Categories > Celebrities > Fall Out Boy > Times Square Can't Shine As Bright As You
Guess I'm some kind of freak, cause they all sit and stare with their eyes
2 reviewsWhen William Beckett's 'long lost' twin sister returns, the guys from Fall Out Boy take her under their collective wing when no one else knows what to do with her. And Pete makes a connection, as ...
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Sorry it's been so long. I've been really busy this week, and I wound up writing 3 versions of this chapter before I found one that didn't suck. At least i hope it doesn't. It's nice and long too, and there's more FOB in this chapter and from now on. The title is from No Doubt, Just A Girl. I am weirdly obsessed with them.
The next morning, William was standing in the bathroom with Haley, changing the bandages on her wrists. They hadn't mentioned anything that had been said the day before since they left the therapist's office.
"Your cuts seem to be healing nicely." William said, inspecting her stitches.
"Yeah. The doctor said the scars shouldn't be too bad. They're really itchy though."
"I can imagine, under all these layers of bandage. And it's so hot out too." He taped the last bandage down, and Haley hopped down from where she was seated on the counter. William dumped all the supplies into the top drawer and followed her out of the room.
"So, Joe is having this big pool party at his house later this afternoon, if you want to go?"
"I'm invited?"
"Yeah everyone wants to meet you." She gave him a funny look. "What?"
"Pete told me everyone saw the tape."
"Was that before of after you slept with him?"
"I told you we didn't do anything. There's no curtains in the living room, and the floor was really hard."
"You were spooning."
"He slept on top of the blankets."
"So, do you want to go, or not?"
"I don't know..." she sat down on the couch.
"Come on. You have to do something fun besides sit around here before you have to check yourself into the hospital."
"What if no one likes me?"
"That's stupid. You already know Pete likes you. And Sisky. And Gabe will be there."
"Oh..."
"It's ok. He doesn't hold any kind of grudge against you or anything. And Victoria will be there, so you won't even be the only girl." Haley sat deep in thought for a few moments, as William waited eagerly.
"But what will I wear?" William smiled.
"Just pick anything." Haley bounced into her room, stopping and turning in the doorway.
"Don't tell anyone ANYTHING about what I told you yesterday." She shook her finger at him.
"I promise."
A few hours later, they were standing in front of the door to Joe's house.
"Remember, if your bandages get wet, you'll have to take them off so the cuts don't get infected. So if you don't want anyone to see your stitches, don't get your hands wet." William reminded Haley.
"Yes MOM. I'll be fine."
"I just don't want you to be nervous or self conscious."
"I'll be fine."
"Just tell me if you want to go home or anything."
"Ok." Joe swung the door open, grinning.
"Hey, you guys made it! Wow. You're even hotter in person." He swung his arm around her shoulders. "Come on, I'll introduce you to everyone." He said pulling her into the house as William laughed and followed. Haley turned to look at him.
"Is he drunk?" she asked.
"No, that's just Joe."
After Haley had been introduced to everyone, she was sitting in a lounge chair talking to Victoria. Everyone else was in the pool splashing around, and Gabe was actively avoiding her. " I haven't sat out and gotten tan in, like, 7 years." Haley said leaning back in her chair.
"I can't even imagine. I'm so pale. How do the models stay tan then?"
"Spray on. Girls with real tans have the potential to peel, or freckle, or god forbid you get burned. I wasn't allowed to be tan at all. My agents had my hair dyed black, and I had to stay out of the sun. They were going for the Snow White/Morticia Adams kind of goth look. It's my thing."
"Oh yeah, I can kind of see that. But why are you getting tan now?"
"I'm sick of looking dead." They both laughed. "Plus, I can't get my arms wet." She held up her bandaged wrists.
"Oh, right. Sorry."
"Don't worry about it."
"So what color is your real hair?"
"Red." Joe jumped out of the pool and shook his head around, spraying water all over the girls.
"Hey!" Victoria laughed, wiping her face off.
"You ladies want to help man the grill?"
"I'm still trying to get a tan."
"I'll help. I've never grilled before." Haley said, jumping up out of her chair.
Haley and Patrick were standing off to the side watching Joe try to grill a batch of chicken.
"Do you want us to help with anything?" Haley asked. Joe just grunted, poking at the food with a fork.
"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Patrick tried to see over Joe's shoulder.
"It's MY grill. I'll tell you when there's something you can do."
"That doesn't necessarily mean you know what you're doing though."
