The Will of Love and Life (Peterick)

Chapter Eight

June 15, 2016

If getting the lawyer's attention was a job, Pete would be making millions. Patrick was known for not caring. For being a jerk. But to Pete, he couldn't say no, and that scared him. So when he opened his front door to a very sad looking Pete, he let him in without question. Patrick had been spending his time worrying that things would be different between the two of them. He didn't know that Pete worried to--- maybe even more.

Pete was surprised that Patrick was still so open to him, even after the conversation they last had together. Patrick was never so nice to him. Or anyone, for that matter. He remembered how the lawyer wrote his late father's will years earlier. He didn't know Patrick then, didn't even know his name. His father never told him, and he knew better than to ask. His parents hated lawyers. That was probably the only thing they ever agreed on.

Patrick made the connection when he learned Pete's last name, and Pete was quick to pick up on it after that. But neither of them ever voiced it. It just seemed like something they should never bring up. They were both different people almost four years ago.

Pete was hiding out in the kitchen while Patrick and his mother and father were in the dining room. Pete was still a teenager, and Patrick was fresh out of law school. He looked older then. It seemed like something was tearing him up, but Pete could tell that even now it never went away. It just hid itself.

Pete watched secretly from behind the counter the whole evening, straining his ears to hear what they were saying, even though that really wasn't what he cared about. It was the summer their air conditioner was broken, so it was almost as hot inside as it was out, but Patrick constantly tugged on the sleeve of his blazer and held onto it as he wrote, like he was afraid of it riding up even the slightest bit. Pete preferred to look at the lawyer than care about what he was being left. Patrick's hair was a dark brown and framed around black glasses, which of course Pete liked, but he liked the natural strawberry blond better.

His voice was deep and flat, like he was trying to scare decisions into you. Patrick never talked to Pete like that. In fact, his tone was what kept Pete cowering in the kitchen, afraid of being caught.

Pete wondered if Patrick was still as unhappy as he seemed then. Or if lawyers were just as two-faced as his mother always warned him.

He didn't want Patrick to be unhappy, but that didn't have anything to do with the reason he was there. Pete was the unhappy one, and Patrick was the only one who ever seemed to be able to make it better.

Patrick tried asking him what was wrong, but Pete shook his head. He held his arms out to the dressed up lawyer and pouted his pretty lips. Patrick pulled him forward without hesitation. Pete sighed and laid his head on Patrick's broad shoulder.

"I don't know." Pete hugged him closer. "I just know that I don't want you to let go of me."

"I won't," Patrick promised.

Pete hid his face in Patrick's neck, letting the scent of his perfume calm him down. Pete couldn't tell exactly what the scent was, but he really didn't care. There was just something so comforting, so Patrick, about it, that it really didn't matter.

"Hey." Patrick loosened his grip around Pete's hips so he would lean back in his arms and look at him. "You can tell me what's wrong."

"But you'll get mad," Pete whispered, looking down at the floor.

"Why would I get mad?"

"Because it's about Nik."

Patrick really wanted to punch Nik in the face. Choke him. Anything. He thought that Pete deserved better. Pete deserved the world and then some.