FicWad

“Joe,” Ashley had a small smirk on her face as she walked up to him in the kitchen, watching as he chopped things up to put in a bowl for lunch. She leant on the counter opposite him and Joe gave her a suspicious look as she smirked at him.

“What?” He asked, and Ashley shrugged.

“Well a few of the boys told me you knew dances that er, we wouldn’t expect you to,” Joe rolled his eyes, staring back at the chopping board and sighing.

“Maybe I do, maybe I don’t,” He sniggered, and Ashley smiled, walking towards the door. Joe looked confused and turned to her, watching as she approached the doorframe.

“Is that all you wanted?” He yelled to her, and she grinned slightly and nodded.

“That’s all I wanted,” She repeated, and walked back to the living room, leaving Joe to shake his head in confusion. Walking back over to the girls in the other room, she giggled and nodded her head when they noticed her, placing her hands on her hips.

“We’re on, girlies,”

A few days later everyone was gathered in the living room, and the room was really split into the girls smirking at the reason why Jenn and Ashley were gone, and the boys discussing what was happening. The awkwardness was soon disrupted however, by Pete announcing an odd talent to the room.

“Izzy, I bet you a dollar I can move your boob without touching it,” Izzy looked at him strangely, along with the rest of the room, apart from Patrick who groaned. Grace tilted her head and looked back at him.

“What?” She asked, and Patrick shook his head.

“Just watch,” He muttered, and the two watched as Pete pleaded with Izzy to take the bet.

“Fine,” She gave in and Pete sniggered, staring at her chest slightly with his fingers pressed to his forehead. He made a humming noise and closed his eyes, before simply reaching out and grabbing her breast, wiggling it slightly and sitting contentedly back into the chair. Izzy looked at him skeptically and raised an eyebrow.

“You said without touching it, you just lost a dollar dumbass,” She grabbed the note off the table and Pete smirked, making his original reasons for the bet apparent to the rest of the room.

“Totally worth it,” He laughed at the expression on Izzy’s face, but was soon cut off as a pillow smacked him in the cheek. Their squabbling was interrupted when Jenn and Ashley appeared in the doorway, beckoning to Joe.

“Joe, we need to borrow you for a second,” Ashley smirked, and Joe looked uncomfortable as he stood, pleading back to the people in the lounge. The rest of the girls stood and followed them upstairs, and the six remaining boys were left to their own devices, wondering what they were doing to their friend.

An hour or so later the girls returned downstairs, hiding Joe behind them so that the boys couldn’t see. Ashley giggled slightly before stepping forward.

“Okay so we had to get some proper make-up stuff for this and get an outfit, but it was totally worth it,” She started cracking up with laughter at the end of the sentence and coughed, walking over to the stereo and placing a CD in. Looking back to the girls, she pressed play and the boys began to laugh as they heard the song that began to play.

“I present to you, the last pledge with Mr. Joseph Trohman,” She squealed with laughter and girls stepped aside to reveal Joe in full MJ Thriller get up, orange suit and zombie make-up and all. The boys howled with laughter as Joe began to smirk too, and the girls took their seats in the room to watch his little show. The part with the dancing started, and everyone laughed again as Joe began to get into the dance routine step for step, his knowledge of the Thriller dance completely impeccable. He raised his hands in the air and stepped to the side, making Ashley fall off of her space on the chair in laughter. Joe couldn’t stop himself from laughing and danced the rest of the song in giggles, as did the rest of the room. When the song ended the room erupted into applause and Joe leant against the wall laughing. Ashley stood up and wrapped an arm around his shoulder.

“Well done MJ,” She said, and Joe smirked. She looked to Izzy and Izzy nodded from her position on Pete’s lap, smirking slightly at Joe.

“So you knew you would have to dance to Michael Jackson,” She started, and Joe looked nervous again. Izzy smiled evilly and licked her lips, biting the bottom one slightly to stifle her laughter. “But I don’t know about the boys, but we girls have always thought it would be funny to see zombie MJ dancing to a Beyonce song,” Joe widened his eyes and Pete burst out into laughter, holding onto Izzy’s waist for support.

“Oh man,” He spat out, and Izzy nodded, laughing too.

“You’ve got to do the ‘single ladies’ dance now, too,” She muttered, and Joe widened his eyes once more.

“No way,” He whispered, and Ashley nodded, patting his shoulder.

“I’m afraid so, Joe,” She sniggered, taking her place back on the sofa, and Joe sighed as Ali changed the CD again. The song started and once Joe started dancing, the room burst into laughter once more. The vision of a bushy-headed-zombie-Michael-Jackson doing the dance to Beyonce’s single ladies was a strange yet hilarious one, and everyone seemed to agree, once the song had ended and Gabe stood and announced that he had got the whole thing on film, that Joe’s pledge was something that would end up being watched at many parties to come.

