Saturday // Peterick Oneshots

57. Student Union Antics

I re-read Gray recently and there was a passage where he talks about recording on a campus in Madison (cough cough Take This to Your Grave) and how freeing it felt for it to just be him and the band wreaking havoc at this university where no one else knows them. Very little havoc is actually wrought here. Based on that. Pre-TTTYG era.

"Patrick," Pete whispers, poking Patrick's cheek. "Patrick, wake up."

Patrick shuffles in his sleep, pulling his blanket tighter. Pete sighs. Patrick's cute when he's sleeping, but Pete needs him awake. He grabs the end of Patrick's blanket and tugs it off.

"Patrick, come on!" he whisper-shouts. Behind him, Andy and Joe are still sleeping soundly on the dorm room floor.

Patrick's eyes crack open the tiniest bit. "What, Pete?"

"Get up, we're going to get coffee," Pete says, standing and zipping up his hoodie. He glances out the window. The sun rise is over, but there's still an early morning haze covering the college campus.

Patrick twists in his sleeping bag to look at a clock. "Pete, it's barely seven in the morning. We can get coffee later."

"Please?" Pete pouts. "I'll buy you breakfast."

Patrick's eyes open wider. "Why now? Can't you get up at noon like the rest of us?"

Pete shrugs. "Maybe I'm becoming a morning person."

"I'm pretty sure it's illegal to be a rock star and a morning person." Patrick sits up and stretches. "Fine, I'll go with you to get coffee."

Pete grins. "Awesome."

Pete would've gone on his own- really, he would have- if it weren't for the crackles of anxiety he could feel curling through his veins and into his fingertips. He hasn't called Her back in two days, and he knows without looking that his voicemail is full. He's contemplating chucking his phone out of the window and being done with it, but he'd regret it in the long run.

He can't stand to sit still in the silent dorm for another second, but the idea of wandering around alone in an unfamiliar place makes his stomach turn at the moment.

Patrick gets dressed and they leave, closing the door behind them quietly.

"Got your wallet?" Patrick asks. Pete nods. "Good, cause I'm not paying a cent." Pete laughs.

The campus is almost deserted, and Pete can't decide if it makes him feel better or worse. On the one hand, there's not as many people who can stare at him; then again, there's no crowd for him to blend into.

Pete walks closer to Patrick.

They enter the student union with no problems. If anyone can look at them and tell they don't belong, they don't say anything, and for that Pete is grateful. Pete orders the coffees and Patrick picks out what he wants to eat. Pete pays, and they grab their drinks and sit down in the corner of the cafe.

They don't talk; Patrick eats and Pete people-watches while he drinks his coffee. Their shoes are touching beneath the table, and when Pete accidentally makes eye contact with someone he focuses on that.

Patrick finishes his food. He gets up to throw away his trash and Pete doesn't look away from him once. "What now?" Patrick asks when he sits back down.

Pete thinks. "I think there's a campus bookstore downstairs."

Patrick nods, grabbing his coffee.

They go downstairs and wander the aisles of books. Pete stops to look at the novels marked with "required reading," while Patrick picks up a few non-fiction books. He hands them to Pete quietly, and Pete doesn't bother to check the prices.

The man working at the check out desk looks like he wishes he were a professor, but doesn't have the expertise needed, and therefore is stuck selling books and office supplies to college students he'd rather be bossing around. He rings up the books, eyeing Pete suspiciously. Pete hands over his card and takes deep breaths as judgement rolls off the cashier in waves.

Who the fuck is he to judge anyway? He's the one working in a university bookstore, not Pete.

"Sir, your card's been declined."

Pete's head shoots up and a chill rockets down his spine. "What?"

"Your card's been declined," the man says with condescension in his voice. "If you have a campus card, I can put the charge on that."

Pete blinks. Panic is starting to creep into his chest. "Um."

"Unless, you don't have a campus card?" the man says, as if he hadn't thought that since the moment Pete walked up.

"What's the problem?" Pete glances beside him to see Patrick standing at his shoulder. Pete opens his mouth to explain when the man cuts him off.

"Your friend's card got declined. So unless you have a working card or a campus card, I'm going to have to ask both of you to leave."

Patrick is silent for a second, and Pete can see the gears turning in his head.

"Wow," he finally says. Pete wants to roll his eyes (that's all Patrick could come up with?) when Patrick continues. "My boyfriend travels fourteen hours to visit me at college, buys me breakfast, and offers to buy my books for me despite his financial stability, just so you can judge him for not having enough money to pay?"

Patrick grabbed his hand at some point during his rant. Pete stands a little bit taller at the sight of the man scrambling to come up with a response.

"Whatever. Come on babe," Patrick says, squeezing Pete's hand. He grabs the stack of books. "Let's put these back and go." Patrick glares at the cashier, then pulls Pete towards the aisles. They don't say a word as they replace the books.

The man doesn't look at them when they exit.

"That was awesome!" Pete says after they leave.

Patrick smiles. "Thanks."

"You came up with that so quickly! And that guy didn't even know what hit him!"

They're quiet again until they leave the student union all together. Then Patrick pulls something out of his hoodie and hands it to Pete.

It's a copy of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett.

Pete stares at it, then at Patrick.

"You shoplifted a book." For me, Pete doesn't add.

Patrick smiles sheepishly and shrugs. Then he turns and keeps walking towards the dorms.

For a moment, all Pete's anxiety vanishes.