Mixtape For The End of the World

35. Pete tells Gabe that his book is trash.

35. Pete tells Gabe that his book is trash.

About a week into our vacation, Mikey, Ray, Brendon, Gabe, and I decided to go to a park near Ray's house. It wasn't quite as nice as the park back home, but I preferred the people here. I raced Mikey down the slides as Brendon and Ray sat on the swings and chatted. Frank and Gerard were alone together somewhere else in the city, and although Mikey was glad to be rid of them, I kind of missed having the two of them around. Sometimes, I was a little bit jealous of Mikey - he had an amazing older brother to look up to, and I just had two annoying little siblings. He didn't realize how lucky he was.

Mikey and I had already talked about Gabe's next vision many times, and we had both agreed that it couldn't possibly come true. I knew better than to tell Gabe that his book was trash. To be safe, however, I just avoided talking to Gabe about The Cobra Factor. If I saw him with his manuscript, I pretended like it wasn't there. If he tried to get me to read it, I changed the subject. Whenever I saw him writing, I quickly left the room. Sometimes, I worked on my own poetry, and asked myself, "If poets are just kids that didn't make it, then what are bad novelists?"

I never could come up with a good answer.

When we all went to the park together, Gabe brought his manuscript along, and as usual, I ignored it. "Gabe, do you want to go on the slides with us?" I asked him, but he shook his head.

"I need to work on my book," Gabe said. He had been doing a lot of that over the last few days, but no matter how many hours he spent writing, it was never enough for him.

"What's your book about?" Ray asked.

"It's a political thriller, and it's about..." Gabe began, but Mikey soon distracted Ray.

"Ray, come on," Mikey said. "Let's go on the slide."

The two of them ran off, and Brendon and I followed them. Gabe, meanwhile, stayed on the bench and worked on writing his book. All of us raced down the slide, but eventually, Brendon and Ray got bored and went on the swings. Mikey and I eventually moved to the jungle gym, and we watched Brendon attempt to do backflips off of the swings from the top of the jungle gym.

"Is he always like this?" Mikey asked, laughing.

"Pretty much," I said.

"You have some really crazy friends," Mikey said.

"I know, but in the end, I'd do it all again," I said.

"Is Gabe's book really as bad as you say it is?" Mikey asked.

"Yes," I said. "The main character is obviously just Gabe in disguise, most of the plot is him blowing stuff up or screwing his Secretary of the Interior, and he used the word 'masticate' unironically."

"That sounds like it might be worse than you say it is," Mikey said.

"If you want, you can see for yourself," I said. "Gabe would probably let you read it."

"I'm not sure that I want to," Mikey said.

"I don't blame you," I said.

"PETE!" Gabe shouted suddenly.

I climbed down the jungle gym, while Mikey stayed at the top and watched Ray and Brendon play on the swings. When Brendon nearly smashed his head open while trying to do a backflip, Mikey raced over and told Brendon to act his age. "What's my age again?" Brendon responded, prompting Mikey to roll his eyes.

Meanwhile, I approached Gabe and asked, "What's going on?"

"Can you read Chapter 42 of The Cobra Factor for me?" Gabe asked. "It's about the meaning of life, the universe, and everything."