*

Thanksgiving seemed to rear its head fairly quickly after Joe’s pledge, and with that, most of the house departed right after school on Wednesday to go to families out of town. Grace had taken Gabe to her mother’s house not that far off campus, but explained they would spend the weekend there instead of coming back on Friday. Ashley and Joe did pretty much the same thing. Andy had invited both Jenn and Dirty to join him in his travel to Milwaukee to his parent’s house and they were quick to agree. Pete was still trying to find a way to talk to Izzy about going to his parents, while Ali was trying to come up with an excuse to not go to her parent’s house. Travis had not suggested anything to her about going to his parents, and she was wondering if he planned to at all.

“No,” Ali sighed into the phone, annoyed by the pleading voice of her mother.

“But why, Alexandra?” she asked. Ali sighed to herself again and closed her eyes, opting to shield her face from whoever might have been watching her.

“I’ll be honest and tell you I don’t want to,” Ali paused as her mother gasped through the phone. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t want to lie,” she explained. Finding that her mother had already hung up on her by this point, she rolled her eyes and threw her phone down, letting it bounce off the table and onto the floor. She frowned as she threw herself back onto the couch and observed Patrick as he walked by, pausing to reach down and grab it. He held it out to her, but after finding her not accepting it, he placed it on the table instead.

“Ali,” he called and she hesitated before looking up at him as he neared and sat down next to her.

“What?” she somewhat snapped. Patrick drew his lips back nervously before proceeding.

“Uhm, I know I shouldn’t ask, but what’s wrong?” he continued. Ali sighed, before dropping her anger and deciding to take comfort in Patrick, as always.

“My mom invited me out for Thanksgiving but I don’t really want to go,” she paused and let Patrick scoot closer before continuing. “I’m so irritated because I thought that Travi would have invited me, you know, like Pete and Grace invited their girlfriend and boyfriend,”

Ali couldn’t help but notice Patrick’s frown as she spoke but shook it to the back of her head before looking towards the front door where some luggage was placed.

“What?” Patrick asked. Ali shrugged.

“I think I might be left alone in the house this Thanksgiving,” she muttered, deeply frowning and glancing at the luggage once again. “Is that your stuff?” she asked. Patrick gulped deeply before nodding.

“Yeah, I’m going to stay with my mom for a few days,” he skewed his mouth to the side as Ali sighed sadly again. “You can come if you want, I’ll just tell her the circumstances and she’ll understand and love you,” he offered. Ali couldn’t help but smile but shook her head.

“It’s ok Patrick, you enjoy yourself,” she pressed and the two shared a smile before looking up and over at the stairs and Travis walked down them, holding a few bags over his shoulders.

“Hey,” he called, looking at Ali. She raised an eyebrow.

“Where you off to?” she questioned. Travis smirked lightly and glanced at Patrick for a second before looking back at her.

“Uh, it’s Thanksgiving, isn’t it?” he asked rhetorically. “I’m going to my parent’s house, Shorty,” he announced. Ali let her lips fall apart, speechless and forced her head down in a nod.

“Oh,” she bit her lip hard, not wanting to start up a fight, let alone a fight in front of Patrick. He observed her, knowing full well that she was holding back her growing anger and sadness. Travis looked down at her, clueless and reached out, obviously asking for a hug goodbye. Ali hesitated before standing and letting his arms wrap around her, his lips covering hers in a quick peck before he moved away, exiting the house with a definite slam of the door. Ali sighed, letting her shoulders fall and looked back at Patrick once before shaking her head and dragging herself away. Patrick was so close to following her up the stairs but instead stayed sitting on the couch, fearful that if he made some kind of move, he would end up making things worse then they already were.

*

“I’m going to what now?” Izzy stared at Pete, knowing exactly what he had just said, but not wanting to believe it.

“You’re going to have thanksgiving dinner at my mom and step-dads house, with me,” Izzy widened her eyes and shook her head slowly.

“I really don’t think I am,” She muttered, and Pete smirked, pulling her chin up slightly and looking at her.

“I really think you are.” He said, and proceeded to walk out of the room. Izzy didn’t get another word in edgeways from then on, and a week later at thanksgiving, Pete was opening the door to his car to let her in to make their way there.

“I hate you so much right now Pete,” She grumbled, and Pete laughed.

“You’ll love my mom, I do,” He sniggered, and Izzy glared at him before turning the radio on.

“It’s not that Pete, I just, I’m not good with the whole parent’s thing,” She muttered, and Pete frowned.

