Wishes In The Dark - A Peterick Fanfiction

Nineteen

Pete starts leading me down the street. It's dark, late and the streetlights are flickering...why are we walking home?

"Aren't we getting a ride from Andrew?" I ask.

"Nah," Pete says. "It's too cold to wait."

I hide a smile. His drunk talk is kinda cute. Too cold to wait for a lift but not too cold to walk home? It's sweet.

As we walk, I start to think more and more about the things he said when we were inside.

"I love you. Yes, I love you. I love you more than the moon, and the stars, a-and the universe..."

Did he mean it? I'm almost certain he didn't. Drunk people are known to say crazy things, but maybe he meant it and just said it to me because he was drunk...?

I sigh and shake my head. I'm grasping at straws. Of course he didn't mean it; he was very drunk, it was a party, it's late. He won't even remember it in the morning.

When we finally get back to the apartment after a long, cold walk in the dark which mostly consists of Pete talking about science and math, Andrew is nowhere to be seen – I wonder where he is at this hour.

"Oh man," Pete yawns. "I am tiiiiiiirrrrred."

I shrug awkwardly, not sure what to say. I want to ask how he feels about me; I want to know if he meant those things he said...but he's tired and drunk and I'm just an awkward dork.

"Man, I gotta go to sleep," he says, yawning again.

Barely able to stay on two feet, he manages to get himself into his room and slams the door clumsily behind him.

"GOODNIGHT PAT," I hear him call out through the door.

I chuckle to myself. "Goodnight, Pete."

The next morning, Andrew is still nowhere to be seen. Where is he? Should I be worried? Should Pete be worried? Is there something wrong?

I get up, stretch, put on a cap and find Pete sitting at the dining table, huddled over a glass of water.

"Morning," I say casually, getting a bottle of orange juice from the refrigerator.

Pete looks up and I see how awful he looks right now. He's slightly paler than normal, his eyeliner from yesterday is smudged on his eyelids and around his eyes, his hair is messed up, and he has bags under his eyes: clearly hung over.

"OJ!" he exclaims as I pour some orange juice into a glass. "Does OJ cure a hangover?"

His voice is so low and gravely...and attractive.

I used to cringe at how in awe I was of his attractiveness, but now I'm so used to finding him attractive that I don't care anymore.

"I don't know," I reply. "A-are you feeling okay?"

"I feel like shit," he grunts, placing a hand on his forehead. "My head's killing me."

I want to sympathise, but I'm just dying to know whether or not he remembers the things he said last night. I'm sure he won't, but I just need to know for sure. I need to. It's been on my mind ever since it happened.

"Pete?" I say.

"Yeah?" he replies.

"Do you remember anything about last night?"

He thinks for a moment. "No."

My heart plunges to my feet, or that's what it feels like.

"Y-you don't remember what you said to me? Anything you said?"

"No."

I look away and take a sip of my orange juice. It's stupid, I shouldn't expect him to remember the things he said to me last night...he was drunk as anything. But I guess it still hurts to find out that he'll never know the affectionate things he said. And I'll never know if he meant them or not. I guess I'm getting too hung up on this. It doesn't matter now – I need to accept that he doesn't remember anything and move on.

"Oh," I say, finally looking back at him. "Well, I'll let you recover. Talk to you later."

Pulling my cap further over my face in a pathetic attempt to hide my blushing cheeks, I hurry out the room. When I reach the doorway, I hear Pete's voice.

"Wait...Patrick?"

I freeze. Just hearing him say my name seems to give me chills. Slowly, I turn round to face him.

"We were in Hayley's kitchen. You weren't drinking anything, being the good guy that you always are, but I was going nuts and getting pissed. Eventually I said your name over and over until I wore it out. You were like, dude, what? And I said that I loved you. I said that I loved you more than the moon and the stars and the universe. And...that's all I remember..."

"That'll do," I smile.

As I turn to leave the room, my smile turns into a grin.