"How do you know when it's done?" he stabbed a piece of chicken and held it up, inspecting it. "PETE! How do you know when it's done?" he yelled off towards the pool. Haley had to duck in order to dodge the meat-sicle as Joe's hand swung past her head. She looked over at Patrick with a look of both shock and fear.
"Oh, this is going to end badly." Patrick shook his head and laughed. Pete jumped out of the pool and jogged over.
"What's wrong?"
"I can't tell if this is done, and then I don't even know how to go about cooking the hamburgers." he said, trying to shake the piece of chicken off the fork and back onto the grill.
"Ok, first of all-what did we say about getting stoned around sharp objects? Someone's going to get hurt, and then you'll just laugh about it." Pete pried the fork out of his hand and pushed him away from the grill. "Why don't you see if anyone needs another drink, and we'll handle the food?"
"Alright..." Joe shuffled off towards the rest of the party.
"Is he always like that?" Haley whispered to Patrick.
"Pretty much, yeah." He nodded back.
"So what have you two been doing?" Pete piled the chicken on a plate.
"He asked us to help." Patrick stated
"And then he wouldn't let us touch anything. I've never even grilled before." Haley pouted, then broke into a smile. "So instead, I ate 3 hotdog buns."
"It was kind of disturbing." Patrick shuttered.
"What? I was hungry."
"Something tells me, you were here more as eye candy than anything." Pete looked Haley up and down in her green and pink striped bikini top and cotton shorts. Haley acted offended.
"You don't know, I may be a master chef. Meat may be my calling." They both laughed.
"Ok then...I'm going to leave before this becomes any more awkward and vaguely dirty." Patrick tiptoed away.
They stood in silence for a few minutes, Pete lost in thought, and Haley watching him flipping the burgers.
"Can I do it?" Haley stood from where she was leaning against the back of the chair and moved closer to the grill.
"Huh?"
"Can I flip one? I've never cooked before."
"Yeah, sure." He handed her the oversized spatula, and pointed to one particular burger. "This one's actually done, if you want to put it on the plate." She carefully scooped up the burger, and moved it over. At the last minute it fell off and bounced onto the plate.
"It was slippery!" Haley aimlessly poked at the other burgers, while Pete tried to work up the nerve to say what was on his mind.
"So...Bill told me you went to see your therapist for the first time yesterday."
"WHAT!" Haley spun around, smacking him right in the middle of the stomach with the spatula. "What did he tell you?"
"Ow." He rubbed the spot the spatula hit. "Nothing, just that a lot of stuff came out and you were nervous about what we would think about you. No details."
"Good."
"He also said you don't really have many friends around here."
"Well yeah, I left when I was a sophomore in high school. I've only really come back for holidays. I didn't really stay in contact with any of them." Pete took the spatula back and began unloading the grill.
"Well, I was just thinking: you spend all day sitting on the couch watching talk shows..."
"Spanish soap operas. With Sisky."
"And that's not healthy for anyone. And I have to get a break from my mom and her cleaning before I go crazy. So I was wondering if you wanted to go out shopping or something tomorrow?"
"I am going to be spending a lot of time by myself the next couple months...Sure! Why not?"
"Great. I'll pick you up at like, 1. I think we're done here." He said, inspecting the food.
Joe's one oversight when planning his party was that he didn't have a table big enough for everyone. So they were all sitting in a crowd on the patio facing Haley, who, by sharing Victoria's lounge chair with both her and Andy, had managed to snag one of the few actual seats. It was like show-and-tell in elementary school. They were all asking her questions about her life, her favorite music, which Star Wars was her favorite.
"Who's older, you or William?"
"He is, by 3 minutes."
"Which one of you would win in a fight?"
"The last time we fought, we were 9, and I think I won. But now he's a lot taller, so it's a toss up."
"I would totally win!" William piped in.
"Do you speak Japanese?"
"Not a word. My assistant would translate for me. Well no, that's a lie. I can order sushi, and ask if you speak English." Everyone laughed. Gabe was still ignoring her, and William had begun to sense the awkwardness. When everyone was done eating, and had started to get up and throw their plates away, he pulled Haley aside to tell her to go talk to him.
"Can't you do it?"
"No. I'm not doing your dirty work for you. And it's none of my business anyway."
It took her another half hour, but Haley finally cornered Gabe by himself in the kitchen on his way out of the bathroom.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked, popping up around the corner.
"About what?" he shrugged, trying to walk around her.
"You know about what." She moved to block the doorway. Just then, the patio door opened and Alex came in.
"Is there any more beer in here? Oh..." He looked from Haley to Gabe, and backed out the door, closing it and guarding it from any one else interrupting.
