Folie

Act III, Scene 2

The night before the first performance, Patrick lied awake in bed, his thoughts moving too fast for him to fall asleep. Almost on cue, Pete entered the room, and silently crawled into bed with Patrick. They had mostly kept their distance since the kiss, but Patrick could tell that Pete finally felt ready to talk.

"So?" Patrick finally spoke.

Half a minute passed before Pete finally responded.

"I figured it out," he declared quietly, as though he held some terrible secret.

"You did?" Patrick didn't need to ask more questions. He knew Pete well enough to know what he meant.

"I love you, but only as a friend. I know that now for sure."

"I do too," Patrick replied, "kissing you didn't feel as weird as kissing a girl, but I still didn't feel that much."

"Kissing you felt a little better than kissing anyone else, but I still didn't feel that much either."

Now, Patrick felt unsure of what Pete meant.

"What do you mean?"

"Patrick, do you know what asexuality or aromanticism are?"

"I think. Like you don't feel attracted to people?"

"Yeah, sexually and romantically respectively. I think I'm both."

"Are you sure?" Patrick whispered.

To be honest, he felt - shock. He couldn't imagine someone not capable of feeling more than platonic attraction, especially not someone he thought he knew so well. He always assumed Pete was gay like he was -many people did. Including Pete.

"Yeah. For awhile, I thought I was gay," Pete said, seeming to read Patrick's mind, "but that's only because I knew I didn't like girls, and the default explanation for that is that you're gay. Well, that, and I fit a lot of the stereotypes," Pete chuckled.

"But, I don't really feel attraction like that to anyone," he continued, "I do love people. I love my friends. I definitely love you," he turned to Patrick, "but I love you as my friend. When I called you my platonic soulmate once, I meant it. I honestly feel like I'm meant to have you in my life forever, like it's destiny. Maybe in another universe, I'm gay, and we're married, and in yet another, oh I don't know, we're friends who play in a band together with Joe and Andy or something," he laughed, and Patrick laughed with him.

"I just know that no matter what universe we're in, we're meant to be together. It's just that in this one, we're meant to be friends. Best friends. I think that's why I felt jealous earlier, because I got so used to us hanging out together all the time. But I realized that you're still deeply intertwined in my life, even when you're with someone else. There's no reason for me to be jealous or afraid."

Patrick grabbed Pete's hand, and he returned the gesture.

"Of course there's no reason to feel that way," Patrick reassured him, "I love you too much for that. I agree with everything you said. We're platonic soulmates. We're meant to be together. No matter who I end up with - Dallon or Joe or, I don't know, a woman named Elisa, I'll always love you and hold you in a special place in my heart.

Pete snickered, "'a woman named Elisa,' that's so fucking random. Of course, imagining you straight at all is the funniest fucking thing ever."

Patrick shoved Pete playfully, laughing, "fuck you, Pete."

Pete shoved Patrick back, and soon they were tossing pillows at each other and shoving each other on the floor. Eventually, they tired out, and returned to their original positions on Patrick's bed.

"So, you're asexual and aromantic," Patrick asked.

"Yup. Ace for short."

"Ace. I like that. Can I call you ace?"

Pete chuckled, "can you call me ace? Is this Gilmore Girls? Are you Logan?"

They both laughed, before becoming silent once again.

Pete sighed. "I love you, Patrick."

"I love you too, Pete."

With smiles on their faces, they finally fell asleep.