FicWad

Emily packed her bags and said goodbye to Hanna-Bella and the rest of Chicago with a smile on her face. Hanna-Bella understood that these guys were Emily's best friends, and she was happy for Emily. Emily, of course, had failed to mention any of the things her and Joe had argued about, and hadn't mentioned the kiss between her and Pete. Emily knew that if she had, Hanna-Bella wouldn't let her go. This was a train wreck waiting to happen.

Emily set down her heavy suitcase beside her on the worn pavement and glanced at the building number, then glanced at the small slip of paper on her hand. This was definitely the right place.
"How did they wind up here?" Emily muttered out loud. The building was a sad shade of gray, and Emily could tell it had once been white. There were cracks in the walls in places. And the pavement walkway up to the front steps was broken and crumbling, worn away by many years of being walked upon. Emily grabbed her suitcase once again, took a deep breath and ascended the step, finding the little intercom box. She found the name "Wentz" on the little tenants list and punched in the special code, and waited a moment.
"Hello?" came Pete's muffled voice from the intercom box.
"It's Emily!"
"Yay! Come right up, the door's unlocked."
Emily smiled and opened the glass door, trying not to let the broken glass covered with cardboard and duct tape bring her down. She took one untrusting glance at the old elevator and decided that the stairs would be the smartest choice. Besides, it was only the second floor...she immediately regretted not taking her chances with the elevator when she reached the second flight of stairs; there were three steps that had fallen in, the broken boards falling unsafely into the staircase. Emily covered her mouth with her hand; how was she supposed to get up to the apartment?
"Emmy!" cried a voice gleefully.
Emily looked up to see Patrick and Joe at the top of the staircase, and she broke into a smile.
"Hey, guys! Uh, your stairs are broken..."
They both laughed happily.
"Yeah, they've been like that since we moved here." Patrick said.
"I didn't want to take my chances with that old elevator..."
"Good choice. Here, pass me your suitcase." Joe told her, descending the stairs a bit and reaching over the caved in spot, reaching out for her suitcase.
"Thanks, Joey." she grinned, using his annoying nickname.
"No problem, Emmy." he grinned back.
"Here, lemme help you over the stairs..." Patrick offered, holding his hand out. Emily accepted it and Patrick helped her over the broken steps.
"Doesn't the landlord do anything about the steps?" she wondered out loud.
Patrick and Joe exploded with laughter.
"Mr. Portocallo? He's useless! He wouldn't fix these stairs if the entire thing collapsed and the residents were trapped."
Emily smiled faintly as they lead her down the hall to and open apartment door, where Pete and Andy stood waiting in the doorway.
"Emily!" they cried, rushing to hug her. Joe set down her suitcase and him and Patrick joined the group hug.
"I missed you so much." Pete whispered into her hair.
Emily felt tears in her eyes. This was exactly where she had wanted to be for six weeks; safe in her friend's arms...or maybe just safe in Pete's arms? Her cheek was resting on his chest, his arms around her. Andy, Patrick and Joe were all kind of wrapped around her and Pete. They finally broke apart, and went inside. Emily's eyes met a sad scene; plain white walls, a worn wooden coffee table and an ugly old orange couch were the only furniture in the room. Boxes of what appeared to be CDs and clothes lined the walls, and the guys' equipment was crowded into the far right corner. The coffee table was littered with papers, bills and music sheets. Glittering brilliantly in the sunlight was the picture frame Emily had given Patrick for his birthday.
"Pretty sad, huh?" came Patrick's voice from behind her.
"Yeah, it is."
"Well, we have to make do," Patrick sighed, "Here, we made you a bed on the couch."
Emily looked more closely at the couch; a pillow and an old afghan blanket were arranged across the hideous orange cushions, and Emily couldn't help but laugh.
"Thanks, Patrick." she laughed, kissing Patrick's cheek.
"You can always come stay in one of our beds if it's too cold out here." he mumbled embarrassedly, looking down at his feet, the brim of his hat making his eyes invisible to Emily.
"It might come to that." she grinned.

The group assembled in Pete and Patrick's room, seeing as how it had the most seating. Pete sat at his desk chair, Patrick and Joe sat on Patrick's twin bed, and Emily and Andy sat on Pete's twin bed. Emily hugged Pete's pillow to her chest and snuggled into Andy's shoulder.
"So, what are we going to do for two weeks?" she asked.
"I have to work a lot." Andy told her sadly.
"Awww, why?"
"Because we're short for cash, Em, you know this. I have to work all the hours I can get to make ends meet."
Emily sighed sadly.
"Oh, some of our friends are coming over tonight!" Pete told her, "You can meet our little 'gang'."
"Great! So who's part of this 'gang'?"
"Our friend Chris, and Patrick's girlfriend Evie."
"That's it? That's your gang?"
"It's a lonely life." Pete shrugged.
"Sooo, Tricky, a girlfriend?" Emily grinned slyly, turning to face Patrick, "This is the first I've heard of it."
Patrick blushed, and looked down at his lap.
"First off, don't call me that."
Emily laughed.
"And, second off?" she asked.
"We've been going out only about a week, it's no big deal..."
"Awww, Tricky's in love." Emily teased.
"Shut up!" he whined.
"Okay, okay, you two sound like lovesick teenagers." Pete told them, rolling his eyes.
"I'm still 17, Petey, aren't you forgetting?"
"Ah...oh yeah! Your birthday is tomorrow!"
Emily shot Pete an accusing glance.
"Yeah, you just remembered?"
"Uh...no, it's marked on our calendar..." Pete covered quickly.
"What calendar?"
Pete snatched a piece of paper off his desk and scribbled with a sharpie; July; Emily's birthday. He raised the paper up for Emily to see.
"This calendar."
Emily collapsed into a fit of giggles.
"Okay, okay, you guys were busy and forgot. I won't hold it against you."
"Don't worry, Em. We're gonna bake you a cake." Pete said,
"Can any of you even cook? Joe and Patrick sure as hell can't, they were in my cooking class in grade eleven." Emily said.
"Uh...well, no, none of us can really cook....unless you want a cake made of kraft dinner or spaghetti." Pete answered meekly.
"Correction; we'll BUY you a cake," Joe agreed, "Last time Pete made dinner I nearly died of food poisoning."