"You just left. You never even said anything. I though you were dead, until I read an interview all about how much you love living in Japan!"
"I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you."
"You could have at least said goodbye." He said quietly, staring at the ground.
"It was complicated." She proceeded to give him a condensed version of the story she told the therapist. "I didn't know what else to do."
"I was going to propose."
"I know. I panicked. And I ran."
"You did."
"I was so young. And it was all moving so fast. We were only going out for 6 months."
"I still have all your stuff in a box in my closet."
"You do? I would have though you threw it away."
"I would never do that. I know how possessive you get about your stuff."
"I do get possessive."
"I've moved on. I'm dating other girls now, just so you know. It took a long time though."
"I know. Bill told me. I moved on too. You know Nate's pretty cute." She winked at him, and he just stared at her with a blank expression. "I was just kidding! Not funny?"
"It was a little funny."
"So, your band's pretty successful. I was keeping track of you guys on the internet."
"Speaking of the internet."
"About that..."
"What, you mean the fact that my naked ass is plastered all over the place?"
"It's not my fault."
"So you leave all your belongings in New York, but you take the tape of us having sex? Nice to know where your priorities lie." He wiggled his eyebrows and nudged her hip.
"I took my camera. That video tape just happened to still be in the camera." She smiled.
"Then how did it get to the internet?" he asked suspiciously
"Someone stole it! I was living in a hotel, and I don't know if someone broke in or if it was the maid or something, but they stole all kinds of stuff. I started seeing my jewelry and clothes that I'd worn show up on Ebay. And then that. I really am sorry. You have no idea."
"It's ok. It sort of gives me bragging rights in a way." He smiled
"Yeah. I'll be compared to Paris Hilton for months, and you'll just be that dude who nailed the model." She groaned.
"It might even give Cobra Starship some publicity." They both laughed.
"Glad to be of assistance." She became serious again. "So, are we ok now? No hard feelings?"
"Yeah." He leaned down a briefly kissed her on the lips, for old times sake. "And ask Pete about emotionally dealing with naked pictures. He's had some experience himself."
"I heard. And then I saw. And then I tried to burn it from my memory." This made Gabe crack up. He swung his arm over Haley's shoulders and started to walk back outside, kissing the top of her head.
"You've gotta help me. This place is dead. I THOUGHT THIS WAS A PARTY! WHERE'S THE MUSIC?" he shouted as they walked out the door. "You call yourselves rockstars? This place is supposed to be trashed by now!"
They brought Joe's stereo outside and turned it all the way up. Everyone swam, danced and laughed until it was dark, cold and the neighbors started to complain.
Please review : )
The next morning, William was standing in the bathroom with Haley, changing the bandages on her wrists. They hadn't mentioned anything that had been said the day before since they left the therapist's office.
"Your cuts seem to be healing nicely." William said, inspecting her stitches.
"Yeah. The doctor said the scars shouldn't be too bad. They're really itchy though."
"I can imagine, under all these layers of bandage. And it's so hot out too." He taped the last bandage down, and Haley hopped down from where she was seated on the counter. William dumped all the supplies into the top drawer and followed her out of the room.
"So, Joe is having this big pool party at his house later this afternoon, if you want to go?"
"I'm invited?"
"Yeah everyone wants to meet you." She gave him a funny look. "What?"
"Pete told me everyone saw the tape."
"Was that before of after you slept with him?"
"I told you we didn't do anything. There's no curtains in the living room, and the floor was really hard."
"You were spooning."
"He slept on top of the blankets."
"So, do you want to go, or not?"
"I don't know..." she sat down on the couch.
"Come on. You have to do something fun besides sit around here before you have to check yourself into the hospital."
"What if no one likes me?"
"That's stupid. You already know Pete likes you. And Sisky. And Gabe will be there."
"Oh..."
"It's ok. He doesn't hold any kind of grudge against you or anything. And Victoria will be there, so you won't even be the only girl." Haley sat deep in thought for a few moments, as William waited eagerly.
"But what will I wear?" William smiled.
"Just pick anything." Haley bounced into her room, stopping and turning in the doorway.
"Don't tell anyone ANYTHING about what I told you yesterday." She shook her finger at him.
"I promise."
A few hours later, they were standing in front of the door to Joe's house.
"Remember, if your bandages get wet, you'll have to take them off so the cuts don't get infected. So if you don't want anyone to see your stitches, don't get your hands wet." William reminded Haley.
"Yes MOM. I'll be fine."
"I just don't want you to be nervous or self conscious."
"I'll be fine."
"Just tell me if you want to go home or anything."
