I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy ...

Chapter 3 - It's A Shocker

I stared at her frosty sapphire eyes trying to register what she had just told me. Pregnant? My chest got very tight and I couldn't breathe. Even though Maddie was still standing right in front of me she became very blurry. That's when I realized I had been holding my breath. I heaved a gasp of air and my vision became clear again.

"Patrick," Maddie said cautiously looking at me. I wheezed for another breath of air and looked at her trying to smile to tell her I was alright. "I know this is shocking...," she started still looking at me concerned.

Shocking? No this wasn't shocking, I was just gasping for air because I heard I won a pony.

"Patrick?" She said again trying to draw my attention towards her. Her arms lay gangling at her side the t-shirt still clutched in her hand.

"Are you sure?" I asked quietly, knowing the answer already.

"Yeah," she answered in a whisper. "I only found out two weeks ago."

Two weeks ago, two weeks ago I was basking in the glory of getting our album out and now I'm here being told I'm going to be a dad. "And you're sure it's mine?" I asked hopefully.

She nodded knowing this was painful for me. "Look Patrick," she said stepping forward. "I wanted you to know, but I'm not asking you for anything."

I looked at her now inches from my face. The smell of oranges still surrounded her and I was brought back to that night. "I can do this on my own," she went on.

What was she saying? She didn't want me involved? This was my baby too. She thought she was doing me a favor, but I couldn't live with myself knowing I had a kid and it doesn't even know me. "Maddie, I can't let you do that," I protested bringing my hands to her shoulders and bracing her in front of me.

"Patrick you don't need this," she said still tenderly. "You're only 21."

"And you're so much older," I shot back. This time her courage had failed her and she looked away. "I want to help you Maddie."

I don't know if she caught the sincerity in my voice, but I meant it. The first time I had met Maddie she had been so confident, so strong, but just thinking of her alone with a baby. I couldn't do that to her. I wouldn't let myself do that to her.

She looked back up at me. I was still holding on to her making sure she wouldn't say no. "Okay," she said.

......

Hearing about the news that I was going to be a dad was tough, but telling my band mates, I knew would really be the obstacle.

"So you sleep with this girl one time, she turns out to be pregnant, and now you want to marry her?" Joe asked trying to get what I had just told them.

"I'm not marrying her," I said quickly. We were sitting backstage. I had told Maddie to go home and I would come and talk to her later.

"But you're going to have a baby, that's insane," Joe went on. "I mean, how are you so sure it's yours? You did only sleep with her once."

Joe had a point, but I had learned from many classes that once is all it took. "I don't know," I confessed. "I guess I just believe her."

"Patrick, you don't even know her," Andy tried.

I was staring at my three best friends sitting before me and felt confused. I know none of this made sense, but what would they do in my position? "What do you think Pete?" I asked. Pete had been sitting there not saying anything. He just had that blank stare he got sometimes when he was thinking of another brilliant lyric or poem.

He sighed and turned towards my direction. "This better be the reason you've been playing so shitty."

I looked at Pete as a smile formed on his face. I let a smile escape too as I realized everything would be fine.

......

As I had promised I found myself at Maddie's apartment later that night. I knocked on the door twice before she opened it.

"Hey," she said moving aside so I could slip in. Her apartment was the same as two months ago.

"Hi," I said stepping in and moving off towards the side so she could shut the door.

After shutting the door she turned to look at me. Her face was still pale and sickly like. Somehow I felt responsible for taking life out of her and putting it in her belly. "Do you want something to drink?" She asked seeing me stare at her.

"Sure," I said following her into the small kitchen.

She pulled a glass from the cupboard and opened the fridge. "What do you want? I have milk, orange juice, and orange kool-aid," she stated looking at me from over her shoulder.

"Milk's fine," I said as she pulled it out and poured some. She slid it across the peninsula counter over to me and I grasp it in my hands. I take a sip and return the cup to the counter. I look over at Maddie who now was staring back at me. I wish things weren't so awkward between us.

"So what are you going to do?" Maddie asked suddenly.

I looked up at her leaning on the counter staring at me for an answer. "What do you mean?"

"Patrick, I know full well you don't want this responsibility."

I didn't know what I wanted, but I didn't want the guilt I had been feeling for the past two months. "I do want it Maddie," I lied. "I don't know how you feel, but I think we can make things work."

I saw Maddie cover her face with her hands and then push back her long hair away. "You don't really have the time for this now," she said.

This was true. Our album had just come out not to mention we were starting Warped Tour in a couple of weeks. "Well...," I said staring at my glass of milk. "I'll make time."

I saw Maddie sigh and move to take a seat next to me on the peninsula. "We have a problem," she said suddenly.

Oh, because this pregnancy thing is clearly not a problem. "What?"

She hesitated and shifted her weight. I was staring right at her but she kept her eyes ahead. "It's my boyfriend."

"You have a boyfriend?!?!" I exploded falling off my chair a little and tipping my glass.

"Sorry, ex-boyfriend," she said quickly with a pained expression.

"Oh," I sighed sitting back up and looking at her. "What's the problem?" Do I dare ask?

"Well...," she started. "He sorta has some pictures of us...together."

"We were hardly together."

"But he has some."

"So..." I didn't see the problem with a few harmless pictures.

"So, we have to get them back." I could tell this was a subject with her.

"Why?"

"Why?" She exploded standing up out of her chair. "Do you really want to whole world to know who Patrick from Fall Out Boy got knocked up?"

I could see her point, but I still thought it would be too much trouble. "Fine, what do we do?"

She smiled clearly pleased with my agreement. "C'mon," she said pulling me up and out the door.