Life of the Party (MATL #1)

All or Nothing

I relaxed into Ryan as he slid his arm around my shoulder. We enjoyed a few more performances before Pete and Patrick got told they were coming up. "Hey babe, I'll be right back." I whispered to Ryan as I noticed Pete looking anxious.

"Okay, do you need me to come with you?" he asked.

"No, it's okay, I'll be right back." I answered, motioning for Pete to follow me as I started towards the door. I found a place where we would have some privacy before turning to him. "Are you okay?"

"No, I'm freaking out." Pete said. "What if he hates it? Or hates me? This was a mistake." He was starting to hyperventilate the more he freaked out, so I did the only thing I could think of. I pulled him close and kissed him, letting him take control immediately.

"Feeling better?" I asked when we pulled apart, receiving a nod. "He won't hate it, or you, I swear. This was not a mistake. The worst that could happen is he doesn't feel the same way, but he could never hate you."

"Thank you." He said.

"You're welcome. We should get back in there though, you guys are going up any minute now." I said, leading the way back in. I sat next to Ryan again as Pete, Patrick, Joe, and Andy headed up to go backstage.

"Everything good babe?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah, nothing to worry about." I said as I started getting the camera on my phone to record set up.

"How come you had to go off with Pete." He asked.

"Nothing important, he was just getting anxious." I said, not wanting to go into detail before the performance.

"Pete doesn't get nervous, why did you really go off?" he asked. "You know I won't be upset if you guys wanted to fool around."

"We weren't fooling around, he really was nervous." I said, getting a little annoyed.

"Fine, don't tell me then. I just thought we decided not to keep secrets from each other." He said, getting snippy.

"I'm not keeping secrets from you. If you don't want to believe me, that's on you." I said, snapping at him. "Can we please just worry about this later? They're about to go on and I really would prefer to record their performance instead of our argument." He huffed but otherwise stayed silent. Soon enough they were walking out and I pressed record, nodding to Pete when I saw him look to me.

"Where is your boy tonight? I hope he is a gentleman. Maybe he won't find out what I know; you were the last good thing about this part of town." Pete started singing, Joe came in with guitar with perfect timing. Patrick however missed his cue and came in a note late, but quickly corrected himself. Pete glanced to Patrick as he sang "I wrote this for you." Before turning back towards the crowd.

"I can't believe this." I heard Mikey say quietly. "Pete is actually admitting he has real feelings for someone other than himself."

"Yeah, I can't believe it either." Ryan said, sounding pissed.

As the song came to an end I couldn't keep the smile off my face, it had gone perfectly. I ended the video as they finished before getting up to head backstage. I found Pete immediately and jumped on him, hugging him. "Oh my god Pete, that was amazing. You did perfectly." I said with a smile on my face, kissing his cheek.

"You know, you could have just told me instead of making me help you perform that song." Patrick said from behind us, sounding hurt. I let go of Pete as we both turned to Patrick.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know how else to tell you." Pete said, looking guilty.

"I should give you guys a minute." I said, getting ready to walk away.

"No, it's fine. I'd hate to come between the two of you." Patrick started, causing Pete and I to exchange confused looks. "I just don't get why you couldn't just tell me you had feelings for him. And what about Ryan?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Pete asked.

"There's nothing going on between the two of us." I added.

"Well then why else would he write that song for you?" Patrick asked me.

"Oh my god Pat, he didn't write it for me." I said, giving Pete a look.

"Well who else would he write it for?" Patrick asked. Pete sighed before walking the few steps over to Patrick before pulling him in and kissing him. I decided to let them have their privacy as I walked back out to our group.

"So are you still gonna try to tell me you two weren't fooling around?" Ryan asked, still sounding pissed as I sat next to him.

"Are you serious right now Ryan?" I asked.

"Of course I'm fucking serious, he wrote you a song." Ryan said. I didn't have a chance to reply though before Mikey spoke up.

"It wasn't about Ash Ry, it was about Patrick." Mikey said, making me look at him confused.

"How did you know?" I asked.

"Well the only people that Pete has shown any real care towards are me, you, and Patrick. The lyrics only fit you or Patrick though, and he wouldn't have shown them to you if they were for you." Mikey explained. I could see Ryan visibly calming down slightly, though still looked tense.

"Ashton." I heard Pete call me from across the room.

"I'll be right back." I said, walking over and going outside with him. "So? How did it go?"

"Well I kissed him." He said, continuing before I could reply. "He kissed back."

"That's great." I said with a smile. "That means he likes you too."

"Yeah, you'd think, but then he pushed me away." He said looking a little upset. "He asked me why I did that. I told him how I felt, and he nodded and just walked away. I fucked everything up."

"I don't think you fucked everything up, he probably just got nervous or something. You're his best friend, that will never change." I said hugging him. I looked over his shoulder and noticed Patrick looking over at us and waved him over.

"Pete." Patrick said softly, making Pete pull away from me.

"Pat, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have said anything." Pete said before Patrick interrupted him.

"I broke up with Zack." He said.

"What?" Pete asked, sounding confused.

"I broke up with Zack. I, I feel the same way, I just thought you never would. I know I should have said something instead of just walking away. I just didn't know what else to do, I really like you." Patrick said, looking down at the ground as he spoke.

"I really like you too." Pete said with a smile. When neither of them said anything else, I pushed Pete towards Patrick. Pete stumbled for a second before catching himself and pulling Patrick in for another kiss.

"Woo, get some Pete." Dallon yelled from where they were all standing by the doors. Pete and Patrick pulled apart with smiles as Pete wrapped his arm around Patrick's shoulders.

"Well, I'd say this calls for a celebration." I said, smiling at Pete. "Party at my house tomorrow night."