FicWad

"Hey Mitch." I could feel Andy roll his eyes from the driver's seat.
"Oh I'm actaually with Andy right now, we're going to that photo shoot." I'm pretty sure Andy could hear him squeal in delight... I'm dating a loser.
"Yes babe... all day....Alright, love you too. I'll call you then... Bye."

"The boyfriend's jealous?"

I turned to Andy and smirked. "He's not jealous of you guys being with me, he's jealous of me being with you guys."

Andy laughed and smiled "I think your boy's a 'mo."

"Andy, Mitch isn't gay... he just has a weird man crush on Fall Out Boy. Kinda like Pete and Ryan Ross."

Andy took his hands off the steering wheel and threw them up in the air out of shock. "Whoa whoa! Look at you! Just a few days ago you had no idea who we were, now you know about Pete's man-loves."

I laughed. "Yeah - I read it somewhere."

'Read it somewhere' really means when I bought the last issue of AP (most anticipated albums of 2007, with Motion City Soundtrack on the cover) because I noticed it featured the band whose drummer lives next door. I must admit, I read every word.

Andy broke my thinking process. "So what did you think of the cds?"

I twisted uncomfortably, I was kinda dreading this question. "Uhm, I liked a lot of the older stuff. Patrick's voice is amazing, and the instrumentals are good. Really, you guys are pretty good for what you are. It's just, what you are isn't something I'm exactly into."

Andy smiled at me "Good answer."

******

We arrived at the studio on time, but only Patrick was supposedly there, even though I had not seen him yet. Pete and Joe were late, but according to Andy, that was normal. After waiting around for about an hour with Andy, I started to feel that coffee we stopped for on the way to Chicago. I had to pee, bad.

"Andy, I'm gonna go look for the bathroom. I'll be right back."

I turned down the hallway in search for the white woman silhouette that would lead me to release. I heard strumming coming from a room down the hall, I walked towards it. The vocals got louder, even though they were still soft, clear, and melting.
I slowed down, taking in every bit of the singing and acoustic guitar I could. I peeked around the doorway and saw Patrick sitting on a chair in an empty room. Eyes closed and foot pounding the floor softly. He wasn't singing a Fall Out Boy song, or anything that even sounded like one. It was a pure song, his voice fit it perfectly and I felt sudden chills going down my body.

Our mouths moved simultaneously... his in song and mine in smile. This boy was amazing. I breathed in as much of the song as I could before I turned to leave un-noticed. I smiled one last smile and breathed in one last long breath and turned to find the bathroom.

I left the bathroom, which turned out to only be a few doors down from where Patrick was, only to see him leaving at the same time. He must of heard me because he turned around and I stopped dead in my tracks like I was caught doing something wrong.
I wasn't, I was only going to the bathroom, but he made me nervous. I couldn't put my finger on why.

"Hey Drey. I didn't know you were coming!"

I decided to walk towards that big ball of talent. "Yeah, Andy invited me."

He walked toward me. "Yeah, I know he invited you, he told me. I just didn't think you'd actually come... I'm really glad you did."

I smiled and blushed maybe a little, maybe. "Well what else would I be doing? Plus, I've never been to Chicago."

We were finally stopped at the same spot and decided to walk towards where the shoot was taking place. Patrick smiled "Never? Well, in that case we have to all take you out after we're finished here... we'll show you the really great places. I promise you'll like them."

How could I object? "Alright, that sounds like fun."

During the shoot, which started 3 hours after scheduled due to Pete and Joe, I couldn't help but laugh. Pete was shoved to the front by the photographer for being the sex symbol of the band, but he didn't seem to mind. Joe and Andy were goofing around together, pretending to battle with imaginary light sabors any chance they got, despite the constent reprimanding from a bald man in the corner trying to come across as seriously angry at the two, and then there was Patrick. Patrick just stood there, laughing occasionally at a stab in the heart to Joe from Andy or Pete joking about his hair being perfect. It was clear to me that he'd rather be back in that little room strumming and singing than in front of flashing lights and photographers. He posed when they asked him to and smiled and was serious and shocked and goofy and pensive and anything else they asked that he wasn't feeling at that exact moment. After a while, they called a rap. The shoot was over.

I stood up to meet the guys and Andy ran up to me first. "Hey Drey, Patrick told us that he said something about going into the city so we could give you a tour and whatnot."

"Yeah... he said cause I've never been here."

Andy seemed rushed and he continued. "Okay well, Pete needs some help at his house with some things and he'd be fine with just Joe and I helping so do you mind if just Patrick takes you out?"

"No, no that's fine. I mean, do you need him? We don't have to go around the city, we can go help Pete."

Andy shook his head in protest. "No, it's okay, really. Patrick really wants to, it'll be good for him to get a break from the band stuff anyway. Go have fun! Patrick will bring you back to Pete's and then we'll go back home from there. It was a lot of information to take in, maiinly because Andy didn't even stop to take a breath.

"Oh okay, I'll go find Patrick then. Have fun and I'll see you later."

Andy kissed me on the cheek out of instinct and ran back towards Pete and Joe and bald man. I went to look for Patrick.

"Drey!" Patrick found me first. I turned towards him and he was holding his guitar and laptop bag. "You ready for a kick ass night on the town?" I smiled and nodded. He seemed exasperrated... he seemed like he needed a good night out.

"Lets go."

He placed his palm on the small of my back and led me out of the building and into the night lights of Chicago.