Categories > Celebrities > Fall Out Boy > Times Square Can't Shine As Bright As You

And the embers never fade in your city by the lake

by lil_chica007 3 reviews

Haley gets that bass lesson, and maybe a little something more...

Category: Fall Out Boy - Rating: PG-13 - Genres: Drama,Humor,Romance - Published: 2007-08-20 - Updated: 2007-08-20 - 2748 words - Complete

0Unrated
Sorry it's been so long since I updated. I've been very unmotivated. And I've been working nights at my job (at a supermarket, nothing exciting) and I've been very sleepy. I've had the first half of this chapter written for like a week and a half, and I finally finished it. I don't work tomorrow, so I'll try to get another chapter done. Enjoy. (The title is from Tonight, Tonight by the Smashing Pumpkins.)


The phone in William and Haley’s apartment rang at 11:00 am a couple days after Pete had come to hang out. Haley jumped awake at the ringing and looked over at the clock. She groaned and rolled over, burying her head under the blankets. “Too early.” She mumbled to herself. She heard William’s creak open as he shuffled into the kitchen to answer the phone. Just as she was falling back asleep her bedroom door swung open and William cleared his throat loudly. She peeked out from under the blanket to see him standing next to her bed in his boxers with his hair sticking up all over the place.
“It’s for you.” He held the phone out to her. She reached for it and retreated back into her cocoon as he shuffled back into his room.
“This better be good.” She said into the phone.
“You have to save me!” Pete’s voice echoed over the line.
“Huh?”
“My mom and my grandmother are going shopping for new curtains, and they’re threatening to take me with them.”
“What am I supposed to do about that?” Haley yawned.
“I told them I couldn’t because I already had plans with you.”
“Why me?”
“I panicked. And my mom likes you. Any of my other friends she would have made me reschedule to spend time with my grandmother, but she says she’s concerned about your welfare and socialization.”
“You do owe me a bass lesson…”
“Well alright then. I’ll see you in a few.”

Haley arrived at Pete’s house about an hour later. Pete happened to glance out the window on his way to the kitchen to notice her driving William’s car back and forth in about 2 foot spurts, half on the curb in front of his house. “What the hell?” he grabbed his shoes to go check that she hadn’t become deranged or something. Haley had been concentrating so hard on parking that she didn’t notice Pete approach the car and lean in the open window as she was trying to get the car off the sidewalk. “Everything ok here?” he asked as Haley jumped and pushed the gas pedal too hard, almost running him over.
“I can’t parallel park.” She sighed. Pete took a step back to examine the car wedged at a 45-degree angle between two others with one wheel still up on the curb.
“I can see that.” He walked around the car, motioning for her to get out. “Here, let me do it.” He got behind the wheel and pulled the car back out into the street. In one swift motion Pete had the car neatly in the parking space and handed Haley the keys, giving her a big smile.
“Show off.” She grumbled.
“It’s not my fault I’m so good at EVERYTHING. If you know what I mean.” He said wiggling his eyebrows.
“I do know what you mean, and eew.” she said seriously, following him up the walk towards the house. “And in my defense, when I learned how to drive, everywhere I went had valet parking.” She shook her head.
“That could prove to be a dilemma in the drivers ed department.” Pete said, opening the door and leading Haley inside.
“I do know how to say ‘please don’t move the seat’ in 6 languages though.”
“Well there you go. Every cloud has a silver lining. So this is my house. Well my parents house.”
“Ooh, do I get a tour?” Haley smiled.
“Do you want a your?”
“Yeah! It’ll be like Disney World…or Colonial Williamsburg. You can be the tour guide, and I’ll ask dumb questions and wear a fanny pack. Where’s my camera?” she began digging through her bag. Pete laughed.
“Ok then. To our left we see the kitchen, where the natives prepare their sustenance.” He began walking though the house, putting on a cheesy tour guide voice as Haley bounced along behind him pretending to take pictures with her camera phone. “Behind us is the living room, reserved for formal occasions, such as the President’s sudden visitation.”
“Oh my god! Is that you?” Haley cut him off, pointing at a picture on a side table of a very naked baby in the bathtub with bubble foam piled on his head. Pete’s cheeks turned pink and he flipped the picture around.
“That’s none of your concern.”
“Aww. It is you.” She laughed.
“I never said that. I do have a brother. It could very well be him.”
“Then why would your face be all red?” she patted his cheek lightly, just making him blush more.
“Ok, now I have to show you the upstairs.” He turned towards the staircase. Haley grinned evilly and snapped a quick picture of the photo with her phone before following Pete upstairs.