That night, Emily helped Andy set out finger food on the coffee table in the livingroom. Pete brought his desk chair out into the living room for one extra seat, but people would still have to sit on the floor.
"This is really pathetic, guys. You need furniture..." Emily said softly.
"If you offer us anything one more time, Emily, you're sleeping outside tonight." Joe told her firmly. Emily rolled her eyes.
There was a knock on the door, and Patrick jumped up to answer it, and in came two people; Evie, and short girl with dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. Patrick swept her into his arms and kissed her nearly the second she walked through the door. Emily smiled, happy that Patrick was happy. Chris, a tall young man with black hair and...spikes around his neck? That's just plain weird! thought Emily. But she stood up and crossed the room to the door anyways to introduce herself.
"This is Emily." Patrick introduced her, his arms still around Evie.
"Nice to meet you, we've heard so much about you already." Chris grinned, and he shook Emily's hand gently.
"It's great to finally meet the face behind the legend." said Evie.
"It's nice to meet both of you, but to be honest, I didn't hear about either of you until this afternoon." Emily said shyly.
Evie frowned and glanced up into Patrick's eyes.
"Tricky, did you keep me a secret?"
"Why does everyone insist on calling me that?!" he exclaimed.
"Answer the question." she snapped.
"I wasn't keeping you secret, honey, I hadn't talked to Emily in since before we got together..."
She sighed, but planted a kiss on his cheek none-the-less.
"Then why was I a secret?" Chris asked.
"Okay, you guys weren't secrets, you just never came up!" Pete insisted.
Chris shrugged and followed the group over to the couch, where he sat along with Emily, Patrick and Evie. Pete sat at his desk chair, leaving the floor to poor Andy and Joe.
"You need some furniture, guys." Evie said, munching on a soda cracker.
"Yes, yes, we know." Pete said, rolling his eyes.
Evie shrugged indifferently.
"It's just very pathetic that you guys eat on a picnic blanket."
Emily threw a sideways glare at Evie; who did she think she was, to say something like that? Emily's heart sank when she realized that she had been telling them the same thing. Suddenly, she felt replaced. She watched Patrick snake his arm around her shoulder, holding her close. Emily felt a pang of jealousy; Patrick always cuddled /her/...but now he had a girlfriend. Wait a minute...was she jealous of Evie? No...she had no feeling for Patrick other than friendship...she snapped back to reality and tried to catch up on the conversation.
"...tomorrow night, it'll be awesome!" Chris was saying.
"What's tomorrow night, sorry? I wasn't listening." Emily cut in.
"There's this music festival, dude, all these totally awesome bands are playing! It'll be rad!"
Emily wished he would shut the hell up; he spoke like a California surfer, or something!
"Tomorrow is my birthday." she told him cooly.
"Aw, that's totally cool. Why not come with the guys and hang out?"
"They promised me a cake, thanks."
"Pete..." he turned, frowning, to face his friend.
"Sorry, Chris, man, but we did promise her. There'll be other festivals."
Chris shrugged and looked away. Emily felt a sense of triumph.
The rest of the night passed without much event, but Emily became increasingly jealous of Patrick's attention towards Evie, which made Emily dislike the poor girl, and the way Chris talked made Emily wish he would die alone and cold.
"Well, this has been fun, but I'd better get going,." Evie finally announced, standing up.
"Yeah, I'm her ride, I'd better head out, too." Chris agreed.
"It was so nice to meet you, Emily." Evie told Emily sincerely, smiling sweetly.
Emily returned the smile coldly.
"Yes, it was nice to meet you, too." she said curtly.
Evie's eyes shone with hurt. Patrick noticed, and he glared at Emily.
"G'night, baby." he said to Evie, kissing her passionately.
"Aw, yeah, Emily, it was great to finally, like, meet you!" Chris said.
"I can't say the same about you. Learn how to talk." Emily shot back.
Chris backed away.
"Whoa, chill."
Evie and Chris left, both looking pissed off and slightly hurt. As soon as the door was closed, Patrick wheeled around to face Emily.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" he demanded, "Evie was trying to be nice to you, and you act like a little bitch!"
"What did you call me?" Emily cried, her temper flaring,
"And Chris, Emily! So what if he talks like that, you didn't even give him a chance!" Pete joined in.
"I don't like them, okay? Chris is an idiot and Evie will end up breaking your heart, Patrick, I know it! She's not good enough for you!"
"Who are you, my mother?!"
"Emily, that was really low, what you said to Chris and how you treated Evie." Joe joined the conversation calmly.
Emily stood there, surrounded by her friends. And they all looked pissed. She spluttered for a moment, then turned around.
"I think we should just go to bed."
"We're discussing this in the morning." Pete snarled, and the four boys left for their rooms.
Emily crawled onto the couch, still in her jeans, tears in her eyes. Patrick was right; she had been a bitch. She felt once again the feeling of longing for Patrick's arms around her, maybe Joe's fingers in her hair. But she fought the urge to run crying into Patrick's bedroom, and she fell asleep on the couch, cold and alone.