The Rock of Loneliness {{PETERICK}}

//chapter ten//

Pete somehow managed to survive the rest of the day at school, and his walk home, without anything homophobic being said to him, by anyone other than his ex-friends, that was. He knew he shouldn't have had to be happy about that, but one small act like that could have started one big rumour, and Pete felt like he had to be thankful that it didn't. He wouldn't have minded really himself, but he didn't think Mikey would be able to handle being at a new school, and having nasty rumours spread about him at the same time.

The issue was, the rumours wouldn't be wrong if they were spread about Mikey. Pete wasn't gay. Maybe he was bi, but he wasn't gay. Mikey Way was gay, and while Pete didn't care, other people certainly would. Since Mikey hadn't really made any friends yet, he would probably have to cope with the endless girls asking him to be their gay best friend. Pete wouldn't be able to watch Mikey end up as anybody's gay best friend, but he wasn't sure if it was out of hypothetical jealousy, or the fact that gay guys weren't made to be straight girls' best friends.

Pete walked through the front door of his house, and yelled, "Mom, hi! I'll be down for a heart-to-heart conversation in a second."

Pete heard his mom laugh, but he was already upstairs, in his bedroom. He didn't want to talk to his mom about anything before he'd had a proper chance to collect his thoughts. He needed to tell her about everything that had happened, and everything he'd found out about Mikey and Patrick, specifically that they were both gay. Pete mentally thanked his mom for being so accepting, because he didn't know who he'd be talking about this with if she wasn't there.

Once he'd rushed down the stairs, Pete sat down at the kitchen table, where his mom was sitting opposite him. This was the best way to talk about anything, at least Pete thought so. It was easier, it was just him and his mom, with no distractions.

"Are you going to tell me what this is about," Mrs. Wentz asked, "or do you just want me to listen?"
"It's a gay thing, mom," Pete sighed, "because apparently that's what my whole life has become."
"I'm intrigued," she laughed, before returning to a more serious state, "go on, what's wrong?"
"Patrick and Mikey came out, literally at the same time. They're both gay, mom. Then, Brendon was being himself, a homophobic douche, that is. He asked me if Mikey was my new boyfriend, and I didn't really say no, I played along with it. Mikey really is gay, but am I?"

Mrs. Wentz sighed. She never had these issues growing up, but, then again, if she had even asked about being gay she would have been slapped. She was glad times had changed, but clearly they hadn't changed quite as much as they needed to. Mrs. Wentz was a good mom, and she didn't want to see Pete as upset or confused as he was now.

"That's for you to say, Pete," she said, using the most reassuring voice she could, "are you?"
"I... I don't know," Pete admitted, "it's hard. I feel like I'm not really straight, but I don't think I'm gay, either."
"So... bisexual, then?"
"I mean, yeah... maybe."
"Pete, you know I'll support you through anything, and I hate seeing you so sad."

Pete smiled at his mom, he really was the luckiest boy in the world to have her in his life. Based on his luck with other things, Pete probably should have been cursed with the most closed-minded parents the world had ever known, but no. Pete had his mom, who, despite not being perfect, was the best mother he could hope for.

"Which one of them do you like, then?" Mrs. Wentz laughed, trying her best to lighten the mood, "Mikey is cute, don't get me wrong, but I haven't met this Patrick boy yet, so I can't make any judgments."
"Mom!" Pete yelled, covering his face with his hands out of embarrassment, but secretly considering her question while he did so.
"Come on, Pete! You haven't thought about any of this before you met both of them, so which one is it? Mikey, or this 'Patrick' boy?"
"Well--"
"I knew it, I knew it!" Gosh, this is so exciting for me!
"Mom, stop it. I mean, they're both nice, they're both cute in their own ways... Patrick likes me more than Mikey does, or maybe he's just not as shy? I don't know..."

Mrs. Wentz laughed, and decided she'd had enough fun bullying her son, and was ready to leave him alone. She didn't mean any harm, but she did find it very exciting to learn that her son had a crush. She didn't care who it was on, as long as they didn't do more drugs than they could count, and they weren't a pedophile, murderer, or anything like that. She could think of nothing worse than that, Pete didn't deserve anyone bad, he was too good.

Pete didn't really feel that way about himself, but his mom knew him best. It felt stupid to say, but his mom was one of his best friends. He was glad that he wasn't like nearly every other teenager, and didn't hate his parents. Pete reckoned that be kind of screwed if he did, though, because he didn't really have anyone else to talk to. Talking to Mikey and Patrick about Mikey and Patrick obviously seemed like a bad plan, so his mom was good for that.

Once Pete was back in his bedroom, he decided that trying to find any social media accounts for Patrick or Mikey was a good plan of action. It wasn't, of course, it was a stupid one, but it was the most fun thing Pete could think of at that moment in time. He started with Instagram, because finding old pictures of either Mikey or Patrick would be hilarious. Pete was so glad that his search didn't go entirely to waste because, while there were no pictures of Patrick, there were pictures of Mikey. As well as Mikey's Instagram page, Pete also found Gerard's, and even more pictures.

Pete was so engrossed in his pictures of Mikey from about two years ago that he didn't even hear anyone knocking on the door. He did, however, hear when his mom shouted for him to come down the stairs. He did so reluctantly, since he was enjoying stalking Mikey and Gerard's Instagram pages so much. When Pete got to the bottom of the stairs, the last person he expected to see standing outside the front door was Mikey. Pete instantly remembered all of the old photos he'd just seen, and worried that he would explode from embarrassment.

"Pete, you have a visitor," Mrs. Wentz said, giving Pete a thumbs up.
"Hi, Pete," Mikey mumbled, looking everywhere but at Pete.
"Hey, Mikey! Do you want to go upstairs?" Pete asked, pointing upwards.

Mikey nodded, Mrs. Wentz laughed, and Pete sort of died.