FicWad

Chapter Twenty

The next morning I sat on the bus alone with “101 Things To Know Before Becoming A Father”. Somehow it got placed on my bunk pillow last night. It was probably Maddie telling me to get my lazy ass in gear and actually read it. I couldn’t argue and finally picked it up this morning and began to read.

#57 She Will Go Through Changes
During her time of pregnancy, she will change not only physically but emotionally. It is important that you be supportive and understanding of these changes. She will begin to grow into a different kind of female. She will begin to become a mother.

I stopped and laid aside the book. I didn’t want to read about motherhood anymore. I didn’t want to read about the future anymore period. Couldn’t I just experience it as it came? Then again how would I ever be prepared for what was about to come into my life?

The sound of the bus doors opening blew my train of thought away, and Pete and Mikey climbed aboard laughing like kids.

“Hey Patrick,” Mikey said spotting me first. “What are you doing?”

I sighed and scooted down in my seat. “Nothing, just sitting around.”

“Well I’ll tell you what you should be doing,” Pete said immediately pulling me up from my slouch. “You should be out there with Maddie.”

His serious look gave me the feeling I was in some kind of wrong. “What? Why?” I asked stumbling over my conclusions of why he was telling me this.

“Why!” Pete repeated me. “This is why,” he said waving a magazine in front of my face.

“A magazine?”

“A magazine that doesn’t mention Fall Out Boy at least once,” he replied ripping through the pages in a way that told me he had had his coffee this morning.

My reply to this was a blank stare that Pete took as confusion.

“C’mere ‘trick,” he said pulling me off of the seat I occupied and towards the door. “Do me this favor and go find Maddie. Then once you do spend some quality time with her in the daylight, where people can see you.” He gave me a smile before shoving me out the door.


I strutted down past the row of buses realizing the smell of their fumes was like a nice perfume to me. The roar of their engines was like my favorite song. It couldn’t get better than this. Well…technically it could…but I was going to be an optimist today. Why not change it up?

I hadn’t been walking long, enjoying the sights and sounds of the tour, when I spotted the back of Maddie’s perfect body. She was stationed outside a tour bus talking to a guy I did not recognize from so far away.

I approached the two people deep in conversation and recognized the guy as soon as I saw his hair. “Hey Justin, Maddie,” I said coming to halt beside Maddie’s side.

Maddie turned to me with a smile. “Hey Patrick,” she smiled. “I was just talking to Justin about a show I first saw Motion at.” She said this with such excitement I swear she was announcing that Santa Clause was actually real. “Actually,” she said turning back to Justin without missing a beat. “If I remember right I think there was only like ten people at that show.”

“That’s right,” Justin said sharing a laugh with Maddie.

“And one of them,” she said stumbling over laughs. “he threw up all over the front of the stage.”

Justin and she laughed at an image I couldn’t re-create in my brain. Then Maddie steadying herself grabbed Justin’s arm. “It smelled like cabbage,” Justin added not being aware that Maddie was even touching him. “It ended our set a half hour early.”

Now Maddie and Justin were laughing so hard, I was starting to feel a little out of place. Actually, I felt a lot out of place. I didn’t even know Maddie knew Justin or his band, but then again she had been very into music when she was in high school. How did I suddenly become an outsider in a place I had brought her back into?

“Uh, Maddie,” I said breaking the duo apart. “Can I talk to you?”

Maddie wiped the side of her eye and tried to control her laughter. “Uh, yeah sure,” she said looking between Justin and I. “I’ll see you later Justin,” she said to him before agreeing to walk away with me.

“So…uh, what’s up,” Maddie questioned as soon as we were out of ear shot of Justin.

“Um,” I said caught a little off guard. Usually I would’ve rehearsed something like this before asking, but Pete had been so persistent that my rehearsal time was cut short. “I was just wondering if you wanted to get away from the tour for a bit today? I mean,” I went on. “We could go in the city and take a break from this,” I said gesturing to the busses and people around us.

