got dragged by my curls into the pool by bastard over there." Joe turns around and glares at Brendon, splashing around, happily. "Fuckin' beebo, man..."
Both Patrick and Pete laugh, not at Joe, but more at his reaction to Brendon being such a bother. He contemplated tossing Joe into the pool himself, but he decided he wanted to live today. Joe was planning revenge anyway, scheming an idea that would even things out for sure.
For the rest of that afternoon, Joe and Pete and Brendon hung out at the pool, diving, racing, trying to drown each other. Patrick held back, pants rolled up to the knees so he could have his legs in the kiddy pool, at least. Most of the rest of that time he spent it wondering what he should do, run away with Pete or just never speak to him for as long as he lives. But, being young and ambitious, he thinks, what does my dad know? Certainly not a thing, because we are inseparable, he can't take that away from me. From us. Plus, I totally had plans for my eighteenth birthday coming up, and I think it would be best if we had a place to ourselves to execute that plan.
