Falling Again (For You)

Chapter 2

"You ok, Trick?"

Patrick's heart warms a little at the nick name.

"Yeah, I'm just a little flustered."

Pete pulls Patrick over, and he burries his face in his neck. Pete turns to kiss him on the head, his thumb running over the small cut on his cheek.

"Where's Andy and Joe?", Pete asks, though he's not really interested in the answer.

They are adults, well Patrick thinks they are anyways.

"They went to order some food."

They were sitting at the corner booth of some dirty diner the tow trucke dropped them off at.

"Sooo...what do we do now?"

"The guys said they could patch up the car enough for us to drive, although we'll have a broken window. It's a little pricey, but my grandmother gave me some emergency money."

Patrick sits up, "How's your grandmother?"

Pete sighs pulling his arm away from Patrick. He folds in on himself a little and Patrick doesn't know how to comfort him, doesn't know if he even could.

"She's getting worse. But what do you expect anyways? She's getting old, these things happen."

Patrick rubs his back, "Doesn't mean you have to be ok with it."

Andy and Joe come back with an armful of fries and chips.

"We brought food!"

Pete pulls away, faking a smile, but Patrick knows that it isn't real. It's not because he doesn't trust Andy, or Joe, it's just that he doesn't think it's fair for him to put his troubles on him, it's not like they could do anything but be there for him, and that's exactly what they're doing.

Patrick eyes the plate of fries, feeling his stomach growling.

"God, good fucking thing we got a work out from walking thirty minutes to here.", Joe says, grabbing for the fries.

No one says anything, but Patrick silently thanks Joe with a small smile, reaching for a single fry himself.

"Wanna share a milk shake?", Andy asks Patrick, prodding him with a greasy finger.

Patrick debates in his mind, but he nods agaisnt his own will, anyways. Andy pours half of his cookies and creme milk shake into a cup and slides it across the table to Patrick.

Pete grabs for it, drinking almost half of it. Andy glares at him, but Patrick's glad he did. He doesn't think he could've finished it, and there's nothing he hates more than the look of concern on his friends' faces.

He hates the fact that his friends still give him worried glances when he goes to the bathroom after eating. He hates it when his friends give him 'the talk' (or at least try to) when he skips more than one meal. But he also kinda appreciates it too. It's nice knowing people care about you.

He's still getting use to that feeling.

*

"You have no idea what we went through to get here, so hopefully you guys like the show.", Pete says to the small crowd.

There was probably almost a hundred people, a lot more than when they started. They're mostly local people who only came for the food, but Pete doesn't complain because publicity is publicity.

Patrick sings to the crowd, and he's gotten good at hiding his nerves, but still not good enough to convince Pete. He knows how he gets during shows, and he knows how he gets after them too.