Mixtape For The End of the World

36. Pete spends two and a half hours on the phone.

36. Pete spends two and a half hours on the phone.

I couldn't sleep that night. I spent all night tossing and turning, so when the sun finally rose, I crawled out of bed, reached for my headphones and my Walkman, and listened to the road trip mixtape, but I had to turn it off when one of Gabe's favorite songs came on. Chapter 43 was still sitting next to the air mattress, reminding me of what Gabe had done to my fictional counterpart. I never did care about the plot of The Cobra Factor, but if Gabe killed me off in his book, then he must have been furious at me, more than he's ever been before. The apocalypse was coming, and I didn't want Gabe or I to die while we were still fighting with each other. I didn't want my last memory of Gabe to be him lifting up my severed head in his book.

I pushed that thought out of my head. Gabe wouldn't die. There were still four visions left. I still had some time to save this summer and Gabe's life. I headed upstairs to talk to Mikey about the next vision, but he wasn't awake yet, so I sat on the couch in front of the TV and channel surfed. There wasn't anything good on. Even MTV was playing the video that we had made again. I eventually found some brain-numbing news report, and I sat there and watched that for a while.

A little while later, Gerard emerged from his bedroom, wearing skeleton pajamas. "Coffee," he mumbled to himself. "I need coffee." All of a sudden, he noticed me. "Pete? What are you doing up so early?"

"I couldn't sleep," I explained. "Is Mikey up yet?"

"I don't know," Gerard said as he went into the kitchen and made himself a cup of coffee. "Why do you want to know?"

"I just wanted to talk to him about something," I said.

"Whatever," Gerard said. "Do you want any coffee?"

"I think I'm okay," I said.

"We have tea too, if you're a heathen and don't like coffee," Gerard said.

Just mentioning tea made me think of Patrick. I had only been in New Jersey for eight days, but I missed him already. I knew that he didn't want to be involved in the visions, but he would know how to fix my friendship with Gabe. I wished that he was there with me, but even talking to him would have been nice. I just wanted to hear Patrick's beautiful soul voice again. "Do you have the America's Suitehearts Blend?" I asked Gerard.

Gerard gave me a strange look and asked, "What's that?"

"It's a blend from Tea Monkey..." I said.

"What's Tea Monkey?" Gerard asked.

"Never mind," I said. They clearly didn't have Tea Monkey in New Jersey, and I didn't really want tea anyways, but the America's Suitehearts Blend tasted like Patrick in so many ways.

Gerard finished making his coffee, sat down at the breakfast table, and drank the whole cup in one gigantic gulp. "What are you doing today, Pete?" he asked.

"I don't know," I said. "What about you?"

"I'm probably going to Frank's house," Gerard said.

"Weren't you there yesterday?" I asked.

"Yes," Gerard said. "I like being around him, even with all of those dogs. He's a heart attack in black hair dye..."

Hearing Gerard talk about Frank only made me miss Patrick more. I wished that I could disappear back to my city and be with him again, but I was stuck in New Jersey for another few days, and not too long after that, I would have to go to college, assuming that the world didn't end, which was a strong possibility at that point. I had to make sure that the apocalypse didn't come before I could see Patrick again. If I had to die, I wanted to be the first to go, so I wouldn't have to watch Gabe or anyone else die, and I wanted to die in Patrick's arms.