“You’ll be fine.” He said, and that was it. No words of encouragement, no lecture on how he would be there the whole time and his mom was lovely, just a ‘you’ll be fine.’ Izzy rolled her eyes at this and stared out of the car window, sighing slightly.

“You didn’t even ask me if I wanted to come, you just, told me,” She said, and Pete narrowed his eyes at her.

“But it’s thanksgiving, I wanted to be with my family and my girlfriend at the same time, plus your family isn’t even in the country, I thought you would appreciate it, but obviously not,” Izzy glared at him and growled slightly.

“I do appreciate the offer from your family to let me come, I just don’t feel comfortable with it, I mean, we haven’t even been officially dating for that long Pete... plus I’m not even American, I don’t celebrate thanksgiving,” Pete snorted.

“If you’re in the country you should celebrate it,” He muttered, and Izzy rolled her eyes.

“Whatever Pete,” The pulled up to Pete’s childhood home, making Pete’s face light up at the sight of it. Izzy looked nervous again and Pete looked back at her before sighing.

“Come on, it won’t be that bad,” He muttered, and stepped out of the car, leaving Izzy to get out as well. She caught him up at the door and he grabbed her hand before ringing the doorbell, and the both of them watched as a boy opened the door, and Pete greeted him with a smile and a short hug.

“Hey bro,” He muttered, and Pete pulled Izzy into the house by the hand before standing in the hallway and presenting her to the man with a hand pointed to her.

“This is Izzy,” He smiled, and then turned to her and pointed at the other guy. “Izzy this is my brother Andrew,” Andrew smiled politely, and Izzy did the same before re-attaching her nervous expression to her face.

“Mom is in the kitchen,” He muttered, and Pete nodded at him, dragging Izzy to what she assumed was probably the kitchen he was talking about. Pete stuck his head around the corner and sniffed the air, skipping happily up to a woman that Izzy assumed was Pete’s mother.

“Hey mom,” He muttered, and she wrapped an arm around her son before shoo-ing him away.

“Lovely to see you dear but I’m cooking, give me a moment,” Pete shook his head like a child, watching over her shoulder for a moment until he remembered about his girlfriend standing warily in the doorframe to the room.

“Mom this is Izzy,” He walked back towards Izzy and wrapped an arm around her waist, bringing her further into the room. Pete’s mother turned around at this and smiled kindly, nodding at Izzy.

“Your girlfriend I assume, Peter?” Pete nodded, smiling and walking back over to the food. After being hit in the hand by his mother for trying to grab some of it, he watched as his mom greeted Izzy.

“It’s lovely to meet you,” She gave Izzy a quick hug and Pete smiled once more, content that they would get along, and went back to trying to steal the food.

“You too Mrs. Wentz,” Izzy replied, and got a shake of the head in return.

“Call me Dale,” She said, and Izzy nodded.

At the dinner table, Izzy felt a little uncomfortable sitting between Pete and his brother, and opposite Pete’s mother and step-dad. She chewed on her vegetables and gulped slowly, not wanting anything she did to suddenly spark questions from Pete’s mom. She widened her eyes to herself when her head tilted upwards and looked at Izzy, a question forming in her eyes.

“So what are your plans for the future, Izzy?” She asked, and Izzy gulped again before sighing into her answer.

“Well hopefully when I’m finished with college I’ll get a job in a photography studio, I want to eventually get into wildlife photography and travel the world.” Izzy smiled lightly and Dale nodded, staring back at her food.

“So you’re concentrating on your career then, that’s nice to see, nowadays a lot of people only have jobs and not careers,” Izzy nodded, silently thanking everything that was holy that she was pleasing Pete’s mother.

“Yeah, I want to get my career steady before I even think of settling down somewhere to live, I want to see the world first.” She received a happy nod, and Dale looked to Pete.

“See that Peter, someone who knows what they want out of life,” Pete rolled his eyes, shaking his head at his mother.

“I know what I want mom-”

“Yes yes, you keep saying that. Anyway, Izzy, planning to have a family after your career is built up?” Izzy widened her eyes and nodded slowly.

“I guess, in the future at some point, I haven’t really planned anything though...” Pete interrupted at this point.

“I think having kids would be kinda’ cool,” He mentioned, and Izzy gulped again.

“Mhmm,” She muttered, and stared back to her food. Pete didn’t notice her nervousness however and chomped on some carrot thoughtfully.

“Yeah, I think having a baby with you would be awesome,” Izzy widened her eyes and snapped her head to him, leaning forward slightly.

“Excuse me?” She hissed, and Pete shrugged.

“What?” Izzy coughed on the air she was breathing and looked back to Dale who had her eyebrows raised.

“I thought you two had only been dating for a month or so?” She asked, and Izzy nodded, glaring at Pete out of the corner of her eye.

“We have,” She spat, and Pete looked between her and his mother.