Maddie smiled and nodded her head. “Sounds good,” she said.

You would think that being in a band and traveling all the time would give you many opportunities to see different cities. The truth was I never really had time to experience cities as we passed them by in a blur of shows. Sure, I was beginning to know venues and kids faces like Prince lyrics, but really looking at downtown Austin was like seeing Calculus. I just didn’t recognize it.

Maddie and I fell into the streets as any other citizen would although my eyes grew big with each new shop or smell. We stumbled upon a record shop and Maddie assisted we check it out.

The doors jingled as we entered. Maddie didn’t waste time and walked through the aisles like any casual shopper. I, on the other hand, fell into a bad habit of staring. I noticed a couple standing by the door. They were hand and hand and smiles plastered on their faces sent me the message they might actually be happy. That was until the stocky boy leaned in to whisper something to the brunette girl. Her smile faded fast. She pulled back staring at the boy with a look that could make little children cry. The boy received a quick hit to the chest and a look of disgust before the girl walked away. The boy gave a confused look and followed her out the door with a sigh of ‘baby c’mon’. The sight brought a laughter I couldn’t hold back. No matter what happened in the world. No matter what scientific breakthrough occurred. The bottom line would always be that girls are crazy, and us guys just don’t get it.

I let my laughter settle out before Maddie approached me in a swift walk. “Hey Patrick,” she said. “Look what I found.”

It was then I noticed she was clasping a CD in her hand. She handed it to me with eagerness. I took it and my eyes fell on Fall Out Boy’s CD. “Yeah,” I said unsure of how I was suppose to react to this.

“It’s your CD,” she said still emitting a smile as though she had given me a gift.

“Uh, yep,” I said flipping it over. Maybe, there was something I was missing. Maybe, it had Jennifer Aniston’s autograph on the back, or even better Oprah’s.

“It was right at the end of the aisle,” she said now excitement fading from her voice. “I didn’t know you guys were doing that well.”

The truth was I didn’t know we were doing that well either. I hadn’t checked our album on the charts since it came out, and the touring lifestyle had me watching less and less TV.

“Oh…my…god!”

The cries to the man above brought my attention to a girl behind the register. Her short bleach blond hair pulled back in two ponytails gave her an innocence lost at age 6. The look on her face reminded me of when I saw Maddie for the first time, and the continuous squeals she was making were starting to make me uncomfortable.

“You’re Patrick Stump!” She said pointing at me with a nicely painted fingernail. “From Fall Out Boy. You’re him!”

“Uh, yeah,” I said switching glances between Maddie and the girl.

“Oh my god! Oh my god!” She said in quick spurts of breath. The girl rapidly left her station at the register and scurried to the position in front of me. “Can I get your autograph?” She said slamming a sharpie and paper in my hand.

I took what was being offered with a smile and scribbled a ‘Patrick’ quickly on the paper before handing it back.

“Wow thank you so much,” she said studying the signature. “I really think you guys are great. I mean, I really wanted to see you guys at Warped today, but obviously I’m stuck here,” she said motioning to the store we were in.

The sly look on the pigtailed girl was starting to send shivers down my back. She looked at me as though nothing could look any better. She stared at me well past the point of being uncomfortable and I chose to just smile and look away. This must of broke her trance because the next thing I heard was her voice squeaking again.

"Oh my God, and you're Maddie," she spoke.

I looked up at the polished finger once again pointing at a person this
girl only knew from pictures.

"um...yeah," Maddie responded. "You know me?"

With the sudden realization of where this conversation was leading, I stepped in.
“Um sorry, but we need to get going,” I said looking at the girl. “you
know stuff to do...and things.” I should've quit at 'we need to go'.

“Oh, ok,” the girl responded putting on smile. “guess I should get back
to work too,” she laughed motioning to the angry people waiting at the
abandoned register.

“Alright, bye,” I said taking Maddie’s hand and leading her towards the door.