"Uh, Happy Christmas?" (Peterick AU)

O N E S H O T

quick note. pete & patrick do text more than i've included in here. they get to know each other through text.

and to make it more modern, i'm moving back birthdates so they're in the 2000s and 90s

also it's literally christmas day at 10:38 motherfucking pm and i'm not close to finishing shit on this lmao.

one more thing: the reason they're playing football in november is bc of an all star game (which is where two teams made up of the best players in each district play against each other).

oh yeah smut warning !

It wasn't abnormal for Pete to be on Instagram at midnight on a school night. Would his mom be happy about it? No, probably not, but what she doesn't know won't hurt her.

Unfortunately, it seems as if all six hundred people Pete's following are dead, as he keeps refreshing and the same pictures pop up. He sighs and does something he hasn't done in a while: click on the explore page.

To be honest, he doesn't know what he's getting himself into. That's what he'll tell everyone for the rest of his life if they ask.

The fourth picture he comes across, liked by one of the people he follows (Matt Mixon, the only senior in his geometry class), draws him in. Pete finds himself clicking on a cute guy's profile and spending the better part of the next hour scrolling through his one thousand pictures.

The more recent ones are of him and friends. Or maybe more than friends, but Pete hopes not. Older ones are clearly of him back in high school.

God, this boy is beautiful. In doing a little more 'research,' so to speak, he finds out the boy attends the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He's also eighteen motherfucking years old.

So one, cute boy - Patrick, Pete reminds himself - is way out of Pete's league, two, Patrick lives two and a half hours away, and three, he's three years and two months older than Pete. Pete's pretty sure that's illegal in some places, but whatever.

Pete is fucked.

--

"He's how old?" Andy almost yells, earning a shush from the old librarian. He apologises and repeats his question in the same tone but quieter.

"Eighteen, Andy." Pete mumbles, and Andy shakes his head and closes his book.

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me. Pete, there's no way you're dating someone that much older than you. Back me up here, Joe." Andy turns to his boyfriend and Pete's other best friend - a junior - for support. Joe just shrugs.

"I think he should go for it. C'mon, baby, if he's friends with Mix, he's probably not that sketchy." Joe says with a shrug, and Andy shakes his head.

"Unbelievable. Both of you." Andy stands up and rolls his eyes as he shoves another book into his backpack. "Before you do anything, talk to Mixon please. I have to go talk to Hayley before break ends."

As Andy walks away, Joe sighs. "Hate to see him go, love to watch him leave." Pete makes a gagging noise as he packs his own stuff up. "You should take his advice. Mix is a nice guy if you'll get over that one time he hit on you at his house. His dad loves you. Asks about you all the time."

"Sure he is. You know, since every guy and girl in this school has the hots for him, I'm pretty sure he's not the most humble guy." Pete says as he puts his backpack on. Joe walks with him as they leave the library. "And his dad is lovely."