You're Not Even Mine to Miss [Fall Out Boy - Wattys 2014]

➽ Track Twenty-nine (Patrick's POV).

Track Twenty-nine (Patrick’s POV): The truth hurts worse than anything I could bring myself to do to you.

(June 23rd, 2008)

“Guess who didn’t claim his baggage?” Joe asked Andy and me as he decided to place both of his arms on our shoulders, wedging himself in between us.

“Um, who?” I asked Joe, looking at him with a blond eyebrow raised. I allowed my eyes to scan through the familiar faces of the staff and security who flew with us. They were all busy with their own baggage just like us, and I didn’t notice anybody who wasn’t busy. Everybody seemed to be engaged into their own businesses. But, what really bothered me a lot was that ever since we landed in England, I didn’t see—

“Pete Wentz,” the curly-haired guitarist replied, which only finished the sentence that I was trying to form in my head. He motioned at the pile of baggage that was sitting on the tiled floor, and I saw a name tag on one of the bags which said ‘Pete Wentz’. “Good thing I managed to claim those without too much trouble.”

“You mean, he just got out of the airport without telling anybody and claiming any of his things?”

Joe nodded, sighing wearily. “Pete just probably got out of the plane and ran for it,” he admitted, looking over at me. “And, of course, I’m pretty sure that we all know why he was so eager to be here in England.”

Of course we all knew why Pete really wanted to be in England—it was because of Donnie McKenzie. There wasn’t any other reason why. It was obvious that he wanted to see her personally again. Sure, I wanted to see my girl best friend as well since it had been a month already when I had last seen her and it would be really amazing to see her again, but I was trying to hide my excitement after James had announced that we would be going to England. Pete was, well… really thrilled. He had actually been the first one to show up in the airport back in Chicago, about thirty to forty-five minutes earlier than the scheduled time of flight.

Talk about overenthusiasm.

All of a sudden, my girlfriend, Rachelle Daniels, decided to make her appearance, looking at the three of us with her eyebrows furrowed together as she slung her messenger bag over one shoulder. Of course she was there in England with us – she was the assistant manager of the band, James requested her to be there with us, and was also a vital part of the crew. “Where’s Pete?” she asked us, noticing the absence of the fourth member of the band.

“With the love of his life, of course,” Joe replied in a sing-song voice, patting my and Andy’s back and lifting both of his shoulders. “To be honest, it was an expected move. I guess we all were predicting that Pete was going to do that, right? ”

RJ’s eyes swiftly bore on me after Joe’s answer, but I was acting as if I couldn’t her gaze on me. I was avoiding her curious eyes I thought about what Donnie and Pete might be doing at that very moment – if ever they had seen each other already, that is. Looking at her would make me feel a lot guiltier, for sure, which made me realize that focussing on my shoes would help me feel a bit better.

But what really bothered me was the intensity of the brunette on me. Did she know anything about my true feeling for Donnie? Had she noticed it? Was I becoming too obvious already? I lifted my eyes up and met her grey orbs. The second our eyes had made a direct contact, I had instantly regretted looking over at her, but it was too late to do anything that might make her feel even more worried or suspicious. So, I held my gaze. You should seriously learn how to keep your shit together, Patrick Stump.

From the corner of my eyes, I saw Andy elbow Joe on the rib, which made the curly-haired guitarist to grunt in surprise and pain, glaring at the drummer as he removed his arms from our shoulders. I looked at both of them questioningly, but they seemed to be stuck in some silent argument where only the two of them could only communicate through their eyes. I wasn’t very good when it came to reading body language, so I just watched them glare at each other for a few long seconds before they turned their faces towards RJ and I, grin plastered on their faces.