FicWad

Sorry it took so long to update. Unfortunately my Twins lost, and then I got sick, so sitting up and typing was not in the cards for a while. I hope you all stuck with me through the little pause in action. Enjoy!

It was a day before the boy's gig and everyone was a little tense to say the least. Even Andy seemed stressed and he was usually the most laid back.

"Alright, so what song do we want to do next?" Andy asked leaning forward and looking at the papers scattered across the coffee table in front of him.

We all sat around Andy's garage trying to prepare the final details of their performance. Pete was so anxious he couldn't even sit down. He just stood and paced behind the couch that I was sitting on. Patrick remained relatively calm and Joe, well, Joe was Joe. The boys talked some more and gave their explanations for why they felt a song should go somewhere. Ady and I stayed quiet throughout the whole experience. A couple days earlier I tried to give Pete some advice, but he just slammed me up against the wall and told me to butt out, so I did.

"Alright, well, we need to be at the venue around 6:00 for sound check, so how about we meet here at 5:00 to load everything up," Andy said gathering the papers into one pile.

"Sounds good to me," Joe said happily jumping up from his seat. It was pretty obvious he was getting quite antsy.

"Where are you going in such a hurry?" Ady asked accusingly.

"Me? Well, I sort of have a date," he said blushing slightly.

"Joe! You have a date?" I asked in shock.

"Why is that so hard to believe?" he asked laughing at my reaction.

"I don't know. It just is," I said simply. Patrick and Andy just laughed.

"Yeah, Joe. Who did you find that will put up with your shit?" Andy asked.

"Yeah, is she a masochist?" Patrick asked. Joe just stood there nodding at all the blows he was getting.

"Yeah yeah. Keep it up assholes. She happens to be a very nice girl who just moved to town and I met her at the food court the other day," he said defending himself.

"So she has no idea what she is getting herself into," I stated as a fact.

"Not really," he said shrugging slightly. "But I gotta go. I'll see you guys tomorrow!" he said and jogged out of the garage.

"That poor girl," Ady said giggling and moving to sit on Andy's lap.

"Poor girl indeed," Andy agreed wrapping his arms around her.

I longingly looked over at those two. I then looked over at Pete who was standing by his bass doing God knows what. Pete was so stressed out that his birthday was the last time we actually got to spend any quality time together, and the time that we did spend together we were arguing. I just wish he wouldn't get so stressed out. And then I wish he wouldn't take it out on me.

"Hey, you ok?" Patrick asked quietly while nudging me in the side. I looked over at him breaking my gaze.

"I'm fine," I said quietly.

His look went straight to concern, but I just brushed him off and stood up. Suddenly it was too stuffy to be in that garage. I walked outside. The summer air was cooling off quickly as the sun barely shown over the horizon. I took a deep breath and just hoped that tomorrow would go off without a hitch, so things could go back to normal. I felt someone's presence behind me and I knew it wasn't the person I wished it was.

"Has he hurt you again?" Patrick asked quietly.

"Patrick, please. I don't want to talk about it," I said not turning around to face him.

"Maybe you need to talk about it, so you can see how wrong it is," he said walking so he was in front of me.

"Look, I know Pete needs help. But with the band and everything, there just isn't any time. He doesn't deal well with stress, so I just need to back off when he is stressed out," I said folding my arms in front of me.

"It's not Pete that needs the help. It's you," Patrick said walking closer to me.

I looked up into his eyes and couldn't understand why he cared so much. Why would Patrick care if I got slapped around every once in a while? Why?

"What are you guys doing out here?" Pete asked causing me to jump lightly.

"Just enjoying the nice evening," I said waving my hand around. "Did you get everything accomplished that you wanted?" I asked walking up to Pete.

"Yeah, I guess so," he said taking a deep breath.

"Can we go then?" I asked shortly. I suddenly didn't want to be under the prying eyes of Patrick. Pete looked at me then over at Patrick.

"Sure," he said unsure of what was going on.

"Thanks," I said walking past him into the garage to say goodbye to Andy and Ady.

I came back out of the garage and started to walk down the street with Pete following me and Patrick standing alone in the driveway.

"What's up?" Pete asked grabbing my hand. I almost pulled away from not being used to his gentle touch.

"I guess I'm tired," I said simply.

"Did Patrick say something to upset you?" Pete asked not buying my excuse.

"No, of course not. I dunno what's up. I just want to spend some time with you," I squeezed his hand and looked over at him.

"Well, I can deal with that," he said smiling. It was the most relaxed I had seen him all week.

----------

I sat off to the side on a large folding table watching the boys set up for their performance. The place we were at was quite interesting. It was in the basement of a party house for some college in Chicago. I wasn't sure how many people lived in the house, but the basement was huge. I looked around and noticed a room for the kegs, which were being delivered at the moment, there was another room for foosball, and yet another room with beat up old couches, which I assumed was for pot smoking. Then there was the large main room where the boys were going to play. I was sure this was going to be an interesting night.

"Hey!" Ady said happily and plopped down next to me.

"Hey," I said back quietly.

"Can you believe that these guys are going to play in front of an audience? How surreal," she said shaking her head in disbelief.

"Yeah, it's crazy," I said simply.

"Are you ok?" she asked trying to look me in the eye. I was pretty sure I was sick of people asking me that.

"Fine. Just nervous, you know," I said smiling slightly at her.

"Oh, they will do just fine," she said putting her arm around me. I never understood how Ady could be chipper twenty-four-seven.

The boys went upstairs and did some pacing and warming up as the party house began to fill its floors with people. The boys were jumping up and down and trying to shake their nerves away. I smiled slightly at the scene. Pete walked up to me and took my hand. I was in shock, since he didn't usually like to be touched when he was nervous.

