FicWad

We had promised the guys that we would go to their Chicago show before they even left, so I we couldn't back out now. What made it even worse was the fact that I invited James to go along with us because I had thought Patrick would actually be happy about him. In short, tonight was going to suck.

I pulled on my Fall Out Boy shirt from that day in the mall along with a pair of jeans that I had stolen from Pete. Hey, he's short, I'm short, it works. I did my own eyeliner (Pete had taught me how just before they left) and yelled to Jess that it was time to go. We were meeting James at the venue, God help us all.

I sat sulkily in the passenger seat while Jess kept throwing worried glances at me. "It'll be fine, Jen."

"Easy for you to say."

She just sighed and stayed quiet.

Once we were at the venue, I called James to let him know where we were. He showed up a couple minutes later. I realized, much to my disappointment, that the sight of him didn't give me the reassurance it usually did. Nevertheless, I took him by the hand and decided that I needed to stop being a baby. I calmly walked to the backstage entrance and showed the security guard our passes that Joe had dropped off earlier. He was even nice enough to bring an extra one for James. The minute we were inside, my panic returned. What would Patrick do when he saw James? I wasn't worried about violence, but Ihated the look Patrick had on his face when I was just talking about James. I didn't think I'd be able to stand his face when he actually saw him. He looked so... hurt.



Eventually, we located Fall Out Boy's dressing room and flung the door open without knocking. It's not like they were doing anything in there anyway. Pete, Andy and Joe looked up and when they saw who it was, they got identical half-happy, half-worried looks on their faces. Patrick, however, didn't even acknowledge our presence. He just kept tuning his guitar.

"Hey guys." Pete said. "Care to introduce us to your friend?"

Thank God for Pete. "Yeah. Guys, this is James, my boyfriend," I saw Patrick cringe, "James, this is Pete, Andy, Joe and Patrick."

They all gave waves except for Patrick. He looked up and gave something between a nod and some kind of twitch that made it look like he wanted to bolt. Come to think of it, he probably did.

We all talked awkwardly for about 10 minutes before the guys had to go to a separate room for a meet and greet. "Just stay here ok?" Pete told us. "We'll come back to grab our gear and then the show will start."

Jess nodded and they walked out. James forced a laugh."Well, meeting Fall Out Boy wasn't as glamorous as I thought it would be."

"I'm sorry. That was really awkward, wasn't it?"

He pretended to think for a moment and then said, "Yeah. It really was. I only wonder why."

The way he said that caught me off guard. He sounded like he knew exactly why, but he had no intention of telling me.

"Patrick's not really as friendly as all the magazines say he is."

There it was again, that defensiveness that had come over me when Patrick was rude about James. "Patrick is the most friendly person I've ever met." I said rather coldly.

He frowned. "Well, you know him better."





~Patrick's POV~

I kind of flung myself blindly through the meet and greet. Itried to be as happy-looking as possible, but I could still see people making concerned faces at me. Finally, it was over and we went back to grab our stuff. I walked into the room without looking at anyone, grabbed my guitar and almostmade it out without talking to anyone, when someone grabbed my arm. Of course, it just had to be Jenna. "Good luck out there." She said softly with asmall smile. I managed a "thanks," and left.

Halfway through 'Thriller', I happened to glance over at the side of the stage. I had thought Jenna was in the crowd so you can imagine my surprise when I saw her there, dancing and singing along. Note to self: do not look over there anymore. Of course, I ended up looking over there every few minutes.

What felt like an eternity later, we left the stage to cheers and screams that I barely heard. I just wanted to go home and sleep. Inoticed that Jenna and James were gone, but Jess came over and gave us hugs despite our sweatiness. I saw her and Pete grinning at each other like idiots. Random. Very random. "Oh, Jenna said to tell you that her and James had to go talk, but to tell you good job." Jess said after she tore her eyes away from Pete.

Talk? Talk as in argue? Talk as in break up? I don't think I could keep the hopefulness from my face.

Jess noticed and said, "I don't know if they're breaking up, but neither of them looked to happy."

This remark just made me more hopeful. I'm horrible for wishing them to break up. Then again, I really can't help it.