Just Once - A Peterick Fic

Chapter 30

        It had been four months since that wild New Years Eve party and Pete still hadn't found out about what Gabe and I did that night. The guilt was eating me alive from the inside out and I felt as though I actually needed to tell him. But, at the same time, I didn't because I knew it would hurt him and that was the last thing I wanted.

        I think he might've begun to suspect something though, because I can't seem to act normal whenever Gabe or Cobra Starship is brought up. Lately, they seemed to come up a lot because they were sending Pete demos of the material they'd been working on and he talked about them constantly, not to mention the fact that today we started a tour with them.

        Pete, Andy, Joe, and I had flown out to Arizona yesterday where we met the rest of the team and the four other bands that were touring with us. We were calling it the Believers Never Die Tour Part Deux and Hey Monday was the first opener, then Metro Station, All Time Low, and right before us, of course, was Cobra Starship.

        So far, Gabe and I had successfully avoided each other, but I knew that wouldn't last much longer with the first show of the tour tonight. Plus, he was a good friend of both Pete and I's, so my not wanting to spend time with him would make Pete even more suspicious than he already was. And through all this, all I could think was that I didn't want to hurt Pete.

        "Ready for tonight?" Joe asked. We were on our bus, Pete and I on the couch with his arm around me, and Andy and Joe on the bean bag on the floor because they both wanted it, neither wanted to give it up to the other, and they didn't mind sitting practically on top of each other. I had my laptop on my lap and Pete and I were half focused on working on a new song. We weren't really sure what we were going to do with it yet, but we never really stopped working on new material.

        "Yeah, I'm psyched to start this tour, especially because Cobra's on it with us," Pete said, overly casually dropping that band in there and that's how I knew it was on purpose. He was trying to get me to fess up to whatever I was holding back, I knew it, and I wanted to tel him - I really did - but god did I not want to hurt him. "What about you, Patrick?" he continued after a moment's pause, clicking something on the screen to change the guitar part a bit. He was still doing his best to sound disinterested, but he'd never been much of an actor.

        "Yeah, psyched," I agreed shortly, not wanting to agree with him on the specifics of what he'd said for fear of backing myself into a corner I coulnd't get out of. I was to a point where I over thought everything I said around Pete, and I didn't like that one bit, but it was either that or tell him.

        "Gabe is a real great guy, don't you think, Andy?" Pete asked, keeping his faux passive tone that no one believed. He clicked something else, messing with the drums and I knew he wasn't paying a bit of attention to what he was doing because that had just entirely fucked up the song.

        "Um, yeah. I really get along with him," he tentatively agreed, knowing Pete was hinting at something to me and not really wanting to get involved.

        "So, have you guys eaten yet? I'm starving," I spoke up suddenly, louder than necessary, and obviously trying to change the subject. I was awful under pressure, I was sure of that.

        "Patrick, when's the last time we hung out with Gabe? New Year's Eve? I think we should invite him over here to hang out after the show tonight," he continued, completely ignoring my comment and clicking yet another part of the song without realizing what he was doing. His clicks were getting more and more violet each time, like he was angry and trying not to show it, but direct it somewhere else.

        "Yeah, I think we should eat before we head over to the venue," Joe agreed with me, taking my side and trying to pull Pete off of whatever he was about to launch into.

        "I think I'll talk to Gabe tonight and see what he says to that," he said, still on about that. Joe, Andy, and I shared a nervous glance, not sure what was about to happen. His arm around me was tightening, his fingers gripping my shoulder a little too tightly for comfort. He clicked on something else on the screen, changing a lyric.

        "What do we even have to eat in here?" Joe asked rhetorically as he stood up from the bean bag chair, causing Andy to fall over slightly. There was a mini fridge in our kitchenette on the bus and that's where he headed, opening it and pretending to look for something.

        "Pete, that hurts-" I said as his hand tightened further on my shoulder, cut off when he began speaking once more.

        "Or maybe I should just call him now," he suggested, raising his voice and hitting the trackpad on the laptop with a force that I thought just might break it. At this point, he was scaring me and I was worried about him as well as what he might do.

        Luckily, my phone buzzed in that exact moment, all four of our gazes locking onto the small device sitting next to me on the couch. I'm pretty sure that one little ding saved us from a Pete explosion because he seemed to calm down immediately, his grip on my shoulder loosening considerably so I reached over and grabbed it. Opening the text, I saw that it was from our tour manager, saying we needed to get inside to the venue now because they wanted to do soundcheck early. It hadn't been scheduled for another 30 minutes, but I guess things don't always go as planned.

A/N: I know it's late I'm rly rly rly rly sorry don't hate me.

Also, my friend and I got fob m&g tickets for the July 14th show in St. Louis and I'm still screaming about it