Thief (Petekey)

Thief Chapter 7

Mikey's POV

Before I could stop myself, the words were coming out of my mouth. "I'm poor, Pete. Like, really poor,".

In a way, it felt good to say it. I never talk about it, not really. I mean, every once in a while Gee and I get into it a little, but not much. We don't need the reminder. But now, after the initial relief of getting it out there, I just wanted to take it all back. I stared out the window so I didn't have to see the look on his face after I made my confession.

"And you know what? That's ok. I don't care," Pete said.

I turned to face him, the surprise probably obvious on my face. That can't be right. I don't think he understands. I have to make him understand. He has to know who he's wasting his time on.

"No, you don't understand. I don't have enough money for food, or to pay the electricity bill most of the time. I wear the same 3 ripped shirts everyday because they're all I have and I can't afford a new one," I said. "You should be taking someone better than me on coffee dates. You could have anyone, Pete. Seriously," I shouldn't have said anything. I should have let myself keep  pretending, because it was so nice. But I know I can't pretend forever. And I can't lie to the first person who's been genuinely nice to me in years.

"Mikes, I understand perfectly. I kind of knew, anyway. You were trying to pickpocket me the first time we met,"

Pete chuckled as my face turned red.

"I was kind of hoping you had forgotten about that," I said sheepishly.

"Yeah, I wanted you to think that. I didn't want you to be embarrassed. The point is, Mikeyway, that I knew all of that and I still asked you on a date. I don't care. I like you, and I'm really not as shallow as you seem to think I am," he said.

"No! It's not that I think you're shallow! It's just that-"

"Relax Mikey, I was just teasing," Pete said with a grin. I blushed again. That was something I seemed to be doing a lot of lately.

"I knew that," I muttered. Pete just laughed.

I liked that a lot, the sound of Pete laughing. In fact, the more I learned about him, the more things I liked. There wasn't much that I could say I didn't like about Pete Wentz.

"But seriously, I don't want you to be self conscious around me. You don't have to be embarrassed. I will never pass judgement based on how much money you have. I promise,"

I stared at him like he'd grown a second head. I wasn't religious, but at that point I was ready to believe in angels. I didn't say that, though, because it's not really socially acceptable to say that to people you've only just met.

Instead, I said, "thank you," and he looked at me, and I looked at him, and I thought that maybe this would work out after all.

Just then, the car stopped and Pete looked at me expectantly.

"You gonna get out, Mikey?"

I blushed yet again, opened my mouth, closed it, and then got out of the car. Pete was laughing when he joined me on the sidewalk.

"Shut up," I muttered half-heartedly, and gave him a gentle sideways shove.

"Hey, I don't blame you. Tons of people get distracted by my obvious good looks," Pete said, grinning so wide I thought his face might split it half.

"It's your own fault you're so pretty,"

And finally, it was his turn to blush. I grinned triumphantly, although he even pulled off looking flustered unfairly well. I was starting to think there was nothing you could do to make Pete Wentz look bad.

Soon after that, we reached our destination. It was some local hipster coffee shop, the kind that probably sold vinyls next to the counter. Pete held the door for me, and I smiled as I walked inside.

We approached the counter together. Considering that Pete knew about my situation, I assumed he would pay for me, but I was a little nervous about it until he said so.

"Don't worry Mikey, my treat," he said, and smiled at me. For once, I couldn't bring myself to feel embarrassed. 

A/N: wow ok so I guess I've just accepted the fact that I'm not going to be able to type this up on a computer, so I sucked it up and used my phone. I don't know why anyone is still reading this since I suck so much at posting it, but thank you to everyone who's been hanging in there, and especially thank you to the people leaving entertaining comments on this, you're what motivated me to update