Give The Kids A Show (Ryden and Peterick)

Take Two Years And Call Me When You're Better

Patrick's POV:

"You cannot be serious!" I shout.
"What?" Ryan asks, looking offended.
"You must be crazy.." I shake my head, eyes wide. "You're gonna get yourself killed!"

We're sitting in my house, which is really lonely. I would ask Ryan to move in, but my parents, who pay for the house, visit occasionally, and if they found that I was sharing my house with somebody they would instantly assume that I'm dating said person and would probably start planning our wedding instantly. My last girlfriend, Elisa, had been with me for just a week when my parents asked where I wanted to go for our honeymoon. I'm pretty sure my embarrassingly over-excited parents are the ones who drove away most of my boyfriends (and my one girlfriend). Then again, I've only dated three people, so maybe I'm the problem.

"Patrick..." Ryan sighs.
"There's nothing you can say to convince me that it's a good idea to go on a date with a guy who tried to kill you." I cross my arms.
"We don't know that. They could have just been messing around." Ryan's argument sounds feeble and he knows it.
"They have fangs, Ryan. They're vampires!"
"I think we imagined that, Patrick. Let's be realistic."
"I know what I saw, Ryan. Pete visited me, remember? I saw them clearly. They're real."

I sigh and shake my head. "You're actually going to die."
"Not if you go with me!"
"Do I look like I could fight back any better than you?"
"Look, we'll be in a restaurant. They're not going to try anything in such a public place."
"You don't know that."
"Please come with me." Ryan gives me his most persuasive look, and I nearly give in.

"Unlike you, I don't have a death wish."
"Look, if they try to kill us, I'll give you five bucks." Ryan offers. I snort.
"Fine." I say. "But I'm not paying for dinner,"
"Oh, don't worry about that. Brendon says that he and his friend will pay for everything. Apparently, Pete is a real gentleman." From the way he's grinning, I can guess that Pete is not a gentleman at all, but I decide it's too late to back out now, so I just sigh and shake my head, smiling slightly despite my fear.

~~~ time skip ~~~

"So you've heard of him?" I ask Joe hopefully. He nods.
"Of course I have." He says. "Everybody my age has heard of Pete Wentz."
"I'm only a year younger than you." I remind him. I'm seventeen while Joe and Andy are eighteen.
"Yeah, which means Pete left high school before you arrived. Andy and I had only been there for a year."

"Anyway, you're not gonna like what I have to say." Joe warns me.
"Hit me." I flop down on Joe's sofa beside him. His friend Andy is sat in the other side of him, eating a bowl of ice cream. It will be vegan ice cream, of course. Joe leans over and eats the spoonful Andy was raising to his lips, grinning mischievously. I'm pretty sure there's something going on between them, but I'm too polite to pry. They'll tell me if they want me to know.

"Okay, so Pete is a bit older than us. He's..." He thinks for a moment, "five years older than you. He was the classic bad boy: disregard for school, very little respect, got into fights, constantly drink or high, fucked anything that moved, et cetera, et cetera."
"He doesn't really sound like your type."
Andy remarks.
"Shush." Joe says, putting one of his fingers to Andy's lips. "I'm telling the story, not you." Andy rolls his eyes and keeps eating his ice cream.

"Anyway, Pete still attended some classes, like art, drama, music and literature. He was obviously very creative. Then, suddenly, he stopped. People saw him with this guy, oh yeah, he was into guys," he adds.
"I guessed, since he's going on a date with me." I say dryly. Joe sticks his tongue out at me.
"Child." Andy mutters.

"As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted," Joe glares at us both, but he's not seriously angry, "he started dating this guy, and people reckon he must have been really controlling or something, because Pete seemed to spend all of his time with him. His parents didn't seem to be around much and he didn't have many friends so I can imagine it wouldn't be hard for him to end up on a situation like that. I think the boyfriend's name was Matthew or Malcolm or something beginning with an M, but it's not important."
"It's kind of important." Andy says. Joe ignores him.

"Anyway, Pete became really distant, but when people did have a chance to talk to him, he denied anything bad about the guy. He claimed he was perfect, which made everyone even more suspicious. They thought that he was being instructed to act like he was in a happy relationship when he wasn't. Some people did say that he actually seemed to really love him, though." He shrugs.
"Maybe he loved him and the guy took advantage of that." Andy muses. Joe and him exchange a look and seem to have a quick, silent conversation.

"It seemed genuine to me." Joe says with an air of finality. "I saw them together a few times and they looked like a really happy couple... But I guess appearances can be deceiving." I think I imagine it, but it seems like Andy and him exchange a sly look for a moment.

"He was eighteen, though, so it's not as if he really knew what love was, anyway." Joe remarks, shrugging.
"We're eighteen." Andy states, raising an eyebrow at Joe, who gives him a pointed look before continuing to talk.

"Then, just a month or two after he met the guy, Pete seemed to just... disappear. Nobody had any idea what had happened to him. Some people say the couple ran off together, others say his boyfriend killed him. Since you've got a date with him, I think it's safe to assume that the latter definitely didn't happen, and obviously his relationship with the guy didn't go as perfectly as he had thought it would, since he's single."

"Maybe he isn't single." Andy says.
"Shut up." Joe replies. Andy gasps.
"Maybe the guy died." Andy suggests. "What if Pete murdered him?" He grins. My worry starts to grow.
"Or maybe they just broke up, like lots of normal couples do." Joe says, like Andy is an idiot. Usually, it's the other way round. Andy is quite wise, and Joe acts stupidly quite a lot, even though he's actually very intelligent.

"Well, thanks for adding to my stress and confusion, guys." I sigh. All I've learnt is that Pete is a troublemaker who used to love a possibly abusive guy. Maybe I can find out more from him tonight when we go on our date.

"No problem." Joe grins. Andy gives me a reassuring smile.
"That was years ago. He's probably mature and nice now." I haven't told them about him attacking me in an alley, as they'd probably freak out and refuse to let me go.

"Well he is five years older than me." I frown, realise that that means I'm going on a date with a twenty three year old.
"Do you like older men, Patrick?" Joe asks, stealing some more of Andy's ice cream.
"I don't know, I've only dated three people." I reply. Joe cackles.

"Thanks for the support, guys." I get to my feet. "I'll tell you how the date goes in a few days, if he hasn't killed me." I look at Andy as I emphasise the end of my sentence. I hear him chuckle as I go to the door, letting myself out. Just before the door closes, I hear Joe laugh loudly, then say
"Pete's gonna kill us all."