"Feel," he said putting my hand up to his heart. I could feel his heartbeat beating faster than the normal person.

"You are going to do just fine," I said smiling up at him.

"I hope so," he breathed out not letting go of my hand.

"You will," I said sternly. He looked down at me and nodded.

"Ok boys! Ready!?" one of the house owners asked coming into the room we were occupying.

"You will," I said again and Pete let go of my hand. They walked off to play their hearts out.

----------

"Holy shit! You guys were amazing!" I yelled as they came storming off to the side after they were done playing.

It wasn't a lie. Those boys completely kicked ass and the crowd really enjoyed it. Patrick was the first to hug me. He was soaked to the bone, but I didn't care.

"Wow." Was all that he could muster up. I looked over and saw Pete behind him leaning over with his hands on his knees.

"Pete? You alright?" I asked going past Patrick.

He stood up showing no emotion. He didn't answer me and just walked up the stairs and out the door with me quick on his heels. He walked to the side of a car and puked.

"Pete?" I asked standing back a little. He coughed some but then stood up again.

"That was awesome," he said turning towards me and smiling. I was taken back by his reaction to vomiting, but just smiled with him.

"You guys were amazing," I said nodding. Soon the rest of the gang had come outside. All the boys were drenched with sweat.

"Pete, dude. You alright?" Joe asked breathing heavily.

"I'm great," he said sounding giddy. We all just laughed at his reaction.

"Well, shit. Let's go back inside and enjoy the rest of the party," Andy said with his arm around Ady. Everyone agreed and we all piled back inside.

Patrick, Andy, and I decided it was best to get the equipment packed up before people got too drunk to do anything. It didn't take long since they really didn't have all that much stuff. It was basically the drums that took the most time.

"Hey guys! Will is having some people over, we should go," Joe said holding up his cell phone. I just looked over at Andy and nodded along with him.

"Alright, round up Pete and Ady," Andy said taking a deep breath. They, of course, were in the room with the kegs already giggly from the beer they had consumed.

"Hey guys. Want to go to Will's?" Andy asked lightly touching Ady's arm.

"Sure," she said laughing. Pete just nodded and chugged the beer he had just refilled.

We all piled into the van that Joe's parents let them borrow, so they could fit everyone and their stuff. Pete just leaned his head on my shoulder the whole way. I swear he had fallen asleep.

"Hey Joe, is your girlfriend going to be there?" Patrick asked from the other side of me.

"Maybe," he said simply.

"So she's your girlfriend now?" I asked slyly.

"Maybe," he said again.

"Wow, Joe's being all secretive. Impressive," Patrick replied. I couldn't see Joe's face, but I could tell that he was smiling rather largely.

Andy pulled the van up to Joe's house, so it wouldn't be sitting on the street. We all decided to walk to Will's since he only lived about four blocks away. The joys of living in a small town.

"Pete, can you walk?" I asked nudging him slightly.

"What kind of question is that? I'm not a fucking drunk," he said angrily. The rest of the gang looked at me shocked.

"I understand that, but you seem kind of tired," I said simply piling out of the van with everyone else.

"Well, I'm fine," he said and started to walk to Will's by himself. I just followed in silence.

Once we got to Will's everyone started to go downstairs except for Pete.

"I'm going to use the can," he said grumpily.

I just went downstairs with everyone else not worried about Pete. He could take care of himself.

The crowd was small, but fun. The boys were excitedly telling everybody about their performance that night and everyone else was excitedly listening.

"That's awesome guys," Will said taking a swig of his beer.

"It was so much fun. I can't wait to do it again," Patrick said shaking his head in disbelief.

"Yeah, Patrick. You really rocked out there," I said pushing him slightly. He just looked down into his beer and blushed.

"Yeah, who knew he could sing," Joe said laughing out loud. I just laughed at Joe and looked around noticing that Pete still hadn't come down from upstairs.

"I'm going to look for Pete," I said to no one in particular and went upstairs.

When I got up there I was shocked that there were no lights on. I didn't remember turning them off when I went downstairs the first time.

"Pete?" I called out unable to see anything.

"Mmm." I heard a mumble or a moan. I smiled slightly. He must have fallen asleep on the couch or chair. My hands trailed the wall until I found the light switch. I flipped it on only to see Pete sitting in a reclining chair with Carrie looking straight at me and giving Pete a blow job.

"Oh my God!" I said loudly putting my hand up to my mouth. Pete's head jerked up and over to see me looking shocked.

"Izzy?" he said sounding extremely confused.

"Oh my God," I said finding the door quickly and rushing out.

I couldn't breathe and I was beginning to feel as though I was going to pass out. I tried to run, but my feet suddenly felt extremely heavy.

"Izzy!" I heard from behind me. It wasn't Pete's voice. Who was behind me? I tried to go faster, but fell down to my knees instead.

"Izzy. Are you ok?" Patrick asked wrapping his arms around me trying to help me up.

"No, I'm not ok!" I said now crying, but not standing up.

"Why? What happened? Did you find Pete?" he asked still trying to get me to stand up.

"He...he was...he was...," I was unable to get the words out.

"He was what?" he asked successfully getting me off the ground.

"I saw Carrie giving him a blow job!" I screamed and continued to try to walk down the street. I couldn't see anything with the tears streaming down my face.

"Are you sure? I was just upstairs and there wasn't anyone there," he said sounding out of breath.

"I know what I saw, Patrick," I said still crying. I couldn't get that image out of my mind.

"Come on, I'll take you home," he said quietly and led me to my house.