Hopeless (Petekey)

4- You Make Me Hopeful

"Hi, Mikey, who's this?" Frank asks with a smug smile of his face. That son of a bitch. Can he be any more annoying?

"Oh, hi, Frank. Nice to see you. This is Pete. Be nice." I say, smiling with fake innocence.

"Oh yeah, you're the guy from before!" Pete says, totally oblivious to what is going on around him. Suddenly Frank bursts out with giggles and almost falls on the floor but Gerard catches him.

"Holy shit! You remember that? Oh my god, yes." Frank wheezes. His laughing slows and he stands up properly, supporting himself now. He walks over to the couch Pete and I are sitting on and extends a hand to him, clearly trying to hold in laughter. "It's very nice to meet you, Pete." Pete justs nods in return. Frank releases his hand and turns to me, leaning close to my ear. "This is going to be fun," he whispers. 

Ray has already gone to a corner to tune his guitar and probably isn't listening, knowing whatever happens, Frank will be talking about it later. Gerard is still in front of the door, listening to what's going on. Frank skips back over to where Gerard is standing, stopping in front of him. He almost immediately leans up on his toes and wraps his arms around his boyfriend's neck, smashing their lips together. My eyes dash first to Ray to see if he is watching. Apparently what is going on is enough to distract Ray completely, seeing as he's watching the couple intently with his jaw dropped in awe. I slowly turn my head to Pete, dreading his reaction. He could be homophobic, but he didn't seem bothered when I told him they were together. When my gaze finally falls on Pete I'm relieved to see he isn't disgusted, just confused. Truly puzzled. His eyes are slightly squinted and his head is gently tilted to the side as he watches my brother and his boyfriend make out just as intently as Ray.

My head whips back to Gerard and Frank still kissing passionately. Frank pulls back and whispers something in Gerard's ear. It's inaudible from where I'm sitting which is surprising because I honestly thought it was impossible for Frank to be quiet. Gerard nods his head and instantly picks the smaller boy up and walks over to the teacher's desk on the other side of the room, right next to Pete. He places him down and reattaches their lips, their arms flying around each other, them suddenly kissing a lot more passionately.

"Umm..." Pete starts, his voice only a little bit louder than a whisper. He uncomfortably moves away from the boys, which because he's facing them, is closer to me. My ears start to heat up but this is nothing. I have no reason to be blushing right now, but he keeps inching closer to me and I can't take it anymore.

"Stop! We are here for band practice and you two have jobs to be doing right now. You will not do this while we are meant to be practising and you will not do this in front of Pete!" I shout, putting the bass on the floor and leaning it against the couch while leaping from my seat. My red face is overheating with a mixture of embarrassment and anger, warmth radiating from my skin. The sudden outburst makes Gerard turn around to face me and I see he has his eyebrows raised. I look at Frank and then to Pete and see that they have similar expressions. I hear Ray quietly snickering in the corner and I don't even want to find out what his face looks like right now. "We have band practice to be doing!" I shout once more.

Gerard helps Frank down from the desk, who has the biggest smile on his face. They go over to the corner so Frank can tune a guitar and the three of them can talk about what just when down. Soon the room is filled with conversation so my gaze drops to my feet, trying to make the red tint from my ears disappear. A few seconds later I hear Pete get up from the couch next to me and I see his feet come in the view. I look up from the ground and this is when I realise that he is quite a bit shorter than me.

"That was something..." He whispers.

"Yeah, I know... I'm sorry about them. Frank is an idiot and I'm just really sorry that they decided to do that in front of you." I apologise.

"It's really no big deal. We're in high school and if I'm being completely honest, it's not the first time I've seen something like that happen today." He smiles reassuringly. His chocolate eyes crinkle slightly at the corners and my chest is instantly filled with warmth. "Anyway, I guess I should probably get going now, you guys have work to be doing and I don't want to get in the way of that." 

"Nonsense Pete! I think it would be great if you stayed. We haven't performed in front of many people and we would absolutely love some feedback." Frank invites, suddenly appearing next to us. Pete turns to me with a questioning look on his face but it soon turns to a pleading look when I don't immediately agree. He puts on his best puppy dog eyes and pouts his lower lip out, trying his absolute hardest to give him consent to stay and watch our band practice. My insides turn to mush and I almost instantly give in. Thankfully my stone cold face doesn't give away the fact that I'm finding Pete incredibly cute right now. 

I think it over briefly in my head. If I let Pete stay then Frank will continue to further embarrass me and he will also see how truly bad I am at bass and he won't want to speak to me ever again. I am certain that nothing good will come out of it but I keep looking at Pete and an "okay" comes tumbling out of my lips before I even realise it.

His pleading expression dissolves straight away and a bright smile erupts on his face. He walks back over to the couch and sits down, getting comfortable.

"Alrighty, since we haven't had time to get Ray's ideas and put them into the new song, we should just start with Our Lady Of Sorrows?" Gerard questions while we all get into position. I can't believe I am actually about to perform for Pete Wentz.

"Sounds good to me," Ray responds.

Once we are all in place, Gerard counts us in. Gee's voice fills the room and everything comes together. I'm nervous and excited but playing music in a band and performing feels just oddly right, even if there is only an audience of one person. I look up from my bass to see Pete's reaction and his eyes are drifting over the four of us, taking in the sound of the music. He looks at the way Frank is swinging his guitar back and forth as he plays, the way Ray's hands glide over the fretboard with ease and the pain and emotion in Gerard's eyes as he sings. Then he looks to me. He sees me looking at him and smiles radiantly, giving me a thumbs up. My usually expressionless face turns into a slight smile and of course, this makes Pete's smile grow even larger. 

I get that unfamiliar warm sensation in my chest again and I can feel the butterflies fluttering in my stomach. He didn't say anything, he just simply gave me a thumbs up, but somehow this manages to have the same effect on me. The warmth spreads further out until it's taken over my whole body and the song comes to an end. Pete stands up without hesitation and claps for us. It's pathetic really, but it still makes me feel like I have a purpose. It's been so long since I've felt like that.

I feel valued and I feel important. It's an incredible feeling.