FicWad

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Twenty-Five

Kate sniffled, shook her head and flipped over so she wasn't facing him anymore. Patrick sighed and walked over to his bed and crawled under the covers before falling asleep. Kate just laid there unable to fall asleep, she thought back to when life was simpler to put it mildly, back to when she was eighteen bothering her brother while he sat in the garage concocting his "greatest plan."

...
"Yeah but you and Joe don't make a band." Kate stated with a mouth full of chips as she lounged on the couch planted in the garage. Pete groaned and shot a death look in the direction of his sister. Kate laughed in response to her brother's annoyance. If he only knew how much she loved bothering him when she was bored.
"Sister shut up, Joe's on it." Pete said through gritted teeth.
"Oh God that's promising." Kate laughed and put another chip in her mouth before standing up. She wiped her hands on her jean shorts, walked over to the drum stool, brushed the hair off her face, picked up the sticks and began twirling one.
"Whatever he's on his way right now with some kid." Pete said matter a factly.
"Oh some kid, nice." She stated before she began banging on the drums.

Joe and Patrick walked quickly down the sidewalk. Joe perked up once he heard the drumming coming from the Wentz garage.
"Sweet everyone's here." Joe said excitedly and glanced back at Patrick who just nodded in response.
"Dude I really think you could work out for us so put your game face on." Joe said as he threw up the garage door. Pete sat on the floor scribbling something on a piece of paper and Kate was still drumming. Joe sighed,
"Ugh never mind, it was just Kate drumming." Joe said a little disappointed. Kate stopped her drumming as soon as she noticed Joe and "some kid" standing there.
"Brother, Joseph and the Chosen One are here." Kate laughed at herself and Pete looked up at the two boys standing in the front of the garage. He quickly got to his feet and jogged over to meet the new kid. Joe ran up to Kate and scooped her into a big bear hug before returning to the other guys.
"Hey I'm Pete, what's your name and what do you play?" Pete didn't waste any time getting to business.
"Patrick and ugh," he glanced at Kate who was now sitting back on the drum stool, "I play the drums."
"We have a drummer, it isn't her by the way she's just being annoying, play anything else?"
"The guitar."
"Cool, you any good?" Pete asked and tilted his head to the side awaiting a reply.
"I'm alright." Patrick responded, Pete nodded and turned around to face Kate.
"Where's your guitar I want to hear him play?"
"In my room." She replied suddenly feeling a bit shyer than before. Pete averted his attention back to Patrick,
"Here, you can go with her to get her guitar while me and Joe talk about you behind your back." Pete laughed. Patrick nodded that he understood and followed Kate into the house. Kate paused to wait for him to catch up,
"I'm Kate by the way."
"Patrick."
"Yeah I heard. So you play the drums and the guitar?" She felt stupid for asking him questions but she wanted to know more about him. He nodded in response.
"Big talker I see." She stated with a laugh as she threw open the door to her room. Kate began rummaging through her closet for something when Patrick decided to finally speak up.
"So, ugh, you play the drums too, that's cool."
"And the guitar." She laughed as she handed him the guitar.
"You don't look like the kind of girl that plays the drums, or the guitar for that matter." Kate smiled at his remark and Patrick nervously laughed.
"Uhm thanks?" She laughed again.
"Oh no, that's not bad it's just surprising that's all." He tried to defend himself.
"Well I can't be predictable all the time. Better hurry up and get out there before Pete has an attack." Patrick nodded and jogged out the way he came in. Kate could hear him playing from inside and as much as she was impressed by him before she was ten times more impressed with him now. She was sitting at her desk chatting online with Sara when Pete ran into her room.
"Kate, seriously, get out here, we made Patrick sing not thinking that he really could, and HE CAN. Like really good."
"That's great, but why do I need to go out there and hear it, I take your word for it." She said while typing. It's true, Kate wanted to be outside from the beginning watching him play but she didn't want to seem to eager, which in reality, her not being out there sent up more flags then her watching would have.
"Because you sing and you are ridiculously hard to impress and if he can impress you we know we've got something." Kate laughed at her brother, but obliged and followed him into the garage. She plopped down on the couch next to Joe. Patrick wiped his hands on his pants and motioned for Pete to come over, he whispered something in his ear.
"You're going to have to sing to more than three people eventually and Kate isn't that scary. Well not right now at least, you should see her in the morning, oh my word." Pete ran off on a tangent.
"Hey! Hi! Hello! Can you shut up now? Thanks." Kate said with a raised finger. Pete stopped babbling.
"But anyways, if you can impress her then we know we have something, she knows about singing and shit." Joe commented, Patrick gave them a questioning look and Pete rolled his eyes.
"She's in a band, she sings, blah, blah, blah."
"Well I will if she will." Patrick fidgeted with the guitar strap.
"Seriously?" Kate questioned, and Patrick nodded. She glanced at the other boys who also nodded their approval and she sighed,
"Ugh fine, let me get a drink first." She stated and walked into the house. As soon as she was gone Pete blurted out,
"You like my sister."
"I do not." Patrick defended.
"You should, she's hot." Joe said through a mouthful of chips. Pete made an 'ew' face and returned his gaze to Patrick.
"We can all see it, just admit it. You seem like a cool kid, I think I would approve." Pete finished with a nod just as Kate walked back into the garage.
"Well sir if I may have my guitar back it would be lovely." Kate reached out her hand and Patrick gave her the guitar.
"Thank you. So gentlemen . . . and Joe, what am I singing, and make it short 'cause I'm only doing this to hear Patrick sing?" She flashed a smile in Patrick's direction and strummed her guitar.
"Dude if you sang Britney Spears it would be so funny." Joe laughed while bits of chip fell out of his mouth and onto his lap.
"Don't try me Joe, I will." Kate laughed.
"Do it, Do it." Joe chanted.
"Oh I will. But I'm not singing Baby One More Time, that's lame, I'm totally going with underground Spears here and singing Autumn Goodbye." Kate responded and then completed the first verse of 'Autumn Goodbye.'
"Taaa Daaaa" Kate laughed, as Joe sat there with his mouth agape and Pete just shook his head.
"I didn't think you actually knew any Britney Spears." Joe replied still stunned.
"Well I can't be predictable all the time, right 'Trick?" She was impressed with her new nickname for him and let out a giggle before turning to Patrick and raising an eyebrow,
"Your turn."
"Oh God." Was Patrick's only reply before he took the guitar. He fidgeted with the guitar pick before singing the only thing that could come to his mind, "Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye. He sang the first verse and the chorus. When he stopped Pete just stood with his arms crossed nodding in a very 'I told you so' manner as Kate just sat there amazed. She nodded her approval, mumbled something about keeping Sara waiting and ran inside the house in an attempt to hide her severely blushing face. Kate leaned up against the fridge and tried to calm her breathing, her mother walked in to the kitchen and raised an eyebrow at her daughter.
"Kate honey, stop being weird and use your inhaler, and move I have to get into the fridge." Her mother stated and shooed her out of the way of the door.
Back in the garage the boys sat around not really doing much of anything.
"Dude we totally need to figure out how to get Andy Hurley, and also how to get Pat and Kate together." Pete said all in one breath.
"Who's Andy Hurley and, wait, HEY!" Patrick yelled.
"Go talk to her seriously, I know about these things." Pete stated with a nod.
"Yeah it's easy, just go in there and pinch her love handles, I do it all the time." Joe said while rummaging through the bag of chips.
"Uhm, I think I'll pass." Patrick responded as he untied and retied his shoes.
"Well yeah, don't listen to dip shit and pinch her fat, but ughhh, here." Pete handed Patrick Kate's guitar and motioned towards inside, "Go give her this back." Patrick reluctantly stood and headed towards inside, he ran into Mrs. Wentz in the kitchen.
"I don't believe we've met before, I'm Pete's Mom." She smiled.
"Patrick." He smiled in return and held up the guitar, "I'm returning this to Kate."
"Oh we're you the one singing outside, you sound great." She responded.
"Thank you very much. Well I better give this back, it was nice meeting you." Patrick responded with a polite nod before continuing his journey to Kate's room. Kate was looking under her bed for something while talking on the phone, she took a puff of her inhaler before continuing her conversation.
"No, Sara, I'm not kidding, it was just like sex." She shook the inhaler and took another puff, Patrick stopped short in the doorway of her room.
"There you are you little bastard." Kate mumbled and pulled a shirt out from under her bed, "Yeah, yeah I found it." Patrick knocked on the open door to signal his presence and Kate glanced over to him.
"Uhm Sara, I'll call you back." Kate clicked the phone off and stood up.
"Hey." She smiled at him. He motioned to the little device in her hand,
"Asthma?"
"Yeah pretty much." Kate laughed. Patrick handed her the guitar,
"Thanks." - "Do you wanna go out with me?" They both responded at the same time.
"Wait, what?" Kate questioned.
"Uh, never mind." Patrick put his hands in his pockets signaled behind him at the door and began to leave.
"No wait, I didn't hear what you said, that's all." She tugged on the sleeve of his jacket. He sighed,
"Do you wanna go out with me? I know you don't know me very well or at all really but I think it'd be cool to hang out together." Patrick trailed off.
"Like on a date?" Kate laughed.
"Uhm, yes? No? This was stupid, I'm sorry." He responded and proceeded to walk out the door. She grabbed his sleeve once more and he turned to face her.
"I'd love to."
...

