Stars

Chapter 7

As Mikey walked through the house with an increasingly excited Pete, he looked around at the walls that seemed to have far too many clocks, all of which were identical.

"C'mon, I want to show you something!" Pete exclaimed, grabbing the tall boy by the elbow, and pulling him up the stairs, into his room.

When Mikey reached the room, he was immediately entranced by the dark blue, purple, and black walls, which were plastered in posters. The unmade bed in the middle of the room was adorned with star-shaped pillows and black and purple bedsheets, and despite the messy comforter and sheets, the rest of the room seemed immaculate, completely undermining the 'rebellious punk teenager' stereotype that Pete fit into almost too perfectly. Mikey's gaze was soon drawn to the ceiling, where, hand painted on a black and blue background, was the entire documented universe, each constellation and planet labelled in red paint.

Mikey's admiration of the ceiling was interrupted by a scraping noise from the corner of the room. He looked over to see Pete removing the fly screen from his window with a cheeky smile.

"Not afraid of heights, are you?" Mikey shook his head, almost smiling. "Good," Pete said, putting on a black backpack and climbing out of the window onto the sloped roof. Mikey walked cautiously to the window, looking through onto the 2 foot drop to the roof. Pete put out a hand,

"Do you trust me?" he asked, trying not to smile.

"You fucking nerd," Mikey laughed, taking Pete's hand and clambering out the window. Mikey slipped, causing his face to turn bright red in the dim, golden light that shone from the setting, 9 O'clock sun. Running up the sloped tiles, Mikey pulled Pete from his revere as he yanked his arm forwards, causing him to fall forwards. Pete just laughed, and waited for Mikey to get back on his feet until he ran up further, pulling the taller boy with him to a flat surface, where he let go of his hand and opened the backpack. When an out-of-breath Mikey sat cross-legged next to Pete, a folded piece of shiny paper, a small telescope, and 6 boxes of Nerds and Skittles were laid out on a dark red blanket, on which they were both sitting.

"How long have you been planning this?" Mikey asked, looking over at Pete, who was blushing pink.

"Well, it took me three days to actually ask you and the others to come over. I almost called you about 5 times but I got too nervous every time," he laughed shyly, "But yeah, once I finally got the courage to ask you, I put this together, I guess. Yeah, I, um, like showing my friends this place, I suppose."

Mikey hummed in understanding, and leaned back on his hands to watch the sky fade quickly from pale orangey pink, to a tangerine orange, to almost blood red, and finally to a dark, hazy purple. The colours entranced Mikey, but he soon noticed that Pete was staring straight up. Freckled stars dotted the sky, dim against the navy-blue sky, bur becoming more visible every second. Mikey sat up properly, grabbing a box of Nerds, absentmindedly eating them as he lay back down next to Pete.

"That's Sirius," Pete said, pointing up to a group of seemingly unconnected stars above them. Mikey pointed along to the left of where Pete was looking,

"It's like someone opened a time rift or something," he said, smiling slightly. Pete laughed,

"That's the Milky Way, you asshat." Mikey mumbled about how he 'already knew, and just thought it looked cool,' while blushing profusely.

The two fell back into a comfortable silence, the warm, summer night air washing over them. It was perfectly quiet on the roof, with only the distant sounds of passing cars breaking the silence. Mikey quietly took Pete's hand in his, their fingers weaving together. After no longer than a half a minute, Pete began to snigger.

"What?" Mikey asked, looking over at him.

"It's you," Pete pointed up at the Milky Way.

"Wha- for fuck's sake Pete," Mikey said, beginning to laugh as well. The two lay there, laughing almost 3 more minutes.

"It shouldn't be this funny," Pete mumbled, burying his face in Mikey's shoulder.

After calming down, the two lay side by side again, Pete resting his head on Mikey. "M'cold,' he muttered, turning onto his side to get closer to Mikey, who sat up, causing Pete to do the same. He put his arm around the shorter boy, letting him rest his head on his shoulder and drawing him in closer to his side. They sat there in peace, the world seemingly frozen in place around them, they were untouchable in their small world of stars and streetlamps.

The two boys had very different, yet almost connected, thoughts running through their heads. Pete remembered another roof in another state, both geographically and mentally. He shivered at the memory, and curled up closer to Mikey, who was remembering the roof at his grandma's house, how he had always tried to climb up the walls like Spiderman to reach it when he was younger. More thoughts began to run through Pete's head in that moment, choices, or rather, a choice, and decisions. Like forcing the words 'thank you' from his mouth all those weeks ago, he swallowed his nerves and tilted his head up, kissing Mikey softly on the cheek. The taller boy's head shot up, his face growing steadily redder along with Pete's.

"I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have- I mean, you're straight and you probably have a girlfriend. Oh god I've ruined everything, I'm so sorry, I should have asked and-" Pete kept talking, words pouring from his mouth in a panicked frenzy. He began to clamber down the roof, almost running away from Mikey. He stepped through the window and ran to his bed, where he brought his knees up to his chest, afraid of the tiny act he had done, paranoia and anxiety setting in.

A clattering and a loud, "Fuck!" came from the roof as Mikey slid from the flattened area, all the way to where his feet caught in the gutter. Pete let out an involuntary snort of laughter as he heard Mikey attempt to scramble his way back to the window, up the slanted roof and to Pete's room. He reached the windowsill to see Pete offering a hand to help him through the window, which Mikey took.

"I-I'm sorry," Pete muttered, his face falling slightly as he looked down towards his feet. The color in Mikey's face began to rise,

"It's ok, really," he said, smiling. Pete looked back up into hazel eyes, and rose up onto his toes.

A million thoughts raced through Mikey's head in that moment.

'Holy shit. I'm kissing Pete Wentz. Pete Wentz. A guy. A male. A gay guy. Am I gay? I'm gay. Oh god, I'm gay. I'M KISSING PETE WENTZ. He's hot. How long have I liked him? Was I denying it until he showed that he might like me too? Did I like him when Ray first showed us pictures of him? When we first met? Fuck. I'm gonna have to tell Gee. This can't be real. AH!'

Pete lowered back down to stand normally, and the two boys shared a look, then immediately burst into almost silent laughter, neither one able to contain their smiles.  Reaching out to hold Mikey's hand, and interlacing their fingers, Pete motioned towards the roof.

"Give me a second," Mikey said, letting go of Pete's hand and leaving the room, heading downstairs, and hesitating on the last step before walking into the living room, where Gerard sat on the couch, a sleeping Frank resting his head on his lap. "Gee?" Gerard looked over at his brother, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm gay."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi! This chapter was really hard to write because lack of sleep and all that good shit, but I finally got it done!
Also
Do you stir/scramble your scrambled eggs with a fork or spatula when they're in the pan or not? I was arguing with people about this today.
See you next chapter- Planetary