The Church Boys ➸ Peterick/Brentrick

35: I'm a Stitch Away From Making it- and a Scar Away From Falling Apart

Patrick had his things together, a large part of him still unsure about moving to Chicago with his band. Pete was going to college there, as was Andy, but he and Joe would probably just take online classes and hope for the best. Besides, Chicago supposedly had a great punk scene. He and Brendon were going to try and keep up their friendship, even if it was over a distance and Brendon was moving to Vegas to attend an acting school.

He got his last bag of clothes and carefully set his guitars (two electrics and an acoustic) down in the backseat, heading inside to say goodbye to his family. Chelsea had left earlier to go somewhere, and he'd already said his goodbye to her, so it was just his parents now. He hugged them both upon seeing them, smiling at them for the moment.

"I'll be home for Christmas," he promised, backing towards the door before pausing at the sight of their hesitation. "What's wrong?"

"Honey...there's not gonna be a Christmas with both of us around-"

"You're getting a divorce?!"

His mother bit her lip, while his father sighed. "It's been coming for a long time," he answered honestly, "we just...we're going our separate ways. I'm already dating another woman, and by the looks of it we might be getting married. You'll have some step-siblings if we do-"

"We have to sell the house, too," she continued instead of commenting on what his father had just said, "if there's anything else you want to take, take it now because we're probably going to have to sell it."

"No, I've got everything I need." He stepped away from them. "Bye."

Walking out the door, he wished he'd taken another instrument, but that would just kill the suaveness of his exit. He got in the car, sighing loudly as he started it up and headed to pick up Joe.

Considering that everything they really needed had already been taken by Pete or Andy to Chicago, they were just bringing along the little things for the ride. The last of their clothes, guitars (from both of them), cds and vinyl records, posters. Little things. Joe was ready when he got there, and had said a swift goodbye to his family before getting in the car with Patrick.

It was five minutes into the drive that it came out. "Guess what?"

"What?" Joe asked, glancing over from behind dark sunglasses.

"My parents are getting a divorce and they decided to tell me ten minutes ago."

"What dipshits." Joe rolled his eyes, sighing softly.

"Pick an album, any album, put it on. I need something to focus on instead of what just happened."

Joe started to go through the boxes of cds they had in the car, fishing around and trying to pinpoint one he felt like listening to before he finally found one.

"What did you pick?"

"No Doubt. Icon."

"You deserve every minute of me singing along to this." 

The taller boy laughed, but he was singing along too admittedly. He couldn't help it- the songs were catchy, Patrick was singing along too, and what else was he gonna do with however fucking much time they were about to spend driving to Chicago? 

"Favorite song on this album, three-two-one go," Joe inquired when the first song had finished and the second one had barely started.

"Um...um..." There was a moment to think before the answer came, "Spiderwebs."

"Not bad, not bad," Joe told him, laughing along until he answered. "I think mine's Don't Speak."

"You don't care if we stop by Brendon's real quick, do you? I just wanna say goodbye," Patrick asked, shooting a glance to Joe as he waited for the answer. Joe had nodded, and Patrick made a turn away from the freeway.