"Ok." Joe swung the door open, grinning.
"Hey, you guys made it! Wow. You're even hotter in person." He swung his arm around her shoulders. "Come on, I'll introduce you to everyone." He said pulling her into the house as William laughed and followed. Haley turned to look at him.
"Is he drunk?" she asked.
"No, that's just Joe."
After Haley had been introduced to everyone, she was sitting in a lounge chair talking to Victoria. Everyone else was in the pool splashing around, and Gabe was actively avoiding her. " I haven't sat out and gotten tan in, like, 7 years." Haley said leaning back in her chair.
"I can't even imagine. I'm so pale. How do the models stay tan then?"
"Spray on. Girls with real tans have the potential to peel, or freckle, or god forbid you get burned. I wasn't allowed to be tan at all. My agents had my hair dyed black, and I had to stay out of the sun. They were going for the Snow White/Morticia Adams kind of goth look. It's my thing."
"Oh yeah, I can kind of see that. But why are you getting tan now?"
"I'm sick of looking dead." They both laughed. "Plus, I can't get my arms wet." She held up her bandaged wrists.
"Oh, right. Sorry."
"Don't worry about it."
"So what color is your real hair?"
"Red." Joe jumped out of the pool and shook his head around, spraying water all over the girls.
"Hey!" Victoria laughed, wiping her face off.
"You ladies want to help man the grill?"
"I'm still trying to get a tan."
"I'll help. I've never grilled before." Haley said, jumping up out of her chair.
Haley and Patrick were standing off to the side watching Joe try to grill a batch of chicken.
"Do you want us to help with anything?" Haley asked. Joe just grunted, poking at the food with a fork.
"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Patrick tried to see over Joe's shoulder.
"It's MY grill. I'll tell you when there's something you can do."
"That doesn't necessarily mean you know what you're doing though."
"How do you know when it's done?" he stabbed a piece of chicken and held it up, inspecting it. "PETE! How do you know when it's done?" he yelled off towards the pool. Haley had to duck in order to dodge the meat-sicle as Joe's hand swung past her head. She looked over at Patrick with a look of both shock and fear.
"Oh, this is going to end badly." Patrick shook his head and laughed. Pete jumped out of the pool and jogged over.
"What's wrong?"
"I can't tell if this is done, and then I don't even know how to go about cooking the hamburgers." he said, trying to shake the piece of chicken off the fork and back onto the grill.
"Ok, first of all-what did we say about getting stoned around sharp objects? Someone's going to get hurt, and then you'll just laugh about it." Pete pried the fork out of his hand and pushed him away from the grill. "Why don't you see if anyone needs another drink, and we'll handle the food?"
"Alright..." Joe shuffled off towards the rest of the party.
"Is he always like that?" Haley whispered to Patrick.
"Pretty much, yeah." He nodded back.
"So what have you two been doing?" Pete piled the chicken on a plate.
"He asked us to help." Patrick stated
"And then he wouldn't let us touch anything. I've never even grilled before." Haley pouted, then broke into a smile. "So instead, I ate 3 hotdog buns."
"It was kind of disturbing." Patrick shuttered.
"What? I was hungry."
"Something tells me, you were here more as eye candy than anything." Pete looked Haley up and down in her green and pink striped bikini top and cotton shorts. Haley acted offended.
"You don't know, I may be a master chef. Meat may be my calling." They both laughed.
"Ok then...I'm going to leave before this becomes any more awkward and vaguely dirty." Patrick tiptoed away.
They stood in silence for a few minutes, Pete lost in thought, and Haley watching him flipping the burgers.
"Can I do it?" Haley stood from where she was leaning against the back of the chair and moved closer to the grill.
"Huh?"
"Can I flip one? I've never cooked before."
"Yeah, sure." He handed her the oversized spatula, and pointed to one particular burger. "This one's actually done, if you want to put it on the plate." She carefully scooped up the burger, and moved it over. At the last minute it fell off and bounced onto the plate.
"It was slippery!" Haley aimlessly poked at the other burgers, while Pete tried to work up the nerve to say what was on his mind.
"So...Bill told me you went to see your therapist for the first time yesterday."
"WHAT!" Haley spun around, smacking him right in the middle of the stomach with the spatula. "What did he tell you?"
"Ow." He rubbed the spot the spatula hit. "Nothing, just that a lot of stuff came out and you were nervous about what we would think about you. No details."
"Good."
"He also said you don't really have many friends around here."
"Well yeah, I left when I was a sophomore in high school. I've only really come back for holidays. I didn't really stay in contact with any of them." Pete took the spatula back and began unloading the grill.