“What did I say?” He asked clueless of the reason he was getting funny looks from both women. Izzy squinted her eyes at him and gritted her teeth.

“We’ve been dating for a month Pete, how are you even thinking about that kind of stuff right now?” Her voice was louder now and Pete cringed slightly.

“I guess I just,” He gulped, not knowing what to say. “I don’t know,” Dale coughed lightly.

“Peter I think maybe you should slow your thinking down a little,” She looked pointedly at him and he turned his head to Izzy who was still glaring fiercely.

“Maybe we should go,” Izzy hissed under her breath and glared at Pete a little more. It was going to be a long drive home.

*

Ali had decided to lock herself up in her room after she learned that Izzy had been dragged along with Pete up to his house for Thanksgiving. They announced they would be coming back late that night, but she didn’t really care; she was alone. Or so she thought. A few hours into her nap, she found her eyes slowly opening to the sound of a guitar playing somewhere in the distance. She sat up slowly, and after creasing her eyebrows together for a moment, she realized that maybe she wasn’t really alone. Ali made her way downstairs after that and soon found Patrick sitting in the living room, his luggage now gone from the front doorway. He was quietly playing, every once and a while pausing to lean forward and scribble what Ali thought were notes into a music composition book.

“Patrick?” she finally called and smiled as he glanced up at her, adjusting his guitar a little more on his lap.

“Hey,” he answered and scooted over on the couch, letting her sit next to him. “Glad to see you downstairs for once,” he tried, earning a small laugh from her. Ali looked down at the music notes on the page, not really understanding fully what it meant, or how it would sound. She glanced back up at Patrick.

“What are you doing home?” she asked first. Patrick sighed.

“Well, I didn’t really want to leave you alone and depressed,” he spoke, locking eyes with her. Ali let her eyebrows prop up and let a low breath escape her before nodding and looking back at the notebook once more.

“Ok, then what are you doing?” she questioned, nodding towards the music. Patrick offered a smile.

“Pete wrote another song and wanted me to put music to it,” he paused. “It’s pretty much finished now,” he finished. Ali looked to him and hesitated before nodding to herself, pushing herself to ask.

“Can I hear it?”

Patrick glanced at her, a little nervous before nodding in agreement, adjusting himself slightly before placing his fingers to the strings and beginning. Ali let a smile appear on her lips as the opening chords hit her ears and smiled even more as Patrick started to sing.

“Honey is for bees silly bear, besides there’s jelly beans everywhere,” he smiled too and looked at her once before continuing. “It’s not what it seems in the land of dreams, don’t worry your head, just go to sleep,”

Ali couldn’t help but let her heart beat increase as he continued to sing and found herself entranced by the music and lyrics that Patrick was singing. As soon as he finished, she blinked slowly before leaning towards him, and as he lifted his head to finally look at her, she dipped her head to the side and caught his lips in her own. Patrick gasped lightly into the kiss, only pulling back for a surprised minute before leaning back to Ali, moving his hand from the strings to her cheek to hold her face. A few moments later however, he felt guilty and pulled away, frowning to himself as Ali looked expectantly up at him.

“What?” she breathed. Patrick gulped.

“Ali, I don’t think it’s right that I kiss you when you and Travi are together,” he explained. Ali frowned deeply and leaned back, but still looked at Patrick.

“What are you saying, exactly?” she questioned. Patrick breathed out and moved his guitar, placing it back down in the case on the ground. He turned back to Ali and observed her confused expression.

“I’m saying that I really like you Ali,” he honestly spoke, feeling his heart beating at his chest, begging to be let go. He gulped down his fear and locked eyes with Ali. “But I don’t want to be the other guy, I want to be the guy,” he whispered, letting a shaky breath go as he talked. Ali let her bottom lip shake and she wrung her hands together, breaking their look as she glanced to the side tensely.

“Patrick,” she licked her lips anxiously. “I-”

“I hate doing this,” Patrick cut her off and reached towards her face again, cupping her face so he could force her to look at him again. “But I’m going to make you chose, Ali,” it pained him to see the astonished look on her face, but he shook it off, knowing that this type of aggression was needed with her in order to get her to realize his feelings.

“Are you saying…” Ali trailed off and Patrick nodded once.

“It’s him or me,” he finally spoke and Ali let her shoulders sink as it hit her, realizing that he was being serious. Patrick pulled his hand away from her face and after locking eyes with her for a few moments, he looked back down at his guitar and picked it up as he stood, grabbing his notebook as well. Ali watched him as he walked down the hall and closed her eyes as she heard the back door slide open and then close a moment later. She twitched at the sound and let a cry jolt through her, knowing now that maybe she had made a mistake before. Art was nothing compared to love.