We Aren't Nerds! {{PETEKEY}}

{{8}}

English was almost completely uneventful, and flew by quite quickly. Mikey couldn't help but spend most of the lesson letting his mind drift away from whatever novel they were studying and further towards Pete, and what they were going to do after school. He was still excited to hang out with him and Patrick after school.

Mikey never tended to go out after school, once the day was over he usually went straight home and didn't leave the house until he had to go to school the next morning. It wasn't a bad system, but it did make his mom wonder whether or not he had any friends. Mikey was glad he genuinely did have people to call friends now. He was pretty sure not going straight home would get his mom off his back about his social life, which was great. He hated the way she pretended that it bothered her, when she obviously didn't care and just needed something to get angry about. Now she'd only be able to shout at Gerard for his poor social life and lack of friends.

Mikey wished their mom could shout at Gerard for his lack of social life and friends, but he was rarely in the house anymore. Of course their mom didn't know why, but she'd never assume it wasn't because he had lots of friends. It wasn't like Gerard was doing bad things with bad people, but he was never with his friends when he was outside of school. Mikey had seen him a few times when he'd been walking back, sitting by himself in the park. He wondered why he felt like that was necessary, but he didn't feel like it was his place to ask his brother questions.

Once the lesson was over, Mikey wondered where he should meet Pete and Patrick. One part of him thought he should go towards the geography classrooms, one part thought he should wait for them outside his English classroom, and one part thought he should wait for them outside the school gates.

Mikey decided outside the school gates would be the safest place to wait for Pete and Patrick. No matter where they thought they were meeting Mikey they'd have to go there eventually. Mikey made his way down there, and stood by the nearest set of doors, hoping that Pete and Patrick would see him and not leave without him.

Mikey wasn't waiting too long before he saw Pete and Patrick coming out of school. They looked like they were deep in conversation, and like they were having a pretty good time by themselves. Mikey was nervous to come between them, he wanted to go with them, but he wanted to be with Pete, not so much Patrick.

Patrick only invited Mikey because he thought that would help him get on Pete's good side, seeing as the two of them were pretty much inseparable, even after such a short amount of time. It made him feel slightly threatened about his position as the best friend, but he knew that was silly. Pete promised he'd never leave him.

Pete and Patrick came up to Mikey, and greeted him politely. Mikey wasn't sure what exactly he wanted to say.

"Hey," he said, settling for the most casual thing he could think of, "where are we going?"
"Where do you want to go?" Pete asked, "There aren't that many places but it's your choice."
"Uh, I don't know... Patrick? Any ideas?"
"What about the park," Patrick suggested, "I think Joe and Andy were talking about going there after school."
Pete nodded, but quickly asked, "Why weren't we invited?"
"I don't think they like Michael..." Patrick admitted, "and they were being mean about you at lunch time, as well..."

Pete looked hurt, and Mikey didn't really know what to say. He wasn't too desperate to befriend the other two boys, but he didn't think they disliked him. He couldn't believe they'd be rude or mean about Pete, though. Mikey thought way too highly of Pete to believe anyone could be anything but lovely to him, it was strange. He really didn't know what it was about Pete that he liked so much, but he really did like him.

"Do you really want to go there, then?" Pete asked Patrick, "If Andy and Joe don't like us?"
"Maybe not..." he said, "Do you want buy some donuts and sit outside the shop, instead?"

Pete nodded, and started walking alongside Patrick, leaving Mikey to walk behind them. He didn't mind too much, but he did worry that Pete and Patrick would eventually forget he was behind them and ignore him. While he'd rather not be ignored or forgotten about, he didn't really mind that much. Mikey was, sadly, used to it by now.

To distract himself, he felt around in his pocket to see if he had any money. It wasn't much, but it would be enough to buy a packet of donuts. He looked ahead and saw Patrick and Pete, who were once again deep in conversation.

"Pete, uh," Mikey said, trying to get Pete's attention, "how am I supposed to get to know you if you're with Patrick the whole time?"
"That's rude," Pete said, bluntly, "I told you not to force it, okay? Do you think I'm going to like you if you try to replace my best friend? No."
"I'm sorry... I didn't... I didn't really think about it like that... But still--"
"Mikey, leave it."

Mikey looked at Patrick with a mix of apology and anger. He wanted to apologise for making Pete stop talking to him to yell at him. He was still angry with him, though, because he couldn't help but feel like it would have been easier without him there. Mikey wanted to like Patrick, but he saw him as too much as a threat to his chances with Pete to. He knew Patrick was a perfectly good person, but he couldn't help seeing him as an obstacle.

Mikey noticed that Pete and Patrick had carried on walking without him, but he didn't care. He needed to calm himself down, and just go home rather than staying out with them. He would have just left, but he had to tell them.

"Pete, Patrick?" he yelled, hoping they'd turn around.
"What do you want, Michael?" Patrick yelled back, "Don't you think you should just go?"
"I do think that. I'm leaving."

Pete turned around, he'd obviously been close to tears, which hurt Mikey a lot more than he thought it would.

"Mikey, please don't go," Pete said, "I'm sorry that I yelled at you!"
"It's... It's Michael," he said, "my name is Michael. I'll see you tomorrow."

Mikey turned around and started walking back to his house. He walked past the park and saw Gerard coming out of the gate. Mikey stopped, hoping his brother would stop too and they could walk home together.

"Mikey?" Gerard said, seeing him walking past, "Are you alright?"
"I don't... No..." Mikey sighed, "I just want to go home."
Gerard nodded, "What happened?"

Mikey shook his head, he didn't want to talk about it, not yet, anyway. He didn't want to upset Gerard, but he did look very worried about him. Mikey wasn't ready to talk yet, because he didn't know how Gerard would take it. He couldn't be sure how his mom would take it, either. She was strange like that, she was never that accepting.

"Mikey, come on," Gerard said, hugging his younger, but taller, brother, "you're upset."
"Well done, Sherlock," Mikey said, sarcastically, before realising that was rude, "I'm sorry, I just mean... Yeah I am, I'm really upset."
"Who did what? You know I'll kill them if you want me to."
"Don't kill them, I don't think that would make anything better."

Gerard smiled widely, he was almost certain he knew what was wrong with his little brother.

"Is it a girl?" he laughed, "Believe me, you will be better off if I kill her--"
"It's not... They're not a girl..." Mikey admitted
"Oh. Uh, okay, well... That's cool, too. Who is it?"
"Gerard, I don't--"
"Michael James Way, I have known you for your whole life, you can tell me these things."
"You know... Pete, uh, Pete Wentz?"

Gerard knew Pete, and it took him a second to work out if that was really who Mikey meant. It was, though, Gerard remembered them meeting at the party and becoming friends pretty quickly. He was surprised, to say the least, but he didn't mind. He just wondered what it was about Pete that Mikey actually liked.

"Pete Wentz." Gerard sighed, "Okay, that's okay, but why?"
"I don't really know," Mikey said, getting worked up, "he's cute and so nice and I just... yeah."
"You just, yeah, what? Come on, Mikey."
"I was kind of rude to him and he yelled at me. That's why I'm coming home this way, we were out with Patrick and--"
"Patrick was there? You aren't going to get anywhere with that guy there. He's practically obsessed with Pete."
"I know!" Mikey cried, surprised by how much Gerard understood what he was feeling, "You don't think he likes him like that, do you?"
"I mean, I'd hate to make you feel worse about yourself, but I know he definitely did like him like that. I think Pete said they should be better friends first, now they never leave each other alone."
"That's what Pete said to me..."

Gerard nodded sadly, he knew Pete wouldn't be the best kind of person for his younger brother.