Stars

Chapter 2

Half an hour later, Frank was laid out on the couch, his head in Gee's lap, a bite of pizza still in his mouth,

"Wait, so you've never seen any of the Star Wars movies?" He said, and Pete shook his head, swallowed his pizza, and said,

"Nah, my friend Andy from my old town's fucking obsessed though, he even went as some cloak-ninja guy with a light up sword or something for Hallowe'en for 3 years in a row." Mikey snorted,

"I think you mean a Jedi, dumbass."

Frank moved position, so his feet rested on Gerard and he was facing Pete. "So, just to clarify, you have not seen any Star Wars movies?" Pete raised an eyebrow,

"No."

"Not one?"

"Nope."

"Absolutely zero. As in never."

"Nuh-uh."

"Did you even have a childhood?"

Pete sniggered, " I apparently didn't have the right one, if your judgement's anything to go by."

"What the fuck Pete?" Mikey said in disbelief, looking up from his book. Pete shrugged,

"I just never really got around to it, I guess." Ray picked Pete's phone up off the ground and threw it at him.

"That. Is. It. All of you call your fucking parents right now, you're staying the night and we're watching all of the real Star Wars movies, none of that prequel shit." There was a cheer, then a thud, as Gerard over enthusiastically stood up to get his phone, forgetting Frank, who had been resting with the bottom half of legs on Geeâs lap, and ended up on the floor, hitting his head against the coffee table. Frank stood up, rubbing his head, and flipped off Gerard grouchily.

Ten minutes later, Pete was sat upside-down on the couch, next to Ray, who kept glancing disapprovingly at the short, tattooed boy. Gee was sat on an over-stuffed tartan print armchair, with Frank perched on the arm, twirling the end of his floppy mohawk between his fingers and running the other hand over the buzzed sides of his head. Mikey was sat cross-legged in front of the coffee table, a plate of pizza on his lap, and glasses perched on the tip of his nose. Frank and Ray were discussing the new Green Day album, half-yelling across the room. The opening notes of the Star Wars theme tune began to play, and Mikey whipped around, accidentally hurling a piece of pizza onto Pete's chest as he turned,

"SHUT UP, THE MOVIE'S STARTING!!!" Frank raised an eyebrow at the outburst of the usually quiet boy, but shut up and turned to face the TV screen. Mikey realized what he had done quickly, and Pete began to laugh, choking slightly due to his upside-down position. Mikey's face turned the same shade of red as his brotherâs hair as he scrambled to grab paper towels from the kitchen. Pete shook his head,

"Don't worry about it, hope you don't  mind if I eat this?" he said, flipping back so that he was sitting the right way up while holding a slice of pizza the entire time. Mikey shook his head, and Pete took a huge bite of the cheesy, greasy, fat-filled food. "S'good," he said, his voice muffled through the pizza.

Mikey gave an awkward thumbs-up, then retreated to his spot in front of the TV, where he looked up at the huge spaceship descending over the screen, watching avidly until

"Shit,"Ray said, as the TV shut off, along with all the lights and electronics in the house. "No no no no this is not good, this is really not good. Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit."

"Toro, chill, the whole street's out," Frank said, letting the curtains fall back into place from where he had been looking through the window. "S'probably those fuckin road works down the street." Ray began to frantically type his mom's phone number into the scratched screen of his phone, but no one picked up.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh," he groaned, repeatedly slamming his head into the fridge. Gerard sighed, and put his hand between Ray's fro, which by this point was covering his face, and the cold metal of the fridge.

"Dude, chill. It's perfectly normal to have a fuckin power out," Frank said to the increasingly distressed Ray, who turned around reluctantly, a bruise blossoming on his forehead. Mikey called out to the group before Ray began another rant,

"There's  a thunderstorm coming. Weather app says there is, anyway." Frank let out a whoop and threw his hands in the air, smacking Gerard in the face. Mikey and Ray sniggered, but Pete remained silent. It wasn't until a few minutes of random banter that Frank called out,

"Where the fuck did gay bass guy go?" The others looked around the Pete-less room, not saying anything until Mikey spoke up,

"I'll look for him, he'll be somewhere in the house." The others nodded, and grunted in agreement as Mikey began to climb the stairs, while Gerard, Ray, and Frank searched the house for flashlights and candles.

The tall, glasses-wearing boy crept through the house, calling out quietly for Pete, until he heard fast, panicked breathing from the bathroom next to him. Recognizing the sound, and relating to the feeling, Mikey pushed open the door to see Pete hugging his knees, his back against the cabinet, tears streaming down his face, his chest rising and falling rapidly with his breathing. Mikey swore under his breath, and moved quickly over to Pete, taking his hands in his own.

"Pete, I need you to look me in the eyes. You need to breathe with me, ok?" Pete opened his eyes, but kept his head buried into his knees, and crushed Mikey's fingers in his trembling hands. "Pete, I need you to breathe with me, please, look at me," Mikey whispered, as Pete slowly raised his head, and Mikey began to breathe in and out slowly, trying to encourage Pete to do the same. Scrunching his eyes up, Pete tried to slow his breathing, but failed until 5 minutes later, when, curled up in Mikey's arms, he began to breathe normally, and ended up crying onto Mikey's faded band shirt.

The taller boy wrapped the boy he barely knew in his arms,

"Ray said you were into astrology, right?" he said, trying to distract Pete from whatever thoughts were running through his head. The short boy nodded,

"I'm applying for the Spring Internships in NASA," Pete choked out. "It sounds really fucking childish, but I've always wanted to be an astronaut. If I get in, it'll give me a massive boost." Mikey smiled,

"I have no fucking clue what I want to do with my life. NASA sounds fucking awesome though." Pete grunted happily in response, wiping the tears from his cheeks.

"You know what I want to do? I want to go up to the moon, pull up the American flag, and throw it into space, just to piss everyone off," Pete confessed, through a watery laugh. Mikey chuckled,

"You ready to go downstairs now?" Pete nodded slowly, and stood up, turning so that he could see himself in the mirror. In only a few minutes, it looked like he had never been crying in the first place.

"I'm sorry about all that. I'm kind of afraid of thunder and lightning," Pete said shyly, looking down at his toes. The corners of Mikey's mouth twitched upwards.

"Hey, its fine. Everyone has fears." He ruffled the short boyâs hair, and the two began to walk downstairs, Mikey's arm draped over Pete's shoulders, the tattooed boy's head resting on his arm.

"You know, I've just always wanted to see the Stars."

A/N
I'm sorry if the formatting was weird with all the 'â's at first, my laptop kind of messed everything up.