“So then finally this is my room.” Pete said finishing up the tour on the 3rd level.
“Cool. It’s like you have your own little apartment up here. All you need is a mini fridge and you’d never have to leave.” Haley said walking around, inspecting the room.
“I guess that was the point when my parents moved me up here in high school. Give me my own floor and maybe it would contain all my filth, rather than having my stuff strewn about where the public can see.”
“It’s not that filthy-eew underpants!” she dodged a pair of boxers on the floor, almost tripping before snapping a picture.
“Oh, sorry.” Pete mumbled, quickly grabbing them and shoved them under the bed.
Haley walked into his bathroom and gasped. “I recognize this wallpaper!” she squealed, sticking her head out the door and giving him a funny look. He followed her in and leaned against the wall, watching her rub at her smudged eyeliner in the mirror. “I feel dirty being in here, especially with you standing there. I have to leave.” She took a picture of their reflections in the mirror, standing in the same spot as ‘those pictures’. She giggled and walked past him out the door. Sitting down on his bed, she looked at the picture she just took. “Gross, do I really look that bad right now? It looks like I have two black eyes.” She held the phone out for Pete to look at.
“You look hot. I mean, good. It’s probably just the light in there. You don’t look bad. It looks fine…” he stammered, standing in front of her, shifting from one foot to the other.
“I didn’t bother to take a shower. This is still my eyeliner from yesterday that I never took off. It’s starting to make my eyes all red.” She said rubbing at her eyes again.
“No, you look good. I wouldn’t have noticed.”
“Thanks. So when are we going to play the bass?” she asked, bouncing on the bed.
“Oh, right. I’ll go get it.” Pete ran into the other half of his room and returned with two basses, his new red and black one and his old, chipped brown one. “You can have the good one. So what song do you want to play?” He handed her the red and black Clandestine bass and sat down next to her.
“What song do YOU want to play, teacher.”
“Um…I could teach you ‘Dance, Dance’. That’s pretty easy. Unless you want to play one that’s not ours. I don’t even know what kind of music you’re into.”
“That sounds perfect.” She giggled as he started rambling again.
“Ok, so the first thing you need to know is how to hold the pick right. This is how I hold it…” he handed her a pick and demonstrated how to hold it. She copied how his hand was and looked up at him, smiling.
“Right?”
“Perfect. You’re not as bad as you thought.” He smiled back.

Two hours later they were still seated in the exact same spots. “Ok, so you put your hand like this,” Pete moved Haley’s fingers to the right strings, “and strum those strings twice,” he pointed. “And then move to here, and here, here twice, and here. Think you’ve got it?” he let go of her hand.
“Sure.” She said cheerfully.
“Now try it by yourself.” Haley hunched over the instrument, concentrating even harder than she had on parking. ‘dum…dum…daaaa…da…dum…dum…da” she looked up at Pete and grinned like a puppy that just learned to roll over.
“Perfect! Very slow, but you got the first 7 notes perfect.”
“I should learn the whole song by, oh, February.” Haley laughed.
“I think we need a sandwich break.” Pete suggested as Haley’s stomach growled loudly.
“Agreed.” She said rubbing her tummy.

“So, how long are you going to be around for?” Haley asked as Pete placed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in front of her and sat down next to her at the kitchen counter.
“We have a week off, then we’re going right back out on another tour.
“That’s not a long time.”
“Well, we’re using basically the same setup, just a little modified, so there’s not a lot to rehearse. So I figured I’d just hang around, instead of going home and having to come right back.”
“Where do you live?”
“L.A. I got a house there about a year ago.”
“Cool.” Haley nodded. They sat in silence for a few minutes, eating their sandwiches. “I haven’t eaten peanut butter and jelly since I was in, like 3rd grade.” Haley laughed, looking down at her sandwich.
“It’s my favorite.” Pete said with his mouth full.
“All we need is juice boxes.”
“I think we have some Capri Sun.” Pete got up to look in the refrigerator.
“Bring it on!” He brought over two Capri Suns and sat back down. Haley cracked up as Pete’s turned into a fountain when he stuck the straw in.
“Fuck. I always do that.” He grabbed a napkin and wiped up the puddle. Haley smirked at him as she sipped her drink.

