Unicorns On Wheels [Petekey]

9. Tuesday.

2016/02/09 Tuesday

Yesterday, Pete and I managed to convince Gerard to give me a short winter break of 2 weeks. Seeing as Mr Bowie had already been off for a week and Pete would be off for the next one. And I'm not sure whether we managed to do it by means of persuasion or whether it had to do with the fact that Pete is the first honest to god friend I've had since the accident.

Andbutso, we also talked Hayley and Ryan into doing a movie marathon with us where we all agreed on watching one Naked Gun film, one horror movie of Ryan's choice, Hayley's favourite film: Love Actually and mine, The Boy in Striped Pajamas. It was arranged that, since Pete and I had the day off, we'd arrange the snacks while Ryan arranged drinks and Hayley arranged popcorn.

I'd never had a sleepover before but Pete told me only good things while he pushed me through the candy aisle in a grocery store. I kept the basket on my lap the whole time and clutched to it like I would've clutched to my legs if I was in a car accident. Oh wait.

Pete laughed when I told him that. But he didn't have a donkey laugh like when he watched The Naked Gun he giggled nervously like he wasn't sure whether it really was a joke or whether he was allowed to laugh at that sort of thing. Which was stupid because if I made fun of myself that meant people were allowed to laugh.

We bought 2 big bags of wine gums on account of the fact that Pete said those were his favourite candy and we bought a pack of jelly beans on account of the fact that those are my favourite. And then Pete bought a pack of bobby pins and muttered something about how he'd need them tonight.

When we got home though, we spent the rest of the day lounging around in the living room where I reread The Boy in Striped Pajamas again and Pete braided my hair back while watching shitty sitcoms on TV. Pete braided my hair over and over again and eventually, when he got bored of that he scrolled through the channels until he found Glee.

I'd previously never watched Glee before so I had absolutely no idea what was going on in the television show but I knew that Pete enjoyed it because he sang along to all the songs and even though I thought reading was more important than staring at Pete, I couldn't look away for long enough to even read a page.

When Glee was over (Kurt broke up with his boyfriend and Rachel broke up with hers) Pete decided to try and get me to join him in conversation even though he was clearly happy with watching TV and I was clearly happy with reading The Boy in Striped Pajamas. He turned down the sound of the TV and turned to me and said,

How long does it take you to read a book? Because I'm pretty sure it's been like two weeks since you started reading that. And I was a little taken aback because nobody had ever questioned me about the reading and rereading of The Boy in Striped Pajamas. But because no one had ever asked me that, I didn't have a programmed response.

It took me awhile but I couldn't come up with a quick quip to me and I decided that I'd rather answer him honestly. I'm just rereading it. I answered, trying to keep it short. Because technically it was true. I didn't have to tell him that I'd read it at least 100 times before and he didn't have to know that it was my favourite.

Oh. Pete said, turning his attention back to the TV but only for a second before he turned back to me and said So it's taking you two weeks to reread it? And, without meaning to, I felt myself blush. I didn't like blushing.

No. I've just reread it a couple of times this week. I answered and I waited for Pete to laugh. I waited for him to make a joke of me, to tell me I was stupid and for a fleeting moment I wondered whether I would survive it if he had laughed at me. But, even before Pete answered, I decided that I didn't care.