It was in second period when it occurred to Pete, and after his realisation, he felt absolutely horrible, and couldn't believe he never thought of it in the situation.
He never thanked Mikey properly for letting him stay overnight at his house. Or for forgiving him.
How could he have possibly forgotten something so important? Why didn't Mikey himself say anything?
Pete knew that if it was him in Mikey's situation he would've mentioned something. It was common courtesy - it should've been obligatory, and he felt unbelievably guilty.
Maybe Mikey hadn't even noticed, or just simply didn't really give a shit, and he was therefore making a big deal out of nothing, so he felt kind of stupid at that possibility, which, knowing Mikey, was probably quite likely.
In fairness, Pete was kind of distracted by apologising for being a dick, which in his opinion helped to make up for it, so really maybe he was overreacting. But he couldn't really judge it - he was biased. And after all, he wasn't some kind of courtesy ambassador (which probably wasn't even a real thing), and didn't know how it worked.
Pete swore that he would talk to Mikey about this at lunch. He was going to get this off of his conscience.
-
Mikey loved reading. Though it was one of the factors that gave him the title of 'nerd', it provided him an escape from his struggles.
Getting wrapped up in fictional universes made him forget about the real world and all its issues for a short while (depending on how long he read for), and he found that amazing. He felt like he needed it, as it was his method of letting go.
It wasn't exactly ideal, because it was hooking, distracting and attention grasping, and caused a disinterest in the real world, but while he was actually reading, it was nice. It felt right.
It wasn't that bad, at the very least - some methods of coping were destructive. Pete and his smoking could be used as a good example of this, but Mikey couldn't really comment on that anymore, as he had grown sort of fond with cigarettes and skipping. Okay, maybe the latter was a push, because he still turned up 97% of the time, but the first was true.
In fact, he kind of craved a smoke in that moment, but didn't really have the motivation to put his book down and act on it. That meant facing the real world, and Mikey wasn't exactly prepared to do that. He hoped he would never be interrupted, but realistically, that wasn't going to happen, was it?
"Mikes," Pete said, hoping to gain attention from the boy.
"Yeah?" he mumbled.
"Thank you."
"What for?" Mikey asked, confused at the sudden gesture of sincerity.
"Letting me stay at your house. I realised that I never properly said it and I felt like a dick. Sorry," he explained, sitting down on the floor next to where Mikey was.
"It's okay. Better than leaving you alone and drunk on the streets in the middle of the night, right?" Mikey smiled.
"Yeah, I suppose so."
"But in all honesty, I hadn't even realised."
"Now I feel like an idiot."
"You aren't an idiot, Pete. You were before for doing all that, but not in this case. If anything, I'm an idiot for not realising," Mikey said.
Pete hummed in response, and they sat in comfortable silence for a few more minutes, Mikey getting back to his book.
-
It had been weeks since his crush on Pete first came about. How wasn't he over it yet? Would he ever get over it?
Mikey made a note to himself to never develop a crush again, because it was scary, and stressful, and he reckoned he would much rather adopt 19 cats and grow old alone. Yeah, actually, that sounded like a decent plan. He could even start now! He wasn't entirely sure how to discuss that with his parents, though - now, that wasn't exactly going to go down well, knowing them.
But in a few years he could move out, get a job, buy all the cats in the world, and form some kind of furry revolution. What could he call that? Cat cult? Pussy posse? Feline festival? He would have to ask Pete for his opinion.
Ah, yes, Pete. That was what he was supposed to be thinking about.
He had absolutely no idea what to do.
He had tried talking to him about it, and we all know how well that turned out, so attempting that again wasn't a safe option. He could always wait and see if Pete would go up to him first, but then again, he wasn't even sure if Pete liked him back. He wasn't exactly clear before when he spoke about 'them'.
So seeing as the first idea wasn't going to be happening anytime in the near future, he would have to wait it out and see if Pete would do anything.
Was it ideal? No. But was he still fully prepared to do it regardless? Yes.
-
Pete sat in his room alone and bored, and most definitely unprepared to do nothing the entire weekend.
He figured that Mikey would have no plans, so he pulled out his phone and called him (war flashbacks to the last time that happened).
"Hello?" Mikey's voice came through the speaker, sounding kind of annoyed for a reason Pete wasn't entirely sure about.
"Hey, Mikes!" he responded (quite enthusiastically), to which Mikey groaned at. "Why the attitude?"
"You interrupted my reading. I was getting up to a climatic scene, too! I could kill you, Pete Wentz. I could honestly kill you."
"S'a bit melodramatic, don't you think?" he questioned. "Although, I have to admit, I'm glad it wasn't because of the nickname."
"I take my books very seriously, Wentz."
"I wasn't aware we were on a last name basis, Way," Pete teased.
"Oh, shut up. What did you want?"
"You wanna hang out tomorrow? I'm bored and I know you're free and I like spending time with you," Pete said, and oh fuck, maybe that sounded just a little too desperate. It was a little too late to back out now, though. He had dug himself too big of a hole.
"I'd love to," Mikey replied, and Pete silently fist-bumped.
"Great! I'll see you then. In the meantime, have fun with your precious book."
"Oh, I will. Thanks."
And then the phone line went quiet, and Pete sat down on his bed unsure of what to plan to do for the following day with Mikey.
Like, he wanted it to be nice, but he didn't want to make it look like he was making too much of an effort, because it may seem as though he was coming off too strong, and that wasn't his aim.
He would have to invest in asking Ryan for advice. He had experience, right?
If not, Pete was kind of screwed.
hi this is like 1.1k words long and altho i wanted it to be longer im still giving myself a b for effort
anywayyy sorry there wasnt an update on wednesday like there usually is i was ill and stressed
also the thank you incident wasnt intentional i just noticed it and thought 'ah yes lets tie it into the plotline' lmao
also neW COVER??????
anyway this is about to hit 100 votes aint that something! love u all loads and ill see ya again on monday
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learning to fly ➵ petekey
Fanfiction"We're all birds, Mikey. Some birds will fly higher than others, therefore experiencing more, and to get the best out of life, you need to learn how to fly." A story of two boys who have a connection they don't anticipate but have always needed to e...