"Well, I was just thinking: you spend all day sitting on the couch watching talk shows..."
"Spanish soap operas. With Sisky."
"And that's not healthy for anyone. And I have to get a break from my mom and her cleaning before I go crazy. So I was wondering if you wanted to go out shopping or something tomorrow?"
"I am going to be spending a lot of time by myself the next couple months...Sure! Why not?"
"Great. I'll pick you up at like, 1. I think we're done here." He said, inspecting the food.
Joe's one oversight when planning his party was that he didn't have a table big enough for everyone. So they were all sitting in a crowd on the patio facing Haley, who, by sharing Victoria's lounge chair with both her and Andy, had managed to snag one of the few actual seats. It was like show-and-tell in elementary school. They were all asking her questions about her life, her favorite music, which Star Wars was her favorite.
"Who's older, you or William?"
"He is, by 3 minutes."
"Which one of you would win in a fight?"
"The last time we fought, we were 9, and I think I won. But now he's a lot taller, so it's a toss up."
"I would totally win!" William piped in.
"Do you speak Japanese?"
"Not a word. My assistant would translate for me. Well no, that's a lie. I can order sushi, and ask if you speak English." Everyone laughed. Gabe was still ignoring her, and William had begun to sense the awkwardness. When everyone was done eating, and had started to get up and throw their plates away, he pulled Haley aside to tell her to go talk to him.
"Can't you do it?"
"No. I'm not doing your dirty work for you. And it's none of my business anyway."
It took her another half hour, but Haley finally cornered Gabe by himself in the kitchen on his way out of the bathroom.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked, popping up around the corner.
"About what?" he shrugged, trying to walk around her.
"You know about what." She moved to block the doorway. Just then, the patio door opened and Alex came in.
"Is there any more beer in here? Oh..." He looked from Haley to Gabe, and backed out the door, closing it and guarding it from any one else interrupting.
"You just left. You never even said anything. I though you were dead, until I read an interview all about how much you love living in Japan!"
"I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you."
"You could have at least said goodbye." He said quietly, staring at the ground.
"It was complicated." She proceeded to give him a condensed version of the story she told the therapist. "I didn't know what else to do."
"I was going to propose."
"I know. I panicked. And I ran."
"You did."
"I was so young. And it was all moving so fast. We were only going out for 6 months."
"I still have all your stuff in a box in my closet."
"You do? I would have though you threw it away."
"I would never do that. I know how possessive you get about your stuff."
"I do get possessive."
"I've moved on. I'm dating other girls now, just so you know. It took a long time though."
"I know. Bill told me. I moved on too. You know Nate's pretty cute." She winked at him, and he just stared at her with a blank expression. "I was just kidding! Not funny?"
"It was a little funny."
"So, your band's pretty successful. I was keeping track of you guys on the internet."
"Speaking of the internet."
"About that..."
"What, you mean the fact that my naked ass is plastered all over the place?"
"It's not my fault."
"So you leave all your belongings in New York, but you take the tape of us having sex? Nice to know where your priorities lie." He wiggled his eyebrows and nudged her hip.
"I took my camera. That video tape just happened to still be in the camera." She smiled.
"Then how did it get to the internet?" he asked suspiciously
"Someone stole it! I was living in a hotel, and I don't know if someone broke in or if it was the maid or something, but they stole all kinds of stuff. I started seeing my jewelry and clothes that I'd worn show up on Ebay. And then that. I really am sorry. You have no idea."
"It's ok. It sort of gives me bragging rights in a way." He smiled
"Yeah. I'll be compared to Paris Hilton for months, and you'll just be that dude who nailed the model." She groaned.
"It might even give Cobra Starship some publicity." They both laughed.
"Glad to be of assistance." She became serious again. "So, are we ok now? No hard feelings?"
"Yeah." He leaned down a briefly kissed her on the lips, for old times sake. "And ask Pete about emotionally dealing with naked pictures. He's had some experience himself."
"I heard. And then I saw. And then I tried to burn it from my memory." This made Gabe crack up. He swung his arm over Haley's shoulders and started to walk back outside, kissing the top of her head.
"You've gotta help me. This place is dead. I THOUGHT THIS WAS A PARTY! WHERE'S THE MUSIC?" he shouted as they walked out the door. "You call yourselves rockstars? This place is supposed to be trashed by now!"
They brought Joe's stereo outside and turned it all the way up. Everyone swam, danced and laughed until it was dark, cold and the neighbors started to complain.
Please review : )
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