The Church Boys ➸ Peterick/Brentrick

8: New York Eyes, Chicago Thighs

Pete felt sort of bad- because while yes, he was still together with Mikey, he was admittedly finding himself more attracted to Patrick. Part of him figured it might be best to just stay with Mikey and ride the crush out, but the more he thought about it, the more he thought otherwise. Yes, Patrick was kind of obviously (well, to Pete, at least) with Brendon, but it didn't change how he felt. And besides, if he were even to look at Patrick wrong, he knew he'd be toast.

Though he wanted to tell himself anything else, he knew he had a crush on the microscopic boy. Seemed like a petty reason to break up with his boyfriend, but... Which, had actually led him to going to call Mikey, and instead finding that the other boy was calling him.

He answered hesitantly. "Hey..."

"Hey, Pete. I think we should talk."

"I do too..."

"I think we should break up."

"Actually, so do I," Pete said, holding in the sigh of relief. "I don't know. I'm sorry if I did something wrong, I'm just a mess right now."

"So am I, honestly. My brother's a wreck, so am I... I don't want to drag you into any of this."

"No, don't worry about it. If you ever need someone to vent to, I'm here. You can always talk to me... I just at least want to stay friends."

Mikey let out a sad chuckle. "Yeah, okay. I'd like that too, actually."

"I've got to go, I'm sorry...see you around?" he asked with a hopeful smile, even if Mikey couldn't see it.

"I don't know...our parents are moving to Jersey, and we're going with them."

"Oh...right..."

"Hey, I'll still keep in touch, my fellow sweet lil' dude." Mikey produced a chuckle from his end. "Jersey can't be too bad. I just feel bad for my brother...oh, whatever. His boyfriend's been planning on going to New York for college anyways. We can talk later, I need to start packing."

"Yeah, okay. Bye."

"Bye."

At least with that, Pete felt better about himself as he hung up. So did Mikey, honestly, and though he felt a weight lift from his chest, he also noted being almost sad that this chapter of his life was over. Pete, though, was feeling the same weight from his shoulders vanishing. Though, it was upsetting to learn they were moving to Jersey, it also made things a little easier. They'd have broken up anyways over it. Now his biggest concern was not outing himself to the whole school.

Getting up to sift through his collection of vinyl records, he picked up his phone and answered again without looking for who it was. "Yo," he answered.

"Hey, Pete, I'm assuming you've done it by now?"

"Yeah...it was mutual though, we're chill." He smiled as he said, pulling a record from the box and heading to his player.

"...this might be an odd question, but do you want to come with me to get a septum piercing and a tattoo? Bro, if you want one too, you can get one. That would be a rad story."

Pete paused, actually thinking about it for a moment. "Yeah, sounds fun. When were you planning on going?"

"I don't know, probably on Friday. We don't have practice over the weekend, so it would work well." He probably grinned at this point. "Yeah, I mean, I know that at our school it might not be the best idea, but I'll probably take the piercing out during practice and classes."

"You're so fucking gay, holy shit."

"I also want some of the devil's lettuce, Peter, but I'm not lighting up a blunt right now." There was a sigh from the other end. "I'm fully aware I'm the slutty stoner kid at our school. One of two, but the other one has a boyfriend-"