The Problem with Patrick || Fall Out Boy

the best of us can find happiness in misery

Pete had been making a conscious effort to avoid talking to Patrick about the tour. It wasn't something that his friend should have to worry about, on top of everything else. It was set to leave in 3 weeks, but Pete was still fighting his goddamn hardest to get it cancelled.

There was no way, in Pete's opinion at least, that he was going to let his label take the man with a brain injury around the country in a bus. Patrick had bigger problems. Much bigger problems. And Pete certainly wasn't taking the risk of Patrick being away from all the hospitals and doctors who had worked so closely on his case.

There was clearly too much risk of something going wrong. The memory issues weren't improving at the speed that the doctor had hoped for, and the fact that he was complaining of headaches (As well as regular pain in his chest from the broken ribs) didn't help either. Patrick just needed more time to recover, and to hopefully get to the bottom of these issues.

It seemed to Pete that the label really didn't see the issues, or that they were turning a blind eye. It was hard to fight, considering every time the label saw Patrick he was smiling and happy, and would talk excitedly about things like getting his cast removed and playing the drums again. They didn't see what Pete saw on a day to day, and for the sake of profit, it was easier to just take a look at Patrick and give him approval, rather than actually read the medical reports and realise that this tour really wasn't a grand idea.

But unfortunately progress was slow, and unfortunately Pete realised that the only way that the label was going to see how injured Patrick really was, was to sit down and attempt to have a conversation. Pete felt awful about the whole thing, but they wouldn't listen to him. They had to see for themselves. Thus Pete had scheduled a meeting about the tour between Patrick and Bob, and Pete would just sit in to listen.

He'd only intervene if it was absolutely necessary.

"So, you understand what we're doing today?" Pete asked, placing a plate of toast in front of his friend, who was trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle on the dining room table.

"Uh huh." Patrick responded, clearly not paying attention. He was too busy trying to figure out how the pieces of the horse head fit together. Maybe he shouldn't have asked for the 1000 piece version of this picture. The 500 probably would have been easier.

"Yeah, what's that?" Pete asked, taking a seat beside him.

"We're getting pizza with Andy and Joe."

"Before that."

"Getting X-rays done at the hospital."

"Uh huh. And after that?"

"Do the groceries?"

"Before that."

"We were gonna go visit the label people, right?"

"Yep." Pete nodded. "Why are we doing that?"

"The tour... they want to see me about the tour."

"Yep, exactly." Pete nodded. "So you know I'm not gonna be talking in this meeting, right? It's just gonna be you and Bob and Bob's boss."

Patrick immediately put his puzzle down and looked at his friend. "No, no, you have to come Pete. What if I forget something again?"

"You'll be okay, they'll understand." Pete tried to convince, not only Patrick but himself as well. "I'll sit in the back of the room, and if something goes really, really bad, then I'll come in, okay?"

"But-"

"You've got this buddy." Pete assured him. "I know you're scared but you're definitely capable of sitting through this meeting. You just have to give them the reasons about why you're not going to tour."