The Storm Comes Before The Rainbow

•16•

I hate when I rehearse my order 10000 times in my head but I still mess it up when I get up there.

The first thing they did when they got to the apartment was open up the mailbox.

Nothing.

"Oh thank fuck." Pete exhales.

"Okay...maybe it was all just stupid ass joke." Patrick nods slowly.

"I told you!" Pete jumps up and laughs.

"I said maybe!" Patrick's hands raise up.

Pete laughs and wraps his arm around Patrick.

"Excuse me." A mailman walks in and slowly starts putting mail into the slots.

Pete and Patrick freeze. What if this mailman has some creepy hatred against them? The man slides hills and letters into other mailboxes before sliding an envelope in their box. He sets a package into another. Pete scrambled to the box and snatches the envelope. He sighs in relief.

"Just spam." He waves the letter at Patrick.

"Thank god." Patrick mumbles, walking out of the mailroom.

The mailman drops a package and it causes Patrick and Pete to turn their heads sharply. Patrick whimpers in pain and his hands fly to the sore muscles.

"Come on, let's go take care of your neck."

Patrick nods slowly. They walk to the elevator, Pete tossing the junk mail into the trash before stepping on with Patrick.

"I can't believe I fell asleep like that." Patrick rubs his neck.

Pete shrugs. "I've fallen asleep in weirder positions. Once after sex with Mikey, I-"

"Pete." Patrick warns.

"Aww, Someone is jealous." Pete smirks.

"You'd be jealous too if I started talking about sex with Frank."

The thought of Patrick moaning someone else's name makes him sick.

"You're right." Pete nods.

The elevator dings open and both boys walk to Pete's apartment. Upon walking in, Pete plops down the overnight back, both too lazy to unpack. He takes Patrick to the bathroom and shakes two pain pills from the bottle. Patrick grabs a water from the kitchen and takes his pills.

"Wait..." Pete says, arm extended into the freezer. "Ice or heat?" Then he shakes his head. "You can't use ice anyways, can you?"

Patrick smiles.

That's a no.

He pulls his hand from the freezer. "Heat." He says contently, walking into the bedroom.

When Patrick follows, he's digging around under the bed. "What're you doing?"

"I...am looking for my heating pad."

"The fuck?"

"It's a little pad thingy that gives off heat." Pete finally pulls out a blue rectangle the size of a pillow.

"That?"

"Yeah, you plug it in..." Pete pushes the long chord into a nearby outlet. "And then it heats up and you can adjust the settings with this thingy." He motions to a small dial.

"Why did you buy this?"

"It was 2am...my legs were aching from soccer...I went on Amazon..." Pete mumbles, setting the pad onto the pillow. "Lie down."