“My fingers hurt.” Haley whined, holding her hands up so Pete could see her red finger tips.
“That will happen. You need to build up caluses, and eventually it won’t hurt any more.” They had moved to the couch and were now watching TV.
“But I don’t want them to get all gross.” She closely examined her fingers, sticking one in her mouth. “I think I’m getting a blister.”
“You were the one who wanted to learn. No pain, no gain.”
“You could have told me there would be pain.”
“So, I hear you’re giving up modeling.” Pete tried to change the subject, to get away from the whining.
“Yeah. I’m tired of it, it’s just not who I am anymore. You know?”
“Sure.”
“Life’s too short to spend all my time worrying about having the right hair and getting facials and manicures every so many weeks so I don’t look ‘tired’.” She said, using finger quotes.
“That sounds horrible.” Pete said sarcastically.
“My life has too much structure. Do you know, that before this last month when Bill was away, I had never been alone in my life.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. I’ve always had chaparones and agents and handlers. I’d never been by myself for more than a couple hours.”
“Wow. I can’t even imagine what that would be like.”
“Trust me it sucks. And I was terrified of it at first. But after a couple days, it was awesome. I could stay up until 3am and leave my clothes on the floor and no one was there to tell me not to.” She smiled.
“So you decided to quit so you could live like a slob.”
“Exactly. I plan to get fat and not shower for days at a time.”
“That’s kind of disgusting.” Pete smiled.
“Well, maybe I’ll still shower.” Haley shrugged. “My last job is doing Fashion Week in New York next month. It’s the only thing I still had scheduled, and I can’t back out.”
“Why not?”
“It’s one of the biggest events of the year. The designers plan their whole show around which models they’re using. Heatherette designed their collection specifically for me to wear. I just couldn’t do that to them.”
“I get it. You have a sense of loyalty.”
“Yeah. I guess that’s what you’d call it.”
“I never realized you were such a big deal.” Pete said, impressed.
“They’re calling me the next Kate Moss. Except without the cocaine. But then I tried to kill myself, so I guess we’re even now.” She laughed nervously. They just sat, watching TV for a while.

Pete kept stealing glances over at Haley who was looking around the room. Pretending to watch TV, his mind was racing. “What should I do? Should I make a move? No, it’s Bill’s sister that would be weird. But she’s hot. And young, I can’t do anything. But what if she wants me to make a move. She’s looking at me, why’s she looking at me? Do I smell? Is there something on my face?” he tried to discretely smell his armpit while wiping his face on his sleeve. Haley moved her eyes down to his arm. “What?” Pete smiled.
“I like your tattoos.” Haley said running her finger over his Jack Skellington one.
“Oh, thanks.” He held out both arms for her to see.
“The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my favorite movies.”
“Mine too.”
“I can tell. I’ve always wanted to get a tattoo.”
“Why don’t you, you’re old enough.”
“Everyone always said I’d lose contracts with people who didn’t want that kind of image. So how many do you have?”
“I don’t know. I have a couple on my back, both arms and this one. Although you’ve probably already seen that one online.” He lifted his shirt up to show his bartskull tattoo.
“Yeah, that’s a little familiar.” She smiled, leaning over a little to see it over his arm. When she sat up again, her face was inches from Pete’s and she froze like a deer in headlights. Pete leaned in slowly and just as their lips were about to touch the front door flew open. Haley and Pete jumped apart trying to look innocent as they both furiously blushed. Mrs. Wentz bustled into the room carrying an armful of shopping bags and strips of fabric.
“Hi sweetheart, how was your afternoon? Oh, Haley. Hi, I didn’t know you were here. I saw Joe at the supermarket. He said to call him to hang out. The people at the curtain place were so nice you should have come with us. We couldn’t decide, so they gave us all these samples to bring home and see which matched the furniture.”
“Uh…cool.”
“Have you eaten yet? Your grandmother and I were going to go get a salad if you two want to come.” She looked between Haley and Pete, sitting on the couch looking very uncomfortable. “Did we interrupt something?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
“W-What? No!” Pete stuttered.
“I should be going.” Haley stood up making her way to the door.
“I’ll walk you out.” Pete started to follow her.
“No, that’s ok. You don’t have to.” She grabbed her purse from the table by the door and practically ran to the door, leaving Pete standing in the middle of the hallway looking crushed.
“Ok. What the hell did I just walk in on?” his mom asked, crossing her arms and giving him a look.
“I have no idea, but I think I fucked it up.”


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