Kate awoke to Patrick stumbling over a chair in the dark on his way to the bathroom.
"Ow, fuck." He said from his spot on the floor. Kate sighed,
"Are you ok?" she whispered.
"Ugh yeah, sorry I woke you." He apologized. She could tell by the tone in his voice that he wasn't as 'ok' as he said. Kate got out of bed, turned on the light and looked at Patrick who was still lying on the floor.
"Your leg is bleeding." She responded calmly and gestured to the spot on his thigh where he had scraped on the corner of the table.
"Yeah I know, go back to bed, it's not bad." He responded while getting up off the floor and proceeding to the bathroom.
"You should clean it or it's going to get infected." She sighed.
"It's clean, it's fine." He responded as he was washing his hands.
"Alright, fine Patrick." Kate said defeated as she shut off the light and went to crawl back into her bed, he groaned.
"Kate, if it bothers you that much then you can clean it." Patrick replied from the bathroom doorway.
"I don't care if you don't care."
"I care, please clean it for me."
Kate said nothing but just turned on the light and rummaged through some stuff before walking into the bathroom with a bottle of peroxide, and a band aide. Patrick backed up into the counter.
"No way, that shit stings." He whined and Kate rolled her eyes.
"Just sit down." He shook his head 'no' but sat on the counter anyways. She poured a little bit onto a paper towel and put the peroxide towel on his thigh without warning.
"Ugh, the warning, what happened to 'on the count of three?' Shit!"
He made whimpering noises that most resembled an injured animal.
"You are such a baby." She responded and shook her head before putting the band aide on the cut. Kate threw the garbage away and walked out the bathroom without another word. She crawled into bed and put the covers over her shoulder in order to get comfortable. Patrick sighed from his spot on the counter. How could I be so stupid as to lose the most important person in my life? he questioned himself. This proves my theory correct, that she deserves someone better than me. But how am I going to let that happen when I don't want her to be with anyone other than myself?