Little Glass Heart (Petekey)

7

Patrick treats him as normal for the first half of the day. He smiles at Mikey when he passes him in the hallways, asks him about how Gerard's doing in between classes, and even invites him to watch the new Jurassic Park movie ("Because Pete won't come with me, I think he's secretly afraid of dinosaurs.").

So Andy hasn't told him yet. Is this for better of for worse? Either way, Mikey smiles back in the hallways, even when it's painful. He answers Patrick's questions with short responses, and declines Patrick's invitation, saying he's busy.

"But you don't even know which day it is." Patrick says, and Mikey just shrugs in response.

Patrick isn't the type of guy to beg people to hang out with him, so when Mikey makes up more excuses, Patrick drops the subject and moves on, trying to hide how he's slightly hurt. Mikey wants to go; honestly, he would love to. Maybe invite Ryan or Joe, too. But after what Andy says to him that morning, Mikey knows that Patrick wouldn't want to hang out with him, not after the lying and the anger. He's pretty sure Patrick won't talk to him at all.

He's right. At lunch, on the same day, when Patrick sits down on the other side of Pete, he stares at Mikey and turns away unhappily.

Is Mikey even allowed at their lunch table anymore? Do the rest of the group know? Maybe Frank's the only one allowed to stay, since he didn't cause this shitstorm in the first place. And even though Patrick avoids looking at Mikey, he can tell that Andy is staring right at him. Mikey is too ashamed meet his gaze.

He's about to make an excuse to leave when Pete plops down next to him, wrapping his arm around Mikey's shoulder, a dopey grin on his face. Even though it's sunny outside, he still wears a black hoodie with both sleeves rolled down. "Hey, pumpkin."

Mikey exhales with relief. He didn't even realize he was holding his breath until Pete basically confirmed Mikey was allowed to stay.

"Just pumpkin?" Brendon asks, clearly disappointed in the lack of material to mock.

"Saving the best ones for the birthday dinner." Pete says, and at the mention of dinner, Mikey flinches just as Frank brightens up.

"You are not." Frank says eagerly. "Their parents are there."

"And Aunt Marie," Pete continues, clearly enjoying this game.

"And grandma and grandpa." Frank adds.

"And-"

"We get it," Brendon says. "Mikey recites his family tree when you two fuck, you happy?"

Mikey isn't sure how to respond to that (maybe throw Brendon off a cliff?) but Joe just bursts into laughter as Pete wails, "Brendon, no!" and Frank covers his face with his hands. It's hard to tell if he's also laughing, or if he's just crying from the mental image of it.

The warmth of Pete's arm around Mikey's shoulders isn't as comforting as it used to be; not when Patrick knows that Mikey lied, that he got Pete to lie, to trick everyone for his own benefit. And even though it's obvious Mikey's morals are fucked, Patrick didn't tell the rest of the group. He and Andy let it remain a secret without knowing why Mikey did it.

Why didn't he tell them? Maybe he knew that Mikey would be crushed with guilt. Maybe Patrick had some bigger plan to ruin Mikey Way.

Or maybe Patrick Martin Stump was just a good person, who deserved to have his best friend/boyfriend/whoever Pete was to him more than Mikey did.

That option seemed more likely than any.

~~~~~~~~

Pete ends up going home with Mikey that afternoon. Andy offers to pick Pete up later, but Pete mumbles something into his ear and Andy nods and walks off, waving at Mikey before going.